Hey, welcome. We’re almost half way through the year our mornings brighter earlier and evenings longer, lengthening in this part of the Northern Hemisphere. I love these bright days as we move towards Summer Solstice.
This is my reflection practice for work, weekly studio notes & I suppose some of my life too. It’s all in the mill. I write this. I don’t use AI for my studio notes because the discipline of actually reflecting on the past weeks is important. It would probably be a more polished perfect read if I did use AI and at the beginning of the year I thought I would use it. But I dismissed that idea rather rapidly, it just did not make sense, that’s not the point. Spending time to
- reflect,
- think about insights,
- share a question to you,
- offer some resources and
- a view to the week ahead
gives me perspective and is helping with my writing for business.
Reflection
Have you noticed changes in the website?
Having decided not to do the MA it’s allowed me to think about the question I live with as a complete container rather than just an enquiry. Have I begun writing the chapters of that work, possibly. I’ve definitely started organising the thinking so I can share it.
My Future Ancestors has got its own page, I’m happy with how it’s come together, for now. A consolidated page of a lot of research & work over the years, and the developing work that is coming together on future visioning and Ireland’s mythic edge. Have you read it yet? Writing and editing the sub sections for that page is under way. The first sub-page is added, on the Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance course I did in 2021 with Phoebe Tickell and Stephen Reid.
It was good to document this significant course. I see some of the alumni from that cohort popping up on my LinkedIn doing amazing things.
Our business BDT Consultancy finally has its own page, it will have its own website at some stage. It still needs work but I’m trying to reflect and showcase more of what clients get when they hire us rather than what it is we do.
I do love this line,
We help people who need to work together actually figure out how to do it – with clarity, care, and a deep respect for shared potential. Because good strategy flourishes when people trust each other enough to think differently.
My CV used to have a line it that – I do my best work when I’m supporting others do theirs.
It’s still true.
I’ve also redescribed what I do on linkedin to
strategy counselling,
adaptive challenge practitioner,
stewarding the human side of change
Strategy counselling is a bit tongue-in-cheek but the work often feels like that. Yes I help people develop and deliver strategy, align to it, see themselves and their role in it ~ the intangible bit the tending to the human care, relational, empowering… that I am exceptional at. Because I know how people feel impacts what they do.
I had some excellent conversations with people this week; one with someone whom I’ve not spoken to in 10 years, TEN YEARS – wild and a curious conversation. She shared her poetry with me, I loved it. Another fab chat about the fact I’m on the job market and where that might take me ~ who knows, eh!
Work is not busy. Something needs to change, so I’m looking for a role/work where I can add huge value…
Monday & Tuesday were spent bringing the Co-Design Playbook together. I’d been thinking about it for more than a week and had considered two approaches. When it came to drafting it a logical format presented itself. The design of the pages clarified how I wanted to present the information. Ensuring I was not boiling the ocean nor writing a book. But it could be a book! I really enjoyed developing it.
There are some edits to it, questions from the client which are a bit tricky to navigate as they are outside of the scope of the work time & content wise. I’ll have to find a balanced approach to completing the work.
The content
- Co-design fundamentals – establishing the basic level information
- Co-design readiness – an assessment, commitment, when required redirection
- Enabling conditions for co-design
- Co-Design Practice
- Co-design, co-production, innovating together – tangible and longer term actions
- Reflect and adapt
- Navigating the Realities: Commercial Viability and Time Investment
- The Unseen Dividend: “We are really innovating”
I’ve learnt a lot from doing that co-design piece of work. So much potential there.
I’m enjoying working on a workshop with a client for a 2030 challenge, we’ve progressed through the design of a full day with 20 stakeholders across jurisdictions. A future visioning workshop, the design has come together really well. I was really humming and hawing, I’d considered a critical design thinking approach, as the client had asked for a mini design sprint but it was not a suitable methodology. I’ve brought a systems design lens combined with a good dollop of Rob Hopkins training, I think it’s a game changer. Especially with tight low (read no) time preparation for research. The budget did not allow for it!
I had developed a 2030 story but resisted telling it as I sensed it would be too prescriptive. The thinking needs to broaden out. In the design and T-ing up the workshop I’ve reframed the approach. Everyone is focused on one question and I’ve flipped it. The invitation is as we solve 2030 challenges and move to a low carbon future, we create a different economy, one that’s fit for 2030 and beyond. If you know my work you might consider where I am taking that.
Later in the month the WEALL Ireland Hub, Creative Community are involved as part of the Blas International Summer School of Irish Music and Dance in Limerick and hosting an amazing event on story & song, so I attended the planning meeting. I’ll put more information on it in the resources.
Catching up with a client for what I thought was a planning meeting on Friday turned into a bit of a surprise update from them. They are restructuring and the team I had been working with have been made redundant. There is still a small amount of business I am contracted to do there till 2026 but let’s see what happens with it.
I also gave time this week to a young film maker interested in making a film about Degrowth. I was more than a little shocked by how little research he had done on the topic. I mentioned Jason Hickel, he asked who he was ~ if you google degrowth as a basic first step… I appreciate that someone sent him my direction “he could learn a lot from me” but when I asked him what was he hoping to get out of the conversation he said
- essentials that should be covered in the film
- who else he should talk to in Ireland
- where he could see degrowth in action in Ireland – events, projects
Was he asking me to design the film for him? He was wasting both of our time. I was pretty annoyed and expressed it but I’m not sure he noticed. I recommended before he reaches out to anyone who is busy that he do his research – he asked on them? He’d no idea about researching a topic, I’ve spent over 5 years exploring new economic thinking and post-growth low carbon futures was he really looking for a private tuition to bring him up to speed?
