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Welcome
For those who have just signed up to our newsletter, thank you and welcome! It also happens to be our first newsletter so we are glad to have you join us.
Every month we will aim to deliver useful content for you to enjoy. Please feel free to give us feedback if there’s something you want us to elaborate on or write more about. But first let’s get an introduction to Blackmill.
Elle and Lachlan created Blackmill back in 2017 when they returned to Melbourne from New York. They wanted to share their skills, knowledge, experiences, and expertise after many years working for small to large companies including thoughtbot, Atlassian, Microsoft, GitHub, Ninefold, Fairfax Media, News Limited, Sydney University to name a few (phew). All that wealth of knowledge and expertise is now under one roof to help companies and their people continuously improve their organisational culture and work processes.
What has been happening?
Workshops
We are excited that our workshops, technical leadership coaching, and Rails code auditing are now available to book on our website.
Tickets for Leading engineering teams for new managers and Engineering better hiring processes virtual workshops are on sale. We are keeping number of attendees to the workshop small to make it more approachable and engaging online. Check out the site for other workshops we'll be offering next year.
We're reserving two spots in each workshop for people from underrepresented minorities in the technology industry who couldn't otherwise afford it, because we believe human diversity improves both the software and cultures we create and the community in which we work. Email us for a spot.
Workshops are a great way to upskill and meet like minded people at the same time. Be sure to read our latest blog on the benefits of workshops.
Associate developer onboarding program
We have been working on a new program to onboard associate developers in a more thoughtful and productive way. It helps organisations build a cost-effective recruiting pipeline to grow a diverse, loyal, and skilled team of developers.
Talking the talk
Elle delivered a presentation on work life balance at the Ruby Melbourne November meetup. It was a great topic inspired by the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne. It offered suggestions how to effectively work from home and for switching off when work is done for the day. The biggest takeaway from the talk is that we need to make a conscious choice to make space for ourselves. At home that might mean to completely unplug. Disable notifications on your phone. Set app limits, downtime, communication limits, and night shift on your computer and phone. And leave your phone in a different room when you are with family or go to sleep. Care for yourself with healthy good, physical activity, and getting enough sleep. At work, try to:
- schedule "no meetings" times in your calendar for deep thinking, reflecting, or just downtime time;
- discuss flexible work schedule with your manager and then communicate to your team when you work and can be reached. Establish expectations about work goals and availability;
- Be efficient with your time at work. Don't procrastinate or spend time on social media; and
- Ask for help when things are not working out.
Office hours
In November, we offered ten free office hours, which quickly booked out. Discussions were mainly about improving team culture, growing a team, and streamlining other team work processes. We also had a couple of chats about career building, product development and roadmapping. It was super insightful for us and we enjoyed the conversations with everyone that signed up. Thank you for your time and we look forward to potential future chats.
A cuppa with Sarah
1. What do you do at Blackmill and how long have you been working with us?
I started with Blackmill this year after Elle and Lachlan asked me to join the team. An absolute honour as they are such amazing people. My job is to take care of sales and marketing as they are good at their jobs but not at promotion.
2. What's your background? Where were you before joining Blackmill?
I have a background in business marketing and have mainly been working in the cosmetic surgery industry prior to Blackmill. I also have a bachelor of health sciences and work as a Dermal Clinician at Coco Ruby Plastic Surgery .
3. What do you like about Blackmill?
I love the fact that Elle and Lachlan practice what they preach, both professionally and personally. For example, part of the onboarding process to Blackmill includes receiving a fitness tracker and an ebook reader to ensure you focus on your health and are continuously learning. They genuinely care about people and want to ensure they have an environment to succeed in and get the best out of themselves. They have become my dear friends.
4. What are you passionate about?
Learning from people from all walks of life; continuously improving myself professionally; as well as being a better wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend. Also sharing knowledge and helping to improve the natural world.
5. Tell us about a book or podcast you enjoyed recently
I’m currently reading The Element by Ken Robinson. It’s about discovering your natural talent and aligning it with your passion. The message is that when you are operating with your natural talents, you can then achieve the best in life. I’ve just joined Blackmill’s bookclub so I'm also looking forward to reading Sand Talk.
6. Best advice you've ever received
I have a few. My dad told me to “always listen even though you think you already know the answer. You may learn something new or see another perspective”. From my boss regarding being a parent: “give your kids your time”. And from a work colleague: “life is not just about the destination, it’s also about the journey”. I'm always up for receiving good advice so if you have any, please email me : )
7. 2020 has been a challenging year. Have you changed anything this year because of Covid? Anything you are grateful for this year?
I joined the gym early this year to increase my fitness and health but that didn’t go to plan due to Victoria’s Covid restrictions. This year Covid re-iterated to me to enjoy being present and to be flexible and adaptive in life. Along with being grateful for communities helping each other and for my family’s health and our privileges.
What are we reading?
Advice on iteration and persistence
DongWon Song is a literary agent with a beautifully written personal newsletter. Their latest entry uses the metaphor of constructing Shitty Tables to talk to writers about NaNoWriMo. It resonated strongly with our recent push to share more of our work with the world. Like everything we do, learning how to share things people care about will be a process and we appreciate any feedback you choose to offer us as the gift of your time it is.
How Indigenous thinking can save the world
We run a virtual Blackmill book club, which meets weekly on Tuesdays. In 2020, we managed to read six books and will be starting the next book Sand Talk on Dec 8th. If you wish to join us, head over to Blackmill’s book club page on GitHub. Everyone is welcome.
What are we cooking?
Not sure how it happened, but everyone at Blackmill loves to make and eat homemade delicious food. So we thought we’d share mostly easy-to-do recipes that we love.
Sarah’s peanut butter recipe.
- 400g of roasted unsalted peanuts
- 90g (5 tbsp) of liquid coconut oil
- A few grinds of salt (maybe around 3-5g)
Whizz it in the blender for 20 seconds or until the desired consistency. Done! You’ll be sneaking casual spoonfuls out of the jar in no time.
And... we're out
That wraps it up for our first newsletter and we hope that you have found it useful. The holiday season is upon us. We hope that you are safely able to be with your family and friends (in person or virtually) and indulge in some delicious home cooked meals. Most importantly, stay well and healthy.
Keep learning!
Blackmill