Keynote: Reflections on the Pattern of Leaving

In their forthcoming book Enterprise Design Patterns, the authors note that ‘In daily life, people learn from various types of experiences. Some of what they learn is worth sharing since others might face similar situations in the future. Over the last two decades, pattern language has been studied as a way to share such practical knowledge…. Pattern languages describe what types of problems occur in certain contexts, along with what types of solutions or actions can be taken to solve the problems.’ They discuss 35 patterns that they’ve noticed in their enterprise design work. One of these patterns is ‘Leaving’.

Their opening statement on ‘Leaving’ is, ‘You have been working as an Enterprise Designer for a while now. After some time you realise there is a mismatch between you and the environment you work in.’ They suggest leaving the work. In this session I’ll pick up on ‘Leaving’ and discuss it from several angles, based on my experience; as an external consultant, as an internal consultant, as an ethical/values based statement, in terms of career enhancement/limitation of the individual, the courage it takes to leave, and so on.