Weeknotes: Meh

Social Purpose

No a lot to write home about this week. My photos of the day were dull, even by my standards.

No good deed goes unpunished. My train home from Scarborough on Wednesday was cancelled by TransPennineExpress six minutes before departure. Next one was two hours later.

Depressing example of our times. But the week ended on a high note, please read on.

Business Need

My first meeting as an Audit and Risk Committee Member. Now I’m out of my depth! But nice feedback from Chair who says I’m good at asking the questions the others really would like to ask. I’m reminded of the quote by Abraham Lincoln.

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

The subject that drains my brain power is Controls Risk Self-Assessment. Welcome thoughts of others on how you can provide assurance through self-assessment? Does it depend upon personal characteristics of influence, trust and communication style? Abe says: “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”

Data Driven

Best article of the week was in The Athletic (warning, may have a pay wall) about measuring how well football clubs are run.

The Sustainability Index covers

• financial sustainability
• Good governance
• fan engagement
• equality standards

Can you think of another sector where that might be appropriate?

Digital Impact

Finished the week on a high thanks to Breakfast Briefing featuring @JuliaMixter from @RavenHousing and achieving the digital dividend.

We had a great discussion on benefits realisation, change readiness and pace of implementation. Transformation is a hard slog isn’t it, even for those who are doing it well like Raven.

Maybe another Abe quote (he’s good you know): “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”

Note to TransPennineExpress…