What Work Feels Like After You Redesign It: Gill’s Story

Season 3

18 Feb

What if the way you’ve always worked is what’s keeping you stuck? Gill Kirk shares three powerful lessons she’s carrying forward after redesigning her work life. From letting go of outdated habits to reclaiming quiet space for clarity, Gill’s story is a reminder that meaningful change doesn’t have to be drastic—it just has to be true.

What if the way you’ve always worked... is what’s holding you back?

For Gill Kirk, a strategic communications consultant with 25+ years of experience, that question became impossible to ignore. Like so many midlife professionals, Gill hit a moment of quiet confrontation: Is this really what work is supposed to feel like?

Instead of brushing that question aside, Gill said yes to redesigning her work life—and what emerged were three deeply personal lessons she never wants to forget. Lessons that now act as her compass for every new role, project, and decision.

Whether you’re considering a change or stuck in the grey zone between burnout and boredom, Gill’s story might just offer a nudge toward clarity.

1. Deliberate Curiosity Is a Superpower

Gill calls it "deliberate curiosity"—a commitment to asking better questions, even when it’s uncomfortable. In a world where speed and certainty are rewarded, she’s learned the value of slowing down and going deeper. “I can’t really help someone unless I understand what’s really going on,” she explains.

For Gill, curiosity isn’t passive—it’s a tool for transformation. It helps uncover the unsaid, the unseen, and the possibilities hiding just beneath the surface. And in redesigning her own work, it became the foundation for doing work that matters.

2. Let Go of the Outdated Habits (Gently)

One of Gill’s most profound realisations? Many work practices that once offered safety—like overly large meetings or endless CC-ing on emails—have quietly become barriers to progress.

She doesn’t advocate slashing processes recklessly. Instead, she sees her role as a gentle disruptor: “Like dusting cobwebs,” she says. A way to clear space for better systems without triggering panic. “People hold onto these things because they feel safe... but they’re also what’s keeping them stuck.”

By helping teams safely let go, Gill’s work has become more joyful, more effective, and more human.

3. Quiet Time Is Non-Negotiable

Gill’s energy is infectious. She’s enthusiastic, fast-moving, and loves sparking ideas. But through her redesign journey, she’s learned that none of her strengths work well without stillness.

Quiet time—whether journaling, doodling, or deep reflection—has become sacred. It’s where she listens for what’s right, filters noise from truth, and reconnects with her values. “It helps me find answers that weren’t here,” she says, pointing to her head, “they were back here.”

It’s a reminder many of us need: Joyful work doesn’t always look busy. Sometimes, it looks quiet.

So, what does work feel like after you redesign it?

For Gill, it feels light. Generative. Honest. Satisfying.

Not because everything is easy now, but because she’s aligned her work with who she actually is—and who she wants to be.

You don’t have to burn it all down to make a change. Sometimes, it starts with asking better questions, dusting off a few cobwebs, and carving out quiet time to listen in.

Curious What Joy at Work Might Look Like for You?

Whether you’re wrestling with loyalty, craving a change you can’t yet name, or simply wondering if it’s too late to do something more meaningful—this story is proof that clarity is possible.

🔗 Explore how you can begin your own career redesign journey: Work With Lucia

Related:
🔗 Midlife Worklife Satisfaction Report

Work Redesign Lessons - Gill Kirk
[00:00:00] Welcome and Intro to the Work Life Lessons Series
Lucia Knight: Hi, I'm Lucia Knight and this is the Joy At Work Podcast. Today I'm joined by one of my former clients, someone who, like so many of us, had a moment of, "Wait! Is this what work is supposed to feel like?" And instead of brushing it off and cracking on, they paused and they chose to design their work life differently.
I've asked each guest to share the three most important insights they learned about their future work life that they never ever want to forget. And these aren't just light reflections. They're the result of three, six, or 12 months of deep work together, and now they're in a position to capture those timeless notes to their future self.
For some saying yes to my invitation, took a little bravery and a lot of what I call powerful vulnerability. Some had to dig deep because they really value their privacy. Some said yes because they understood the potential power of having a touch point to return to every year, but mostly they said yes as an act of kindness gifted to me and to you.
Let's dive in.
[00:01:15] Gill’s First Lesson: Deliberate Curiosity in Work
Lucia Knight: Gill, I'm dying to know what is the very first thing that you want to remember forever about your future work life?
Gill Kirk: I have got to take with me deliberate curiosity,
People have always come to me when I have been proffering strategic communication support, and they'll say, we want to be in the newspapers, or we want to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's like a doctor patient thing, you know, particularly with the internet. We can turn up now and we go I need this drug, or I need you to give me this. And actually what the doctor needs to know is, hang on a minute what's the context? Why do you think this? And there's a whole load of questions.
And I can't stop myself applying that curiosity cause I can't really help you if I don't really know everything that's going on.
And that often means the stuff that they don't really want to admit or may not yet have admitted to themselves.
It takes some vulnerability, it takes honesty, but you're listening really hard. And I'm very lucky that I'm not frightened of asking questions 'cause I really like people and hopefully they can feel that. It means then that you can properly help them and you're setting your compass in the right direction if you're getting to the truth.
So it's it invaluable for getting results.

