Weeknotes, 18th June 2021

Good people

A big week; after over a year, I finally felt up to making a trip to London to spend time IRL with a colleague 🙌

On a tarmac-melter of a day Coca Rivas and I went to Spitalfields Market, had a nice (hot! 🌶) Sri Lankan curry, a good old natter about life in the last year, and the current and future states of our design team at dxw.

I’ve already started to think about making more excursions and having different kinds of catch-ups and it’s really giving me life 💚

We’re almost at the end of the budgetary year for our learning & development benefit, so there’s been a bit of a flurry of activity to get things booked up. This year it’s been really nice to see the variety of things that folks on the design team chose to spend their budgets on; everything from typography to music lessons and all sorts in between.

I’ve had a few conversations this week in which colleagues from across dxw have been singing the praises of our latest influx of new folks in all of our design specialisms. They’ve brought with them diverse backgrounds and lots of cultural add. It’s really invigorating and there are more to come in the near future.

We’re currently looking to hire an associate service designer — if you’re interested or know someone who might be, please put them in touch 😊

Good work

I’m providing support for one of our delivery teams on a new discovery-phase project. There’s always something I love about the “forming” stage of a team’s lifecycle; where uncertainty meets possibility.

It’s also fab to get the opportunity to do work with people you’ve only ever previously known from Twitter (hi, Jess! 👋).

I’ve observed a really good natural dovetailing between the skillsets and experience of two folks on a project. There’s a great opportunity for a working relationship that benefits both people and the project as a whole. I always find spotting and sponsoring these connections very fulfilling.

Quality of communication is critical when you’re managing or leading others but never forget that quantity is equally important. Expect to tell people things at least twice. Be prepared to tell them even more times than that. And if you think this is waste of your time, you’re probably in the wrong role.

Good stories

Chanelle published her first ever weeknote, which was 💯. There are even whispers of others publishing theirs soon too… 👀

The regular reading habit I kicked off the year with has fallen off in recent months but I’ve made a concerted effort to pick it up again. I’d previously read about half of it but this week I returned to the beginning of Do Lead by Les McKeown. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the distinctions between leading and managing in my own particular context, and there’s some good food for thought in this book.

dxw-er Chris finished his brick-built barbecue. Evidently, Chris is a man of his word, and I am an official namer of barbecues:

I did a garden photoshoot with our pets, before the last sunny day of June was gone for good 💛

After some changes to the vaccination booking service website, I was able to cancel without fear my second jab appointment and rebook for eight days sooner than the original date. Good work all round, NHS 💉 💙

Come on, England! ⚽️