Meeting the new CEO

Our new CEO came in yesterday to meet a couple of the managers, as a first step in introducing him to his new role. The two areas he thought needed attention were our communications and our relationship with our local groups. So it's good that those are already two areas that we're already working on improving. A lot of organisations can get hung up on policing their identity and lose all sense of innovation and interestingness about what they do. But there's a lot more we can do to try and feel like one organisation and to create the right impression - a bit like dressing in the right clothes for the occasion. At the moment, we can be a bit too much of an ill fitting anorak but I'd be concerned if we became too much of a pinstripe suit...

The other danger is that we become too focussed and therefore too boring. Since I started I've tried to narrow down our focus to "walkability" but the danger is that we so stifle creativity and the ability to try new things that we become really boring and no fun to work for. So lets hope we still have time for trying silly ideas and classic voluntary sector (and Lib Dem) silly photo stunts.