In 2017 OpenIDEO ran a competition for ideas addressing the following problem:
How might we inspire experiences and expressions of gratitude in the workplace?
Spoiler alert: I did not win.
It didn’t matter. This challenge really hit home, and doing it changed me for the better. I’ve had many jobs for which I’ve been grateful, but I’ve also had jobs for which I wanted to be grateful, but simply could not find it in myself. I’m talking about the kind of jobs where the stress is built into the system, where pitting people against each other is how it works, where good work is swept under the rug and imposter syndrome runs rampant because no one knows where they stand.
Side note: Despite being a prime candidate for it, I never experienced serious imposter syndrome until I worked in an in-house agency led by someone much more interested in promoting themself [is that the right form for a singular “they” pronoun? Still figuring that out] than in managing their team well. They actively suppressed recognition of people they disliked, so that even when I received the top award possible, I felt insecure. When I left, my confidence returned. I wonder how many others develop imposter syndrome in response to environment?
I’m a designer. I’ve designed healthcare processes to capture patient data more…
