After over four years of publishing our content on Medium, Fractured Atlas is launching a new-and-improved blog: Inciter Art.

Inciter Art will continue to be the place for artist spotlights, resources, tips, tricks, and tools to ignite your artistic and creative progress. We’ve updated the blog to reflect our sleek new look and to provide more functionality in the long-term.

The best part is you don’t have to do anything! You’ll still be able to access all of the content you’re used to at blog.fracturedatlas.org. On Wednesday, October 2nd, the new blog will appear at your old links like a shiny new sports car parked at your front door.

Thank you, Medium, for giving us a platform to share resources for artists, creatives, and anyone willing to rethink #HowWeWork. We’re excited to share even more!

Sincerely,

The Fractured Atlas Team

Making Moves From Medium was originally published in Fractured Atlas Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Tim Cynova, Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas

Around Memorial Day each year when my sister and I were kids, our parents would take us to the McCollough Branch of the Evansville Public Library. It was that annual rite of passage — the summer reading challenge! We’d select a hefty stack of books, and then hope to God come Labor Day we’d have read enough of them to earn that sweet certificate for a free scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream.

In the spirit of those early ‘80s summer reading challenges, I’ve pulled together what’s currently on my reading list for the summer. And, if I can complete just four of these books come Labor Day, you better believe I’m headed to Baskin Robbins, or Shake Shack, whichever is closest.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Restorying Indigenous Leadership: Wise Practices in Community Development

by Cora Voyageur, Laura Brearley, and Brian Calliou

Restorying Indigenous Leadership: Wise Practices in Community Development is a foundational resource of the most recent scholarship on Indigenous leadership. The authors in this anthology share their research through nonfictional narratives, innovative approaches to Indigenous community leadership, and inspiring accounts of success, presenting many models for Indigenous leader development. These engaging stories are followed by a Wise Practices section featuring seven significant contemporary case study summaries. Restorying promotes hope for the future, individual agency, and knowledge of successful community economic development based upon community assets. It is a diverse collection of iterative and future-oriented ways to achieve community growth that acknowledges the centrality of Indigenous culture and identity.

Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance

by Edgar Villanueva

Decolonizing Wealth is a provocative analysis of the dysfunctional colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance. Award-winning philanthropy executive Edgar Villanueva draws from the traditions from the Native way to prescribe the medicine for restoring balance and healing our divides.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race

by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

by Martin Ford

What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making “good jobs” obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working- and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries- education and health care- that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself. The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren’t going to work. We must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading to understand what accelerating technology means for our economic prospects- not to mention those of our children- as well as for society as a whole.

So You Want to Talk About Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America. Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy — from police brutality to the mass incarceration of African Americans — have made it impossible to ignore the issue of race. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair — and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

by Cal Newport

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there’s a better way. A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored.

When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America

by Ira Katznelson

Ira Katznelson fundamentally recasts our understanding of twentieth-century American history and demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. Through mechanisms designed by Southern Democrats that specifically excluded maids and farm workers, the gap between black and white people actually widened despite postwar prosperity. In the words of noted historian Eric Foner, “Katznelson’s incisive book should change the terms of debate about affirmative action, and about the last seventy years of American history.”

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

In The Second Machine Age MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives. Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds―from lawyers to truck drivers―will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar. Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

by Rebecca Solnit

Written as a series of autobiographical essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost draws on emblematic moments and relationships in Rebecca Solnit’s life to explore issues of uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. Solnit is interested in the stories we use to navigate our way through the world, and the places we traverse, from wilderness to cities, in finding ourselves, or losing ourselves. While deeply personal, her own stories link up to larger stories, from captivity narratives of early Americans to the use of the color blue in Renaissance painting, not to mention encounters with tortoises, monks, punk rockers, mountains, deserts, and the movie Vertigo. The result is a distinctive, stimulating voyage of discovery.

No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work

by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy

The modern workplace can be an emotional minefield, filled with confusing power structures and unwritten rules. We’re expected to be authentic, but not too authentic. Professional, but not stiff. Friendly, but not an oversharer. Easier said than done! As both organizational consultants and regular people, we know what it’s like to experience uncomfortable emotions at work — everything from mild jealousy and insecurity to panic and rage. Ignoring or suppressing what you feel hurts your health and productivity — but so does letting your emotions run wild. Our goal in this book is to teach you how to figure out which emotions to toss, which to keep to yourself, and which to express in order to be both happier and more effective.

Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries

by Safi Bahcall

Loonshots reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs. Drawing on the science of “phase transitions,” Bahcall shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing wild new ideas to rigidly rejecting them. Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires. Loonshots distills these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere.

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do

by Claude M. Steele

Claude Steele shares the experiments and studies that show, again and again, that exposing subjects to stereotypes impairs their performance in the area affected by the stereotype. Steele’s conclusions shed new light on a host of American social phenomena, from the racial and gender gaps in standardized test scores to the belief in the superior athletic prowess of black men. Steele explicates the dilemmas that arise in every American’s life around issues of identity, from the white student whose grades drop steadily in his African American Studies class to the female engineering students deciding whether or not to attend predominantly male professional conferences. Whistling Vivaldi offers insight into how we form our senses of identity and ultimately lays out a plan for mitigating the negative effects of “stereotype threat” and reshaping American identities.

Bring Your Human to Work: 10 Surefire Ways to Design a Workplace That Is Good for People, Great for Business, and Just Might Change the World

by Erica Keswin

As human beings, we are built to connect and form relationships. So, it should be no surprise that relationships must also translate into the workplace, where we spend most of our time. Companies that recognize this will retain the most productive, creative, and loyal employees, and invariably seize the competitive edge. The most successful leaders are those who actively form quality relationships with their employees, who honor fundamental human qualities―authenticity, openness, and basic politeness―and apply them day in and day out. Paying attention and genuinely caring about the effects people have on one another other is key to developing a winning culture where people perform at the top of their game and want to work.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by James Clear

Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving and will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits — whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

by Robin DiAngelo

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within

by Robert E. Quinn

Don’t let your company kill you! Open this book at your own risk. It contains ideas that may lead to a profound self-awakening. An introspective journey for those in the trenches of today’s modern organizations, Deep Change is a survival manual for finding our own internal leadership power. By helping us learn new ways of thinking and behaving, it shows how we can transform ourselves from victims to powerful agents of change. And for anyone who yearns to be an internally driven leader, to motivate the people around them, and return to a satisfying work life, Deep Change holds the key.

Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution

by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell

Beautiful Trouble brings together dozens of seasoned artists and activists from around the world to distill their best practices into a toolbox for creative action. Sophisticated enough for veteran activists, accessible enough for newbies, this compendium of troublemaking wisdom is a must-have for aspiring changemakers. Showcasing the synergies between artistic imagination and shrewd political strategy, Beautiful Trouble is for everyone who longs for a more beautiful, more just, more livable world — and wants to know how to get there.

Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers

by Trent Hergenrader

The digital technologies of the 21st century are reshaping how we experience storytelling. More than ever before, storylines from the world’s most popular narratives cross from the pages of books to the movie theatre, to our television screens and in comic books series. Plots intersect and intertwine, allowing audiences many different entry points to the narratives. In this sometimes bewildering array of stories across media, one thing binds them together: their large-scale fictional world. Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers describes how writers can co-create vast worlds for use as common settings for their own stories. Using the worlds of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones, and Dungeons & Dragons as models, this book guides readers through a step-by-step process of building sprawling fictional worlds complete with competing social forces that have complex histories and yet are always evolving. It also shows readers how to populate a catalog with hundreds of unique people, places, and things that grow organically from their world, which become a rich repository of story making potential.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

by Priya Parker

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive — which they don’t have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. The result is a book that’s both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue — and how you host and attend them.

