OK. Deep Breath. It's started.
Writing this is the culmination of three years of angst, anxiety and perseverance. Oh, and a distinct feeling that I lacked any direction. For some time now I have not felt comfortable in my day job as a business coach and management consultant.
That job in itself was the culmination of a journey of discovery that started at medical school. It created in me a love for good company culture and organisational effectiveness. For people to be happy at (and in) their work. Yet, towards the end of my first decade in that field I became increasingly disillusioned. I still believed in the mission to create better workplaces. I didn't believe in the road I had been taking to achieve it.
That's not to say that I didn't admire all my fellow coaches who still got up every day ready to set the world straight. I did, and still do. But it was getting me down. Going from client to client and seeing the same problems over and over again.
At the same time I had noticed an increasing amount of creativity in my approach as a coach. I had discovered sketch-notes, graphic facilitation, graphic recording and visual coaching. I was using them daily in my practice.
I sought for more effective ways to communicate information visually. I had a constant yearning to be creative. Storytelling also became important: Our company cultures are the sum of the stories we tell each other and ourselves.
I sought for more effective ways to communicate information visually. I had a constant yearning to be creative.
So it was time to design the kind of work that I wanted to do every day. That meant variety, creativity and balance. I still wanted to help companies (especially those whose purpose I believed in), but I wanted to do it in a different way. I wanted to help companies tell stories to improve their cultures.
That mission has some aspects built into my current occupation. But there were other skills I needed to cultivate. Not being a lottery winner, I needed to support my family, so distance learning seemed the best option. The Open College of the Arts were the logical solution. After about 6 months of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I finally committed to the first steps in BA Hons Visual Communication.
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