WARNING: This brief has turned out to be anything but brief! So here's a TL;DR: I seem to have manifested an Outcomes Engineer role and the Forces of Progress model is a good model of change!

Hello everyone! 👋

I realise there are people out there who like change, who like trying new things, who like it when things are shaken up. Well, that's not me – except if the new things I'm trying is food, and the food smells good.

I am – perhaps surprisingly so if you don't know me in the real – quite an anxious person! I absolutely stress out about any kind of risk (real or imagined). I freak out over career moves. I agonise over decisions. I will worry endlessly about everything and anything. I'm anxious about writing this brief. Lie awake in the middle of the night and stress? Yup, that's me.

It has taken a significant amount of effort (also therapy) to not let my general anxiety hold me back from trying new stuff. With a ton of work, you can now generally summarise my approach as:

"Feel scared. Now do it anyway".

Change is hard.

If you're a BA or a PO or a Manager or a Designer, you're a change agent. You make changes. 

They might be small changes – an edit to a form or a process – or a massive change – such as launching a new service or re-platforming core systems. The heart of our roles is making change, often to other people and how they do their jobs, get services, or do stuff.

Except there's a reason why we're not all fit enough to run 5km and have the bodies of our dreams. There's a reason you haven't learnt that instrument you think would be cool to learn. And there's a reason why I haven't learnt to skateboard (other than it just being terrifyingly dangerous).

Change – even if we might really want the the result – is hard.

And if it’s difficult to make the necessary changes to gain something we want, then it’s no wonder that implementing change successfully in a work context – where people aren't necessarily invested in the result of the change – is really, really hard.

The forces of progress model

In case you're not already familiar with it, I think Bob Moesta's Forces of Progress model (part of Bob's jobs-to-be-done framework) is probably the simplest, clearest, most helpful model to conceptualise change. 

It can be used to understand any change both big and small and focuses on the moment of struggle.

Now most change models focus on the top two forces and tend to ignore the bottom two. But in my experience – personally and professionally – it's the anxiety of the new, and the safety of the current that really gets in the way of change.

So if I'm trying to make a change, and especially if I'm trying to convince someone about a change, I use the Forces of Progress model to think through their experience of the change.

But it's also helpful to unpack what's happening to you when facing your own struggling moment. We often only focus on the problem and the solution, and let the the tug of the habit and the anxiety just happen to us.

But habits and anxiety are the forces that really do block change.

Which brings me to ...

I feel scared and I’m doing it anyway

About 2 weeks ago, I had a chat with some peeps at Auckland Council. They are kicking off a huge piece of work and are looking for people to help them wrangle all the things. I was suggested as a good fit by someone already on the team.

The chat escalated quickly, and the next minute I’m being offered – and I cannot stress this enough – the perfect role. It has all the things that I've been talking about – research, analysis, service design, facilitation, getting stuff done. And, perhaps most insanely, I even got to suggest what they should call the role. Naturally, I suggested “Outcomes Engineer”.

Being offered a role is the very definition of a struggling moment, so if you'll bear with me turning my personal experience into an "applied change analysis" lesson for a bit ... here's my breakdown:

Hannah and the forces of progress

1. I'm experiencing a push from my frustrations with the positioning of the business analyst role. I want a change! 😡

2. And the new role seems perfect! I'm pulled to the new solution because it's super aligned to the Outcomes Engineering vision I've outlined! 🤩

3. But I'm super happy working at PaperKite. I love the people and it's safe and known 🥺

4. And, REALLY BIG SCARY NEW ROLE WITH PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW AND I COULD TOTALLY MESS IT ALL UP! 😨

Where did I land? Well, in this situation, 1️⃣ + 2️⃣ outweighs 3️⃣ + 4️⃣. 

Which means that I'm stoked (and also stressed – as above) to tell you that this week I'm joining Auckland Council as a Senior Outcomes Engineer.✨

There is a lot to worry and be scared about. But I'm doing it anyway. 

Also, is it possible that manifesting actually works?

Even more change

And if you've read this far – congrats and thank you! 💕

And as a reward for you perseverance, you get to be among the first to learn that I’ve soft-launched my new website — with a bunch more content.

If you want to click around and tell me I’ve spelt things wrong, then you are welcome to check out the new digs at jimmy.consulting! I'll be making tweaks and changes over the next few days before actually replacing my current site. 

Phew. That was a lot.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this (or anything else), so do reply to this email, DM me on LinkedIn, or send me a letter via pigeon. 

I cannot tell you how much I like hearing from y'all!

And until next time, stay excellent! 💖
Hannah