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

by Martin E.P. Seligman

Flourish builds on Seligman’s game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life — for individuals, for communities, and for nations. In a fascinating evolution of thought and practice, Flourish refines what Positive Psychology is all about. With interactive exercises to help readers explore their own attitudes and aims, Flourish is a watershed in the understanding of happiness as well as a tool for getting the most out of life.

So, what’s on your summer reading list?

Tim Cynova’s work focuses on people-centric organizational design. He is a certified Senior Professional in HR, trained mediator, principal at Work. Shouldn’t. Suck., and the Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps artists with the business aspects of their work.

by Tim Cynova, Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas

[This time of year brings a whole host of looking back, looking forward pieces. Instead of a round-up of the top books or movies, or predictions about what’s to come in 2019, I thought it might be a good time to check in on our anti-racism, anti-oppression journey at Fractured Atlas.]

A number of years ago when Fractured Atlas was beginning in earnest our journey towards becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive organization I asked someone working in the space if they could point me in the direction of case studies about other companies with similar complexities to ours who were doing the work well. (When embarking on something new, I often scan the space to see what kind of learning is available that I can leverage and then iterate on in our own work.) The person essentially said, nope, they couldn’t think of any, but that people were watching Fractured Atlas as we embarked on this journey and would be interested to see how we approached it. That was about four years ago.

Increasingly in recent months, my Fractured Atlas colleagues Nicola Carpenter, Courtney Harge, Lauren Ruffin, Jillian Wright, our Board member Lisa Yancey, and I have had opportunities to chat with awesome people around the country about where we are in our organizational journey, and share ideas and experiences around the “how” of operationalizing commitments to creating anti-racist, anti-oppressive (ARAO) teams and organizations.

It’s not uncommon for us to meet with those in predominantly white organizations and find people wanting to do the work, but not sure exactly how to approach it. In the absence of a template, clear path forward, or “buy in” from their board of directors, they remain stuck. And in doing this work, it quickly becomes evident that we’re either moving forward, or we’re falling behind.

There is no neutral. Racism and oppression don’t take days off.

Specific Things We’ve Been Doing

We created the image below as a kind of snapshot of what’s happened over the past few years during our ARAO journey at Fractured Atlas. The graphic (and duplicate list below) includes things we’ve explored and implemented to support the creation of a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace, and some significant milestones that have occurred along the way. The image is the result of a quick, almost stream-of-consciousness round up of the many things we’ve experienced at Fractured Atlas, with many happening in the past two years.

• Committed to becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive (ARAO) organization
• Created staff ARAO baseline & provide monthly race-based caucuses
• Crafted ARAO Community Guidelines & created a staff review committee
• Developed Negative Interactions Protocol to guide challenging interactions
• Acquired & integrated our for-profit software development subsidiary
• Developed four-person, shared, non-hierarchical leadership structure
• Founder & CEO departed after 20 years
• Launched an impact investment fund focused on the intersection of exponential creativity & technology
• De-siloed our four core programs into one Programs team
• Adopted Objectives & Key Results (OKR) framework for increased transparency, alignment & accountability
• Launched all staff core curriculum training
• Introduced unlimited vacation days
• Focused on employer brand & unbiasing hiring process; training more staff to interview & hire
• Published How We Work: A Guide to Working at Fractured Atlas
• Created a humane, respectful, trusting, and flexible hourly-based staff tier
• Cradle-to-grave family leave policy & structured support
• Strict fixed-tier compensation structure
• Renovated HQ with eye towards how physical space can best support people’s work
• Global Board with members in 4 countries, 6 time zones, and 2 people joining from tomorrow
• Transitioning to be fully virtual organization by January 2020
• Oh, almost forgot! We launched a companion site for this work at Work. Shouldn’t. Suck.

The list is by no means exhaustive. It’s been an incredibly busy couple of years filled with exploration, change, and iteration on many fronts. (Here is a round up of changes we experienced in simply one year alone.) This list also largely omits numerous changes in our programs and services, as well as developments in our software and technology infrastructure — both of which have experienced an entire grid of activity in their own rights — in favor of focusing more on ones firmly intersecting our People Operations work.

What If? How Might We?

Each tile on the grid above reflects opportunities where we asked ourselves a series of questions that usually began with a “What if?” or “How might we?” How might we better live our anti-racism, anti-oppression principles to serve our amazing members? How might we craft an organization that is more diverse, more inclusive, and more equitable as we approach this new thing? How might we create a workplace where more of our coworkers can thrive and make their dents in the universe?

Then we got more granular: What if we approached designing an organizational leadership structure that was more reflective of our ARAO values rather than how conventional “wisdom” suggests organization to structure hierarchically? How might [insert item] be an opportunity for us to better reflect our ARAO commitment, support people, and move our organization forward? If we all don’t live and work in the same city, how might we build a unified organizational culture, rather than one that varies depending on where someone is located?

Each item in the grid could have its own blog post, if not a book, delving into the how, the why, the stumbling blocks, and the lessons learned. Fortunately, we *have* written about some of these efforts here, here, here, here, and here. (And have more pieces in development.) Other items we dive into more deeply during our Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. bootcamps, HR Hours, and brown bag lunch chats with various organizations.

Has It Made Any Difference?

Looking at staff composition is one way — but certainly not the *only* way — of seeing how this work, and our journey, has impacted Fractured Atlas. Given that when we began this work we were a white-led organization with only one or two people of color on staff; we primarily worked from one office in New York City; and, we only had white men on our software development team, personnel metrics became a helpful proxy. Below is a snapshot of how those demographics changed over a five-year period.

Moving Forward in Ambiguity

The journey certainly hasn’t been without challenges, as any foray involving change is certain to include. (I wrote an entire piece about the psychological impacts of change here, and we’ve ticked off numerous instances of each during this journey.) We have and continue to struggle in places, and encountered unexpected hiccups in others. We made the best decisions we could at the time and then, importantly, iterated when things didn’t work out as we had hoped. This process continues to this day because, once on this journey, the work never ends.

There’s still no reliable template that I’ve found to do the work of dismantling racism and oppression in the workplace, which often leads to expressions of disappointment when people ask. It all depends really. It depends on where you are as a team and organization. It depends on your available resources. It depends most of all on your joint commitment — staff and board — to do the work, especially when it seems hardest and like you’re not making any progress. We move forward in ambiguity, an old friend of mine used to say, and we keep moving.

Because this work, and world, are ever evolving, we at Fractured Atlas couldn’t even follow the path we took if we were to do it all over again. That’s a liberating thought, though. The work is bespoke. All of us can use our creativity — wherever we find ourselves in our organizations — to move it forward. Simply reflecting on this question can yield helpful ideas: How might the decisions I make right now about [this thing] move us towards a more diverse, inclusive, and/or equitable team and organization? We all have agency, even if it might not initially seem so.

Ideas to Explore

Creating a negative interactions protocol and starting monthly race-based caucusing are great ways to move the work forward. But, depending on where you and your organization are in the journey, there might be other things you want to explore first. Might I suggest a few items for your consideration?

