Seeking silver linings

My second attempt at “weeknotes”, only I felt after a week I didn’t have much to share. Instead I plan not to set myself a schedule for these, and write them when I see a theme emerging. Who knows, I might run out of things to share pretty quickly!?

This weeknote is all about developing a growth mindset , or seeing the positives when things don’t go to plan (but steering clear of toxic positivity ).

The last few weeks I’ve been very focused on getting some momentum with my client project. The team is small, but the opportunity to help them rethink their services has so much potential. We were invited to speak about service design with some members of the senior leadership team. It was encouraging to be asked so many questions, and comforting to know we could provide some input or answers.

The highlight of this period has been getting involved in business planning, and thinking through what’s next for dxw - which was a really interesting process to be part of, and I loved seeing so many of my colleagues in person, where we’re normally working remote. All of these activities came with their highs, and a few lows.

As a designer, we’re plenty used to things not going to plan. It comes with the territory of needing to adapt, react, predict and flex accordingly. Just because it’s something we’re used to doesn’t mean it’s something that’s easy. I’m trying to get better at doing this a.k.a. taking things less personally. There’s been a few moments recently that haven’t gone as I expected, or raised things out of the blue I’ve needed to handle. It’s left me thinking about how I can view these situations as opportunities.

• These things could be bigger things, like being asked to pause some work just as you’re getting somewhere. This news was a bit of a shock, and absolutely filled me with dread. I immediately thought I’d done something wrong, or overstepped some boundaries.
• Or they could be smaller things, like only 2 people showing up to your service design meet up you’ve hosted for the last 3 years.?
• Or they could be slower, more long term realisations like internal working groups that just haven’t served their purpose for the best part of a year (not for lack of trying)

My first thought in all of these scenarios was to immediately see it as a failure. I must have done something wrong, missed a trick, or made a poor impression. Maybe people just don’t value what I have to offer? Despite constantly touting the benefits of working in “agile ways”, failure is something I still find hard in practice. This is where seeking silver linings comes in:

1. It’s not personal - There are plenty of reasons why things are the way they are. Someone’s interaction with me is one tiny part of their bigger picture. We should hold back from making assumptions about our particular part in someone’s decision.
2. Distance yourself - We can let go in these situations and see how it plays out. We don’t need to be in control of everything all the time. As my dad would say “What’s meant for you, doesn’t pass you by”.?
3. Focus on what this enables - This reflection reminded me of the “anti-problem” game storming technique “By asking players to identify ways to solve the problem opposite to their current problem, it becomes easier to see where a current solution might be going astray or where an obvious solution isn’t being applied”?

For the situations I mentioned above it meant:

• The pause in the project has allowed me more time to get my ducks in a row, to reflect on the approach we were taking with the work, and it’s going to mean the right people have time to get involved. This should ultimately lead to more impactful outcomes in the long run.?
• My smaller meetup was actually really nice. A chance to be less of a facilitator and just join in with some really insightful discussion, whilst getting to know 2 people in the group better. It also made me think I should do more to start sharing the group again, so others can benefit from such great conversations (looking at you Elmer Zinkhann and Joshua Stehr )
• Pausing responsibilities with the internal working group gave space to reflect on why it wasn’t working and share those reflections with the group and directors for discussion (and potentially a bit of a reset)

So that’s all. Working on doing better at dealing with things not going to plan. Working on seeing the long term positives, even if short term is a bit pants. I know I’m not alone in this view.

In the words of Winston Churchill:

“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts”?

PS, if anyone’s interested in joining our Service Design morning meet up, we meet online on the first Tuesday of the month at 8.30-9.30 GMT. Ping me if you’d like to try it out!