2022. What a massive year it’s been. I hope you have a refreshing EOY break… and a fulfilling 2023!
It’s been another fun and meaningful year playing at the place where design, regenerative innovation, and wellbeing meet.
A huge thanks to all the awesome people and communities I get to spend my time with… all the clients, collaborators, program participants, and students. I love the work we do together – having fun while collaborating to solve problems that matter. Thanks for inviting me in and trusting me to work alongside you and cheer you on.
My out of office has been on for a few weeks and I’m taking a break from most work stuff until 6 Feb. A time to relax in the sun, hang with my kids, take photos, immerse in music, read, write, reflect deeply on the year that’s been, review strategies, and plan for the year ahead. This is probably my last post for a while.
Here are the headlines for my 2022…
📖 After launching my book Solve Problems That Matter: Design, Build & Launch Your Social Enterprise Idea in Oct 2021, this year I released versions 1.0 through to 1.06. The book is supported by free worksheets, resources, and the social enterprise healthcheck. 500+ copies in 20+ countries and 50+ cities. It also hit the Amazon #1 best seller in both of my categories.
🎉 Dynamic4 turned 21… and I celebrated 30 years since leaving school and starting my first job. Yep, three decades of adventures and learning!
💗 Worked with 100+ corporate senior leaders and seven social enterprise/impact clients across nine countries on three project-based experiential leadership, design & innovation programs blended with skilled volunteering that we lead with a global financial services client.
🌱 Worked with 350+ UTS Bachelor of Creative Intelligence & Innovation (BCII) and Diploma in Innovation students on their startup projects – focusing on taking a human-centred design approach to innovation, regenerative business models with embedded impact (SDGs, social enterprise, B Corps), and happiness habits.
💡 Spent 400+ hours facilitating sessions, coaching & advising, and hosting & speaking at events, podcasts, and webinars. Along with things mentioned, some others include: being a judge for the Fishburners Social Impact Pitch Night; a mentor/presenter for Fishburners Tech For Good, Good Hustle, ACU Co-Lab Social Enterprise Series, Founders Institute, Remarkable, and Remarkable Launch; speaking at Hayball’s GL[E]AM series at the Sydney Opera House, Sponge’s Humming Session, Design Feeling podcast with Nirish Shakya, Josie Gibson’s Catalyst Sessions, Social Impact Hub Fellowship panel, Centre for Social Purpose HCD panel, and Sourdough Business Pathways social enterprise panel in Byron.
💕 Invested $33k+ supporting social enterprises, purpose-driven organisations, and helping build the social enterprise and design ecosystems. This is an unstainable 19% of my total work hours that I need to manage down to my target of 10%.
🌍 Offset 20% more than our calculated emissions (which we continually minimise). We’re proud to have been climate positive since 2010 – both Dynamic4 and household.
🌟 The return of conferences and big events with Spark Purpose, Southstart in Adelaide, (Re)Purpose/SEWF Launch, SEVENTEENx, UX Australia in Melbourne, Good Design Awards, Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) in Brisbane (with a socent bus roadtrip up the coast), Spark Festival, and Purpose Conference.
🤩 A massive year for the Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT (SECNA) and the Aussie social enterprise ecosystem. SECNA had strong member growth and plenty of events bringing our members and others together. We hired Kylie Flament as our first CEO, launched the SECNA South Eveleigh community hub, and contributed to establishing Social Enterprise Australia as the new national peak body. We also started the monthly SECNA meetup and had four successful events.
After almost four years on this journey, my max term as a founding board member is up at our next AGM in May. I’ll do a reflection on the founding history next year, but we’ll be looking for two new board members. Let me know if you’re interested! Thanks for all the fun Christina, Cindy, Andrew, Marcella, Jess, Greg, David, Jay, Selena, Samara, Bridget & Mayra.
🤝 Sydney Design Thinking meetup is now a community of 8,462 members. We ran 10 meetups (all in-person), including our 7th birthday and two design megameetups with IxDA, EUX & CCX. Thanks for another year of successful meetups Lucas, Kate & Zoe… and Vera, Susan, Kevin, Adam, Kevin W for the megameetup collabs!
🎶 13 gigs (Josh Cohen, Flight Facilities, Tinlicker, Horrorshow, Hermitude, Winston Surfshirt, Jungle, Gorillaz, Directions in Groove (DIG), The Brand New Heavies, Bonobo, True Vibenation, Fat Freddy’s Drop & Groove Armada). 86 album micro-reviews with my ongoing #MusicMeanderings project.
📸 520+ photos in my ongoing #PhotoMeanderings photo journal project.
🌿 4,000+ meditation minutes and 8+ hours /day sleep average. These are a couple of my most important wellbeing metrics.
⏰ Worked 1,730 hours. My stretch key result is to work 1,000 hours /year. If I remove the 509 hours I spent at events and probono, I’m at 1,221 for the year – which is 82% achieved and a met OKR.
These are just the headlines.
In summary, it’s been a fun and very full year. Plenty of things to celebrate, build on, and continue into 2023… and of course, everything is a work in progress with refinements to make. 2023 is shaping up to be a very exciting year!
Keen for some help solving problems that matter and to have some fun collaborating? I’d love to hear from you…