Here are a few ideas:

• Begin introducing yourself using your gender pronouns, and ask others theirs. List yours in your bio or email signature.
• Start a staff book club to explore new ideas and skill development. Might I suggest something from the lists here, here, and here.
• Bring more new ideas and perspectives to your work from outside of your sector through a regular Visiting Professionals Series. #ProTip: Ask your Board chair to be the inaugural guest. Or, ask someone from a group who’s doing diversity, inclusion, and/or equity work to come and share their journey.
• Strengthen board/staff connections and understanding by having an annual board/staff reception before a board meeting. It doesn’t need to be fancy, the sheer act of getting people together will be appreciated by those in attendance.
• Take a few minutes to complete the Core Values Exercise Patrick Lencioni details in The Advantage. Why?
• Learn more about how to create high-performing teams and organizations by listening to Adam Grant’s Work/Life podcast.
• Are you a White person? Listen to Scene on Radio’s Seeing White series and use the study guide resource to discuss it with other white people. Or explore similar resources.
• Increase organizational transparency and understanding by circulating your board meeting packet — unredacted — to staff. Then, take questions about the contents during your staff meeting. #ProTip: Use Google Forms to create a way to anonymously accept questions. This is particularly useful for sensitive inquiries or for staff members who might otherwise feel uncomfortable standing up in front of the entire organization to ask a question.
• Level up that transparency — share the agenda from your leadership team meetings with the entire staff.
• Recognize that resilience and self-care are a crucial part of this work if we’re to be successful. Check out my suggestions on that work here.
• Google’s re:Work site offers a wealth of free resources, including for Unbiasing & Strategic Hiring.
• Speaking of strategic hiring, remove educational requirements from your job postings. Why?
• Make space for the different ways people process information by introducing a 30-second “Introvert Pause” after asking a question in meetings.
• Formalize the members of your People Operations team. #ProTip: Members don’t need to focus 100% of their day on People Ops. For instance, the three members of the Fractured Atlas People team — Jillian, Nicola, and I — split our time, in various proportions, over FinPOps (Finance, People, and Operations).

Questions? Want to explore this more? Let’s chat!

If you have questions about how we approached anything on the list above, or other work we’ve done in the area, please ping us for a free HR Hour chat, apply to attend our upcoming Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. bootcamp on February 23 (deadline to apply is January 15), let us know if chatting with your board would be useful, and we also love lunch and brown bag-style conversations with teams too.

Register to attend our upcoming Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. Bootcamp if you’re interested in exploring more about how these tools can be used to create high-performing teams and organizations.

Tim Cynova focuses on people-centric organizational design to create thriving workplaces. He is a certified Senior Professional in HR, trained mediator, principal at Work. Shouldn’t. Suck., and a Co-CEO and Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps artists with the business aspects of their work.

It is December, which means that I am watching way too many holiday movies -(specifically the romcom variety that Hallmark and Netflix do so well), and it seems like I’m not alone. As I’ve been watching movie after movie, I have noticed some common themes: baking cookies (yum!), accidentally falling in love with a prince (or Santa’s son!), really fake looking snow (or incredibly not winter friendly outfits!), and people loving their jobs (just kidding).

There are so many terrible work situations in these movies. There are people who are miserable at work, people who need to escape to small towns away from their jobs to realize the important things in life, and more than one workplace that requires a staff member to get married in order to get promoted (this one still has me completely perplexed).

Whenever I see a toxic workplace on the screen, I feel the need to offer these fictional companies some People Operations advice, because:

Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. Even for Santa’s elves.

To Holiday Shipping from Christmas Under Wraps:

I recognize that your shipping company is actually a front for Santa’s workshop, but you should know that this secrecy and lack of transparency can lead to a whole sleigh full of issues. If employees don’t know where your company is going or why, important information can be lost. Different teams can be working towards goals that are not in alignment with organizational objectives.

I’m not sure exactly how your company is organized, but let’s say that you have a toy making department and a request department, and both are siloed and not in regular communication about their goals. This could lead to the toy making department making too many teddy bears and not enough cordless drills, making some kid out there really sad that they didn’t receive their drill. Now let’s say that your organization mission is to make kids of the world happy. The result of the lack of transparency is in direct opposition to your mission.

I might suggest you think about experimenting with Objectives and Key Results to increase the transparency within your organization and help the entire organization stay on track during your December busy season. Here’s some additional information about how Fractured Atlas uses OKRs that might be helpful. With OKRs in your rotation of tools, I think that you can absolutely achieve your stretch goals this year.

To Mr. Singh in Holiday Calendar:

I know that you run a small photography company and you might think that you don’t have time or resources to invest in your staff, but here’s a primer in why you can’t wait until tomorrow to focus on People Ops.

You lost one of you most talented staff members, Abby Sutton. Sometimes this is inevitable and you should be happy when your employees leave to do exciting things, but there was a missed opportunity to make things better through Job Crafting before she left. Abby seemed to want more creative freedom in her photography, and that might have been something that your company could have benefited from.

Here’s a Job Crafting booklet so you can use this tool with a future employee that’s feeling stuck in their role. Your organization is going to be a lot stronger if you have engaged employees, so I encourage you to find ways of rethinking work. We’re actually having a Strategic HR Bootcamp in February that I encourage you to attend. You’ll meet others in the creative sector who are working through similar challenges and we’ll also give you takeaways that you can bring back to work the Monday afterwords.

To the Publishing company in Christmas Getaway:

You’re doing a lot of things well! Your openness to remote work options is really great, but I also want to remind you that encouraging employees to take time off is important and will actually improve productivity, general happiness of your staff, and has additional benefits too. One downside to remote work is the tendency to blur the line between between when you’re working and when you’re not. This can absolutely be mitigated, and I’d recommend that you read the book Remote: Office Not Required. It should give you helpful tips to share with your staff to make sure that they are working remotely in a way that’s beneficial to the organization and themselves.

I also want to question how your organization is training its employees to have difficult conversations. It seems like one of your editors would rather trick one of her writers into renting a cabin and writing an article instead of telling her directly that her writing was getting impersonal. It’s important to be willing to have these difficult conversations at work, and is a key trait of high performing teams. A couple resources to check out for improving your organization’s ability to have these conversations are to take a look at Crucial Conversations and Fierce Conversations.

To Emerson Foods in Married By Christmas:

You have a new owner and one of your senior executives recently resigned. This is an opportunity to take risks and innovate, but is also a time of big change for everyone. Change initiatives go most smoothly when you take time to figure out how you will manage them. This is a blog post that outlines the human psychology of change initiatives and it has some things that could be helpful to you as you plan.

I want to pull out one of the tools that I think could be particularly helpful to you when thinking about the current changes you’re experiencing. It’s called SCARF and is an acronym that represents 5 things that trigger someone’s fight or flight mode. The 5 items are: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.

As you read through that list, you’ll likely recognize some things that resonate. If you look at Status and Fairness, you can start to see why Carrie might have responded negatively after learning that there was a stipulation in her grandmother’s will that stated that the company would be inherited by the husband of the granddaughter who married first. This threatened her sense of status and fairness (she was under the impression that she would inherit the family company). There are also likely people in the company who are feeling a lack of certainty, so you might want to try increasing your communication to let people know about the changes to come. Also, remember that these are all about how someone feels about a situation. If someone perceives a situation as unfair or uncertain the fight or flight switches are going to go off for them even if you don’t agree with the situation.

Besides managing change, you’ll also likely need to hire people in the coming months. This Primer outlines topics that you should be aware of in the hiring process including employer branding, how to build a high performing team, and biases that affect your decision making ability. Good luck in these times of change. And if Ethan ever feels like he’s drinking from a fire hose with all this new information, others have been there before.

Now, is there anything WE can learn from these cheesy (but wonderful) movies?

I think that there’s something we can learn from these movies. Besides the fact that there are a whole lot of people who don’t love their jobs, these movies also repeatedly show us that relationships matter. Now, do I believe that two people should get married after knowing each other for a week? No. Do I think that workplaces should be more welcoming to everyone and that we all need to find ways to celebrate resiliency and self care at work? Absolutely. If these movies say that the true meaning of the holiday season is love and friendship, then I say that the true meaning of work is to make the world a better place, one step at a time. [Camera slowly pans out from a desk of me writing this in a snowy cottage in the mountains while sappy music plays and end credits roll.]

