Finding meaning in our work

I fell into the world of data visualization in 2008, when an executive at the non-profit I was working for at the time decided to send a few of the younger staff members to a local talk by Edward Tufte.

My colleagues were mostly underwhelmed, but I came away changed (and with his 4 books that were included with the ticket price). I can’t remember the talk, and I would not say that I’m a Tufte superfan now, or that I even was at the time. But before that moment, I just hadn’t given much thought to the more creative side of my data work.

The ideas brought me back to my childhood, when I was just a kid who liked to draw and was good at math. And the talk re-ignited my creative spark that had been lying dormant for years.

Finding purpose.

Before putting together the data storytelling workshop I’ll be delivering next week I asked a bunch of questions to some of the folk who showed interest. While the answers were varied and helpful, this particular response stuck.

How would learning about it help my career? I don’t know that either, but I’m experiencing pretty severe burnout right now and trying to find my way out of it by making shifts in my work that keep it interesting for me and useful for the people I work with, and this has potential to do that.

If you have been following my work for a little while, you may already know that I often find myself flirting with burnout. In the past year I have been diagnosed with ADHD, which was more of a confirmation than a discovery. My mind just likes to go in a million directions, some helpful, some not.

And when things start to get a little too overwhelming, I just need to take a step back and lean into purpose.

My mission.

In a nutshell I believe my job is to help program evaluators, data analysts, and researchers unlock their creative potential. And eventually, to become confident data designers.

I was thinking of this mission when going through a workbook activity shared within my entrepreneurship community. Especially when this question popped up.

When in your life, or in the lives of others you love, has the lack of this mission caused substantial pain or discomfort.

(Note: I’m part of SPI Pro, and this was shared by Pamela Slim who is one of our entrepreneurs in residence. Here is my affiliate link if you’re interested in applying.)

I believe in my own life, the times that I have been most frustrated with my job were when I had little control over the outcome of my work. Especially when the status quo created situations where data was wasted.

Those times when we spent thousands of hours finding interesting stories only to share them in the most boring way possible, and reaching the fewest potential audience members possible.

The solution I found was creativity. Learning data design gave me the tools I needed to bring practical change.

I believe that teaching practical creative skills to data folk gives them more power to challenge their own status quos. And helping them on the their journey to discovering this super power fulfills me more than any other thing that I do.

What is the meaning behind your own work?

I would love to know, leave me a comment if you’re up for sharing.