A week in the life of... a strategy and improvement manager

Tuesday

I have virtual one-to-ones with colleagues this morning to go over the business improvement officer’s work plan and share progress on the complaints-handling reviews he’s progressing, and we discuss what actions need chasing up.

Next is a session with our business analyst who is preparing performance reports and metrics for our frontline neighbourhood staff. There have been technical glitches recently, so she’s made it a priority to fix these. We go over progress and agree priorities. We also have some dog chat as she’s just got a puppy!

I realise that I’ve not moved from my position in nearly four hours as meetings ran back to back and decide on a dog walk over lunch to get some fresh air and move a bit – I’m lucky to live near a nature reserve. Before I leave, I pop a potato in the oven to bake and feel a sense of accomplishment in having a healthy lunch when I get back.

Later, I join a workshop session with colleagues on our EDMS project and we set up templates in the project vault. I feel like I’m getting my head around the ‘metadata’ and ‘taxonomy’ of our documents, but maybe not the terminology.

Wednesday

I’ve blocked off time in my diary to focus on completing board performance management reports. I can ‘see’ colleagues updating in real time the documents on our Teams channel which saves a lot of time when working on shared data and documents.

I flit between this and a review of our action plan in advance of a team meeting on Friday and respond to data requests from a colleague working on a major regeneration project. I send on data and visuals to help review housing needs.

My Fitbit reminds me to move and pings me a message from my 86-year-old mum with her shopping list. I book her a delivery slot at the weekend and complete her online shop over lunch (cup of soup today) and let her know it’s done.

Then it’s a quick meeting call with another colleague on actions following a transfer from one of our subsidiaries. We agree timescales and tenant comms and update the action plan – still lots to do, though!

Thursday

I have a weekly video call with a colleague from housing insights and our project support officer. We’ve been working on developing our customer self-service app and mobile working environment for staff during the pandemic.

Today we reprioritise actions to focus on financial advice and support to tenants, and I’m pleased to note we’ve increased the pace of delivery with the weekly check-in. We address IT queries, talk through the proposed applicant portal and agree the scope of works for this.

I’m loading the washing machine just as I hear the ‘ping’ from the dining room to let me know someone has started our weekly project meeting with our supplier on the EDMS implementation. I join the call and share feedback from workshops and agree outstanding actions.

Friday

I have a video call with digital lead at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to review our digital health check and we discuss areas of shared interest and further opportunities for networking. I demonstrated our Connect portal and it was rewarding to receive feedback from outside Caledonia. It was also nice to see a new face on Teams. I then jumped on a Team call with our director to update him on plans for the coming year.

There’s no doubt we will be keeping busy whether at home or in an office, the latter a distant memory at present. The dog begins playing with my socks to tell me to pay him some attention and get out of my chair…

Another quick dog walk over lunch and I finish the afternoon with a meeting with our HR manager and an intern who’s working with us on our channel shift strategy as part of her business studies degree.

I write up meeting notes, action plans and a to-do list for next week after reviewing my diary. I read our weekly Staff Chat newsletter and look at recent posts from colleagues. I linger on these as I’ve promised to let my 17-year-old drive me to the shops after work, and my braking foot is already twitching! I switch off BBC Radio 6 Music and head into the weekend.