Feedback and Two FavorsFriends -
I hope this finds you doing OK in these crazy times. I’m writing because I’m starting a small new experiment: a Workswell newsletter. My hope is to share a little of what I’m learning from helping organizations navigate growth, transition, and culture with a little more play and imagination. The conversations I’m part of often spark insights and tools that I think could be useful (or at least thought-provoking) beyond the room where they happen. So I’m starting a simple newsletter: occasional notes with stories, ideas, and practical tools from my work and collaborations. I’m definitely thinking of it as a light touch, quarterly to start, meant to share what I’m learning and invite you into the conversation. If you’d like to be on the list, you can sign up here. (Substack may show a “paid” option, but please ignore that, this is free.) And if not, no worries at all. It’s an experiment! I figured since it has been a full year, I called it “an experiment,” and my last Note was all about feedback, it seemed only right to share some reflections and ask for some input. Here’s what I know so far: I really enjoy writing these Notes, and I especially love it when people write back. That’s been the best part, by a mile. I’m at 246 subscribers, more than when I started, but still well short of the 700 I quietly (and arbitrarily) hoped for. I feel a little self-conscious caring about that, but there it is. I have two asks. The first is that I’d really appreciate feedback - I realize some of you are thinking “Can’t you just ask me to be a paying subscriber instead?” Nope, sorry. No intention of ever charging for this. I’d welcome the format from my last Note - I like, I wish, I wonder. If you’re feeling a bit more direct, you could test drive Keep, Stop, Start. Basically, I’m curious about what's working, what you wish were different, and if there is something you find yourself wondering about, related to these Notes or anything else for that matter. Hit reply, that's the whole thing The other ask is to help me increase readership. Adam Grant calls it the “five minute favor.” I’m hoping to use up four of the minutes on the feedback, and for the fifth minute, I was hoping you could cut and paste the following message, and then email or text (age appropriate activities always encouraged) to one human. Cut and paste: Hi - My friend Jill writes a periodic newsletter that I thought you might enjoy - it’s free on Substack. You can check it out/sign up here. Thanks! You could add details about why you picked them, but I’m also comfortable if you want to leave it a surprise. My Dad used to mail me whole sections of the Washington Post because there was an article in it he wanted me to read, and it always felt like part of the gesture involved figuring out which article he had in mind… OK, that’s what I got. Thanks for reading, replying, and sticking around for a year. #jill
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So Is FruitcakeI’ve been helping out with some job searches these past couple of months, and the other day I did a feedback call with one of the candidates with whom I’d spoken. She’d been advanced to the second round, but wasn’t moved forward as a finalist. In the email letting her know, I said - genuinely - that I’d been impressed by her, that I hoped she’d stay involved with the organization, and that I was happy to do a call to provide more feedback if she’d like. All of which I meant. She replied that she was interested in staying involved, and that she’d very much appreciate the feedback.
So I prepared. I reviewed my notes from our interview and the notes my fellow interviewer shared with me. I listed the strengths I’d seen, and the things that had given the committee pause. I ran the notes through Claude and asked for suggestions on how to frame the feedback, and took some of its suggestions. I wrote it all up and had it in front of me when we spoke. I’m pretty convinced that as mammals, we’re basically lame at feedback. As a result, feedback is a mixed bag. People often say feedback is a gift, but that always makes me think, “so is fruitcake.” (Completely random aside: if you’ve never read “Just Desserts” from the Texas Monthly, about the embezzlement case at the Colin Street Bakery, stop reading this and go read it now: https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/just-desserts/) We get better at things by doing them frequently, and because we’ve come to associate feedback almost exclusively with talking about what isn’t working, we avoid it and then get worse at it, both the giving and receiving. Feedback, like most worthwhile things, takes time to do well. It benefits from being intentionally designed to be useful and actionable for the recipient. I know that’s blindingly obvious, but I also think it’s a genuinely helpful way to think about it. For this issue, I wanted to share a few feedback tools I’ve learned from my time at the Stanford d.school (where I’m having a blast on this latest interim engagement - thanks for all the nice notes on LinkedIn!):
My album-of-the-week crusade continues, too. So far: The Stones’ new album Foreign Tongues, David Grisman’s Mondo Mando, Allison Russell’s In the Hour of Chaos, Al Green Explores Your Mind, Cahalen Morrison’s Old Timey and New Fangled, and Erykah Badu and The Alchemist’s new album Before the World Blows. This week’s listen is a little more obscure - Ike Quebec’s Bossa Nova Soul Samba - recommended by a new client from the Siesta Valley Bowl. If you live in the Bay Area, definitely check them out - a new performance venue where CalShakes used to be, featuring live music that will help you prolong the summer! The third thing I love about the commute is other people. Not the ones in other cars so much, but Elizabeth has guest-commuted with me, which makes it feel more like a road trip than a commute, and I’ve taken to both scheduling calls and randomly just calling friends and family. Remember that? When you’d just call someone instead of scheduling a time to talk? It’s really quite enjoyable. In other updates, The Chair Project keeps growing, and I’m learning a lot from a more cohort-based model, working with five different Camp Fire affiliates. I’m also excited to launch a new engagement working with Co-Chairs, to see how that experience differs. The Chair Pairs have been meeting, and I’m hoping to get a better read this fall on how they’re faring, possibly adjusting the frequency and the amount of support The Chair Project offers. If you, or someone you know, is a Board Chair and interested in being part of The Chair Project going forward, I’m planning to take on new engagements in January. Email me and let’s talk. One fun, slightly random development over the summer: a rogue LinkedIn group called The Play People, founded by Matthew Corson-Finnerty, an architectural fabricator turned playground designer turned virtual community organizer. Matthew organized an improbably complicated game on LinkedIn involving posting and mucking about with profiles, and generally reminding everyone that it’s possible to take your work seriously while not taking yourself too seriously. Especially noteworthy, I thought, was the fact that this group managed to come a lot closer to LinkedIn’s theoretical goal of promoting networking and human connection than almost any other initiative I’ve seen on the platform. Play strikes again! Congratulations to the winner, Erin Faehrmann, who received a t-shirt emblazoned with the Play People’s mascot, Melton. You can probably guess where this is going: the shirt is now in Jill’s Tee Shop, with all proceeds benefiting the Playworks Pennsylvania program (because that’s where Melton and Matthew live). OK, that’s it for this issue. Thanks for reading, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s something here that prompts you to do or think something you’d like to share. Thanks, jill PS The Valkyries are in second place (like, of the whole WNBA!), which is mind-blowing for a team in their second season. Whatever happens, I am putting my love and appreciation for the team out into the universe. PPS It feels like we’ve lost a bunch of amazing people these last few weeks. In their collective honor I’m sharing a link to a poem I’ve always loved, Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. |
