Becoming paperless

It was great seeing 1,500 of you at the staff forums over the last couple of weeks. And thank you for all the questions, emails and helpful suggestions that you’ve sent me since. I must have had 50 plus and I really appreciate the thinking and ideas for developing our organisation.

As 3,000 of you will be moving locations and or desks over the next few months I thought I’d share my thinking about going paperless. We have to achieve this to make the refurbished offices work for us. I’ve been at this for some time, and I’ve reduced the amount of paper I use and carry around hugely over the last year or so since moving into the open plan office. But I’ve always had a few sheets. And some. Until three weeks ago. I am now completely paperless (except for the odd script I’m handed for staff awards events and the like...).

I must say it’s truly liberating. And I’ve had to employ a couple of simple rules to make it work for me which I’ll share with you.

1. Never print any papers or agendas for meetings. Keep everything electronic and use Word files, Excel files and .pdf’s to make the sort of notes that you would have written on the papers. You can now highlight text, make notes and add those cheeky comments in the margins about the writer’s grammar; all sorts of things straight into the electronic file. It really is that simple.

2. Ditch the pen and notebook (something I’ve always carried since I was small). This has been the secret for me. Just don’t carry a pen and you can’t use paper. I felt naked without my pens but if I carry them I use them.

3. Read papers on the screen. I didn’t think this would work but actually it does with practice. It’s just like using a Kindle and after a week or so it’s as easy as holding a book or a paper.

4. Use the notes function, reminders function and Outlook diary on your laptop or smart phone for your to do lists, appointments, etc.



I hope these are helpful – they’ve worked for me. Have an experiment with all of the above and let me know what you think. It feels odd at first but within a week or two it works very well.

Speak soon and enjoy your Christmas shopping.

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.



Carlton

'Coming home'

It’s a busy week this, with six staff forums and a heads of service management meeting covering around 1,500 staff. We’re half way through these sessions and it has been great to hear from many staff with their questions, challenges and observations about how we move the organisation forward. We have updated on the recent senior management restructure, the new business plan 2013-17 and the headline messages from the peer review. It’s important that we all get involved in these sessions because it’s how we can understand what’s happening, share our concerns, and learn together. That way we are stronger and better able to meet the challenges ahead.

I am writing this blog sitting in the refurbished council chamber in front of our 98 elected members. I have a real sense of  'coming home' and it’s great to see democracy in action in the proper place; the debating chamber. I would like to thank Julie Anderson-Hill and her team for delivering such a great facility, ahead of schedule and on budget. The facility has electronic voting and webcasting and we shall see the members using these facilities next year to really open up what goes on to all our communities and staff.

On Friday this week I am attending the autumn ACCE meeting – the association of county chief executives. It’s a good opportunity to catch up with colleagues and share learning on the major issues that we collectively face; safeguarding, highway maintenance, economic growth and financial sustainability as well as future development of the Local Government Association (LGA).

Speak soon and see you in Chippenham tomorrow and Salisbury on Thursday if you are attending the staff events.

For daily updates, discussion, personal opinion, comment or just to connect or keep in touch you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/drcarltonbrand.

Carlton