I’m trying to be more forthright about my experiences – and struggles – as an AuDHDer who is working through autistic burnout (and possibly also classical burnout).
For the last several years, I’ve managed a team of people, starting with 1 individual and growing to now 5 peeps. The team has had many names, starting with Program and Policy Training Unit to our current, no bullshit name: Design Team.
I’ve mastered many aspects of middle management, except for playing mind games and managing up (in fact, as an Autistic person with ADHD, I’m not sure that I even can “manage up” but that’s a post for another day). After 15+ years, I’m tired of seeing the same patterns play out, resulting in ongoing systemic inefficiencies.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about ethical design, and how we could improve those inefficiencies if every government employee was empowered to think and act like an ethical designer.
I truly believe that design thinking and human-centered design, practiced by ethical designers and ethical government employees, can dramatically improve existing government policies and services, and produce exceptional government experiences for employees, distributors and users.
But without removing money and special interests, without equitably-enforced accountability, without smartly designed and fluid reporting structures, we will never shift from solving small problems to solving big problems. We will never see governments go through much-needed organizational design transformation – from reimagining and reforming current government systems to conceptualizing new government systems. And that bums me out ?
So, I’ll keep doing what I can do:
- Share information and resources ?
- Take breaks ?
- Repeat ?
Leave a Reply