If you wish that like these fictional companies, you too could receive some People Operations assistance, have we got a gift for you! Take a look at our People Ops Portal where you can learn more about our philosophy and what we do, and in February you can attend our Strategic HR Bootcamp. We’d love to hear about your people challenges and stay connected, even if you don’t live in a holiday movie.

Nicola Carpenter is the Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps artists with the business aspects of their work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

To the Companies in Holiday Movies, You Seriously Need Some People Ops Assistance was originally published in Fractured Atlas Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re thrilled to announce that we are once again offering our one-day Strategic HR Bootcamp on Saturday, February 23, 2019 in New York City. Only 25 spots are available for this cohort due to space constraints, and the deadline to apply is January 15, 2019. (Don’t sweat, it’s a brief application with only two questions aside from your name and contact information). Cost, with scholarship, is $100.

What exactly is “Strategic” HR?

Strategic HR is HR — or People Operations as we like to call it at Fractured Atlas — that permeates the entire organization. Decisions and planning reflect an understanding of the impact and realities of our people, operations, finances, and programs. When HR becomes strategic HR, it’s a powerful force in helping organizations level up.

HR becomes strategic when it’s understood as a senior-level management competency. It’s not simply, “We need to post for the open Director of Development position,” but, “with our longtime Director of Development now departing, what is the purpose of this role; what are the traits and talents we need in an ideal candidate for us to be successful tomorrow and two years from now (rather than the success we’ve experienced in the past five years), and what conditions need to exist first in our organization to attract that particular candidate?”

“This program was fantastic!” — 2018 Participant

What’s the Strategic HR Bootcamp?

The bootcamp is an in-person, one-day intensive that teaches managers and leaders skills, frameworks, tips and tricks to be creative and successful with People Operations. This bootcamp will offer tools that people can immediately use to elevate their People Ops chops to the senior-level competency. It will help participants create and maintain innovative workplaces — with a sense of shared purpose — where people can do their best work, thrive, and ultimately, change the world.

Oh, that’s fascinating. Well, am I the right person to attend the Bootcamp?

This particular Strategic HR Bootcamp is designed for decision makers in cultural sector organizations who can be actively involved in creating and executing their organization’s HR — or People Ops — strategy and initiatives. You’re the executive or managing director, the general manager or the director of external relations or programs. You’re on your organization’s leadership team and want to learn actionable ways that People Ops can help your organization achieve its goals.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciated this! I learned so much and had a great time.” — 2018 Participant

What topics will be covered?

Oodles and oodles of fascinating topics. The bootcamp will feature a handful of different modules — and include a special People Ops guest star interview! The modules will cover aspects like employer branding and articulating core values; building recruitment pipelines and strategic hiring; performance management and holding people accountable; skills to use for challenging conversations; aligning individual and team motivators; introducing and embedding anti-racism and anti-oppression efforts throughout your organization; talent and skill development; new approaches to benefits and payroll administration; managing change initiatives and their related psychological impact; remote work arrangements and communication channels; and alternative team structures.

“I felt so energized after leaving the bootcamp because a lot of the ideas we discussed resonated so much with me personally… and we left with actionable ways of how we can implement what we learned.” — 2018 Participant

When is it?

The second annual Strategic HR Bootcamp will take place on Saturday, February 23, 2019, from 9:00AM until 5:30PM (Don’t worry, we’ll close out the day with festive drinks, free-flowing conversation, and time to ping your new Bootcamp BFFs on LinkedIn.)

I can’t make that date. Will you offer the Bootcamp again?

Likely, but nothing is currently scheduled. Either way, if you can’t make it, stay tuned to the Fractured Atlas blog for updates, or dig into our resources on Work. Shouldn’t. Suck.

Where does it take place?

The bootcamp will take place in Midtown Manhattan within a few blocks of Penn Station.

What does it cost me?

The bootcamp fee is $750 with each participant receiving a $650 scholarship making your cost only $100. That’s right, $100! Well, $100 and a few hours of your time in advance to read some articles and complete a confidential online implicit bias assessment. If you’re accepted into the program, we’ll send you a link to pay the $100 fee as well as circulate prep materials in advance of the bootcamp.

If you apply before December 31, 2018 you’ll get an additional early bird discount to bring your cost down to $75.

What’s included?

Light breakfast, lunch, sparkling and still water, snacks, tea and coffee, gum, afternoon festive drinks, and knowledge… lots and lots of useful knowledge.

How do I apply?

Please complete this brief application by January 15, 2019 to be considered for one of the available spots. With limited space available, we will be reviewing applications to ensure the best alignment between the bootcamp content and those who will be able to immediately put it to use in their teams and organizations. Applicants will be notified of their acceptance status no later than January 18, 2019.

Do I need to be a Fractured Atlas member to apply and attend?

Nope, but we’ll think you’re extra awesome if you happen to be one.

Why is Fractured Atlas doing this?

Why not? We’ve spent a great deal of time and energy over the years learning from organizations, behavioral science, and studies across sectors about how to implement a strong People Ops strategy, and then figuring out how to take those learnings and apply them. We find it invigorating to share what we’ve learned — the good, the pitfalls, the fascinating, the rewarding — with colleagues across sectors. We also find that we learn something new about how we can approach our own efforts with every new conversation we have with peers.

“The depth of thinking that Fractured Atlas has done around these issues is deeply appreciated. The warmth and humor of the presenters made the material accessible.”— 2018 Participant

Will the Bootcamp content be available online?

This specific content will not be available online, as the bootcamp is designed for in-person learning. For online resources, please check out our Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. site, or ping us for a free HR Hour consultation video call if you want to chat about a specific challenge you’re facing.

Who will be leading the sessions?

The three members of the Fractured Atlas People team — Nicola Carpenter, Tim Cynova, and Jillian Wright — include a certified Senior Professional in HR (SPHR), a certified Professional in HR (PHR), a certified Crucial Conversations and What Motivates Me trainer; the creators of How We Work, Work. Shouldn’t. Suck., and Fractured Atlas’s staff core curriculum program; a trained mediator, a fully remote staff member, a practicing mixed media artist, a former dancer and dance educator, and a former trombonist and musicologist. In addition to their love of and extensive experience in People operations, the People team’s other interests include bourbon, burritos, bicycling, clogs, artisanal donuts, gardening, parenting, and visiting museums — in no particular order.

What if I have questions?

If you have additional questions about the Strategic HR Bootcamp, and whether it’s right for you, please ping us at support@fracturedatlas.org. If you’re looking for additional resources to help you on your People operations journey check out Work. Shouldn’t. Suck. and this extensive list of books, online courses, videos, thought leaders, and more!

Look forward to seeing you in February!

Tim Cynova is a certified Senior Professional in HR, trained mediator, and the Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps artists with the business aspects of their work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

In October 2016, Fractured Atlas presented its commitment to anti-racism/anti-oppression. Specifically,

As part of Fractured Atlas’s commitment to supporting individual artists and the arts sector overall in firmly planting themselves in justice, we are especially committed to ensuring that our environment, and those created by our member artists, are welcoming to all individuals, regardless of race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability, or any other bias that may present itself. Each day we are working, to paraphrase Mr. Baldwin, to dismiss the vocabulary we have hidden behind for so very long. [Emphasis added.]

