Training for the pivot

You’d think I’d have lots to say since it last week I handed in my IT equipment, had leaving drinks and read the card full of nice messages. Apparently not. It was predictably great to see old friends and colleagues, catch up, and laugh with some incredulity at the things that used to happen in work many years ago. (Four grown men used to kick a football around, playing rebound during our lunch break - that was our summer sport; winter lunchtimes were playing cards.)

Because they are all lovely people there were many enquires asking me how I’m doing,I guess since they all appreciate the enormity of leaving a workplace after 30 years. It had the cumulative effect of making me wonder how I’m doing and then wondering how I should be doing. Of course, there’s likely to be stages, some of which I’m sure I’ve gone through and some yet to come, but right now my reasoning brain is winning out, and reminding me that I have a rare opportunity to pivot my career. I fully expect some pesky emotions to come along and derail me for a bit, but right now I’m doing ok.

Big event of this week was day three of the Agile Service Design class, delivered expertly by Sarah Drummond, from The School of Good Services. I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days and learnt a lot about the practice and theory of service design, but also the invaluable conversations, discussions, exercises and real world stories. Now I think about it it reminds of the first responder training I used to do, where you did the theory, did the practice and then listening to a veteran tell tales of how things really work, and what to do when faced with messy reality. I found it really useful to give me hope that I might find a spot on the roster of a Service Design team, and that it really is a team sport.

I now have a huge ton of resources to catch up on, and work out how best to get started on this awkward carry of snagging a role where I can contribute.

I saved a ton of links this week - mostly on Service Design, but also some cracking Design History on Margaret Calvert. I also took a little dip into the waters of book categorisation (like a moth to a flame) and came up with Thema as an alternative to more problematic systems (Mr Dewey, I’m looking at you)