What Gets Asked of Us: Building toward dignified and liberatory organizations
I often think about how can we scaffold ourselves through practice, culture, and system toward more liberatory and dignified organizations.
While at an organization for nearly 6 years, I witnessed and got to experiment with the organization as we moved towards a self-managing one with an advice process model and 4 Co-Executive Directors (with 4 Co-EDs, capacity continued to be challenging).
As we shifted and changed, I started to notice the metaphorical table, the kind you might gather around, break bread at, convene around, and what was being placed on it, offered, and taken up:
Your thoughts, voice, and opinions matter here
Everyone has a scope of work that they are entrusted to “own.” They are both decision makers and leads of that work
We’re invested in your growth
We encourage and practice giving and receiving feedback that’s both timely and with care
There's an opportunity to collectively share our learnings and learn in public
We’re all given a high-level of trust
Because you are the owner of your work, you decide scale, timeline, scope, etc. If things have to shift, the ask is you consider what feedback is needed and communicate changes
Those closest to the work understand the work the best and are best positioned as that work’s decision maker(s)
Mistakes are ok and learnable (caveat - this may depend on depth of impact of said mistakes)
Roles and responsibilities are far more important than title
I got curious: what does it actually take to one, see this “table,” two, see the offerings on it, and three, wholeheartedly take them on as intended (steward them in “good faith”) and practice them in alignment with individual and organizational values?
Here are some of the skills I came to:
A deep sense of and practice of: agency, self-accountability, integrity
Learning orientation: ability to make a mistake, frame and relate to it as a learning moment, reflect and share those learnings with others (maybe even share with some excitement)
Along with learning, extend grace and compassion for self and others
A sense of responsibility and connection to the “whole”
Honest sense of capacity and boundaries: when am I at capacity and can I name that? When might I need to slow things down? Where might things need to shift?
Nuance and discernment: is this mine or yours? Am I acting from hurt or a story I’m telling myself? My experience is a part of the story, might there be other parts? Am I moving quickly to label an experience or a person without considering the bigger context at play?
Openness, softness, and ability to be moved by others: am I willing to be wrong? Can someone's experience of the same moment, move my understanding or story of that same moment? Although I’m hurt, can I soften to be heard and hear others? Can I notice when I get protective and guarded and does this moment call for that?
Skill to negotiate or compromise: if you’re asked to take on a task but you’re at capacity, can you name that and offer an alternative?
Ability and tolerance to disagree and share your thoughts, even if you’re the only one (it’s highly likely you’re not the only one)
Ability to lean into hard conversations, name or initiate them
Ability to self-motivate or have systems/practices to spark that process with limited external prompting (or agreed on support)
Lens of how and where power, authority, resource, information, flows and where it may be stagnant
Flexibility, agility, and/or adaptability
I could probably keep going.
Many of these are what many would consider “soft skills.” They’re not. Many, if not all, are skills of being human. Of being in right relationship with one another. Many may be referred to as “emotional intelligence.” And many, are big asks of folks. Particularly folks with historically marginalized identities.
How or why would I be asked to be vulnerable and share my needs when I’ve seen or experienced power leveraged, weaponized and wielded in harmful ways? What about this makes me trust that it’s possible to let down my guard, not assume malintent, or even open to this possibility? How will I know it’s ok or safe to do that?
It’s a big ask. A big ask of vulnerability, openness, and trust. Both a self-trust and trusting of others. A leap that others will move in “good faith” and meet you and vice versa. It starts with how we show up with each other. Afterall, organizations are made of individuals.
These skills become incredibly important when we find ourselves in those muddy, sticky moments where pressure feels seemingly high and tensions rise. They can change the trajectory of a conversation from going well to going terribly. From doubling down and using top-down practices to opening up for honesty, vulnerability, and possibility. They can also support us to remain or come back (reground) to our sense of power and agency, not at the expense of others by overpowering or dominating them.
You might look at these and be like, “well damn…that’s a tall order.” It is. We don’t have many models of organizational cultures and systems moving in these ways. And we’re all just imperfect, fumbling humans trying to get by, survive, thrive, and make the next best move. And maybe that’s the heart of it. Because we are fumbling humans, why so serious? What if we built organizations around these skills? A little less “doing” to a lot more “being”?
It’s awkward, uncomfortable, it’ll push your edges. If we desire more liberatory, dignified, and humane organizations, we need to enter differently. And while in it, move differently.
When we enter an organization, we are saying yes to each other. And that yes asks something of us, in how we gather, what we offer, and what we’re willing to take up.