In the time since that post, we have released our Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Community Guidelines, implemented race-based caucusing for staff, expanded our anti-oppression analysis to include issues of disability and accessibility, and shared resources to support others wishing to start this work. We are constantly questioning our policies and positions while iterating more inclusive tactics in service of our products and internal operations.

The work is never done and we remain committed to doing it.

In service of ensuring that our environment is welcoming to all individuals, here are two initiatives (one external; one internal) we have instituted at Fractured Atlas:

• The Community Guidelines Complaint Form
• Negative Customer Service Interaction Tactics

The Community Guidelines Complaint Form

When Fractured Atlas debuted its Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Community Guidelines, it was important to staff that these guidelines weren’t hollow or toothless. We needed our guidelines to empower members of our community to hold us accountable to our values and each other. Moreover, we wanted the guidelines to be supported by a complaint/review process that is thoughtful, transparent, and effective. The Community Guidelines Complaint Form is designed to do just that.

This brief form is now open for everyone to identify members of our community that may be operating in ways that are counter to our guidelines. Fractured Atlas will receive, review, and respond to these complaints in service of cultivating more positive relationships with those in our community who may have been harmed by others. It is our mission to eliminate practical barriers to artistic expression: one of those barriers is not being able to call out (or call in) harmful practices, situations, or experiences. This complaint form allows anyone to call in those they’ve encountered who could operate more inclusively and responsibly. It allows Fractured Atlas to support those who have been harmed, educate those who wish to be better, and distance itself from those who continue to harm.

Once we receive a complaint, an in-staff committee reviews it and determines next steps. This process includes conversations with the complainant, community member-in-question, Fractured Atlas staff, and other relevant stakeholders. There will be ample opportunities for the community member to address the complaint in conversation with the review committee. We, also, stand firmly in our non-curatorial stance: we aren’t prioritizing a type of art nor a point of view or subject matter. We are stating that in order to work with Fractured Atlas you need to be accountable to the community who interacts with your creative practice and the community-at-large.

Fractured Atlas is not positioning itself as the arbiter of oppression. We are, however, the arbiters of who we work with and how our services help (or harm) the community. The complaint form allows you to let us (and your fellow community members) know how we’re doing and what we need to be seeing.

Negative Customer Service Interaction Tactics

While the Community Guidelines Complaint Form allows for external stakeholders to identify issues within our community, we needed a different solution for some internal issues regarding customer interactions.

• What do we do if a customer is saying harmful things to a person providing service?
• What do we do if a customer is engaging in abusive behavior?
• What do we do if a customer is gaslighting a staff member by being harmful to them, denying any negative behavior, and being overly pleasant to a different staff member?
• How do we take care of staff by acknowledging and minimizing the emotional labor involved in managing harmful interactions?

This is connected to our anti-racism and anti-oppression work because “professional behavior” can actually be a manifestation of white supremacy culture. For example, “the customer is always right” prioritizes the feelings of a person in power over the harm they commit. We also wanted to recognize that each person has their own threshold for responding to negative interactions: what one person can tolerate should not be the barometer for what all people can tolerate. Additionally, individuals have varying capacities at any given moment. We wanted to develop a solution that supported staff while also acknowledging their autonomy and ability to self-regulate.

Enter the Negative Customer Service Interaction Tactics document.

This document (which we are also offering as a free template for your use) serves as a guide for staff to reference while in a negative interaction. It offers prompts to support a variety of resolutions for the interaction while empowering the staff member to make the choice that is best suited to what they need at that moment.

Yes, this document allows for staff members to hang up on customers with the full support of the organization.

We found that staff were engaging in negative interactions for far longer than was reasonable or healthy. We also discovered that staff felt that they were required to stay in those interactions to provide “good customer service.” Our staff needed explicit permission to extract themselves from these situations. They also needed to know that the organization would support them in standing up for themselves, their communities and their coworkers. And, frankly, customers having a standard of behavior to adhere to encourages everyone to be more respectful.

Fighting racism and oppression is a battle on multiple fronts. I am a firm believer that one should fight on whatever front they can, no matter how big or small. These two initiatives are small battles on small fronts that can have a huge impact on how we work with others and how comfortable people feel working with us. That feels like a giant step in the right direction.

If you have questions about either of these initiatives, feel free to reach out to us at support@fracturedatlas.org.

Courtney Harge is the Member Advisor and POC Caucus Liaison at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps over 1.2 million artists with the business aspects of their work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

A Welcoming Environment: Next Steps in our Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Work was originally published in Fractured Atlas Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Earlier this year I wrote a post explaining why I think Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are great ways to track goals. As a quick refresher, OKRs allow teams and organizations to align goals for a set period of time in a transparent and connected way. Since then, I’ve gotten questions about the logistics of implementing the OKR framework in an organization and the process that Fractured Atlas uses. I decided to compile this information into a toolkit that you can use and iterate on. I hope that it helps in your process of deciding whether to use them in your organization and how to implement them.

If you’re not sure why you would use Objectives and Key Results, you might want to read the post mentioned above before diving in. Also, organizations vary widely, so instead of viewing this as a prescription for what to do, figure out what inspires you and works for your organization. Go ahead and try some of the things we’ve done and see how they work (more below on how many iterations it took to get to where we are now…and we’re still iterating!)

Bonus: There’s a free goal tracking template waiting for you mid-way through this post.

Our Current OKR Process

Timing

Timeframe: OKRs are generally set quarterly, and Fractured Atlas uses this same time frame. The quarters align with our Fiscal Year starting in September. The three-month window is enough time to get some sizable things done, but short enough to reset if something is completely off track. Another benefit to having shorter time frames (compared to something like an annual plan) is that people can get the benefits and excitement from smaller wins throughout the year (instead of working on a project and not feeling accomplishment until the end of the year).

Timeline to Set OKRs: We have found that it works for our organization to wait until a quarter ends before setting the next quarter’s OKRs, otherwise we were setting the next round of goals before we had delivered the previous round of them. We also make sure that everyone’s OKRs are finalized by the 15th of the month.

We start with the Leadership Team setting two to four Organizational Objectives, which then cascade to each member of the Leadership Team, their reports, and further reports (reminder that this cascading from Organizational Objectives helps each employee see how their work impacts the organization and helps align everyone’s goals). With the current tiers of cascading objectives, finishing by the 15th of the month generally gives each group three to four days to draft and finalize their individual OKRs.

To get an idea for what our schedule looks like, here is the timeline we used to create our Q3 OKRs from this current Fiscal Year:

• Wednesday, February 28–Friday, March 2: Leadership Team drafts the Organizational Objectives for the quarter along with their individual OKRs.
• Monday, March 5th: Leadership Team have final Organizational Objectives and their own OKRs in the shared company document.
• Wednesday, March 7: Leadership Team’s direct reports have draft OKRs in the document and talk with their supervisors.
• Friday, March 9th: Leadership Team’s direct reports have final OKRs in the document
• Tuesday, March 13th: Further Reports have draft OKRs in document and talk with their supervisors
• Thursday, March 15: All Q3 OKRs are finalized.

What Tools We Use

We currently track our OKRs in a Google sheet shared in an Institution Team Drive (we have GSuite for nonprofits, so this is a convenient way for us to share and track our OKRs organization wide). Here is a look at what our Q2 sheet contains:

When a staff member opens the document, they’ll see a dashboard like the one above. Throughout the quarter this page automatically updates to represent the current total percents based on each person’s completed percents.

When we started creating organizational objectives, we added a tab for them to live. As mentioned earlier, these are set by the Leadership Team and are overarching goals that the organization will focus on in the quarter. They can include things like focusing on engineering and product development, efforts to better serve our members, and identifying opportunities for growth.

