Weeknotes 2026-01

TL:DR; It’s all in the conversations.

[Week ending 09/01/2026]

The good

First week back after the Christmas break and I was glad I’d had a proper break. I often work between Christmas and New Year and enjoy some quiet to focus on tasks that need concentration. But I was glad I’d booked off all the days, not just those I needed off. And due to my 10th anniversary in the NHS, I have some extra annual leave days this year anyway. I was also glad we’d gone to Disneyland Paris over New Year and I was back in my warm office when all the snow fell on Paris this week.

It was good to see my team and catch up this week. Last year I didn’t have 1:1s with my direct reports as often as I would have liked. I’ve previously taken the approach of letting my team decide when they want a 1:1. But I think in trying to respect my time, and me leaving it to them, we fell out of a regular pattern of meeting. So before Christmas, I made sure to get regular 1:1s booked in with all my team on a regular basis, with sessions spreadout throughout the month to manage availability for other work. We’ve had some great conversations this week and I’m really looking forward to carrying this through 2026.

The bad

I’d missed an email before Christmas about a request for contract information. Unusally, we’d been given a couple of weeks to complete the return, but I missed the email when I got back too and ended up rushing around at the last minute. With the help of the team, I turned it in on time albeit only because of a timely nudge from my line manager. It made me think, within my team, we have Jira boards that track most of our work and give us great visibility of who is doing what and where tasks are up to. With wider organisation asks and ‘business’ activity, so much seems to live in email or on clunky spreadsheets that are desperately trying to be a project management tool without any of the right features. I think we could do a lot to improve our practice by reaching for MS Planner and One Note rather than the defaults of PowerPoint and Excel. But there seems to be little appetite for more change. I even saw an A4 portrait document that had been authored and shared as a PowerPoint file today!

The ugly beautiful

Amonst my conversations this week have been several about mental health. I’m really pleased that more people talk about their mental health now, especially when they’re going through a period of mental ill health. Our lives are messy and work isn’t (and shouldn’t be) our sole focus. I’m privileged to see some of my colleague’s lives outside of work and I’m impressed that people manage to show up when things are really though. But it’s important that we also seek help and rest when it’s needed. I want to think about how we might be more proactive in creating opportunities for colleagues to get support when it feels hard to ask for it.

Notable conversations

It seems the theme of this weeknote is all about conversations. I also had a good conversation with Graham Russell, Chair of Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust where I’m Lead Governor. We talked about how the teams have coped incredibly well over the Christmas period, our new board appointments, business planning, finances, system changes and our Making the Difference awards. I really value the insight into frontline services that being a Governor gives me and the different that makes to my national NHS work. Sadly, we started discussing successing planning as my second and final term ends in September and I will have to step down.

Things I’m reading and watching

FreeShow with Garry B Jr. – I came across FreeShow this week randomly and it looks great both for use in our church but also a national conference I’m working on. Garry has some great videos showing the ease of use and power of FreeShow.