A year ago, I swapped my comfy job at GDS for a new role at the Department of Health and Social Care. So, this is a sort of informal end-of-year review. It has been a fun and challenging year. Some of the things I’ve tried have worked, others less so. The Good Helped kickstart NHSX.…
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These are the lyrics to my constant earworm: Sometimes my life it feels like fiction Some of the days it’s really quite surreal George Harrison – Pisces Fish I occasionally find myself having meetings in the Palace of Westminster with People From The News. I want to talk about what that’s like. I’m waiting to…
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I loathe performance reviews. OKRs, KPIs, EYRs? Bleugh! There’s a level of introspection which always makes me intrinsicly uncomfortable. Besides, I always feel like I’ve done nothing worthwhile other than arse about on a computer. In my new job, I decided to keep an achievement journal. Well, a Trello list of tasks I’ve done well.…
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I’m finally feeling like I’m settling into my new role. I spent my Saturday at UK GovCamp – an unconference for Civil Servants. I ran a session on Acronyms in the Workplace. It was hillarious listening to people try to introduce themselves without any abbreviations. “I am the Chief Paperclip Office for the United Kingdom’s…
Continue reading →Previously on “The Terence Eden Adventures!” I have a new job. I am a bit scared by my new job. This week – WTF? OMG? BBQ??? I’ve been working for DHSC (Department of Health and Social Care) for two weeks. I’ve made a list of every single new acronym that I’ve heard. Here it is:…
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What kind of utter muppet leaves their comfort zone? It’s comfortable! That’s the whole flipping point! If someone said “do you want to stay on the comfy sofa or would you rather change over to a really painful chair?” – how would you reply? The Department of Health and Social Care have stolen me away…
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It’s my birthday! As is customary, here’s my year in review. See 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. It has felt like a bit of a “holding pattern” year. When I started writing this post, I really didn’t feel like I’d accomplished much. Turns out, I’m an idiot and have been franticly busy!…
Continue reading →As of today, I’ve been employed by GDS for two years. Time for some reflections. The Big Working for the government isn’t much different from working for a large business. I know people harp on about the inefficiency of the public sector – I can only assume those people haven’t seen how much money FTSE100…
Continue reading →I asked a question in a meeting a few days ago. “What if we just banned Civil Servants from printing anything?” To be clear, this wasn’t an entirely serious proposal. But it’s how I like to frame a discussion about available option when making a decision: Can we just stop doing this thing? What if…
Continue reading →Bleugh! After an amazing time at #EMFcamp, I succumbed to the post-festival lurgy. So this week is mostly brought to you by Vick Vapour Rub and Kleenex 🤧 🤧 🤧 Presenting I was honoured to be asked to visit the National Archives in Kew to talk about AI strategy. The whole event was streamed and…
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