Variety is the spice of Life

Meeting about SharePoint and the intricacies making sure only the people you want to see things see them. As usual with those kinds of meetings, the questions often end with plenty of ‘it depends’ answers, where the process influences what is desired with the tech – bit also people need to get a feel for what is possible and sometimes tailor processes. I find that people can be open to changing processes if they feel there’s tangible benefits. A sort of Chicken and Egg conundrum.

Took my first steps into proper admin land by checking some invoices and passing them off for payment. The sort of admin bread and butter that I’ve managed to avoid for most of my working life, so had a little frisson of novelty, that I’m sure will wear off.

Prior to giving a presentation on Accessibility to our procurement people, I had to do some research into what others are doing and what would be a useful level of detail to go into. Had procrastinated on the slides for ages but managed not to leave it to the absolute last minute.

Spent an interesting day in training for a general round up of Records Management, which even though the workbook was based on the assumption of a group in a room, still managed to work reasonably well over Teams. It was good to be able to ask specific questions of an experience practitioner and get ideas from others, the how is the nitty gritty, and I never expect training to provide a lightbulb moment – more small illuminations throughout the day.

Added some activity to our Risk Register and couldn’t resist tidying up the Word document. People might get tired of me endlessly reformatting things that get sent to me, but I find it hard to look away when I see a less than optimal document. Probably need to learn to leave them alone occasionally.

In a similar vein I redesigned a Job App template to make it more Accessible (and useable) – I think people are appreciative, but let’s wait and see.

Another meeting working out how ro raise awareness of Accessibility as a thing that needs attention. In the context of it not really being my job I’m trying work a plan for more people to carry the load, but even planning that takes time. The next day I delivered a speciality ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ presentation on Accessibility, with a grateful and inquisitive group. In the face of lots to do it’s a boost to feel that people appreciate how much there is to do.

Finally, got round to making some basic reports (often the best kind) on my records management spreadsheet. Using PowerBI in a proper way to interrogate a spreadsheet in a much friendlier way – making it easier to identify issues than need dealing with. So that will be great for next week when I plan to summarise what needs doing next.