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Which, I am sure is why the last 40 and a bit years of working for Citizens Advice in Kingston feels like a blink of the eye this morning as I officially retire from the role today. It has to be said, well doesn’t really HAVE to be said but I am going to say it anyway, that there have been times when it has felt an uphilll struggle as well as the times when I have felt as if I was on my bike, feet off the pedals freewheeling downhill at pace with focus and determination and sure of where we were all going.

I am looking forward to a change of pace and possibly some bits and bobs of consultancy work while I still have some info and ideas that might help to lighten the load for other CEOs. I am so grateful that I will be part of the CA national CEO peer group, working on comms and engagement for them so will still be in touch with many of the fantastic people I have spent time with each week since the pandemic. Working together:making things better.

So, if you feel I could help you with an idea or two or fancy to use my listening ear (I know that seems unlikely to those of you who feel I always have something to say…..) then get in touch and we can see if I can help

‘I haven’t got time to get to grips with all that stuff’ you say … well , guess what, not only do you not need to as I can give you short cuts but once you are on top of it all you will find it saves you so much that you will have days with your feet on the desk, day dreaming and wondering what to do next… well maybe not that but you might be able to keep to your contracted hours – I know, how unbelievable would that be?

are you confident on how to use your website to influence stakeholders – quick ways to do blog posts that can then auto populate an enews publication that just pings out on its own each week? Did you know that you can schedule send these so you can spend an afternoon doing all the posts you might need for the month… wowee…

do you enjoy using spreadsheets to track action plan progress? You can use drop down menus and colour coding and stuff so that it is quick and easy to use, share it with collaborators and all work on it at the same or different times to stay up to date- you can embed it in a little website you all use and then it is always v quick and easy for others in the team to see where you have got to on projects – yay..

do you use google chat to keep your team in touch during the day if you are remote working ? did you know you can add files and allocate tasks from this workspace and how easy is that – and you can mention people using @ so they get a notification that something is there for them

Just a very few top of the head items to whet your appetite – if you know all this then look and step away, there maybe someone looking over your shoulder who would find it helpful though..

PS did you know how to use zoom and screen share to do a ‘how to’ movie and then to use You Tube to publish and share it - just a thought…

well goodness me, how many emotions this one evokes eh? Cries of ‘how can I find time to do this as well as doing the day job?’ The secret/trick is to spend a bit of time finding an app that helps you by breaking down the standards into digestible chunks and assessing and finding evidence of compliance piece by piece over a period of time – I suggest an annual cycle.

If you go at it this way you are building info and materials week by week and they are embedded in day to day work so you can demonstrate compliance as you go along rather than waiting until the month before you are due to submit your assessment at which point it can soooooooooooo easily be tooo late to do your best work and make you feel a bit sick in anticipation and definitely on the back foot.

I have an idea for an app that will help you to spread the work through the year and then you can be cool calm and collected in the run up to assessment rather than headless chicken – unless, of course, you are at ease with the headless chicken approach.. in which case, I take my hat off to you…