2024: A yearnote

It always surprises me when someone can manage a "year in review" type post right at the beginning of January. For me, the year doesn't actually begin til at least a week or two in, once the children are back at school and I've had a chance to regroup and catch up. January 1st til 10th are still kind of the holiday season, no?

Anyway, here are some reflections on my past year

What happened

In my 2023 yearnote, I wrote, "I think 2024 will be a year of some change for me and for the design community, and perhaps the province itself since 2024 is an election year." I was right on one count at least: For me personally, it was a year of big changes.

I had three different jobs in 2024 - from Service Design Lead in the Developer Experience team at the Ministry of Citizen Services, to Director of Strategic Design in the Ministry of Environment, to a Senior Service Design Lead for the Ministry of Health. These were all shifts in the type of work I was doing: from a doer, to a leader, to an advisor/doer again, though I stayed within the umbrella of design and research and all within the BC Government.

This bigger change, though, was in the types of teams I've been working with this year. Before my first job move in January of 2024, I had a startling realization that although I had moved governments three times in the last decade, I'd essentially held the same job in the same part of government through each of those moves: Design and research in central government, helping other teams within government deliver their own services. In this role, I was adjacent to service delivery, but never on the team doing the work. That changed this year. In both Environment and Health, I've been much closer to where government work actually happens. It's been really great and really challenging, more on that later.

Some other things that happened:

• I read 54+ books. Mostly fiction. You can read about them here. I also listened to a lot of podcasts and watched a lot of shows which I talk about in my weeknotes.
• I spoke virtually at FWD50
• I passed the leadership of the BC Gov Design Community off to someone else but continued to support as a volunteer
• I lead a few "intro to design" sessions that went really well, and I organized the Ministry of Environment's Virtual Skills Week which was a great success.
• I learned about a lot about Coaching, Leadership and a few other topics. And I started working with an executive coach inside BC Government which has been amazing. I also attended GovJam which was so great.
• I wrote weeknotes consistently, and was published in the Service Gazette - both online and in print.
• I travelled to Ottawa, Kelowna and Calgary for fun, and to Surrey for work. I also took my first solo non-work trip since having children. It was magical.
• I passed 2000 days of learning french on Duolingo, which helped me realize that I will definitely need to do more to learn french than just duolingo.
• My kids turned 5 and 9. My younger one "graduated" from Nursery and started kindergarten.
• I also had some changes in my personal life, my health and in my family. But I'll keep those for another place or another post.

What went well

Change.

I feel like I grew a lot this year through changing jobs and teams and areas of government. It didn't really increase my design skills, but it definitely changed my mindset and perception, my ability to adapt to and take on more challenging situations, and my views on effective design leadership (I wrote about my experiences moving into a leadership position here.)

This year I feel like I've moved from 'promised land government' (centralized areas of government with agile teams and less bureaucracy and a more open, reflective culture) to 'reality government' (delivery-focused areas that want less bureaucracy and more agility, but are too busy putting out fires and delivering the services under incredible constraints to consistently make that happen.) This side of government always felt scary to me, so I take some pride in my willingness to jump in. I've also been proud of my ability to be curious rather than judgemental, and to be flexible to what's actually needed rather than rigid around what I think is needed. That's been a positive thing to learn about myself, and a skill I'm continuing to build.

And people - I've worked with and collaborated with some great people this year. I've made some lovely new connections and strengthened existing ones. So that's gone very well.

What was challenging

Change.

Change was the best thing about this year, and also the hardest. It was a double edged sword: it absolutely wrecked my confidence, and yet it also made me feel more assured in who I am and what is right for me. 2024 was the year I faced rejection and navigated some very difficult conversations. My mental health tanked. I took this all in and had to make something of it. I decided to see it all as an opportunity for redirection.

The world has been challenging this year, and I fear things will get worse in 2025. We're only a few days in and our prime minister has resigned, a dictator is threatening to take over Canada, evil corporations are proving themselves more evil, there's still no ceasefire for the people of Gaza. My anxiety over all of this feels like it will eat me alive some days. So 2025 may be the year I get serious about meditation, mindfulness, and letting go of what I can't control.

Looking forward

I simplified my year goal-setting this year and don't have specific career-related goals for 2025. Mostly, I want to keep doing what I am doing, but doing it in a more meaningful way.

For instance, I want to write and share more about myself, on a personal and professional level. I already do a lot of open sharing, but I want that sharing to be more meaningful and targeted than just sending weeknotes off into the void at a regular cadence.

I also want to do more for others. As a working mother who takes on nearly all of the mental load and much of a physical load of managing a household and family, and as a public servant, community leader and occasional mentor, pretty much all of my waking hours are about serving other people. And yet - I want to have more impact with my service and care work. I want to stretch it a bit. I want it to be more meaningful.

As always I'm looking at ways to grow my skillset within my current role. I want to pursue some new speaking opportunities, and also explore whether there are boards, committees or organizations outside of my government context that could use my skill set. I would welcome any suggestions on this.

I think that's it for now. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. Happy New Year!