Weeknotes 13 of 2024
I'm going to start by being annoyingly vague here because I'm not sure how much I can talk about publicly yet: I'm switching jobs in a week, but still within the BC Government. This has been on the cards for a while but a few things were still up in the air - thankfully things became a bit more certain recently, which has been a huge relief. I'm super excited for the move, sad about leaving my current team, and feeling that pressure of wrapping things up in a good way for the person who is replacing me (who is awesome by the way and I am genuinely excited for them and our team.) All in all, I feel good. More on that next time.
What happened
- Obviously some job stuff happened.
- This week I've been focused on offboarding tasks and tying up lose ends.
- I've also continued to support my colleague Jackie to deliver some Hazardous Waste workshops which are going really well
- I've been giving feedback on various things - tool procurements, contract procurements, research plans and so on.
- I'm chipping away at some blog posts I hope to finish before I leave
- And as always, many many meetings 🙃
What went well
- We talk a lot about the difficult feelings of switching jobs, but I want to acknowledge a positive one: that feeling of lightness at the end of a job when you can put down the balls you were juggling, when all those knotty problems in your head are no longer your responsibility to untangle. I know this is temporary and I will have plenty of balls and knots to pick up soon, but I'm enjoying this short period of unravelling and letting go.
- As I've mentioned, having more certainty on my job move after a few months of feeling unsettled has been such a weight off my shoulders.
- Some big-ish milestones in my personal life: My first baby turned 9 (!!!) (officially in big kid territory now) and my last baby is 'graduating' from preschool/nursery/daycare later today 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
- (Yes, that means no more full-time daycare payments after 8 years and at least $150k spent on childcare for the privilege of being able to work)
What was difficult
- The feeling of leaving a team you genuinely care for, as well as moving on just when you felt like you were gaining your footing 🫠🫠🫠🫠Change is good but nobody said it was easy.
- I recently had some feedback that didn't sit well, either with me or the person giving the feedback (they've since apologized and we've talked about it and it's all fine, we're good. I gave feedback on the feedback which was kind of meta.) I really value honest feedback but this conversation was upsetting for me and difficult and took a while to process. Part of the problem was that it wasn't specific or actionable enough. It felt like an overall review of my personality, rather than feedback on the task at hand. It was also way more balanced on the 'to improves' without much on what I did well which made me feel like an utter failure. The whole experience has made me think a lot about how to ask for and give feedback, and what boundaries we should all be setting around it.
Inspired by
Given the above, what a coincidence to see this from Audree Fletcher:
Feedback: a gift or a kick in the teeth? — Audree Fletcher
Whether it’s a coach giving a commentary on a slow-motion video of a runner’s stride, an editor’s suggested changes to a manuscript, a driving instructor observing a learner’s manoeuvres, or a manager giving performance feedback to a staff member - feedback can be immensely powerful as a tool for le
Audree Fletcher
And wow, lots of great sharings and musing this past fornight - checks these out:
Stealing from social research: pulling trauma informed work into user centred design
Exploring social research methods to find a trauma informed approach to working with women on probation.
Policy blueprinting: a tool for 21st century policy design
A collaborative process to design interventions to address large-scale policy challenges and systemic issues
Andy Marsden
Interaction gaps - Lisa Koeman - blog
While going through some log data for my previous blogposts on visualising linear journeys and non-linear journeys, one thing stood out: the gaps between interactions. The users waiting on the service to progress something before they can continue, and vice versa. Waiting happens at varying degrees of visibility. A physical queue in a shop communicates […]
Lisa Koeman
Are we lost?
I joined CDDO for many reasons, not least of all because I felt lost. I was watching the UK slip down the rankings of digital governments globally, reading surveys that showed satisfaction with digital public services in the UK in steady decline.
Gina Gill
Using quarters as a checkpoint
Breaking your strategy down into smaller, more manageable chunks can help you make more progress sooner. The quarterly checkpoint is a time to refocus efforts and double-down, change direction or move on to the next objective.
Working with leadership teams, outside and in
About this post I wanted to take this moving opportunity to go through my notes and consolidate thoughts from the last few years of working with leadership teams because they might be useful to som…
The Planning Game away day
A few months back, I worked with a client to design their away day. Working with Jamie, Paul and the programme team, we blended team updates with a new board game about planning to make a brilliant day.
Emily Webber
Reading, watching, listening
- I started and finished Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley - grim and gritty but such a great read (by the way: written when the author was a teenager.)
- Still re-watching Mad Men, but looking for recommendations on new watches. Is the latest True Detective any good?
- I'm excited for a new miniseries from 99pi: Not Built for This - which tackles how climate change could impact our existing systems and infrastructure. The first episode about flooding was great.
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