A Time To Reflect
H2 Is Here Already!
At the start of this week I attended a DDG Information Cascade to discuss how we'd done as a department in the first half of this year. It proved highly informative and motivational as always but what really struck me was that H2 is here already! They say "Time flies when you're having fun" so I must be having a lot of fun - which actually I am. 😊
My work as an architect is as varied and challenging as ever and my role as Capabilities Lead is equally challenging and interesting. I'm reminded each day that I work with some great people (very clever, very talented). What's not to like?
But where did the last six months go?
Time To Stop For A Moment And Reflect
I'm into Agile, so like any agile practitioner, I'm used to retrospective analysis and now would seem a good time to stop for a moment to reflect and identify opportunities to improve and / or course-correct.
My way of working makes it easy for me to know what I've been doing, it has traceability baked in. Whether it's via my ToDo List "Done" items, my notebook pages of weekly work items or the list of achievements in my personal development plan, it's all there and I'm usually surprised by how much I've done and achieved.
Reflection Time
So, have I achieved what I wanted to achieve so far this year? Do I need to make any changes? How is the personal development plan going in terms of achievements? What about project work?
Project Work
Project architecture work has gone well with successful project deliveries. There were lots of challenges and opportunities for improvement along the way but as always, I had good support from my colleagues. The success came as a team effort, in fact via several teams and hundreds of people!
As an architect I never stop learning about how to engage with customers and stakeholders during projects. Tech stuff comes relatively easy to me but people stuff ... that's a whole different ball game. That's an area I always have room and a need to improve on. (Need to look at some soft skills training in our training catalogue.)
Capabilities Work
The Capabilities Lead role feels like I am forever re-learning and re-inventing how to approach the role. I'm given tremendous freedom in this role and so feedback is really important to keep on track. I'm learning a lot from research and through working with others.
So far so good.
Personal Development Plan
In hindsight, I've gone a little off piste with my personal development plan.
One of the technical skills I set myself to master through "doing" has taken a little bit of a back seat. I've learnt some adjacent skills related to it, which is kind of okay but the main skill is still lacking hands-on time. (It's not something that affects my work as it relates to a personal interest but it's something I want to bring into my work at some point in the future.)
I've learnt loads so far this year and there's no signs of that changing when I look at the training I'm still due to take and the certifications I intend to gain by the end of the year.
Productivity / Efficiency / Quality
I need to automate some manual tasks that would improve my productivity / efficiency in terms of blog and website updates. This also includes some quality assurance activities like spell check, broken link check etc. I'm still a DOS batch file guy and need to progress more on my Visual Code editor automation and PowerShell scripting. (No excuse for not getting someone to quickly show me how to do this!)
Feedback Pending
At time of writing, I still have some reflection to do based on feedback from my line manager which I'm yet to receive and discuss. I expect that to influence how I approach my work going forwards.
Reflection Actions
Reflection time is most valuable when both lessons are learned and course-corrections are identified which then result in positive action being taken.
So far I've adjusted my personal development plan. This now takes into account the things that I'm currently learning and receiving training for that I didn't anticipate doing at the start of the year and which have impacted my technical learning objectives. (I didn't anticipate doing this blog either!😊)
I've also added the additional skills and achievements and decided to take a more "brute force" approach to my failing technical learning objective. To do this I've planned a specific, shorter term goal (Q3) to focus on that will be baked into my blog website. It will serve as an intermediate stepping stone to my end goal and feels like a realistic plan. Time will tell.
Thank you for liking this page.
Tim Simpson
4th July, 2019
#LifeAtCapgemini