Thanks for coming back! Sharing things that inspire me in case it may inspire you. Do forward this to anyone else who you think might be interested. 😀

Reading

AI and the cost of failure by Tom Loosemore
A good read on thinking about what matters. When we quantify success, it’s easy to assume 80% is a good success rate or a good outcome but we need to ask who is the good outcome for? What’s happened with the 20% failure? What’s the cost of that 20% failure? Once we understand the cost of failure, only then we can determine if the success rate is a good outcome or not. 

Coaching beyond the questions by People Storming
If you’re a manager, this is worth reading. It’s 11 learnings to help you develop your coaching skills and empower your team. As I progress in my career, the more I find coaching skills is a game-changer and it can really unlock any “knotty messes”. 

Mindfulness is good business by Sam McAfee
Sam McAfee defines being mindful as being aware of your thoughts and feelings as well as those around you. 

This was a good reminder for me to slow down and meditate. If you haven’t meditated today, why not start with 1 minute and build it from there? 

Things to think about for being a service design lead by Catherine Dalgarno
I like how Catherine broke down the different levels of maturities to think about when working in an organisation and how lines may blur when working as a service design lead. 

Why Employees Who Work Across Silos Get Burned Out by Eric Quintane, Sunny Lee, Jung Won Lee, Camila Umaña Ruiz, and Martin Kilduff
In Service Design, a big part of our role is bringing people on the journey, bridging gaps in perspective, and aligning teams. What often gets overlooked is the emotional and physical toll it can take on a service designer. This article highlights the costs of breaking down silos on an employee and offers 3 ways to “encourage important cross-boundary engagement without exhausting their employees.” 

Scaling the design ladder: Seeing like a designer by Pavel Samsonov 
A good reminder on the value of design lies within building ways of working rather than “better apps.” Pavel talks about how we’ve reached “Peak Design”. I would remind the reader though… this may be true in some parts of the world like Europe and US, but it may not be the case for other parts of the world. In the UAE, I still feel we have a long way to go. After experiencing “doing design” in UAE government, I feel that design has become a series of “checkboxes”. In some areas of the government, the intention is there but as a culture… it has a long way to go.

Listening

Inverted Thinking As a Strategy To Combat Bias by Developer Tea (7 mins)

A quick listen on a method that you could try out if you’re looking to avoid a certain outcome. Inverted thinking is a mental model where you “think backwards”.  For example, if you’re looking to have a “successful” project, consider the ways the project could fail so you can plan better to avoid those pitfalls. 

Designing rituals with Adam B Cochrane by Service Design Podcast (52 mins)

Rituals are important when you’re trying to build a culture or improve how you work as a team. This podcast was useful in getting me to think about why we do rituals and rethinking it as something more fluid rather than something that’s static and unchanging. There’s been some rituals at work that became unsustainable and eventually stopped. This episode got me thinking about why we do rituals and what to do when it loses its meaning. If you’re not careful, rituals can become a chore for the team rather than something that encourages teamwork and a better culture. When a ritual becomes a chore, iterate it works better for everyone in your team. 

Thanks for your time and reading this. That’s it for this time. Drink some water and stay strong.

See you here soon inshaAllah. :)