a Postcard from breezy Paris
Hi friend,
I’m sitting on a bench on Canal St Martin, enjoying the soft breeze and the yellow shadows cast by flickering streetlights. Someone is blasting Celion Dion and a duck is swimming closer to it, honking loudly. In protest or to partake… who knows? I am in good spirits, having succeeded in staving off what could have been a nasty cold.
After sending you many sentences about my love for personal libraries and working from home, I thought I’d share some work news today.
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Consulting and conferences →
Last September, I presented a case study talk with Angela Hanson from the OECD at the Intersection Conference. We'd designed services for the OECD to support their member countries with innovation portfolio management for international development. The recording is available on YouTube.
In April, I’ll give a talk with my colleague Milan Guenther about this project, from more of a design lens at the Service Design Conference Europe in London. I look forward to bringing this work to the design community.
Book →
I’m one of the featured contributors for "Present Yourself: Proven Strategies for Authentic and Impactful Public Speaking" by Danielle Barnes and Christina Wodtke.
The book just came out! Please check it out, for yourself or as a gift to someone you want to encourage. I wrote an essay about audience engagement, and can hardly believe my piece sits next to those by design leaders whose work I’ve followed for years.
Coaching →
The latest group of Navigating emotions at work is underway. It's week 3 of our 9-week group program, Oriana and I are revelling in the deepening of conversations.
We used to call the program Emotions at Work but tweaked it to create space for other offerings under the EAW umbrella. That took a fair amount of effort, to my chagrin. But what I'm learning, again and again, is that in building a practice and a business, there are no "right" answers — just what we prove to be right over the long run, for us. Oriana published her take on some of these behind-the-scenes in her latest newsletter, which I hope you read, too.
Interview →
Speaking of EAW, I did a podcast interview with my Greaterthan colleague Alícia Trepat Pont. The podcast series is based on Alícia's PhD research, so I was really tickled to be invited.
If you listen to any part of our conversation, please let me know which parts resonated for you. I feel very early in expressing these ideas, and would value any feedback.
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Re-reading this rundown, it's clear that what brings my work to life is my incredibly good fortune with collaborators. As a solitary soul that would probably make a pretty good hermit, it is a wondrous state of being.
Thank you to you, too, for being in my life.
Tomomi
