Weeknotes 8 of 2023

The one where I emerge from the hibernation of my home office and re-join the world for a couple of days

Yesterday I hosted our May Design Community meetup — the topic this month was User Research with Underrepresented Groups, and the speaker was my colleague Elnaz Aliasl. The talk was excellent and so was the open and vulnerable conversation we had afterward. I don’t post these recording links publicly, but I’m happy to share it if you email me.
The Exchange Lab hosted a couple of digital showcases — one for the Deputy Ministers and Head of the BC Public Service, and one for everyone else. I was part of both and it was an exciting experience.
Now that the weather has improved, I’ve spent a few days in the office which has had two big benefits: 1) cycling and 2) various coffees/walks/chats with colleagues. I met up with Paul, who I worked with at both GDS and CDS (though never on the same product team,) and we had a great chat about the various governments we’ve worked for and with. My colleague Adam and I did our regular one on one outdoors with a walk through Beacon Hill Park and Heather-Lynn Remacle and I grabbed tea and talked about org culture.

I’ve been feeling really wiped lately. The day of the showcase especially. When I got home, I took 30 minutes to just sit in a chair with my eyes closed. I was too tired to even scroll through my phone. That never happens.
lol apparently I was the only one who didn’t get a dress code memo for the DM showcase because I was the only one in jeans and my exchange lab tshirt in a sea of power suits and dresses. To be fair, I’m kind of glad I didn’t get the memo. After the body changes from having two children, 7 years of working for super casual teams and three years of almost exclusive home working, I don’t even own “business casual” clothes anymore.
Ah the joy(pain) of making small talk as someone with neurodiverse traits. I have spent so much time in the last two weeks in my head reliving every awkward thing I said to someone.

I finally got my copy of the Service Organization by Kate Tarling — only a few pages in and I’m already highlighting nearly everything she has to say.
Related: Just discovered this 2019 blog post — Digital transformation is a leadership problem — by Mike Bracken
Mike Monteiro has this excellent take on hiring for “culture fit”
I watched the open GDS Show and Tell from Services week — lots of interesting work going on as usual.

I’ve almost finished Us Against You by Fredrik Backman. It’s a bit of a slog (lots of characters and context to take in) but it’s beautofull written and such a stunning take on toxic masculinity (among many other things)
I’m hooked on both Succession (love to hate) and Ted Lasso (just love) as they near their (definitely and possibly) final episodes. Could I hate the Roy family and their contribution to capitalism/facism even more than I already do? Could all of Rebecca’s psychic predictions come true? Will I ever feel like the team should forgive Nate? Only time will tell.
Birthstory from Radiolab was a fascinating story of the complexity of overseas surrogacy and adoption.