When I left the media to return to self-employment, I didn’t expect to be working with any of my former clients, let alone becoming a long-term part of a team.
It had been a decade since I’d worked with what was then ETSA (the Electricity Trust of SA), providing comms services like writing the staff newsletter (when such things were printed), editing annual reports and assisting with other written comms. So when I got a phone call to see if I was free to help out with some internal comms for a few months, it was a delightful surprise.
However, what I thought would be a short-term gig has grown well beyond those few months. I was offered a six-month contract, and another after that, taking me up to the end of 2019.
Being a consultant is always a delicate dance – you’re part of the team, embedded in helping it achieve its strategic goals, yet you’re also there for a specified amount of time, albeit with the possibility of extension.
If you’re there long enough, you become part of the ‘family’, are invested in a longer-term view of the work and develop good relationships with the people you work with. Inevitably, this is where I found myself near the end of the year.
So I’m beyond thrilled that I’ve signed on to be with SA Power Networks’ IT Group for all of 2020, increasing my time with them by half a day a week.
As well as allowing me to continue the work I’ve been doing and get stuck in to projects I haven’t had time to get near, it’s a validation of the value I’m bringing to the business – the work I do with them is part of their approach to innovative ways of working, cultural change and team building.
There’s so much more I want to achieve in their internal comms and I’m really excited to have another year to focus on it.
An example of their innovation
Recently, SA Power Networks’ relationship with Microsoft and how they’re using their software to improve efficiency, communication and safety, was published on the Microsoft site. It’s a great story, so have a read if you’re inclined.
SA Power Networks energizes its workforce
SA Power Networks is the electricity distributor in the state of South Australia. It has developed a digital strategy program that incorporates the Microsoft 365 productivity cloud for a workplace transformation that mitigates siloed operations across a vast geographical area...
Read my post about Digital Transformation
The Power of Digital Transformation
When I hear the word IT, my first thought is, ‘Have you tried turning it off and on again?” thanks to the TV show The IT Crowd, so working with a highly innovative and cutting-edge IT department has been a huge learning curve and also incredibly exciting...