He spoke about his artistic process of making films, I get it. That is his preference but if you want time in busy people’s diaries, respect them and the ask.
That experience brings a constriction to my openness, it felt extractive, not in anyway reciprocal and perhaps that is what I have most issue with.
Saturday brought a different resonance form which I am most grateful. The wonderful Karin Eyben and The Hares Corner Initiative ran a Towns Anywhere 2035 Workshop in Garvagh, Colraine up North. I’d spied it. I decided only last week to go. Wow what a day!
So, we’re seeing that’s where networks of networks have a really particular power that simple networks by themselves don’t have.” June Holley
Insights
I’ve noticed an increase in visitors to my website, Look forward to that converting into work or commissions.
I will be more discerning about giving people access to my diary. I did hear a story about someone having a screening form & payment before people booked their diary time.
Co-design ~ assessment, readiness and enabling conditions I’d like to develop a good pathway for YES/NO so could map a pathway to co-design from initial stages to readiness to begin projects across organisations, enterprises and communities.
There was a particular moment in the Town Anywhere 2035 facilitation where as enthralled by the facilitation and design of the process something happened in the room that made visible that the people in the room were the right people, they were enough. I’m not sure I can completely explain it – it was transformative. As part of the process just before lunch we were invited to consider which theme we wanted to work on Food, Governance, Infrastructure, Arts & Creativity, Education – formal & informal, Business and Enterprise, Health, Communication. Then this magic thing happened Ruth Ben-Tovim the facilitator suggested that we go around the room and write on these large boards things we wanted those working on to remember.
It was that particular almost simple in gesture that unlocked something deeply significant in the room. Out of everything that’s the piece that has stayed with me. What was written as remember this was a set of directions mapped by the whole room. The boards were filled, astonishing.
I was aware of Karin’s work as she and the group have been working with doughnut economics and applying it locally. We featured the Hare’s Corner Initiative as part of our 20 Irish Case-studies when IDEN hosted Kate Raworth and our Allies in IMMA last September.
They are doing inspiring work.
The whole day was so generously and beautifully hosted, local produce was used to provide delicious and nutritious sustenance.
Two further genius things they did – when you signed on the day you picked up a time travel medallion that was an inter being to travel with. Beautifully designed circles, kinda like beermat size, on the from an image of bluebell, worm, oak, heron, bee, hare, hedgerow, kingfisher and dandelion. On the back How I live in the world… What I need to flourish…. Some Innovation Inspiration from me… We were invited to put our name on the front. We wore them around our necks thread by ribbon. Such a nice way to wear name tags.
The second thing was at the end of the day they held a raffle, although the whole day was offered freely they still ran a free raffle and gave people the excitement of wining and choosing a gift. Extraordinary.
A question for you
“The 2030 opportunity is about what kind of economy we build while we’re meeting these targets” – is this something you are working on? or need to be working on and you need some support?
Resources
Listening for the Óran Mór
THE ART OF THE WELLBEING ECONOMY
A WEAll Ireland ‘Cultural Creatives’ Deep Dive
Part of Blas International Summer School of Irish Music and Dance
🗓️ Tuesday 24th June 2025 | 10:00–18:00
📍 Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick
Cost: There will be a 50 Euro charge for those who are only attending the WEAll event. Payable at the registration desk on arrival*.
Entry is free to those who have signed up for the Blas Festival.
At the heart of our inquiry is the Óran Mór—the Great Song—an ancient Irish concept of the sound that moves through and connects all life.
FIND OUT MORE HERE
Reimagining Business Ownership in the Global South Stanford Social Innovation Review, Alternative forms of enterprise ownership have the potential to enable economic development in more inclusive and equitable ways. Feb 2025.
I thought this study was really interesting US based but I wonder where its relevant for us in the EU CMU Study Maps the Role of Libraries in the Future of Open Science – the entire study, data, and methods are open to the public. That means others can learn from it, build on it, and help push open science even further.
Developing Green Skills – I did put out on Linkedin what if these were embedded across all jobs, all work. Design Council UK’s ambition to Upskilling one million designers in green design skills by 2030.
Book: The Self Delusion by Gregory Berns
- three factors shaping our ever-evolving sense of self: our messy memories of the past, our uncertain hopes for the future, and the reflections of everyone around us. And often, our present thoughts are borrowed, blended, and shaped by others without us even realizing it.
- how powerful a good story is to the human brain
- Stories are deeply embedded into our mental frameworks; they act like food for our brains and shape the templates we use to understand life.
- we need to be mindful about which narratives we “feed” ourselves. Whether we gravitate toward tales of hope and heroism or those of fear and mistrust, they will ultimately shape the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.
- how shifting the narrative template can open the door to true liberation.
- life stories, we usually focus on “branch points” – the moments when we make decisions, big or small, that end up defining our paths
Town Anywhere is a hands-on creative visioning process that brings potential community futures to life through time travel, visioning, conceptual placemaking and co-creation. I’ll be sharing more about this at some stage.
Things I found other people were reading on this website:
A view to the week ahead
I’m excited to be heading to Kilkenny for Amplify, IRDGs Innovation Conference, the speaker line up looks good. Lots of people from all across my tech innovation career will be there – early 90s to this last decade, including people I worked with in big tech, building HPSUs and professional services innovation hubs. Looking forward to reconnecting and meeting new people also.
I’m also looking forward to catching up with some folks from Hawkswood training for chats.
Small pieces of work and lots of capacity for work, let me know if you need fractal services support in strategic design, PMO or change management.
Have a great week!
Roisin Markham 
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