Inspiration, teaching and the Digital Journey

Sam McLaren
Digital Dorset
Published in
3 min readJan 29, 2021

I’m attempting to write this first thing Friday morning, so I apologise in advance.

Miro is currently down as I am writing this, so we are currently up to defcon 3 and alarms are going off all around Dorset.

Promotional video:

One thing I was determined to get (mostly) finished this week was a promotional video.In Febuary there is a careers event and i was tasked with filling our slot with a promotional video. It’s a challenge balancing a vision/ idea with lots of different areas of work and making the whole thing clear, concise, visually appearing, and still hopefully inspiring some of the younger generation.Im hopeing the finished product will live up to my high standards.

This has made me think about the Inspiring the future work I perform and how I would like to attend some more virtual classrooms and workshops this year. Its always so rewarding to inspire and teach the children especially when area like Digital and Design aren’t really something you can get a GCSE in.

Team session/ brainstorm:

This week we also had our monthly team session. It consisted of some showcases on work and #topteamstips and then as a shock to everyone a wellbeing exercise class that Lisa led. Stepping up and leading something like that can be hard to do especially when someone cheekily spotlights you so everyone can see fullscreen. I thought that was really unacceptable. (jokes it was me and it was funny) Sorry Lisa Trickey

Part of the team session was about the team plan and priorities for the next year. This led into a brainstorm in the service design team, we had some good discussions and ideas come out of the session.

This was the first time in a while I have facilitated a proper brainstorm and I learnt that at the moment trying to approach it with ‘yellow energy’ isn’t the best way. Everyone is a bit down because of everything going on and I struggled to ‘control the class’ and keep them on board (literally). It’s really going to change how I approach things moving forward.

Show and tell:

This week also included the latest Travel show and tell. Overall I think the Show and tell went really well. It was really well attended and was short & sweet which is one of the goals we set out and something i was pushing for. There was an issue that came at the end where by people were being singled out for not having enjoyed or learnt something. Show and tells are an open and inviting enviroment and anything that breaks that form will stop people benefiting or coming to them.We have decided to block some time out as a project team to discuss this and how we can improve going forward.

Digital Journey

Last year one of the first pieces of design I did was improving the grants application process. Recently I was approached by the team to take a ‘design look’ over some of the things they are implementing and changing as they move forward .It’s made me think about how important it is to build positive and inspiring relationships when working so that teams are inspiring on a journey even when your part has concluded.

As I’m posting this it should be towards the end of Friday. Now I’m going to do what a young 20 something can only do on a Friday in lockdown. Workout, watch TV and play Xbox.

If anyone wants to share their WandaVision theoriesI am all ears!

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Sam McLaren
Digital Dorset

Working to promote Dorset as a place to live, work, and visit. DL100 member. Inspiringthefuture volunteer. TED Speaker #SamsBrightIdeas