Weeknotes 1/2022

This week both my children tested positive for Covid. We’re healthy but bored. I’m counting the days until they can go back to school/nursery (which hopefully is very soon.)

What went well:

• I published my year-end reflections and though it didn’t go viral or anything (thank eff for that), I did get a decent response, mostly personal responses from people thanking me for being so open, setting up virtual coffees and telling me I’ve made them think about writing more openly too. So that’s lovely and makes me really keen to keep going with weeknoting and sharing blogs. Thank you to those who reached out, it meant a lot to me.
• I also shared my reflections with a few leaders in my team and org, and they were really supportive and open to me publishing. There’s even been a bit of discussion around some of the items I mentioned in my hopes for the org in 2022.
• After delivering a large research piece to me team last week, I now have some tangible, actionable items I can work through to improve our service. I’m pretty detail focused, so I love having specific items to work on.
• I helped organized our first monthly HCD Community call next week. So excited! Join us, it’s open to all.

To improve:

• When I presented my research findings before Christmas, they caused a bit of stir. Part of that is perhaps cultural aspects of our team, but a big part of that is on me, because I basically dumped a bunch of constrictive criticism on my team and then didn’t have time for a discussion afterwards. So, coming back after the holidays, myself and some of the leaders lead a followup discussion. I had a lot of anxiety going in, but it went really well and I hope will do a lot to build trust and a more open culture in our team. Lesson for me — no “ta da” or surprise research. I need to take the team along. I knew this but sometimes it seems easier and more agile to do this work solo.
• With two kids at home and having to isolate, I’m not managing life very well. I’m dropping a lot of small balls and feeling very ashamed of myself for not doing better. I know self-compassion is important and I’m working on it. But what I really need is help.
• I was somewhat ill last week, and found myself really dismayed by the BC Gov sick leave policy. I think it’s antiquated and unethical and needs to change. I’ve already started asking around about this and right now I’m on the cusp of “is this a big enough deal to escalate?” Maybe, but not at this moment (see above)

Inspiration: Some things I have recently read:

• Experimenting with the Service Communities model through the Prison Leavers Project
• Designing for team spirit in a remote world
• What does working in the open mean?
• Design systems are flawed
• Sam’s recent threeknotes

Reading, listening, watching

• I finished this book:

• I binge listened to Sweet Bobby. Super intriguing and just plain nuts.
• I finished watching Station Eleven. Although it had the same set up and most of the same characters as the book, it was very different. This annoyed me at first, but I eased into it once I started to see it as a kind of parallel universe to the book — a ‘what could’ve happened if things had played out slightly differently.’ The whole changing the setting from Toronto to Chicago thing still irks me though — so unnecessary (esp since it was filmed in Toronto!)