“If you want something done, ask a busy person”.*
Last week was a full and fun one. I love working on top-level strategy and governance through all the layers of leadership, design, and innovation with purpose and wellbeing… through to pixels and devops.
I often freeze when I get asked the dreaded “what do you do”. What I do doesn’t fit in a tidy box that people understand… because my curiosity and drive to explore ideas and make them real doesn’t. And never has.
Reflecting on the week… I know this list might look like a lot and will leave some feeling drained at the thought. For me it’s normal, I get to do it with loads of amazing people… and it energises me 😃
- Briefing meeting with a client to co-design and convene a new community of practice
- Edited the SydDT #108: Visual Thinking with Alan Chen & Diana Ayoub from Sh8peshifters video and photos, update blog post, and post to socials. Worked on SydDT #110: International Women’s Day. Accelerate Action: Make AI Your Equity Partner with Kristin de la Fuente meetup
- DJ Shadow supported by Setwun at City Recital Hall with Carmine Mastrantone, Ben Nicholls & Joanne Bezzina
- Finalised workshop prep for Westpac Future Leaders Scholars Design Thinking for Personal Development session
- Prepped next month’s Regen in Action workshop with IxDA Byron Bay, Business NSW Northern Rivers regional leaders, and Byron Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
- Finalised prep to host the panel and open space at the inaugural Adelaide Design Thinking meetup
- Wrote Unlock Collective Intelligence with Open Space Format blog post
- Peer coaching call with Dan Leverington
- Celebratory dance that the RBA finally gave us a 25 bps rate cut
- Coaching call with Jason Vearing from Winx – part of the Remarkable Launcher 25 cohort
- Worked on WheelEasy‘s product roadmap, experiments, direct dev, and plan database migration – the stuff of a part time CTO/CPO with Max Burt OAM and Paula Martin
- Caught up with Laura O’Reilly OAM and Cindy Carpenter and listened to them sharing some of their purpose-driven leadership journey with the Westpac Future Leaders Scholars and Social Change Fellows alongside Adam Davids, and Dr Kavitha Suthanthiraraj, hosted by Lauren Hill at Q Station. It was great to meet a bunch the Future Leaders Scholars and Social Change Fellows cohorts… and especially awesome to catch up with Susan Palmer PhD from Gather My Crew– another collaborator and CTO/CPO client
- Facilitated the Design Thinking for Personal Development workshop with the Westpac Future Leaders Scholars with Alissa Nightingale, Dan Caprar, and Dr Tiffany De Sousa Machado
- Flew to Adelaide. #KaurnaCountry
- Social Enterprise Australia/SEDI Learning Design Group meeting with Athanasia Price, Antony McMullen, Dr Sharon Zivkovic, Dr Liz Branigan, Libby Ward-Christie, and Usman Iftikhar
- Adelaide Design Thinking #1: What Does Design Mean in Adelaide? (also SydDT #109). A fun night and very sold out (another 50 on the waitlist) inaugural AdlDT. Natasha Ballantyne and Maria Raymond kicked things off and I hosted a fun panel chat with Bek Kennedy, Simon Woods & Claire Webber. It was awesome to catch up with some old friends and make plenty of new ones. Full post soon…
- Flew home to Sydney. #GadigalCountry
- Wrote and sent fortnightly email newsletter
- Sent update to the 100+ people who’ve been part of my Leading Change research with a digital copy of my book Solve Problems That Matter as a small thanks for sharing their perspectives, experiences, and insights. It’s not too late to get involved!
- Edited the Adelaide Design Thinking #1: What Does Design Mean in Adelaide? video and photos
I also spent my time hanging with my family, doing school and kids’ party runs, and housework (including an ongoing decluttering). There’s also all the admin/ops, proposal writing etc it takes to run a small business. And plenty of reflective writing and strategy.
Then there’s a couple of my ongoing creative projects.
A few more photos added to my #PhotoMeanderings… and five album micro-reviews in my #MusicMeanderings: Our World by Setwun, Colours Revisited by Adam F, Maxinquaye by Tricky (turned 30), Supreme Beings of Leisure by Supreme Beings of Leisure (turned 25), and Cosmic Game by Thievery Corporation (turned 20).
This week I’ve got three gigs: Maribou State and Elderbrook at the Enmore, and Jordan Rakei at the Sydney Opera House. Next week it’s back to Adelaide for Southstart and home again for Digable Planets at the Metro and Groove Armada at the Roundhouse. Game on!
*Despite the quote, I don’t get caught up in the cult of busyness… and I’ll usually do semantic gymnastics to avoid the word. But a saying is a saying 😊
