THE PODCAST: MAY 14 /19

PEOPLE APART BUT TOGETHER: THE TACTICS AND STRATEGY OF GROWING A BUSINESS OF CHANGE

In episode eighteen, Tim and Tuesday explore how we work with distributed teams: as ‘managers of one’, how can we keep a strong connection? How can we navigate highly complex issues and change processes in an elegant way in the context of a rapidly-growing and remote business?

Together, Tim Merry and Tuesday Ryan-Hart are THE OUTSIDE—systems change and equity facilitators who bring the fresh air necessary to organize movements, organizations, and collaborators forward for progress, surfacing new mindsets for greater participation and shared impact.

1.18 —— SHOW NOTES

Tues: Managers of one are often used to going off and doing their own thing. I am very accustomed to managing and navigating on my own, so the added dimension of additional people adds a wrinkle: how to keep everyone connected and intersecting, both strategically and tactically?
Tim: One of the great benefits of working with a team is that we get to see a bigger picture we couldn’t see otherwise, allowing for strategic direction and prioritization. As a naturally productive person, there is a piece of me that measures myself relative to my production rather than relative to my connection.
Tues: The benefit of a team can allow us to hold production and connection but can also be a challenge.
Tim: Inherent to teams can be the connection you build. There’s something about our team for the ability to be really human with each other and practical, get shit done.
Tues: Worth being quite vigilant to connection as we can tilt to one side which is production. Really loving using WhatsApp with our team—a living, breathing space for us to connect with each other.
Tim: The focus of our work / approach and theory to change is that we put Shared Work in the middle. I wonder if that also leads to the tendency to put the work over relationships? We also both come from a highly relational field so maybe we take it for granted?
Tues: Because we put work in the centre, does that pull us in a direction? Could be a danger to this work. All of the stances around it are relational. How do we live our rhetoric? Being in relationship, staying in connection, taking care of each other—all of that feeds our results and moves the work into the centre.
Tim: Shared Work is the compelling centre that has the gravitational pull to attract ideas, people, resources. The thing everything begins to orbit around. The stances or principals of these agreements become the container. This is Art of Hosting 101.
Tim: We’re finding with our clients that we are constantly negotiating between our dearest-held beliefs about the work and our circumstances. It’s a tango. That’s happening in our teams as well. If we don’t meet regularly as a team, people start to feel fragmented and disconnected.
Tues: There’s a sense of belonging to team and the work and that we are not alone in it. What does power have to do with that? How do power and belonging knit together? Do those of us with more power have a responsibility to create places and spaces for people to belong?
Tim: We also need places of belonging. I want my teams to feel like a fun place to be and I want to create that for others. But it’s not about connection for the sake of connection. This is about creating places of belonging both for ourselves and for the teams we bring together.
Poem: “Green Gulch Farm” by Stephanie Kaza
We live by the sun, We feel by the moon, We move by the stars,
We live in all things, All things live in us,
We eat from the earth, We drink from the rain, We breathe of the air,
We live in all things, All things live in us,
We call to each other, We listen to each other, Our hearts deepen with love and compassion,
We live in all things, All things live in us,
We depend on the trees and animals, We depend on the earth, Our minds open with wisdom and insight,
We live in all things, All things live in us,
We dedicated our practice to others, We include all forms of life, We celebrate the joy of living-dying,
We live in all things, All things live in us,
We are full of life, We are full of death, We are grateful for all beings and companions.
Song: Pumped Up Kicks by Foster The People

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Find the song we played in today’s show—and every song we’ve played in previous shows—on the playlist. Just search ‘Find the Outside’ on Spotify.