I managed to mess something up this week. A developer did me a favour. This favour might not have followed the agreed process for said favour. Cue some annoyed managers when I wanted to do something with this favour. I was accused of circumventing a process, which was not really my intention but it is a process I have struggled to navigate/really hate but some of it is for good reason. All this blew up in my face. Caused some heated exchanges. Possibly burnt some bridges or at the very least heated them to dangerous levels. Hopefully I will learn more why that process is needed. Hopefully it will help smooth out that frustrating process and help improve the need to do things more collaboratively, quickly while maintaining safety.
In a slightly related area I have been thinking about the team being the unit of delivery. I loved the feeling of this phrase as I slavishly followed GDS’s progress but I don’t think I really understood it. As a football fan too we soak up the platitudes of it being a team sport. The required make up of the team and organisation to make a really great product has eluded me. Then again maybe I am just the coach and I have a director of football above me. This analogy has gone way offside, VAR will not save me. Bottom line is that after almost a year in this role I now understand a bit more of what you need to make good things. Process and people wise. I still don’t know how to get all the way there. Or if I am the right team member to have in that squad. (I wrote most of this paragraph after a bottle of red wine earlier in the week, clearly I was in a maudlin mood but as I tidy this up sober on a Sunday evening it is staying in because it still resonates).
Running was very difficult this week. Last Monday, just two days after I did a 17k run, I really struggled (unsurprisingly) and did my slowest run in to work since I started in November. Then on Thursday I managed to do a PB on the newer hillier route to work. Then today (Sunday) I struggled again as I wanted to do 18k but bailed on it after mistakenly drinking too much red wine on Saturday (more wine woes) and only managed around 13k. I did however manage a few segment PBs on that run so maybe the inability to go the distance is all in my head, both running and product wise. Tough week.
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