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- #03
#03
Afsa Akbar
July 01, 2024
We made it half way!
Thanks for coming back. ☺️ We’re finally in the second half of the year now. Where has the time gone? Hoping the next 6 months will be better for you wherever you are and that it brings you inner peace and joy. 😀
Reading
Decision stack by Martin Eriksson amplified by Stephanie Leue
I loved this visualisation and I felt it really illustrated the contrast and pains in designing in the real world vs dream world. I keep finding myself asking “Is there ever an ideal situation or the right conditions?”
The Radical How by James Plunkett
It’s election week in the UK and this is a brilliant read of rethinking “How to run a mission-oriented government like you mean it”. This is making me think what a UAE version of Mission-oriented government could look like?
Business model Library by Reason Street
Couple of years ago, I was searching for something where I could learn about all the different types of business models and now I’ve found it! Good resource to keep in hand as part building your business literacy.
Do Interesting by Russell Davies
If you’re ever stuck on how to share or how to create, this is a good place to start. It was so good, I finished it all in about 3 hours-ish on my flight home for Eid. It’s an easy and quick read. Felt absolute joy when I finished it because it gave me a spark to get creative. It’s not often that I get that “oomph” to do something after reading a book. This was one of them.
A proactive state for working parents by Molly Gavriel & Harry Trimble
A brilliant case for “what a proactive state for working parents could look like. And how it would help make our economy more productive.”
Instead of the State adding ‘administrative burden’, getting working parents to fill in endless forms to get what they’re entitled to, a future could look like where new parents are asked to sign up for childcare support in the future when registering their child’s birth. They would get benefits the moment they are entitled to it. It sounds so simple. There’s a lot of hard work that needs to happen in the background but there would be a huge positive impact for working parents and families.
“We just need the political will to connect services that already exist.”
This is what good gov design looks like. We need to design for stress. We need to get out of people’s way so they can get on with their lives. Noone wants to spend time filling in forms and chasing help over the phone.
This blog also made me reminisce about my times at the Red Cross and it brought a smile to my face. I really miss working with Harry. :)
Watching
Mindful Friction in AI by IF & Salesforce [1 hour]
I joined in to watch this panel discussion live where they talk about why friction is important in AI. It’s worth a watch even if you are concerned about the impact of AI on society. It was a good discussion.
When you think of friction, it can often come with negative associations but I really liked how they framed mindful friction as “helping users understand the impact of the decision they’re making”.
There were good case studies to learn from. One interesting case study that was mentioned was helping Spanish speakers with limited English get unemployment insurance. They had to build a Large Language Model (LLM) to help with insurance jargon and complexity. They had to start with user research to build the large language model as there were implications if they got it wrong. I’m so curious about this case study and really wanna learn more about this.
Anyway, this panel discussion gave me hope that there are people in the industry who are talking and doing this atm. We need to amplify this more widely. Watch it if you haven’t already. ;)
Listening
I feel like I’m currently at a crossroads atm, figuring out what is my next move and what do I wanna do more of. This was a really good episode on digging what it takes to create lasting change. There were so many ‘ah-ah’ moments for me but one key takeaway was:
“And what it pointed out to me is, however senior you are as a leader, you need another leader to support you in the change that you are trying to make.”
It takes a village to create change and you can’t do that alone. You need others. I realised that as you progress “up” in your career, it becomes less about “me” and more about “we.”
It’s on my long list to read Priya Parker’s book: The Art of Gathering but if you haven’t read and want to get an idea of what it’s about, this episode is a good place to get a quick overview of the book. It talks about the principles of gathering, why some book clubs fail and why some gatherings are more memorable than others. I really wanted to go on a hike to catch up with a friend after listening to this but then I quickly remembered how hot it is atm. 🥴
I loved this episode for so many reasons. I could relate to so many points raised where there’s double standards as to how women are treated. It also features Dr. Laura Kray, a leading expert on gender in the workplace where she discusses findings from her research. Here’s a snippet from her findings:
As researchers, we run experiments, and we give people scenarios of men versus women. We see that the identical behavior is rated more negatively when it is a woman than when it is a man. So an ambitious woman is power-hungry, is manipulative, is not trusted, whereas an ambitious man is seen as, I want to emulate him, he's a role model, he's a captain of industry, right?
So we see people using these different terms for the identical behavior. So the only explanation is it boils down to antipathy towards women, and it's almost, you know, the fix is in, it's by design. It's a way of keeping women in their place.
And oftentimes when women don't, “ stay in their place”, as they say, it comes with a lot of backlash. Labels thrown at them like, she's a climber, she's so competitive, which in turn leads to this ripple effect of even more negative labels.
If I'm going to acknowledge that you are an extremely competitive person or athlete or whatever domain we're talking, there has to be something wrong. And women often get stereotyped as hysterical, right? Not rational, too emotional.”
That’s it for this week. Drink some water and stay strong. Don’t forget to vote if you’re in the UK! 😉
See you here in 2 weeks inshaAllah. :)