One line to save lives: Please join NHS Organ Donor Register

Earlier today we renewed our car tax and upon completion the thank you page said “Please join NHS Organ Donor Register”. I thought that was an interesting message and wondered if it actually worked. I tweeted about it and as usual Matt Jukes already knew about this and pointed me to One link on GOV.UK – 350,000 more organ donors which is very impressive AND of course live saving.

Hat tip to whoever worked on that one line as it will certainly have saved lives.

Oh for a second I did also think “the cheek, I won’t have an accident…” but then remembered i’ve been a passenger in three car accidents with two of those cars being written off…wear a seat belt as they save lives too.

Week 80 at work

Everybody is back in the office now so lots of hellos, emails and getting back to the grindstone.

  • Started my first proper week in my new role
  • Started sprint 8 of the Hidden Museum project at Aardman HQ
  • Digital team 1:1 monthly sessions
  • Ran a few staff sessions on using trello for task/project managing
  • Agreed how we’d roll out our digital signage project
  • Agreed our website phase two project with Fay at the helm this time
  • Agreed our Q4 workforce development plan
  • Discovered which boards/sign-off we need to follow from Bristol City Council
  • Skyped with Mike Ellis about our work together in Q4
  • Reviewed my monthly budget forecast. I previously only had a few to look at!
  • Met Mary Godwin, our Arts Council England relationship manager to review quarter three and look ahead to 2015-18
  • Met with our catering and event partner Levy Restaurants to look at how we can resolve a few issues and work together
  • Handed over yet another project to my team. This time it’s the University of Bristol interaction cabinet project which Zahid will lead on and you’ll be impressed with
  • Approved staff casual salary which is pretty important
  • Waved farewell to Tim Corum who worked at the service for eight years
  • Realised that I give Fay too much of my old workload so will be more mindful of the impact of my job switch – sorry Fay

Next week I hope to review all my teams progress for 2014-15 and look ahead to cracking on with 2015-16.

Week 79 at work

My favourite quiet week of the year. With so few people at work across the globe I knuckled down to getting ready for my job job.

  • Enjoyed two days off for Christmas
  • Cleaned out all my 2014 paperwork yippeee!
  • Wrote a paper on all known data we collect to help me on a project to centralise
  • Walked around Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to identify outstanding issues to fix during january – some of our IT is creaking
  • Completed our Arts Council Q3 report on digital, marketing and audiences.
  • Got 10mins working on the front desk to cover staff shortages – fun and several Banksy enquires which makes me think what else can we do to give visitors info about our elusive chum
  • Started my job job as Head of Transformation on Friday 2nd Jan
  • Welcomed our new Service Manager Laura Pye to the service!

Why I share when I donate

I just donated $35 to Charity Water after reading Cutting through Singer’s Paradox by Seth Godin. I had been thinking about going to the pub. I’m pretty sure this was a better use of money today. Anyway the reason I shared this donation with my twitter followers  is not to rub anybody’s face in my deed but it’s sharing out loud that helps spread the awareness of such charities. Without the people who shout about a charity it remains invisible. A charity can only use its marketing effort to plant seeds in a few of us. It’s then up to people who donate to be a marketer, if even only for a few seconds. I’ve seen lots of good folk mention Charity Water but this time i actually put my hand in my wallet. So next time you donate let us all know about it, maybe I can help too.

 

Week 78 at work

A short week due to it being Christmas week where out of office messages are the only replies to expect.

  • I finished tedious admin that was waiting for a quiet day
  • Reviewed HMRC employment status stuff
  • agreed some branding work for fundraising
  • finalised some budgets for the final quarter
  • updated some of our website pages

Between now and the new year i’ll be in the office trying to complete small projects that just need a little focus and peace to get done.

Head of Transformation

On Wednesday 17th December 2014 I was put through my paces in a multiple task interview ultimately being offered and accepting the role as Head of Transformation (sorry no robots). What does that even mean i hear you cry?!? well it means that i’ll be responsible for helping our service to run projects and programmes that are based on “user needs” whilst helping to ensure we have the resources including money to not only survive but thrive. I won’t be doing this alone of course, we have a great staff line up and some of the best volunteers and partners. We also have Laura Pye joining us as Service manager (boss/director/leader)  so 2015 and beyond is looking pretty good!

