My Catalyst week with Hamish the dog 💜
How I am like Hamish.
This week I have been walking Hamish on my work breaks. I walk a lot and Hamish needs to walk too. So its a marriage made in heaven (sort of, he’s actually a third).
Hamish is a 3 times a day dog
He goes 3 times a day.
I am like Hamish because I try to only have 3 things a day on my to-do list. Once I’ve been to meetings and done admin tasks I am pretty pleased if I get 3 things done in a day.
More than 3 things on my list and I get overwhelmed and need some time out by myself (even without Hamish sometimes). However, I don’t always notice this so I’d like to get better at noticing it.
Hamish is reliant on others
Hamish has been domesticated for 8 years. So he relies on people for food and walks.
I am reliant on others in the Catalyst network for advice and help to build ideas. Ican’t build ideas by myself. I need someone to bounce them off and make them better. When I have someone there we create amazing things.
This week I’ve worked with the Catalyst Reuse Circle — peopl elike Steve Hawkes of Dev Society, Jo Morfee of Catalyst, Dan Sutch of CAST and Marlous Lang Peterse of Third Sector Lab. They helped me thing about:
- the concept of ‘Service Patterns’ in our Service Recipes project and how or if we need to find a less jargon-y way to explain it to users when we introduce patterns to the Recipes site.
- increasing capacity in the Service Recipes team — so we can get more recipes in and improve the submission experience for people wanting to contribute their work to the project
Hamish is selective about who he gives his attention to
Hamish only barks at certain cats. He ignores dogs and foxes. He prefers humans and sniffing along the pavement.
Usually I get back to people within 24 hours. But this week I have been more selective about who I reply to and when. On Monday I came back from a week off to find 122 emails (usually it is about 30–40). So I’ve put off some of them until today so I could focus on running a writing workshop and getting two new articles published on the Catalyst site.
Hamish is loving
Hamish loved me from the moment he met me. We’ve only known each other a few months but the bond between us has grown. I know he has dreams. I do too. We will see where we end up the next time we walk out together.
This is my experience with Catalyst. The producers have even made love one of their core values. I feel it. My Catalyst people feel like real friends, where the connection goes beyond work. I learn from them and become a better person for it.
Hamish is a rebel
Sometimes Hamish slips his lead. Once he ran off and I had to chase him.
I am, are, have been and will again be a rebel. At work sometimes I don’t follow the design process we recommend. Sometimes I jump straight to the solution because I have seen it, then work backwards from there.
I even rebel against processes and structures I’ve created to help me do my job. I try to do this in an intentional way so I don’t end up self-sabotaging good things. There’s always new ways to do things
I like to think I rebel only when I have learnt the process or rules first and can understand why they exist. Rather than doing it only for the sake of it. Its important we don’t always follow the rules — so many of us have hidden talents waiting to burst out when given space. And some of us are neuro-diverse and need the freedom to work in our own way to bring our magnificence to the world.
Hamish is just a dog
And I am just a human. Writing this week’s weeknotes has been fun. Thanks to Hamish’s owner for the joy of spending time with him x