We also started tracking the total Key Results that map to each objective, and the percent complete (based on each Key Result, not based on people). This is pushing the functionality of Google Sheets and is largely a manual process. We might decide to change this in the future, but for now it is great to see how staff Key Results map to the organization’s accomplishments.

This lets people see how their own work directly impacts the objectives of the organization.

Note: This image was from the first quarter we tracked individual Key Results to Organization Objectives, and there were a fair amount of Key Results that were “child of none” that did not map to an organization objective. In the subsequent quarter, we tweaked how organization objectives are worded and communicated, which resulted in every Q3 Key Result mapping to an Organization Objective.

Each person at Fractured Atlas drafts their own OKRs. The photo above is an example of what this looks like for an employee (in this case me). When people draft their OKRs, each of their objectives are children of either their manager’s objectives or organizational objectives. In the photo above, you’d see these parent objectives right after Child of. Each person then has a conversation with their manager and team to make sure their goals are in alignment. After confirming the OKRs, the employee then tracks the completion percent throughout the quarter. Additionally, there are periodic check-ins between the employee and manager that allow for conversations and agreements around what’s important, what people need to do their work, and what challenges they’re facing. This makes OKRs a powerful management and professional development tool.

If you want to delve deeper into what our file looks like, we have a public template linked below.

On-boarding and OKRs

There are a fair number of interlocking pieces that come together to create our OKR process at Fractured Atlas. This means that there is a learning curve in bringing new people in to the process. However, it’s also a great way for new staff to see the organizational and individual priorities right when they start. We also keep all past OKR files, so new employees can flip through past OKR documents to see how we got to where we are.

During Core Curriculum, new employees watch this video and then are asked to draft an objective and a few key results for their first few weeks of training. This gives people practice drafting OKRs right away. Then, depending on someone’s start date, they will generally join in on OKR creation the following quarter.

A Template For You

We’ve made a template that you can copy to make your own, found here:

FRACTURED ATLAS PUBLIC OKR TEMPLATE

How We Got to Our Current Process

The Beta (or Pilot) Phase

Two of our Core Behavioral Values at Fractured Atlas are “Seek Continuous Improvement” and “Make It Happen.” We like to try out new things, but also want to recognize that not all new things are an improvement. How do we experiment without committing the entire organization to a process or tool? We have things go through a pilot phase.

This is how our OKR pilot phase looked at Fractured Atlas:

• December 2015–February 2016: Leadership Team experiments using OKRs within their group. The OKR specifics are transparent to the group, but not the full staff.
• March 2016–May 2016: In addition to the Leadership Team, two additional teams were added to the OKR process. In adding these two teams, we were able to test the increased complexity of setting and cascading OKRs throughout different functional teams.
• June 2016–August 2016: All remaining teams at Fractured Atlas were added to the process. At this point, we still considered it to be the pilot phase, but with increased certainty that we would continue experimenting beyond the current quarter.
• End of 2016: Fractured Atlas began using OKRs as a fully-formed tool.

Iteration

There has rarely been a quarter when something in the OKR process hasn’t changed. Sometimes those changes are small, sometimes they’re a bit more substantial. Each change brings us a little closer to finding an OKR process that works best for Fractured Atlas right now. This is just a short list of things that have changed over the past two years:

• We switched from yes/no binary completion to % complete. The yes/no was a simpler way to track earlier on, but didn’t allow for things that were mostly done. When getting a project to 90% completion and then receiving 0% — even if the project shipped early the next quarter — was frustrating. We needed a way to reflect the work that was done, especially when it exceeded where we thought we would be.
• We added and then eliminated columns for “How the KR will be assessed” and “Where the data is coming from.” While in the beginning these helped people to think about finding measurable Key Results, they started becoming too complex and distracted from the Key Results.
• One team tried using 7Geese. We found it to be more comprehensive than what our needs were at the time.
• We tried out adding a “confidence goal will be met” column, and then decided it was more information than we needed.
• We added the dashboard to see the organization and team averages at a glance.
• We introduced Organization Objectives with the restructuring of our management team.

Reading & Research

Before planning out OKR implementation, we did a whole lot of research. We still read what’s out there to iterate and improve our current process. These are just some of the sources we found:

• 7Geese Resource Library (be sure to check out their printable guides)
• How Google sets goals: OKRs (video) If you’re skeptical that OKRs won’t work for your organization because you’re larger than Fractured Atlas, this video gives a look into how Google implements and thinks about them (and they have over 70,000 employees.)
• Google Re:Work Goal Setting Guide
• Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results
• Perdoo Crash Course in OKRs This gives a great history of the origins of OKRs.

Have you tried using OKRs? What worked or didn’t work for you? We’d love to hear from you!

Nicola Carpenter is the Operations Specialist at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit technology organization that helps artists with the business side of creative work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

A Guide for Creating Organizational Alignment & Accountability was originally published in Fractured Atlas Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In October, we posted about our process and reasoning for race-based caucusing at Fractured Atlas. It’s been a few months since then, so we wanted to continue sharing our experiences.

As the White Caucus Liaison at Fractured Atlas, I’m often asked about resources that the Fractured Atlas White Caucus reads and discusses. Many of these resources were gathered by Tiffany Wilhelm, the White Caucus Guest Facilitator from July through December 2017, and others were picked up from a variety of other places. This is not meant to be a complete list, but rather a jumping-off point for white people to teach themselves about Race and Racism, and to get a sense for the kinds of things the Fractured Atlas White Caucus has been reading/watching/listening.

About Caucusing

• Racial Identity Caucusing: A Strategy for Building Anti-Racist Collectives by Crossroads
• Caucus and Affinity Groups from Racial Equity Tools
• Principles for White Affinity Study Groups
• Tools for White Anti-Racist Organizing by the Catalyst Project
• White Awake Manual — a set of educational resources for guiding white affinity processes
• SURJ Political Education Site
• Vital critique: Whites Only: SURJ And The Caucasian Invasion Of Racial Justice Spaces by DiDi Delgado, Black Lives Matter-Cambridge

Facilitation Resources

• Anti-Oppressive Facilitation by AORTA Collective
• Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshops by Seeds for Change
• Social Justice Toolbox
• Notes about Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre

Things to Read

These are some of the readings that the Fractured Atlas White Caucus has read.

• “From White Racist to White Anti-Racist: the life-long journey” by Tema Okun
• “What Motivates People from Dominant Groups to Support Social Justice” Diane J. Goodman and Lee Anne Bell
• Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice Edited by Jonathan Osler
• “Costs of Oppression to People from Dominant Groups” by Diane J. Goodman and Lee Anne Bell
• “The Work Is Not The Workshop: Talking and Doing, Visibility and Accountability in the White Anti-Racist Community” by Catherine Jones
• “white supremacy culture” by Tema Okun
• “What is White Supremacy?” by Elizabeth Martinez
• Dismantling Racism Works Web Workbook — dense website with so many resources. Sources for years of caucus sessions!
• A Call for Moral Courage in America by Darren Walker, Ford Foundation
• Detour-Spotting for white anti-racists by jona olsson
• Talking points — Effective Strategies for Confronting Racism in Conversation by WHAT’S UP?! Pittsburgh
• Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) — national organization organizing white people for racial justice. Links to groups around the country can be found here.
• SURJ Resources for Calling In
• SURJ Guide to Talking White Supremacy Post-Charlottesville
• What is the role for white people working for racial justice in this current period? (Aug 22, 2017) A Joint Statement from the Organization for Black Struggle and the Anti-Racist Collective
• “The Costs of Racism to White People” by Paul Kivel
• “Grieving the White Void” by Abraham Lateiner
• “Accountability in a Time of Justice” by Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Michelle Johnson, Tema Okun
• The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy by Yawo Brown
• White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement by Robin DiAngelo
• White People, It’s Time To Prioritize Justice Over Civility by Tauriq Moosa
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo

Things to Listen

Sometimes it’s nice to mix up the media type.

