Hey! Long time no write!
Potted History Update: I last posted here in 2018, but had posted about all things design and service design on my work site Design Managers Australia (DMA). In 2021 we closed DMA – those posts we wanted to preserve are now here. I moved home to Aotearoa/New Zealand from Australia in mid-2021 (combo of burnout and covid/pandemic life rethinking – I am #thegreatresignation! and perhaps, ‘anti-ambition’ – although I don’t agree with the term; I have ambition – just not career or ‘traditional’ ones anymore).
I am seeking to practice and serve in my community (still working out what that is for me) which means I want to work with people and groups who may not usually think or have the opportunity to ‘do/use design’. I still believe in ‘sticky steps‘, I’m just not so sure about changing the ‘System’ that I think does work as it designed – unfortunately. So until then, I want to empower and equip my community to cope, adapt and serve it’s people.
This is part of the attraction of continuing to work in schools, children and young people, and still for me, government services. To that end I’ve been working in both the New Zealand space at a local level, and in Australia at a national level and my two main items of work are:
- A research project I’m leading in Australia based on work I did at DMA with Justin Barrie around applying a service design/delivery approach to primary school operations and how that supports a Principal.
- Podcast (45 mins) with South Australian Primary Principals Assoc. if you’re interested in 2 Principals 1 Designer about what good principals do and cope with.
- Design support at a local school, Bishop Viard College with the Year 7-8 Dean and teachers, Fa’avae, an amazing and inspiring team of three: Fuatino, Tasi and Steve. We’ve developed a cultural identity program that has just been awarded funding for 2023 through the Pacific Innovation Education Fund (woo hoo!), and a strategic framework for the Year 7-8 cohort.
It’s been a return to enjoying design (take that burnout!) and I find myself thinking about design in practice, and wanting to share stuff again.
I always used this blog as a place to capture and recall things for myself, so here goes…again.
