Doctor's Note

A mix of essays and commentary about design, innovation, technology, society, coaching, personal and leadership development. Since 1996.

Asking For What You Want

Asking For What You Want

When we using indirect, hedging language and people please, we can actually end up being selfish by accident, because we’re asking them to do the …
The Four Seasons of Design

The Four Seasons of Design

It’s important to build in a cadence of difference paces in your day, week, project and year. Without it, you risk burning out. I like to think of this as …
Design as wise guide versus hero

Design as wise guide versus hero

Are you the hero or the wise guide in the story of your work and leadership? This week I’m teaching a masterclass on storytelling, pitching and getting …
The Ripple Effect of Your Impact

The Ripple Effect of Your Impact

How do you think about your impact as a leader? Is it the bottom line of the business? The culture? Or is it on the people around you more individually? In this …
It's all about the people

It's all about the people

What is the real work at work? I have very few coaching sessions about the actual design work. It’s all about people. In this week’s coaching …
Saying No

Saying No

If you’re a people pleaser or self-identified high achiever, how good are you at saying no? This is something that comes up all the time in my design …
How our parental relationships play out at work

How our parental relationships play out at work

In this week’s coaching reflections video I take a look at how our parental relationships and childhood experiences play out at work. For more of these, …
Using a Personal Kanban to combat to-do list overwhelm

Using a Personal Kanban to combat to-do list overwhelm

If you’ve ever had that feeling of being overwhelmed and scattered because your to-do list is never-ending and you never seem to get anything properly …
Holding your boss accountable for their promises

Holding your boss accountable for their promises

Many of my coachees are presented with promises from their bosses in the guise of “this is a great opportunity for you” that never materialise. How …
How to deal with jargon

How to deal with jargon

This week’s coaching reflection is all about dealing with jargon and that feeling of having no idea what people are talking about in meeting (spoiler: …