Helen Milner OBE is Group CEO of digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation. This busy week centres around the launch of Good Things’ annual campaign ‘Get Online Week’.

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Leadership is fast-paced - just seven days

On Sunday I landed into Heathrow from Sydney, motivated for the week ahead. Whilst visiting family in Australia, I always make time for in-person meetings with the Good Things Australia team, allowing for much deeper conversations than we can have over a video call.

A bit tired, but equally excited… bright and early on Monday morning, I put up my umbrella and went to the House of Lords for the launch of Get Online Week, our annual digital inclusion campaign. A brilliant event, with the Minister for Digital Inclusion, as well as some of our local digital inclusion hubs, Strategic Partners and other businesses. Together we talked about the ABC of digital inclusion:

• A: Affordable Access: Free or affordable internet connectivity, data, and devices for all.
• B: Basic digital skills: The opportunity to learn and acquire essential digital skills at any stage of life.
• C: Community support: Helping people experiencing digital exclusion to get online locally.

Leadership is Learning

On Monday evening I went to a Digital Leaders Annual Lecture about AI by France’s Digital Champion, Gilles Babinet. I was there to learn and listen, and I was pleasantly surprised that Gilles’s key theme was people and society, and how AI shapes and will shape our future, as well as our roles as global citizens. I’m fascinated about thinking of the big picture of the future world and technology, but pragmatically, and for the day job, AI is so potentially transformative we must keep ourselves informed on it- and use the learnings to educate and inform our network.

Leadership is about letting others shine

On Tuesday I was booked for some media interviews, including with LBC, for our Get Online Week campaign PR story, highlighting our new research that shows a quarter of people lack confidence when it comes to using the internet to compete for jobs. I’ve been pleased to see my colleagues in the Good Things team pick up some other requests, using their media training. We have a diversity of voices at our charity and it’s important that I’m not the only spokesperson. Seeing staff develop in confidence and support our ethos is something that I strive for in every way possible.

Leadership is about collaborating and handling business

On Tuesday, I met with Shaheen Sayed, the CEO of Accenture UK, Ireland and Africa, and we talked about strategy and how to spread the digital inclusion impact message to businesses.

I was also preparing board papers as these had to be sent out on Wednesday. Luckily the hard working Good Things team had prepared many of these papers while I was away.

Later, on Wednesday, I met a senior advisor at the Department of Health and Social Care to talk about the 10 year plan for the health of the people of our nation - including the role of the NHS. It’s great to see digital inclusion on the agenda and the important role of community support, as well as an understanding of the challenges around funding for community organisations.

I then spent the day in our office in Sheffield, where our UK HQ is based - it’s small and allows for a remote/hybrid working model for our 50 staff. Most of my week turned out to be external facing but it’s always lovely seeing some of the team in person, and of course handling the business with the SMT at our fortnightly meeting.

Leadership is about delivering the mission

On Thursday, I went back down to London. I was pleased to attend a Get Online Week event in South East London along with a senior member from one of our strategic partners, Vodafone. It was a vibrant event hosted by just one of our 5000 hyper-local community partners in the UK-wide National Digital Inclusion Network, and being in London they’re part of Get Online London too. At this digital drop-in they were giving out refurbished phones from our National Device Bank, which looked like new. Seeing the difference that delivering our mission is making every day, and listening to the stories from digitally excluded people was one of the highlights of my week. There were lots of volunteers helping people one-on-one to set up the phones, giving them free sims from our Databank, and showing them what they needed to do. I loved that there was a community fridge and a gardening session going on too - showing how digital inclusion fits into a holistic, community approach, focused on what people need.

The National Device Bank depends on large employers taking the step to making circularity and social impact part of their tech refresh model - passing on older tech to Good Things for refurbishing and passing onto people in need. Good for the planet, and fantastic for people.

Leadership is exhausting… but rewarding

On Friday, finally, a day at home, working remotely. I joined a meeting with Department for Science, Innovation and Technology officials talking about strategy, and at the end of the day I spoke at a webinar with C-Suite tech professionals on digital inclusion and how important it is to them.

And we finished with the fantastic news that our Get Online Week featured more than 1,000 events across the country, directly supporting around 20,000 people to get online. In just one week, and just in the UK. An incredible achievement supporting our mission to help fix the digital divide - for good.

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