Welcome to our Experiments in Real Time Series, where our Round 2 Innovaton Lab teams share how they are collaborating, testing out ideas, failing, and trying again as they work through these pieces in real time.
Our first team to be profiled is Team Sweet Spot, the only Round 2 lab team to form at CoreAlign’s Innovation Convening during the Love, Sex, Family, and Community Art Space activity. Our Round 2 lab teams are currently in the Formation and Launch phase, where they are determining what they will need as individuals and as teams to collaborate boldly and authentically. Given Team Sweet Spot’s unique origin story, we asked ask each team member to share a little bit about how their team launched, and how their visions will shape how their work moves forward.
Our first team to be profiled is Team Sweet Spot, the only Round 2 lab team to form at CoreAlign’s Innovation Convening during the Love, Sex, Family, and Community Art Space activity. Our Round 2 lab teams are currently in the Formation and Launch phase, where they are determining what they will need as individuals and as teams to collaborate boldly and authentically. Given Team Sweet Spot’s unique origin story, we asked ask each team member to share a little bit about how their team launched, and how their visions will shape how their work moves forward.
Roula: At the convening I was excited to challenge our movement to approach its people as both individuals and contextualized. Especially, to look beyond the narrow definitions -- of things like performance, health, family -- inherited from traditional corporate HR, and to positively build a culture of appreciating the whole human who sits in your office.
It was actually “family” that brought me to this topic. CoreAlign gives us such an expansive understanding of the reproductive movement’s mission: to build a world where everyone can have the love, sex, family, and community that’s right for them. This movement calls for our culture to support families more diverse than only the “straight married nuclear biological” kind; so, from official policies to daily practices, how can our organizations model that? The movement calls for our work to be intersectional and center those with marginalized identities; so, how can I be empowered to bring my family experiences with migration to shape our work?
In short, I saw this topic as quite expansive too. Then at the convening I connected with people for whom “humanity at work” resonated as well, for myriad reasons that I hadn’t even thought of. One colleague challenged me to check my assumption that the solutions are in employers’ hands; another asked if this is about movement workers or about those we serve. What we had in common, I think, was a vibrant excitement about what our work *could* be like, and what it might achieve, if our human needs, loves, and stories were invited in and celebrated. Six months after first pondering these questions, I suspect the answers are much more numerous than any one of us would have imagined.
The piece I didn’t anticipate, but am so glad has emerged, is how our vision is shaping what we are doing even now. Our thesis, our challenge to the movement, is “how we do the work is the work” -- our interactions shape our landscape, so they’d better reflect our values -- and we agreed explicitly that that’ll be a touchstone in how we do what we do in this project. It sounds very meta and fractal-like, but I’m excited to see how this goes.
It was actually “family” that brought me to this topic. CoreAlign gives us such an expansive understanding of the reproductive movement’s mission: to build a world where everyone can have the love, sex, family, and community that’s right for them. This movement calls for our culture to support families more diverse than only the “straight married nuclear biological” kind; so, from official policies to daily practices, how can our organizations model that? The movement calls for our work to be intersectional and center those with marginalized identities; so, how can I be empowered to bring my family experiences with migration to shape our work?
In short, I saw this topic as quite expansive too. Then at the convening I connected with people for whom “humanity at work” resonated as well, for myriad reasons that I hadn’t even thought of. One colleague challenged me to check my assumption that the solutions are in employers’ hands; another asked if this is about movement workers or about those we serve. What we had in common, I think, was a vibrant excitement about what our work *could* be like, and what it might achieve, if our human needs, loves, and stories were invited in and celebrated. Six months after first pondering these questions, I suspect the answers are much more numerous than any one of us would have imagined.
The piece I didn’t anticipate, but am so glad has emerged, is how our vision is shaping what we are doing even now. Our thesis, our challenge to the movement, is “how we do the work is the work” -- our interactions shape our landscape, so they’d better reflect our values -- and we agreed explicitly that that’ll be a touchstone in how we do what we do in this project. It sounds very meta and fractal-like, but I’m excited to see how this goes.
Lucreshia: I was thinking about “whole” self as being a thing that can be in all work spaces -- that idea was really exciting to me, but now I don’t know if that should even be possible -- I think we all know it is not a total reality. I am thinking more about the gift of intersectionality and perhaps equity. Like each part of us needs different things. My thoughts before were so focused on me needing to be everywhere instead of me creating the spaces where all of me could be. This seems obvious now, but at the time, several months ago my thought process was wholly different.
Zakiya: I was just excited to be a part of the conversations and seeing the energy produced. I was drawn to the Love corner since I was thinking a lot of different forms of love--personal, toward others, and toward our different communities. The idea of humane resources appealed to me because I work in a setting that has a lot of autonomy and seeming perks so people assume it is easy and fun, but there are many inhumane practices that are assumed to be the norm, like all-night writing sessions, etc. But I had an opportunity to work at an RJ research center where the director worked hard to bring our humanity into the work. I resisted it, to be honest! But in the end I am so grateful for that because it allows us to be fuller people and connect and building lasting relationships. I was also curious, as someone who does not work in “the movement," what practices could come from other movements or arenas to create more humane spaces in movements. I am a practical person so I am still excited to see what models there are out there currently being implemented.
Becky: My focus at the start of the convening surprised me - inspired by an arts activity my initial question involved how we frame and educate each other about sex and desire. I was curious about how we might deepen our conversations beyond pleasure and individuality towards wholeness and community. Eventually, as my question gained clarity through a rapid “speed-dating” team formation exercise, I gravitated towards “Love” and what would eventually become Team Sweet Spot. During formation, I was energized by our shared curiosity around connection, community, and the idea of “wholeness.” Each one of us has both experienced and witnessed work and organizing spaces that dismiss wholeness and -- at times -- center the very practices we are working to transform. As we have continued to explore how humane resources and spaces function, I’m particularly in tune as to how difficult it is to challenge ingrained work habits, especially around deadlines, production, and urgency. As Sweet Spot has deepened our commitment to humane resources -- and to each other -- I am excited to see what tangible tools we can co-create with our curiosity around connection, community, and wholeness as our foundation.
Stay tuned for more Experimenting in Real Time posts from the Round 2 Innovation Lab Teams in 2017!