Possibility Project

In this episode,

Kelli Wilbert, Principal Program Manager - Equity in Design Operations, Workday;

Dr. Chera Reid, Co-Executive Director, Center for Evaluation Innovation; and

Heather Krause, Founder, We All Count

led us in a conversation where we discussed provocations like:

Business and startup jargon, methods, and spaces such as R&D, prototyping, pretotyping, rapid experimentation, and innovation labs have grown in the social impact sector for more than the past decade.

As we interrogate practices of design that have permeated the social impact realm, how might we also interrogate practices that support rapid testing, and "shallow experimentation and prototyping on what are wicked problems — problems like climate change, early childhood education, affordable housing, and various public health issues."

The quoted text above and this topic have been inspired by and taken from the article, by Louise Adongo, Have You Thought About the Harm Your Social R&D Project Might Cause?

Adongo goes on to question, "What happens when we lose sight of people in favour of innovation? When, for example, we go into a community with intent to prototype a ‘promising’ brand-new program, try out brand-new ways of delivering that program, learn a lot of useful information — then leave? What if the program fails? For whom does it hold promise? What promises? And who bears the brunt and costs of the ‘safe’ failures which inevitably happen in experimentation and innovation?"

Our three fantastic speakers,

Louise Adongo, Executive Director of Inspiring Communities,

Mojdeh Cox, Community Builder, Advisor & Leader

Tanya Chung-Tiam-Fook, PhD, Director, Centre for Indigenous Innovation & Technology; Co-Director at Participatory Canada

will dive into this topic and explore our current practices, the benefits and challenges of these practices, and what we might do differently.

Fighting for policy change, advocating for systemic shifts, and designing mobilization strategies can feel overwhelming. Not all of us have the experience and confidence to get involved, even when our passion is great. We wanted to demystify and challenge the ways that we think about activism and the ways that ALL of us can bring about political and social change.

I was joined by two wonderful fantastic speakers to dive into these topics.

Nivi Achanta, Founder of the Soapbox Project

Caryn Paye, Disability Advocate, and Community organizer

In our work as designers and professional problem solvers, we often rely on years of experience and professional training to guide our work. But what happens when those skills, methodologies, expertise, and experience actually create barriers to authentic connection and shared power with community members?

Brooke Staton, Dr. Pierce Edward Cornelius Otlhogile-Gordon, and Milan Drake will dive into discussing how with the best of intentions (and the best of training), there are limitations of our expertise that can actually interfere with creating impact.

In this episode we want to discuss wealth, wealth hoarding, and what local and national economic development and policy strategies we need for shared prosperity.

These are just some of the topics we want to explore with our three fantastic speakers, Jennifer Njuguna, Keneshia Raymond, and Chuck Collins.

Conversations about cultural appropriation and reparations are increasingly persistent. But how often do we take the time to understand the work that has been evolving in these spaces for decades? How can we understand how our behaviors and actions play a role to sustain and reinforce extractive practices? What can we do on a regular basis to take just and restorative action?

These are just some of the questions we want to explore with our three amazing speakers, Kathryn Evans, President, Rooted Strategy; Tommy Johnson, Chief Education Officer, Made with Black Culture; and Allen Kwabena Frimpong, Co-Creator & Managing Partner, AdAstra Collective.

We talked about, moral injury, the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct (source: Moral Injury Project).

How does this play out in our social change organizations and work? Most of us do this work because we care deeply about justice and opportunity for all people. How do we reconcile instances when how our organizations operate, how decisions are made, and how actions are taken in the name of social good, violate our own moral compasses?

I was joined by three fantastic guests to dive into these topics.

Meico Marquette Whitlock, Mindful Techie, Author of When Work Doesn’t Love You Back

Frank Velásquez Jr., Founder, 4 Da Hood

Catherine Alonzo, CEO and Founding Partner, Javalina

We have heard so much chatter, promises, callouts, and call-ins regarding DEI and the absolute need for this work, but what has been accomplished? Experts and leaders feel pressure to meet this moment, but what has been the cost to people guiding and engaging in these efforts?

We want to talk about questions like:

- What does it really take to create awareness and change behavior in the long term?

- What are the small and large ripples that are created by new conversations and new accountability?

- What do you do when people reach a level of exhaustion required by self-awareness, new learning, repairing harm, and expectations for action that are involved?

We will be joined by three fantastic speakers:

Afia Amobeaa-Sakyi, Director, Equity & Inclusion, Exponent Philanthropy

Whitney Parnell, Founder & CEO, Service Never Sleeps

Cecilia (Wang) Wessinger, Director for Global Community, Global Entrepreneurship Network

If you work in social change, you probably have experienced the feeling of urgency, a rush to meet a deadline, a rush to address serious needs, or a rush to meet expectations of impact.

In the speed of our work, how often do we question what is gained and what is lost when we rush to create social change? What are the power dynamics that drive this speed and desire for rapid results? Do funders benefit? Do leaders benefit? Do organizations benefit? And most importantly, do communities benefit?

We want to talk about these and many other questions around urgency with three amazing guests:

Victor Udoewa, Chief Experience Officer & Service Design Lead, NASA

Tommie Collins, Design Strategist, ChiByDesign

Hilary Sedovic, Transdisciplinary Social Work Professional | Pragmatic Idealist

"Code-switching as it’s been coined by the POC community—specifically centered around the Black experience—is when Black people switch the way they speak, act, and interact with colleagues within the companies they work for. For a long time, code-switching has been a survival tactic. The thought of actually coming to work and being yourself as a Black person could potentially lead to discrimination, tokenism, and in some cases termination. In Black and POC communities, code-switching is seen as a necessary practice for advancing professionally and being considered as valuable at work. Transparently, there is no clear description of what code-switching looks like to everyone who experiences it, but generally, it is a tool that has been used to fit into a specific work culture that has been deemed appropriate. In retrospect, this deems any other behavior outside of the traditional guidelines, inappropriate." Excerpt from Margot Elise's article, "How Code-Switching in the Workplace Has Been Normalized for POCs"

We want to talk about the big questions including:

- What does code-switching look like in the social sector?

- What survival tactics are our social sector colleagues expected to employ to be seen as "valuable" and "appropriate"?

- What does it look like to belong inside and outside our organizations?

This very powerful and vulnerable conversation will be guided by:

Dorian Spears, National Program Partnerships and Strategy Lead, GET Cities

Stéphanie Bermúdez, Founder and CEO, Startup Unidos