#Weeknotes 61 (19 Jan) — Adding value, family differences, and the School of Life
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Work wise:
The current work we have scoped with our client at Sport England is based on time and materials. This means while there may be goals and aims to work towards, there aren’t necessarily delivery outputs committed against the work. The cost of the work is based on the team members assigned over a set period, for example, 3 designers and a project or delivery manager at a mix of full or part-time capacity over 3 months. The reason behind this is to allow for maximum flexibility in the way we work and provide support and capability to the client team when and as needed. This set-up works well when a lot of the work is reliant on the client organisation’s knowledge, experience, and the pace they’re able to work in. An obvious value-add to setting up work in this way was revealed this week when we had an internal team review of the work. While looking over the outstanding tasks and lining up our work against the agreed outcomes, we noticed that our capacity is being underutilised due to being blocked and reliant on some internal client processes. We then decided to look at some of the key challenges uncovered in the work over the past few months. We wondered if we could tackle some of these challenges that our work would directly benefit from within the capacity of our team. We ended up pitching a small piece of research to the client that if done well would immensely add value to not just the direct client teams but also to the wider Sport England organisation. The client was ecstatic and appreciative of us being proactive and leaning in to add value despite it not being explicit in the scope. The set-up of a time-and-materials-based approach to scoping work can be quite advantageous in such instances.
Separately, I was the chosen one for our latest employee spotlight. It feels strange reading articles that talk about myself, even if I contributed to the content. I did enjoy the exercise. It’s always interesting to reflect on things that don’t come up on a normal day. I was tasked to reflect on my journey to being a Principal UX Consultant. It was a great reflection exercise recognising how my past experiences shaped me and the work I do.., for better or for worse. ;) I enjoyed reading about my colleagues’ journeys and life outside of work. It’s a great reminder that people are so much more than what they show up for work.
Life wise:
I finally finished the design of a photobook for my 2yo son. I had one done last year to showcase the many firsts he experienced in his first year in the world. The plan is to have a yearly photobook capturing key moments of his growth for each year. I was a bit ambitious to order a 40-page book to customise. It always takes so much longer than I anticipate to collate the right photos and coherently theme them so it all flows well. At the same time, I enjoyed the process. It was a very therapeutic activity and a great opportunity to reflect on moments over the past year. It’s so easy to forget. I think that’s why I take so many photos. Especially when you have a goldfish memory like me! It helps to document the day-to-day.
One thing that was quite hard this week was a conversation I had with my dad. I’ve been keeping in touch with my dad sporadically since moving to the UK nearly 7 years ago. I consider him, next to my grandparents, my most important person in the world despite us having very little in common, or even knowing much about what goes on in each other’s lives. He was there for me growing up and was always there when I needed him. My father has never been a person of many words. He acknowledges his weakness and struggles with how to express himself and connect with others, even amongst family and friends. Our father-daughter relationship has always been that of I’ll-call-you-if-I-need-you kind.
I wanted us to be more than that.
It hasn’t been easy. It became clearer over the years how different we are in our values and outlook in life. In some ways, it is inevitable given our culture and generation differences. While I was born in China, I grew up in Canada. I identify more as a Canadian than Chinese. At times, my father and I would get into heated discussions around competing values and attitudes which further distances us. This week’s conversation was one of those. My definition of family is different from his. We couldn’t reconcile and it only left us both sad and frustrated.
How do we recognise and accept our differences with those we love, but at the same time take into account the needs of each other? Surely it can’t be all or nothing.
Things I came across:
A colleague posted an article from The School of Life and I recall visiting the website years ago, which looked a lot different then, and simply loved it. It has an abundance of incredible meaningful life teachings that really should be part of the standard school curriculum but isn’t currently: understanding oneself, building resilience, being mindful, coping with loss or depression, etc. This is something that has been front of mind for me now that I become a parent: How do I help my child develop the resilience and necessary skills needed to thrive in this life and positively contribute to the world? If the schools aren’t providing such critical education, how can we equip parents to do this well?
Let’s end with a lovely quote from The School of Life which I have now subscribed to and am determined to read one thing from it each day.
