There’s something special about beginnings. A moment brimming with potential and uncharted possibilities.

I love starting things. Getting started is like standing at the edge of a vast, unexplored forest; the path ahead may be unclear, but the promise of discovery beckons irresistibly.

A therapist I saw a while back told me about the Sensation Seeking personality type. And yeah: it me.

I guess I’m lucky that I’ve found work that allows me to find “varied, novel, rich and intense” experiences regularly. There’s always a new challenges around the corner, new places to explore and problems to get stuck into.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what lies ahead, but I can’t help getting excited about starting something new. Maybe my superpower is my willingness to embrace the unknown, and my irritatingly exhilarating sense of hope that accompanies every fresh start.

Some things I did this week

The main focus was – finally – having the kickoff meeting for a chunky project. This is a new piece of work with a former client who have asked us back. But despite working pretty intensively with them before we’d never met any of them in person. It’s weird finally meeting IRL when you’ve spent hours talking to people on Teams and feel like you already know them really well.

For all the usual procurement reasons it’s taken a while to get this one over the line and there’s a metric fucktonne to do. So it was good to get cracking. I was joined by Nic, our superstar delivery manager, who kept everything on track, and Lisa, queen of absolutely everything, who asked all the right questions to help bring clarity on what needs doing. I’m really excited to work with both of them on this one.

Lisa and I also spent some time earlier in the week trying to see how we could use AI to do some post-workshop analysis. This is exactly the kind of thing I am rubbish at and don’t enjoy, so I’d really value Claude/Chat GPT/etc doing the write-up and spotting patterns where I don’t have the patience to find them.

Conclusion: plenty of potential but we needed to work through it systematically, step-by-step to get the level of detail that gives the insight and analysis we need.

Last thing on Friday we also signed contracts on another project we’ve been in negotiations on since February. So all of a sudden, having had people on the bench itching to get started, we’re going from 0-60 on two projects at once. Wish me luck! I suspect I will need it.

(Did I mention we’re hiring? Well we are.)

Some non-work things I did this week

On Tuesday, in honour of Kate Bush’s birthday, my friend and I skived off work for the afternoon to do a two-hour-long dance class to learn the Wuthering Heights dance, before performing it on the steps of the Eye Filmmuseum.

It was spectacularly fun. And I surprised myself by both my ability to follow two hours of dance instruction in Dutch, and by not being entirely terrible at the dancing.

Here it is:

Saturday was Amsterdam Pride’s annual canal parade. It’s a spectacular party and passes just by my house. It’s such a smashing day out. The city is at its best. I love this town.

Connections

I caught up with Rod Cartwright for breakfast while I was in London. We talked about the changing relationship with the career ladder as one slides inexorably toward decrepitude. Eventually your real value isn’t in climbing the greasy pole, but handing the baton on to the next generation. Training, writing, speaking, bringing ideas and experience.

Reflecting, I feel this is harder for women, as just as you reach peak wisdom you also become invisible.

Travel

BA cancelled my flight home after I got to Heathrow on Thursday. But one hasty rebook and hotel scramble later, I checked myself in at Redchurch Townhouse. Which is as close to perfect a hotel as you can find in London. The extra night in London gave me an unexpected opportunity to catch up with Paul Clarke for dinner.

I also got to loll about in a fluffy robe watching the Olympics with a G&T. Silver linings.

I’m in Helsinki from Thursday to Tuesday. If you’re around, LMK and let’s grab a longkoro.