• Seeing White Series from Scene On Radio, a 14-part documentary series exploring whiteness in America.
• Uncivil, a podcast from Gimlet Media that presents a history of the Civil War not often found in school textbooks.
• Identity Politics, a podcast on race, gender, and Muslims in America.
• Code Switch, a podcast that presents contemporary news viewed through the lens of race and identity.)

Things to Watch

• Slavery By Another Name, PBS Documentary
• 13th, Directed by Ava DuVernay

We want to make sure that the White Caucus stays accountable, and we think that transparency is a powerful accountability tool. What other materials should we add to our list?

Nicola Carpenter is the Operations Specialist at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps over 1.2 million artists with the business side of creative work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

Resources for White People to Learn and Talk About Race and Racism was originally published in Fractured Atlas Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

by Tim Cynova, Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas

Preamble

Those playing along at home will recall that Fractured Atlas recently embarked on a few new adventures. One of which is the creation of a four-person, non-hierarchical leadership team for the organization. (I recently shared a collection of research on the topic. If you can wait a bit longer, I’m publishing a subsequent post that distills the key findings from the hundreds of hours I spent reviewing material.)

At Fractured Atlas, we’re approaching our foray into shared leadership much like anything we attempt: as an iterative process that progresses through our R&D pipeline. This process began with deep conversations over several months between the senior leadership of our staff and board. These conversations allowed us space and time to question conventional and received wisdom, and explore questions like:

• What is the role of an organization’s leader?
• Why is an organization typically structured as a hierarchy with one person at the top?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of hierarchical structures?
• Is there a way to use this CEO transition as an opportunity to experiment with a leadership structure that might be more in line with our anti-racism, anti-bias, and anti-oppression work?
• Could we develop this while also experimenting with more organically self-forming teams? Perhaps an entirely geographically-disbursed organization?
• Can this be accomplished without creating a “first among equals” on the team, or accidentally making the Board Chair the de facto CEO of the organization?
• Can we be as innovative with our leadership and team structures as we aim to be when creating tools to help our amazing members?

Maybe.

The announcement that we were exploring a four-person, non-hierarchical leadership model at Fractured Atlas sparked quite a lot of interest. Some of that interest was admittedly accompanied by arched eyebrows and a skeptical “Oh, REEEEAALLLLY,” but almost universally people were curious to learn more about how the experience unfolded. What follows is a snapshot of where we are right now — an “interim report,” if you will — with an important caveat that where we are right now is constantly evolving.

How did we get here again?

• On March 1, 2017, when Fractured Atlas founder and Chief Executive Officer Adam Huttler began his “non-battical,” the four senior leaders of Fractured Atlas began operating as a four-person leadership team. Over the subsequent year, until Adam’s departure from Fractured Atlas on December 31, 2017, this group coordinated strategy and tactics for the four “departments” of Fractured Atlas: Programs, Engineering, External Relations, and Finance/People/Operations (FinPOps).
• At its October 2017 meeting, anticipating the departure of Adam Huttler as CEO of Fractured Atlas to become CEO of Exponential Creativity Ventures, the Board of Directors approved a one-year trial of a four-person, non-hierarchical leadership team to begin in January 2018. Titles for the four positions were equalized at the “C-level”, reinforcing the non-hierarchical nature of the team.

Why try this instead of launching a search for a new CEO?

• Fractured Atlas is in the middle of a multi-year strategic initiative, shaped by the members of the Leadership Team and Adam Huttler. It would very likely slow the momentum of this plan to conduct a search and introduce a new, single leader into the organization at this time.
• A non-hierarchical, shared leadership model helps advance the anti-racism and anti-oppression (ARAO) values Fractured Atlas is committed to. Hierarchical models imply that one person heads the organization and makes the ultimate decisions. A shared leadership model demonstrates a different, inclusive approach that is more in line with our stated ARAO values and fosters a diversity of voices, perspectives, and skills necessary for the organization to be healthy, well-informed, and successful.
• Using a shared leadership team model lessens the organization’s dependence on any one person, and strengthens strategic thinking and decision-making capacity across a broader range of staff members.
• Shared leadership models are nothing new and are commonplace in many arts organizations that have both an artistic and executive leader. There are examples of successful shared leadership models — as well as failed attempts — dating back thousands of years. The Leadership Team is studying a range of examples and is working to leverage learnings from those examples to construct the model that fits Fractured Atlas. I’ve been designated as the team’s point person on gathering and sharing relevant research and case studies (and recently spent my annual Think Week with a treasure trove of material on shared leadership, the role of the CEO, and global virtual teams). This is an ongoing conversation in the Leadership Team meetings.
• Experimenting with a shared leadership model demonstrates Fractured Atlas’s willingness to question conventional wisdom and embrace challenge when we think it will offer leadership to the sector and produce better results for those we serve. Through sharing about our experiment with a four-person leadership team, we expect to be able to help a host of teams and organizations operate more effectively and efficiently in service to their missions and the field.

What exactly is being shared?

Four people collaborate to fulfill what is commonly considered the CEO function of the organization, which includes overall strategic planning, fundraising, program development, and technical and organizational management.

How is the Leadership Team structured?

The shared leadership team includes Shawn Anderson (Chief Technology Officer) who oversees Software Engineering, Tim Cynova (Chief Operating Officer) who oversees Finance, People, and Operations (FinPOps); Lauren Ruffin (Chief External Relations Officer) who oversees Development, Marketing, and Outreach; and Pallavi Sharma (Chief Program Officer) who oversees the largest team delivering our core Programs and Services.

How often does the group meet and communicate?

• Important Note: Fractured Atlas’s four-person leadership team is entirely geographically disbursed. All four members live and work in different states: Lauren (New Mexico), Pallavi (New Jersey), Shawn (Colorado), and Tim (New York). This means they only see each other in 3D a handful of times each year. It requires them to be mindful of how they communicate and create alignment within the leadership team and the organization since they aren’t all sitting near each other in HQ on a daily basis.
• In the year of Adam’s non-battical, the Leadership Team refined their decision-making processes, which now include: Weekly “tactical” sessions where the group reviews weekly activities and metrics, and resolves tactical obstacles and issues; Monthly strategy meetings where critical issues affecting long-term success are discussed, analyzed, brainstormed and/or decided; Quarterly two-day offsites to review strategy, competitive landscape, industry trends, and team and organizational development; Ongoing Flowdock exchanges, Zoom calls, and emails; a monthly meeting with the Finance team to review budget and financial management reports; and other team meetings where Leadership Team members attend as appropriate (e.g., product development meetings between Engineering and Programs will include Shawn and Pallavi but not Lauren and Tim).
• In addition, the Leadership Team spends an entire week in March, during the annual All Hands staff retreat, working in person with each other and the various organizational teams.
• The Leadership Team meets by video with the Board’s Executive Committee on a monthly basis and on a quarterly basis with the full Board of Directors (January, April, July, and October).

How does the Leadership Team set strategy and create plans?

• The Leadership Team sets overarching strategy and creates plans to execute that strategy through their monthly Strategy meetings and the annual budget process.
• The overarching strategy is then made more concrete and practical through the development of quarterly, organization-wide Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) creating transparency and alignment with every team and individual staff member.
• The OKRs are monitored closely on a monthly basis. As external conditions shift or barriers to implementing the OKRs emerge, the Leadership Team discusses these developments in their Strategy and tactical meetings and determines necessary adjustments.

