Second day in the office done and dusted. We had a long meeting/workshop/interview/conversation to start the day – honestly it is hard to describe it because it wasn’t really what we were expecting and it makes me wonder about the similar sessions we have set-up the rest of the week. I think we got what we needed from it but it was a different starting place than I’d prepared for. Anyway – we’ll see.

Some things that will take some getting used to:

Having lunch at 11.30.
The quiet.
How easy it is to get meeting rooms.
The trust based public transport system.

Some things that are the same all over:

Experts in anything are experts in everything.
Agile is misunderstood.
Everything is a priority so nothing is.
Morning commuters are humanity at their worst.

Finished Lou’s book. Luke warm take. It is great – full of sensible, practical advice, supported by useful anecdotes to bring things to life and I can see it being slipped to Executive Team members to read in institutions everywhere it is available. I enjoyed the way it was structured around the 15 principles and with the summaries at the end of each chapter. I’m sure I’ll return to it time and again and it’ll join my new starter reading list alongside Accelerate and the public.digital book.

The one downside is, weirdly, the design. The typeface and (especially) the colour choices make it pretty hard to actually read at times!

Had an amazing meal this evening from The Roti Shop (which is literally downstairs from apartment) and a nice chat with the owner. I suspect I’ll be leaning on this venue as my go-to place while I’m here. It was pretty great value for Oslo as well!

I found out I’m going to need to be hear a couple of days longer than I hoped today so I will be here for the whole of March – including my birthday. This also means I won’t really have a break between this engagement and the next one so I’ll need to spend some of my time here preparing for that. Not yet though.