From Social Work to Supporting the Space Sector

The Impact Canada Fellowship Program offers Fellows a unique opportunity for highly skilled, individuals to work in host Departments across the Government of Canada in two distinct disciplines: Behavioural Science and Challenge Prizes, with the aim to increase capacity in the existing workforce.

My name is Meghan MacDonald, and I have been lucky enough to be a Challenge Prize Fellow with Impact Canada working at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on the Deep Space Food Challenge, and in the scoping of a new Challenge relating to space resources. Working for both Impact Canada and the CSA has truly been a highlight of my professional career, and I feel so grateful to be supported by two teams that are exceedingly innovative, supportive, and talented. Six months in, I want to highlight something so many of us have experienced- imposter syndrome, and talk a bit about what I have learned along the way.

I will never forget signing in to my interview for my Fellowship at Impact Canada and seeing my now host Department manager on the screen. I double (and triple) checked the Department listed under his name: The Canadian Space Agency (CSA). After the interview, I sat with myself in disbelief at the mere possibility that I, a clinical social worker by training, could ever land at the CSA.

Fast forward to my first day at Impact Canada and the CSA in November of 2022 (Spoiler 1: still in utter disbelief). I was surrounded by wildly intelligent, humble colleagues. My excitement was palpable, but I could not help but wonder how I would ever add value to an environment that already seems so abundant with talent. I questioned where I would fit in, what I could contribute, or how I could ever measure up to my wonderful teams, both at Impact Canada and the CSA.

Six months into my Fellowship working as an Impact Canada Challenge Prize Fellow at the CSA, there are so many things I have learned that I would tell my former self that I would love to share with you.

Learning 1: No one else is you. Focus on what comes “easy” to you, and embrace it.

Spoiler 2: Aerospace, physics and bio resource engineering do not come easy to me. I often joke about my Masters in Social Work failing to teach me about engineering and space, when I really should be focusing on the incredible things it, combined with my experience in the field has taught me. For example:

1. Taking big complex issues and dissecting them into digestible, implementable actions (a key competency in the Fellowship recruitment process)
2. Learning about how others work to effectively collaborate with people from within and across disciplines and navigating complex systems
3. Effectively researching an issue and dissolving it into key points that you need to know (a central component of the Understand phase in challenge design)
4. Supporting people in shifting their thinking towards innovative, out of the box thinking
5. Considering the micro impact of large, systemic change.

When I first started at CSA and Impact Canada, I spent so much time thinking about what I lacked, when I should have kept my focus on where I could bring value to my team. At Impact Canada, we are really lucky to have such a tailored onboarding process that helped me navigate some of these doubts, and at CSA, my colleagues and manager’s openness were key in making me feel so supported and comfortable as I learned my new environments and where I best fit in.

The more comfortable I became in my role, the more I realized there is such an important space (pun intended) for what does come easier to me, which is exactly why I was brought in as a Fellow. Reflecting on my clinical experience, both past and current, I realized that this is a key tenet of strengths-based therapeutic interventions: when we shift our locus of control to reinforcing our existing strengths, our confidence and competence both grow. Yes, as a new Fellow, or new member of any strong team, you may feel overwhelmed at all of the amazing skills and knowledge they have, but yours is also invaluable.

Many Fellows are high producers and achievers, which is desirable and necessary, but this can also be paired with some challenges- always asking if we are doing enough, producing enough, bringing enough value to the team. Spoiler 3: You, just as you are, with the current skills, knowledge and experience you have, are more than enough. Lean into your strengths and your value, and remember you are here in this position for a reason (the Fellowship is a highly competitive recruitment process, so no one finds their way here by accident).

Learning 2: Settle in to your discomfort. Growth is never comfortable.

Before I came on as a Challenge Prize Fellow, I did not consider the duality of growth and change: that excitement and wonder is paired with anxiety and discomfort. As soon as I leaned into the discomfort of the uncertainties that come with growth and the ambiguity that is early stage Challenge design, I became comfortable in the discomfort. As humans, we are naturally adverse to change, but the irony of life is that we cannot grow in a steady, unchanging state.

The more often we can comfortably sit in our discomfort, the more resilient and adaptive we become. So settle in to that initial discomfort, and try to embrace the change as much as possible. Spoiler 4: You will learn and grow so much by opening yourself up to discomfort in your life.

Change is always hard, even when it is exciting and positive. When you are growing and learning, you will feel uncomfortable. Accepting how you are feeling and finding comfort in the discomfort, knowing it is temporary, is important.

‘I will not pretend I wasn’t petrified. I was. But mixed in with the awful fear was a glorious feeling of excitement. Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn’t be exciting if they didn’t.’ — Roald Dahl, Danny the Champion of the World

Learning 3: Get better at testing your ideas, especially when they are imperfect, and accepting that you will, and should, make mistakes.

Simon Sinek uses the metaphor of the first pancake for trying new ideas: the first pancake is never perfect. We use it as a test to see what we need to improve on to make our next pancake (hopefully) much better. It is the same with ideas- sometimes we just need to try something, test it out, and then improve on it. When we are growing in a new role, we need to start somewhere, and sometimes that means putting “the first pancake” out there. It may not be perfect, but we need to start, fail, and grow from all that we have learned. I know this can feel counterintuitive when you are naturally someone who wants their work to be polished and perfect, but there is an important place for testing your ideas and iteratively improving on them.

I have been so lucky to feel extremely comfortable testing my first pancakes with my team, learning what works, how I need to pivot my approach, and how to best support the efforts of Impact Canada and the CSA, but this was a learning curve for me. The more I realized I was safe to try ideas, make them better, and try again, the more I have learned overall. Spoiler 5: You will make some mistakes, whether you embrace it or not. If you embrace it, you can learn so much about iterative improvement.

Learning 4: Being vulnerable is a strength. Your humanness is an essential part of your authenticity, and is critical to who you are both personally and professionally.

As a social worker and therapist by trade, I talk so much about the importance of vulnerability and openness, though I can always work more on implementing it myself. If you are feeling imposter syndrome, share this with someone who you trust. When I first started at Impact Canada and the CSA, I remember sharing with my colleague how I had imposter syndrome, and they immediately validated how I was feeling. It was so comforting to realize that a person I looked up to had also felt the same way. When we feel things alone, we often think our feelings occur in isolation, but this is rarely true.

Whether as a new Fellow, new employee, or just as a human being navigating this uncertain and messy landscape of life, being open and honest with people you trust is essential in us knowing we are not alone. The best thing I can remind myself, and subsequently tell you, is that none of us are wildly confident or sure about what we are doing all the time- even my talented, highly knowledgeable colleagues at the CSA and Impact Canada who I look up to and aspire to learn from. Our openness to being vulnerable does not only create a community of authenticity around us, but can support others in being vulnerable, open and authentic also.

Last, and most importantly, you are valuable, important, and so great for who you truly are, not only as a Fellow or employee or manager, but for who you are as a human. This seems so obvious as a statement, but for many of us it can feel hard for us to dissect our value from what we are producing, achieving, or demonstrating. Your value is inherent- you do not need to do or be anything other than who you are to be valuable.