The original job ad is below so i can look back in 2016 and see how the role held up to its promise:

The Head of Transformation is an exciting new post in one of Britain’s leading regional museum services, giving you an opportunity to realise a step-change in the performance of the museum and its future resilience.

You will assume responsibility for increasing all aspects of the museum service’s financial performance – through working with our catering contractors to improve our catering offer to managing our retail outlets, managing the fundraising team to meet increasingly ambitious targets, managing the Digital team to realise our museum digital leadership role, managing Modern Records and their financial performance and being responsible for developing new streams of income as well as increasing income through licensing and on-line activity.

We are committed to a multi-facetted programme of organisational change which involves putting audiences needs at the heart of the organisation, increasing our entrepreneurialism and exploring how we can use new technologies to transform our visitor offer as well as the service; you will drive forward this shift in gear and perspective as well as project managing different initiatives from staff development and training to capital projects.

You will be an excellent leader with good commercial experience, strong persuasive skills and well-honed management skills, ideally gained in the cultural sector.

 

Week 77 at work

After working furiously for several weeks on our Arts Council application this week proved to be just as hardcore but rewarding:

  • spent a morning with the Bristol Museums group led by Julie from Museums Development to talk all things audience evaluation
  • Tried to squeeze as many team 1:1s in as possible to thank everybody for working so hard this year
  • Agreed next steps for our Do Ho Suh installation
  • Introduction with Rob Gilmore who I first met back in 2006 when I was in the IT department – time flies. I think there will be lots we can work on together in the coming years
  • xmas lunch
  • end of year wrap up with our Digital R&D for the Arts project
  • agreed with Parks how to improve signage for Blaise Castle House Museum
  • interviewed and accepted a new role starting 1st January 2015 as Head of Transformation! in addition to my digital team I will be leading our fundraising, Modern Records Office, retail, catering partner and Bristol & Region Archaeological Services.
  • waved goodbye to Katie Harding who I have learnt so much from this year and wish her all the best!

Week 76 at work

So busy i’m posting this late.

  • Admin admin admin writing a series of business cases for spending money in Q4 2014-15
  • discussed how we can support the data collection for 2015 harbour festival
  • How to improve our onsite signage and way finding… a mountain of a task i’m determined to crack
  • Briefings to our front of house staff (absolute stars!) about the projects i’m working on that they can help with
  • Management team meeting
  • Suggested the next steps for a funding application with geology woot
  • Submitted our revised plans for our 2015-18 Arts Council England application..epic amount of work

 

Week 75 at work

It was a busy week that had me rolling my sleeves up lots and rubbing my poor little head. I got up to:

  • Delivered a briefing of my key areas for our new service manager (boss) Laura Pye
  • Completed my final day of a leadership and management course
  • Worked on our 2015-18 plan for an Arts Council England deadline next week
  • Sprint 7 start up meeting for the Hidden Museum project. We hit 100 ibeacons installed this week.
  • Met with Our Museum community partners to discuss how we can work more closely
  • Met with Pat Connor who heads up BBC development to talk joint interests
  • Reviewed our equalities action plan
  • More Arts Council documentation
  • Sorted out some finance fun
  • Ran a short workshop for one of our volunteers and member of friends group Sue Thurlow who will need be tweeting about our areas of work which is great.
  • Ava came for lunch yeeeah!

Week 74 at work

Exhausting. IF i ever used our flexi form i’d have to add a new page.

  • Spoke via skype with David Turner who runs Getinvited, the online event booking tool i’m hoping to move from beta phase for our schools bookings
  • Introduced the key performance indicators that I suggest we use across the service
  • Met with our central design and marketing teams to agree our next steps for improving our service identity
  • Made suggestions for using digital in our Ahead of the Curve exhibition – better late than never
  • Attended day four of the leadership and management course
  • Spent lots of time in spreadsheets about budgets
  • Ran a morning session with the digital team about our strategic direction and processes
  • Had a group workshop on tightening up SMART objectives
  • Management team meeting
  • Took lunch with my mum to celebrate her retirement
  • Skype call with Vic H to agree the scope of a digital job i’ll be managing that we hope to advertise ready for April start
  • Met with Bristol and Bath tourism group

Next week i’ll focus on our Hidden museum project, meeting community partners and completing our Arts Council december deadline.