The start of a new year for Dear Scrutineer
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I hope you had a good summer. I've certainly had a good summer break and now I'm looking forward to a new season for these ‘Dear Scrutineer’ reflections. So, welcome back to my existing subscribers and hello to those who have joined recently - I hope you all find these emails useful. And I thought I’d start with a mini annual report. Between September, when I started, and July, I shared 40 reflections via this email and on LinkedIn. It's interesting to see what resonated, so here are the five most engaged with posts on LinkedIn:
I’m pleased that I’ve managed to share about one a week although I’m also thinking that one reflection every two weeks might be abetter pace. I’ve found it a helpful process for my own reflection and thinking and I’ve also learnt a lot from the comments and feedback. It's also been fun mixing up the formats. As well as thoughts and short stories I've also shared poems and even a prayer. In terms of improvement, I’d like the topics to resonate more perhaps. The ‘bugbears’ and dilemmas seem to get more engagement than the ‘bigger picture’ reflections. So maybe more of that? So, dear scrutineeer, how might these reflections be more useful for you? Are there any dilemmas or topics you would find it helpful for me to cover? Perhaps there is something you are thinking about now? Let me know by reply 🙏 P.S. If you want to add/see comments on the LinkedIn version of this email you can find it here. |
Dear scrutineer,
Get reflections like this straight to your inbox. I also share them on LinkedIn.
Do you ever think about scrutiny as reflective practice? I mentioned it in a development session I was facilitating the other day and it seemed to strike a chord. So, I thought I might share a reflection! To start with, as I’m sure you appreciate, scrutiny operates in a complex world and there is no simple manual to help guide you. And, as we’ve mentioned before, whilst every committee, council and place is different, so each is also in a constant state of change. What worked in one place and...
Vice Chair Jo asked me for a chat the other day. She was thinking about co-opting additional members to a scrutiny task and finish group and feeling a bit conflicted. Here is how we talked it though - what do you think? The group was being set up to look at adult social care and Jo was thinking about three people that it might be helpful to work with - one from the carers centre, an academic from the local university and someone who is a non-executive member of the integrated care board. Jo...
Hello, something slightly different today. I wanted to share some initial thinking with you about what it means to be a 21st Century Scrutineer and see if it resonates with you. As you might know, over the last couple of years I’ve been working with Catherine Mangan and Catherine Needham to research what it means to be a 21st Century Public Servant and a 21st Century Councillor, given the new challenges facing public services and democracy. You can find that work here, in case you are not...