Time for one quick sneaky post before 2016 lurches out the door.
Stuff that happened in 2016.
- Working out loud really started paying dividends. The last couple of years has felt like an exercise in carefully curating a network of interesting thinkers & doers and contributing where I felt I could. This year it’s been more bi-directional, more conversational. I’ve been fortunate to expand my network of super friends, which had the unintended consequence of putting me in touch with other people who are trying to influence change in their own way. That’s radically shaped some of my thinking and pointed me in new directions I would’ve otherwise been oblivious to. HUGE thanks to my Twitter chums for being like an awesome super power I can draw upon.
- Much of 2016 was spent in the mire of large IT projects. The reason for the mire were many and varied but it made me realise I have zero desire for a repeat in 2017. If we’re going to experience the odd cock up, let’s do new interesting ones!
- I started doing the BrainDump posts in September. A friend of mine recently commented that I couldn’t possibly read everything I link to? — I honestly do. Which is maybe why I sometimes feel like my mind is operating in a fog and why it’s important to offload it every week to clear the decks.
- While we’re on the subject of BrainDumps, it’s been a useful barometer for me work wise. It’s handy to retrospectively observe patterns where I feel like I’m making real progress VS treading water (or occasionally sinking). It’s also been a real eye opener to the array of different subjects areas that appeal to me. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or bad? Am I forever doomed to be a slightly distracted generalist? Or does that more broad skill set equate into something useful? (I have no idea)
- Writing got easier! Through pig headed persistence, I’m now banging out posts at least once a week for the ‘BrainDump’ and about once a month for broader ideas I want to unpack/expand upon.
- Side bonus to writing — Reflection! Thanks to writing more this year, I feel like I’ve done a far better job of reflecting on where I’ve been, where I am and where I’m going. Needless to say that this is super useful and does much to alleviate stresses and strains, or at the very least understand the source of them.
- “What is my mission statement?” is a question that been preoccupying me a lot this year. I come from a background of technology, but find my interests sitting at an unusual intersection of tech, startups, organisational design, culture, comms and future of work.. err… stuff. I currently have no idea what that means for the future, but it’s something I’ll be thinking about more deeply about in the coming weeks/months.
Five minutes before midnight — so I’ll leave you now and wish you a very happy New Year! Blywddyn newydd dda!