As we talk about the first 100 and 300 days and I have completed this cycle a few times now, I thought sharing what I have learnt during the more recent iterations would be useful. A while ago I found that the LinkedIn algorithm had been sending out notices to my friends and colleagues informing them that I was celebrating my first anniversary at Southern Water. First, thank you to everyone who sent me best wishes on this event; and second, it was a celebration. I thoroughly enjoyed my first year at Southern Water, a fascinating and exciting place to work, which is going through many positive changes. For me as Southern Water's first CDO it was a challenging year, full of opportunity and learning.

It was a busy year. It now seems odd to reflect that halfway through the year the first edition of The Chief Data Officer's Playbook was published and I am now writing a chapter in the second edition. Several of the chapters in the first edition were pertinent to my first year at Southern Water:

One of the key things a new CDO should do at the end of the first 100 days, before they embark on the next 300 days, is to reflect. So here goes.

My first reflection is that things (change/transformation, call it what you will) take time. By that I mean some things do have their own natural pace, whether that is procurement, technical delivery or perhaps most significantly cultural change. The cultural change is most important, because this is the thing that builds the data vision/data strategy. The story of the vision has to be repeated throughout the business and that takes time – there is the natural rhythm of booking meetings, getting into people's calendars, management meetings, leadership meetings, board meetings … and then the story has to be understood and adopted … and then repeated over and over again. It takes time to understand how a business works as an organisation, and also to understand what a business does. I was not from the water sector, or from utilities, so I had a lot to learn, and learn quickly.