What if the Leadership Team deadlocks on a decision?

• A shared leadership team doesn’t mean that the group votes on every decision, or requires consensus on every matter. Each member functions as the CEO of their department, possesses a deep domain expertise over the related content, and is responsible for seeing that their operations support the agreed upon vision and strategy of Fractured Atlas. Where functions overlap, or where group agreement is necessary for success, more discussion is necessary and joint agreement is desired.
• The Leadership Team operates to take everyone’s concerns into account, and ensure that all team members feel heard and understood. However, one of the hallmarks of high performing teams is an ability to engage in healthy conflict and resolve differences productively.
• When managing conflict, the Leadership Team distinguishes between decisions of significance that impact the entire organization and ones that are more tactical. The Leadership Team practices “Disagree & Commit” for both varieties of decisions, but allows different amounts of time and weighting of votes depending on the decision’s nature. If, after healthy discussion and an appropriate time period for reflection, there are still differences of opinion about a matter, the “Disagree & Commit” principle is invoked.
• In the event that the group can’t reach agreement on a decision of significance that impacts the entire organization, the team will present this matter to the Chair, who will decide with the Leadership Team if this is an issue to discuss with the Board’s Executive Committee.

How is the Leadership Team evaluated?

• The annual self-assessment process for all staff at Fractured Atlas takes place during July and August. In the past, the Fractured Atlas CEO completed his self-assessment relative to explicit OKR goals and organizational strategy, the Chair of the Board canvassed Board members for input, and the Chair and the CEO discussed performance and future goals.
• Informed by our ongoing research on shared leadership models, the Leadership Team is discussing the best approach to assessment in the shared model. Questions being considered include: How to best assess individual members relative to their own goals — is this limited to each person assessing themselves, or are the other members of the Leadership Team offering input? How should we assess Leadership Team members’ contributions to the Leadership Team? Are non-Leadership Team members of the Fractured Atlas staff involved in assessing the Leadership Team through a 360-degree review process? How should the Board participate in the assessment process?

What if a member of the Leadership Team needs to be reprimanded or terminated?

• One of the key traits of high-performing, non-hierarchical teams is the ability for team members, and their coworkers across the organization, to hold each other accountable for their responsibilities and commitments. At Fractured Atlas, the transparent OKR process means that everyone in the organization knows every other staff member’s quarterly priorities, and how well each is doing in achieving those goals.
• Holding each other accountable starts first with the members of the Leadership Team working to surface and address any concerns among themselves. If concerns can’t be resolved, then it will be brought to the attention of the Chair and, if necessary, to the Board’s Executive Committee to determine an appropriate action.

What happens when someone inevitably leaves the Leadership Team?

• When a member of the Leadership Team leaves the organization, the remaining members of the Leadership Team will assess the role, determine if anything in the job description needs to be adjusted before launching a search, seek input from the Executive Committee, set out a plan and process, and then search for a replacement.
• Given the importance of the members of the Leadership Team, and that the Board of Directors officially hires and fires members of the Leadership Team, it is likely that one or more Board members will be involved in interviewing and making final recommendations about the replacement.
• Once the person is hired, the hard work of rebuilding the team with the new configuration begins. (More on this when further research is distilled.)

Who do Board members contact for questions, concerns, and to share their thoughts?

• For matters specific to Programs, Engineering, External Relations, or People/Operations/Finance (FinPOps), Board members email the respective lead.
• For matters relevant to the entire leadership team, or if it’s unclear who is best to field the inquiry, Board members email the leadership team’s group email. All four members of the leadership team receive emails to that address, and the appropriate member responds.
• For meta-level or highly sensitive issues, Board members contact the Board Chair who can discuss it individually with a specific team member or as a group by adding a discussion item to the Executive Committee’s monthly meeting agenda.

This article isn’t meant to make you think that we have it all figured out — far from it — or that we didn’t approach this with concerns. We have our concerns, and discussed many in great detail, but think they are worth the risk. Healthy concerns are a part of innovation but they shouldn’t stifle innovation. If we waited on the sidelines until all of the concerns were resolved, we’d never risk and learn.

Risk aversion is a regret premium.

A fee paid to avoid regret.

Intrigued by People Operations at Fractured Atlas and want to ask us questions? Feel free to connect with us during our free HR office hours.

Tim Cynova is a certified Senior Professional in HR, trained mediator, and the Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps over 1.2 million artists of all stripes with the business aspects of their work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.

I’m going off-the-grid for a sorta annual Think Week. On the docket for this year: process and distill learning from material related to non-hierarchical, shared leadership teams, the role of the CEO, and — if I have time (fingers crossed) — global virtual teams.

Many years ago, I became fascinated with the Think Week concept after hearing about how Bill Gates went into the woods for a week each year with a giant stack of reading material. I’ve been fortunate during my nine years at Fractured Atlas to be at a place — with stellar and encouraging coworkers — that supports similar kinds of exploration and knowledge acquisition adventures.

I’m in the process of writing a piece about Fractured Atlas’s journey with non-hierarchical, shared leadership models that we originally announced in this post. Meanwhile, I thought that I would share some of the content on the docket for next week. Stay tuned and see you on the other side.

• The Secret Life of C.E.O.s [podcast]
• Self-Managing Organizations: Exploring the Limits of Less-Hierarchical Organizing
• Nobody’s Looking at You: Eileen Fisher and the art of understatement
• The shadow of history: Situated dynamics of trust in dual executive leadership
• Impact of dual executive leadership dynamics in creative organizations
• The exploration of dual leadership in cultural enterprises
• Wikipedia: Shared Leadership
• How Shared Leadership Changes Our Relationships at Work
• Shared Leadership in Teams: An Investigation of Antecedent Conditions and Performance
• The importance of vertical and shared leadership within new venture top management teams: Implications for the performance of startups
• The shared leadership of teams: A meta-analysis of proximal, distal, and moderating relationships
• Shared Leadership in Practice: When Does it Work Best?
• Exploring antecedents and outcomes of shared leadership in a creative context: A mixed-methods approach
• Reinventing Organizations [book]
• Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World [book]
• The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations [book]
• WorkLife with Adam Grant [podcast]
• The virtues of hierarchy, structure and temporary teams [podcast]
• Hierarchy is Good. Hierarchy is Essential. And Less Isn’t Always Better.
• Yale School of Management’s Global Virtual Teams [course]
• The dynamics of shared leadership: building trust and enhancing performance
• A Meta-Analysis of Different Forms of Shared Leadership–Team Performance Relations
• A Meta-Analysis of Shared Leadership and Team Effectiveness
• The shared leadership of teams: A meta-analysis of proximal, distal, and moderating relationships
• Out of Sight, Out of Sync : Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams
• How Task and Person Conflict Shape the Role of Positive Interdependence in Management Teams
• Shared Leadership: Reframing the Hows and Whys of Leadership [book]
• Share, Don’t Take the Lead [book]
• Is the Most Effective Team Leadership Shared? The Impact of Shared Leadership, Age Diversity, and Coordination on Team Performance
• Shared leadership in enterprise resource planning and human resource management system implementation
• Beyond the Holacracy Hype: The Overwrought Claims — and Actual Promise — of the Next Generation of Self-Managed Teams
• Alternative Approaches for Studying Shared and Distributed Leadership
• Sociocracy or dynamic governance
• Morning Star Self-Management Institute

What other content on these topics should I be exploring?

Tim Cynova is a certified Senior Professional in HR, trained mediator, and the Chief Operating Officer at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit organization that helps over 1.2 million artists of all stripes with the business aspects of their work. To learn more about Fractured Atlas, or to get involved, visit us here.