A short week and now heading into a long bank holiday and it’s supposed to be sunny‽ That is going to be so nice.

I had my jab yesterday — it was due to be at 9.30 this morning but I got a call yesterday about 3pm asking me to come down early — which was exciting! So I’m currently feeling a bit rough, but kinda fine, a bit hot and foggy which hopefully more paracetamol will fix. Trying to decide whether to stay here on the sofa or head back to bed for a bit.

Anyway, about this week…

A return to weeknotes last week, it was hard but good to be back. I also published a quick overview to the piece of work that Ben and I did as part of our Systems Thinking for Service Designers course. I wrote it quickly, hit publish before the school run, and tweeted it when I came home.

I did not really expect for it to be picked up by anyone but it started getting likes and being shared about, which was a surprise. …

I recently completed Module 1 of a Systems Thinking course with Design Dissolve and Franklin University.

As part of this I got to meet people working in a variety of roles in different organisations around the world which was an utter privilege.

I also met Ben, a public servant in New Zealand and we hit it off immediately with our experiences of working within government organisations. We each had similar questions about the role of service design within government and the affect it is able to have. …

So here I am. Back again and it feels like an eternity since I’ve written anything. I’m feeling anxious about writing in a way that I haven’t for a long time. I guess that comes, in part, with the fact that I haven’t written anything at all since March, and now we are in almost the middle of May.

Two months with not a word, and two months without much being on Twitter and two months feeling a bit disconnected and aside from myself and wondering how to come back again.

I should explain that it’s been pre-election period, so…

This week has been markedly quieter for me after all the activity of the workshops last week. I say for me because I know that this is not the case for much of the rest of the team who are working on what we need to move into the final phase, that’s the bit where it will all — hopefully — come together. Its been quieter but I’ve been able to interject here and there and offer what I hope has been useful value and perspective — but it’s sometimes hard to know.

What I’ve found as well is that…

I’m writing this on Friday, post-migraine so please excuse any typos or spelling mistakes on that basis — though I doubt you’ll really notice anything too different to normal.

I’ve been thinking about what a strange and difficult week it’s been for a whole range of people and for a whole number of reasons but especially for women, and black women and women of colour, people with mental health issues and much more.

And when I say women, I mean all women including queer and trans women too. …

It’s been a long and busy week. My current project team have been simultaneously finalising one phase of our work (synthesising and discussing research) while also prepping for the next phase.

I spent the first half of the week trying to second guess the outcomes of research in order to get ahead on the work I needed to deliver, but I see now that I was probably attempting to build on sand. Decisions wouldn’t ultimately be made until Wednesday that would effect the approach I needed to take. …

Well Friday has come around really quickly and I’m in a bit of a whirl as I type this. The project I’m working on has reached a really busy point and my week has been spent conducting something like 11 research interviews. It’s been really interesting and has required a lot of focus and concentration. I’m really glad that I have those coaching skills to fall back to feel confident in holding the space and letting people speak.

I’ve also been working again on co-creation workshop designs but only in and around other work, which has meant I haven’t been…