Tales from my week. 3rd — 9th December
Overarching feeling of the week
It’s been an up and down kind of week. A non-exhaustive account:
On Monday I got very angry about a thing I can’t talk about here. I’m generally quite even-tempered in a professional environment, so this was a surprising feeling, but I think I handled it in the best way I could by speaking with more senior people about my concerns.
On Tuesday I went to a team Christmas lunch, which was fun. The food was excellent and it was good to catch up with folks I haven’t seen for a while, but a lot of the chat centered on relationships and kids which made me feel a bit uncomfortable.
On Wednesday I was anxious about the changes happening in our team over the next couple of weeks, and had to take a bit of time away from the desk to calm down. Although us digital folks work in changing and uncertain environments all the time, we’re not immune to feeling unsettled when changes happen that affect us personally.
On Thursday I attended a retrospective with a policy team who I worked with over the summer and early autumn. One of the exercises was to tell another person in the team something they did well, and one of my closest colleagues said all sorts of lovely things about me that I wasn’t expecting. I made a quip that it felt like a leaving do, and that got me wondering why we wait for infrequent events like resignations or performance reviews to tell people how much we appreciate them?
On Friday I managed to tune out the emotions somewhat and focus on research synthesis. It was satisfying to get some things down on paper and shape them into a coherent order. I closed the day with catch ups with the team, and a chatGPT-generated playlist.
What did you enjoy?
Our service designer facilitated a team workshop for us to start shaping our recommendations for alpha. We were given some prompts to consider in advance which helped me to come to the session prepared and focussed, and I felt like I was able to contribute a lot because the session framing allowed us to explore practical and strategic topics.
I also had a brilliant conversation with our service owner about the pros and cons of a big decision we need to make. They bring the best out of me by giving me space to share my thoughts and experiences without any fear of judgment.
What was hard?
A combination of colleagues leaving, others moving back to their ‘day job’ after being temporarily redeployed to assist on the Ukraine programme, and our contractors departing shortly has left me feeling isolated. I know there will be more people joining soon but I’m worried about the burden of being one of the small number of people who holds the accumulated knowledge/project history. I’m pleased I was able to articulate these feelings to my manager this week instead of burying them, and I was reassured by hearing their plans.
What would you like to have done more of?
My quantitative data exploration stalled this week as I was unable to find clear blocks of time in my diary to focus without interruptions. Thankfully my diary for next week looks clearer so I can push on, although I’ll have to prioritise carefully as we only have a week of discovery left.
What did you learn?
I played a very small role in planning and facilitating a workshop, which had an ambitious agenda and relatively senior people in attendance. It was useful to have this opportunity so soon after finishing Circle Indigo’s facilitation training as I was able to experience some of what I learned happening in practice.
What are you reading?
I started ‘The Authority Gap’ by Mary Ann Sieghart on the train to Birmingham. I’ve just finished reading ‘If I Had Your Face’ by Frances Cha.
What are you looking forward to next week?
- Final show and tell for discovery before our contractor team leave. I hope it will be a moment to take stock and celebrate everything we’ve learnt over the last couple of months
- Our Head of Product is running a lunch and learn session on prioritisation techniques
- I’m going to try to get to a couple of UPFRONT Global bond virtual events
- Continued preparation for Christmas concerts
