Andy Polaine
Your Time is a Non Renewable Resource
Your time is finite and non-renewable. Unlike money, you can't make more of it. Worth keeping in mind next time someone asks you to work the weekend.
Writing & Thinking
A mix of essays and commentary about design, innovation, technology, society, coaching, personal and leadership development. Since 1996.
AI is a double polluter
AI is a double polluter: enormous energy and water costs for most use cases, and output that goes on to pollute the cultural commons. The bottled water analogy.
Asking For What You Want
Hedging and people-pleasing can actually be selfish: you''re making others decode your meaning. Learning to ask directly is a skill, and it builds confidence too.
The Four Seasons of Design
Constant growth with no fallow period is how burnout happens. Building seasonal rhythms into your work and year is how you stay productive without burning out.
Design as wise guide versus hero
Design''s influence grows when it plays the wise guide, not the hero of the story. The organisation or client is the hero. Your job is to help them succeed.
The Ripple Effect of Your Impact
The impact you have as a leader is strongest closest to you. The ripple effect on the people immediately around you matters more than you might think.
It's all about the people
Very few coaching sessions are actually about the design work. The real work at work is almost always people. Accepting that shifts frustration into curiosity.
Saying No
People-pleasers and high achievers often find saying no almost impossible. A simple reframe, that every yes is a no to something else, can make it easier.
How our parental relationships play out at work
The patterns we learnt in childhood with our parents are often the same ones playing out with our bosses. Work is personal, whatever anyone tells you.
Using a Personal Kanban to combat to-do list overwhelm
To-do lists spread across email, Slack, notebooks, and sticky notes create overwhelm. A simple personal kanban is a much better way to stay focused and finish things.
Holding your boss accountable for their promises
Promises framed as great opportunities often evaporate. How to set clear criteria up front so you're not still waiting a year later.
How to deal with jargon
Meetings full of jargon that nobody actually understands are more common than you'd think. Asking what something means makes you more valuable, not less.
The Work Never Speaks for Itself
The work should speak for itself is a designer's affliction. Shape the narrative of your work, or someone else will do it for you, and usually badly.
Navigating Difficult Work Relationships
Work stress is mostly people stress. A look at fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses in the workplace, and how to reset relationships that have gone wrong.
Servant Leadership or Burnout Martyrdom?
Servant leadership is a popular idea, but in practice it often tips into martyrdom and burnout. The leaders-eat-last metaphor has a serious flaw.