Weeknote 8

This weeks weeknote includes: half term, walks, journaling, mental models, reports and a mishap at a parkrun

• As it was half term i had Monday-Wednesday off, so two day week FTW! oh to only have a two day week!
• Downside of having a two day week was coming back to a bunch of emails and actions, felt a reasonable level of whelm first thing on the Thursday, but felt better after noting down each action in my journal, identifying the priorities, and starting to make progress on them.
• The upside of a two day week was i got to go to Holkham beach and went for a nice walk around Whittlingham, and caught up with some family.
• Journaling is still going concistently well, i've missed one night of journaling so far this year, and i'm finding tracking actions and goals e.g. ticking off each parkrun i do in a list something that i look forward to doing, which is surprising, i thought i'd end up almost resenting the structure and the accountability.
• This week at work i've been reflecting on the importance of a shared mental model. In "The Fifth Discipline" Senge identified the power and importance of shared mental models as one of the five enablers of the 'learning organisation'. So many day to day issues have a lack of shared mental model at their root, and i came across a great example of one this week, where an embedded difference in models generates consistent negative impact, waste, and annoyance all round.
• A large part of my two day week involved writing and pulling together various different bits of reporting, unfortunately a bunch of meetings/ committees/audits have converged together, the upside is its all about constructive, useful progress.
• Parkrun number 5 this week was Hunstanton Promenade. Really nice and flat and managed a sub 25 time, which is really good for me. Did have a bit of a mishap where i didn't realise that the course was two laps. I don't know why but I didn't check my watch and just thought, 'wow! i'm doing amazing! I feel great' so i kept pushing my speed, until about 300 metres from (what i didn't know was) the halfway point, when i suddenly realised it might be two laps, and asked one of the lovely volunteers if it was two laps and he just laughed. The next couple of kilometres was much slower as i tried to get back into my normal pace and then managed to pick it up in the last K. Lesson learnt, pay attention to the race director before the start!