Weeknotes 8-Adding value

Week commencing 22nd March

This week I saw a rainbow and it gave me hope.

Busy week! I’m quite wiped so this is a short one.

What I’ve been working on:

• Our mentoring support through Beyond has had some good uptake over recent weeks so I’ve been supporting some charities who have been in touch with specific issues. As we have a short amount of time available to work with them on their issue it’s given me pause for thought about how and where I can add most value.
• I joined our first session in Beyond on data protection from The Data Place and felt so grateful to have such a dedicated and experienced team supporting charities on such a critical issue. Main takeaway — protecting data means you’re protecting people and we all want to do that so don’t let the terminology put you off exploring how to be better equipped and prepared.

What’s gone well:

• One of the one to one requests is about CRMs — it’s been a while since we did a market scan on what’s available off the shelf. Although it was a real push to fit in calls with providers (one with a US based company took place on the phone whilst batch cooking toddler meals) it’s been a useful activity to get back up to speed.

What’s been challenging:

• I facilitated two big and difficult workshops this week and really noticed that I didn’t really have the energy to do them justice. I ended the week feeling pretty guilty and sad about that. At the same time I recognise that workshops in an online space can be difficult and the next day I opened slack to some constructive feedback from colleagues which helped put things in perspective.

What I’m thinking about:

• How to prepare for another few weeks of fairly relentless work.

How I’m feeling: a bit disillusioned.