Lucia Knight: What did you call it, deliberate curiosity. Is that what you called it?
Gill Kirk: Deliberate curiosity.
Lucia Knight: So you can't help people unless you delve into this deliberate curiosity and that you go deeper and further. Okay? So that's really important for you to remember in the future.
[00:02:59] Lesson Two: Letting Go of Outdated Processes
Lucia Knight: What's the second thing you want to never forget in your future work life?
Gill Kirk: So I have done about 25 years pure consulting. And in five years, very sort of senior level in-house jobs. And it's really great 'cause when you look back, you can go, oh I saw this happening when I was on the outside and I experienced it. And so there's a really good link there which makes sure it's not just confirmation bias, but there's data and you can see the benefits of both.
And one of the things. That's so painful, and I'm seeing it more and you will see it all the time, is processes that once helped and have stopped helping, but they are security blankets like holding onto the side of the swimming pool.
So what I really treasure and can never, ever be without is a kind of I thought of it as a knife, but that's a bit harsh, more like a duster for cobwebs.
And it's it's processes or it's habits and it's outmoded things that, people are doing to keep themselves safe. There is a need for these things, and this is what safety is really important with this, which is why a duster is probably better than a knife because people fear that if they let go of copying everybody into the email. Or having a meeting with 16 people in it, maybe eight, every time, then something's going to go wrong.
There's a reason that you can't just throw these things away. There is a reason. So it links to the curiosity, of course, because you need to understand what are the psychological needs that this is fulfilling. But we know as well, these things are really holding people back and they're making people unhappy because they cannot progress.
And that's why you end up in. Corporate reboots rebrandings or away days, or let's look at our values and come up with an acronym with some words that we all believe in that nobody's ever going to remember or put into practice, but has just cost us 50,000 pounds.
Lucia Knight: So it sounds like for you to be able to do great work, fierce work in our language, you have to have the ability, the freedom, the autonomy to cobweb dust. Yes.
Gill Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. To help it's a weird Mary Poppins type role. But it is how do we safely change these practices? What can we replace them with for you? So it's that, that, that process of replacement and everybody's got to go together, otherwise it's not sustainable. Because processes are about people.
Lucia Knight: Okay, so this is what do we no longer need? And when you are able to do that, your work life feels what?
Gill Kirk: For me, deeply satisfying because people just light up because they're able to move. They've let go of the side of the swimming pool, if you like. So things are getting done. People are starting to have ideas because they've adapted.
They've evolved. It's an evolution.
Lucia Knight: lovely.
Gill Kirk: It's wonderful. It's marvolous!
Lucia Knight: And I can see the way that that links to your deliberate curiosity. That feels like the next part of it.
[00:06:26] Lesson Three: Why Quiet Time Unlocks Big Thinking
Lucia Knight: And finally, what's the third thing, insight, important thing that you must remember in your future?
Gill Kirk: Well, you know, And you can hear I'm quite busy in how I process things. I get very excited, very enthusiastic. I think fun is really important. None of this works without the quietness.
Lucia Knight: I do know you and there is a lot going on. There's fun, there's energy, there's movement. But you are saying that you want to remember that the quiet space is important. So when you do allocate time for it, what difference does that make to you?
Gill Kirk: It's really beautiful because it is that big picture thing. So what I do in that space is ask the kind of big questions. I've got this option, this option, this option. Which one's going to help us deliver. Also, then to reflect on the values. I use my personal values as sort of compass.
What's the right thing? What's the right thing for this client or this project or for me? How do I feel about that? And really listen. So some of that's journaling actually, or doodling things out, because for me, the way my brain works, but not the way everybody's brain works, that helps me find answers that weren't here.
They're more back here, and it's every time, it has helped me with every major decision. Everywhere I've gone in, all the things that I do.

[00:07:56] What Joy at Work Looks Like for Gill
Lucia Knight: Finally, what does Joy at work look like, feel like, smell like for Gill?
Gill Kirk: Oh, Oh, that's a great question. You can see it on my face, it's really here because for me, it is people having that eureka, that insight moment because it's something that you've said, you've suggested you've helped them get there. So I'm not interested in telling people how to do it. It's about. People through working with me getting there for themselves.
I don't have the answers. They have the answers, but helping them do that and that lifting up, so it's just, it's light, it's bright, it's open, it's generous. It's fun and it's full of and it sparks a whole lot of stuff going off into the future. So it's not, it's never a closed system as well. It's generative in that sense.
[00:08:53] Programmes Mentioned + How to Work with Lucia
Lucia Knight: Gill and I work together one-to-one in addition to her going through the six week at home work life redesign program called The Fierce Emporium. Check Out episode nodes where you can get links to all three programs I offer so you can choose the right one for you,. So that you can find the joy at work that you deserve.