Reorgs... navigating work life with courage

After 2 months of fluctuations with prioritization, leadership decided to re-org teams. This meant teams went from semi-centralized product teams to a decentralized model under engineering.

One of the best people I've worked with in the last 2.5 years will be reporting to a different leader with a role change. He was a product and UX champion, a leader who believed in us. Even though he's still in the same org, it won't be the same.

There was never a proposal he wouldn't entertain with a balanced mindset. There were times when nobody believed in what I had to say, but he did. He inspired me to be the leader I wish to be. If someone doesn't have a voice or platform, you can be the voice for them, using your influence, authority, and connections. That everybody deserves a chance to prove themselves, even if you weren't successful in the past.

My fear: The loss of a product champion will lead diminished voice of UX, reducing the impact UX can make org-wide. Everything I relentlessly fought for will be knocked down a notch.

"Through the looking glass..." is a metaphor from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll that "you can't change the past, but you might learn something from it." When the world becomes unfamiliar, "the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible."

There are two principles in this spectrum: high agency vs. letting go.

The belief in high agency. High agency means you believe in having control of your life and feel you have the power to make decisions in a way you want to. Luck and fate don't shape the outcome. To develop this trait, you practice being relentless in the face of adversity, leverage resources to turn them into opportunities, and resilience against setbacks.

Vs.

Know when to let go. Knowing when it's time requires balanced guardrails of aligning your expectations to reality. Sometimes this means letting go of a fight that is too hard to win against all odds because it's not worth it. Know when you are ok to settle for less.

Leaning too hard on letting go may result in eternal dissatisfaction with the status quo, or you don't care. Have you ever met a designer who isn't grumpy, preaching your final reward is a pizza party?

Everybody has different tolerances for when they should stop. Most probably would pick the easiest road, I take the longest. Sometimes, I feel like a fool for being a dreamer, and when I feel that, I think "I'm doing something right..." LOL

This is my toxic trait. ⚔️ Double edge sword if I over-index and burnout.

If you need to hear this today, it's hard to let go of something you care for. I've been heartbroken by work many rounds and chosen to keep being myself. There are only two emotional paths every situation eventually ends, love and fear.

It is authentically human to fear failures and changes for the future. It's not about hiding the discomfort, but the courage and optimism needed to navigate difficult situations beyond boundaries of influence. Doing the work required to succeed, even if nobody notices it for a while.

P.S. Thank you Supria for being a premium member. Since nobody responded with "what do you want me to write about", I'll take the silence and thumbsup "more like this" as a direction to keep coming up with content.