I’m in week two of my job swap with Darrin in which we agreed to trade our roles (or at least part of them) to learn a bit more about each other’s jobs.

So, what have I learnt so far? Well quite a few things actually ….

Firstly, that the REDs can behave. They promised they would, at least until Christmas and so far they’ve honoured that promise. I am pretty sure they are treating me with kid gloves and probably give Darrin a much harder time. Nonetheless it’s been great to get to spend a bit more time talking one-to-one with them and finding out more about the challenges they face day to day. I’d always had a lot of respect for them but learning more about the problems they face and the work that is going on has been really valuable for me.

Secondly, I’ve also come to learn more about what Darrin does and the skill of keeping 100 plates spinning at the same time. Probably not my strength really and I guess we’ll drop a few between now and December when the job swap ends but it’s been fun trying so far. I’m lucky in that in my usual role I have time to think but the last two weeks seem to have flown by. Good job I can hand the REDs back as Christmas presents for Darrin in December before something really goes wrong!

On the downside, I’m not very sure how much I have to offer them in support as I don’t really know the ins and outs of what they do and I’ve also come to remember that working on the details is probably not my strong point (and probably why I do what I do….). But it’s all part of the learning and I’m looking forward to continuing that until the end of December.

The big question I guess is how is Darrin getting on? Feet up on the sofa? Or furrowed brow analysing the complexities of continuing our successes 5 years down the road??

Richard Sunderland