Weeknotes 14/2022

Well, it’s been a minute! The last time I wrote weeknotes was in early September, and it feels like the world was a different place then — the queen was still alive, the UK economy was not in free fall, and I was someone who hadn’t yet left for my trip the UK.

The queen’s passing was an interesting time and brought up lots to reflect on for me personally. I, like many I think, felt like I was having an identity crisis — I’m firmly against all the things the monarchy stands for. And yet, my family has a personal connection with the queen and I’ve always felt a lot of fondness and admiration towards her as a person, even though I hadn’t met her personally. I spent the mourning period doing a lot of listening — mostly to the stories of those who felt harmed by royalism and colonialism. I’m so proud of and grateful for the people who spoke up against the monarchy, as it widened my perspective and gave me a lot to think on. And I had lots of time to think as I circled London in an aeroplane because my flight arrived smack in the middle of the funeral.

What went well

• SDinGov was really great and I had a wonderful time. More on that here. I also attended a one-day conference run by my ministry on the topic of Indigenous relations which was excellent.
• I ran a couple of mentoring calls, and also an interesting call with someone in the federal government who is looking into team structures for design.
• Research and design capacity-building and training in the BC government is currently non existent, and it’s a I’ve wanted to take steps to fill in a way that is sustainable. Some conversations are starting to happen around this so that’s promising.
• I’ve been having some great chats about community with my colleague Harry, and we have some exciting ideas for ramping up our design community. I was hoping to attend a community manager meeting with Skaidra, Imran and James but it didn’t work out due to childcare pickups.

To improve

• I had a lot to catch up on when I arrived, so time management has been a struggle for me this week.
• I got a new macbook pro from my work, which is amazing but also caused a lot of IT issues and took me a good few days to sort out. And I’m having lots of other small IT issues that are stressing me out.
• I also having a bit of the post-cool work trip blues. It was so, so great seeing and meeting people in London and Scotland, and I feel a bit bereft that it’s over. it doesn’t help that I still miss London and the UK so, so much.
• Oh, and this interaction:

(I responded to the guy in a way that felt powerful. But I didn’t much support on my response which feels a bit disappointing and makes me wonder if I got the whole interaction wrong. But I still think my response was the right one, to stand up for myself and others.)

Inspired by

• What is social capital? And why is it so important in delivering project work? This is such a thought-provoking piece from Joe Bramall at TPX Impact.
• Who Get’s a Say? A Two-Part Series on Service Design and Language Access — I met Lexie Perez-Gruber at SDinGov and am so glad we connected, this piece is spot on and really insightful — I can’t wait for part 2.
• Drinking Problem by Daisy Buchanan. Oof. This will make you think differently about your drinking. For me, my drinking is nearly non-existent these days but that hasn’t always been the case and this really touches on a lot of the issues that problematic drinking habits can bring up.
• “Charbonneau Loops” and government IT contracting — another banger from Sean Boots

Reading, watching, listening

• I’m currently reading a book that I don’t like at all so I won’t share it but I’ve finished quite a few books since my last weeknotes so I want to call out a couple of really excellent ones: Fight Night by Miriam Toews (I found it really slow and hard to get into at first but once you do, wow) and All of This by Rebecca Woolf, an incredibly honest memoir of marriage and loss that has made me look differently at all of my relationships.
• I’m rewatching The Crown, I know I shouldn’t bother but I can’t help it, it’s just so well done.
• We Were Three from Serial is a short but really powerful story.