There are a couple of changes of which I speak that I am currently being confronted with. One by choice and the other foisted upon me. Both challenging but also absolutely welcome. That’s because of how I view change – it’s inevitability but also the opportunity it provides for growth.

I be like,

Death never takes a wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go.

Jean de la Fontaine

That may seem a fatalistic quote but I see it as liberating. Check other quotes in the section I bundled these types of quotes into, i.e. inspiration and death alongside each other because my view on death is, that it can be inspiring.

I share this quote here only because of how it relates to change and how you always have to be ready for it (change) and jump at the opportunity it presents. Also that it is not to be feared.

One other thing, I have categorised this post under innovation because of the way I view change and where it fits: Innovation is the why, change is the how.

So enough waffle, onto the two pieces of change I’m referring to.

All in on employee experience

At work (disclosure) I have been realigned to a newly formed global team who’s focus is Microsoft Viva, which is an employee experience platform offering from Microsoft. I have written a lot about Viva and also just recently published a trend report on the subject: The Employee Customer Experience Connection

So none of this is new to me as I’ve been working on and in the space for a while. Still change can be wrenching unless you are ready for it

While it’s sad to stop working with old colleagues and customers, I am relishing this new direction not only because of the opportunity it presents to meet new colleagues and customers but also to deep dive into a topic I love and learn more about it as a result.

Expect to see more posts around this topic.

WordPress design and focus

If you are at all a regular visitor to this site and these blog posts, you may have noticed a new theme/design.

That’s not all though, I changed WordPress Plans too, I actually downgraded from the Business Plan to the Premium Plan. That’s because I was paying too much for the purpose I wanted to put the site to. I wont go into that detail.

Suffice it to say, the purpose is now much simplified. I just want to focus on writing: blog posts and trend reports and guides. I’ll throw in the odd DanelDoodle too, for fun and for some visual sensemaking. Some will be paid for, using an approach I documented here.

My experience of this downgrade was bloody painful – way more than it should have been. Being in the SaaS business, I get that no one wants their customers to downgrade, but that doesn’t mean you should make it hard. In fact, if you were to make it simple, I bet you would make customers happier and more likely to upgrade later, if and when needs change. And inevitably, things change ;)

Delight

Finally onto the subject of delight. My DanelDoodle below is basically saying, be led by what delights you. You are more likely to be engaged this way and ultimately happy and successful.

Its a kind of litmus test akin to Marie Kondo’s “does it spark joy” query, i.e. apply the thinking to your activities and ask if they spark delight.

In my case, growth that comes from learning naturally sparks delight. When I am learning and expanding my capabilities, even when pushed in uncomfortable ways, the sense of achievement I get just from trying (regardless of success of failure), delights me. And all change is a learning experience in my view.

Sometimes I do have to question the activity and delight does not come spontaneously. And a big caveat, I am totally aware that not all activities can spark delight – sometimes we just have to manage the mundane, the tedious, even suffer the hardship, before we get to the delight.

Sometimes we are fortunate to find ourselves in a delightful position but in the best of cases, we have managed to put ourselves in that position on purpose.

Have yourselves a delightful day. Grab a design and put it on a mug or t-shirt to remind you of this thought.

I created a DanelDoodle for this post. If it floats your boat, why not download it from the gallery (right click on the image and then select “save image as” or similar) and then print it on something cool to keep reminding you of its key message. It has a transparent background and is optimised for print – more on that here: The creative and supply process for artwork on this site . Although I sell some artwork, this one is free.