Community Spotlight: Line Morkbak
In this interview I met with Line Morkbak, a facilitator from Portland, Orgeon. We dug deep into what drew Line to the work she does, why Open Space is the future, and how she defines success for herself.
What do you do?
I support teams and organisations to collaborate better, and to have engaging, creative conversations in an online context. I do things differently to the way people usually do online, like some improv techniques I use that I really love working with!
When it comes to things like e-courses, I’m a big believer in synchronised learning rather than self-paced, so when I can I try to design things that way.
I’m very curious right now about the idea of a ‘new workplace’, shaking up the structures of how we go to work. I’m not from software but I work with a lot of agile folks, I’m starting to see the possibilities when you flatten organisations out, and give more autonomy to teams. For me it’s about how you open those structures up, because our decision making structures are typically more hierarchical. Really I’m interested in the dynamics of the group.
How did you end up working in this area?
I worked as an intercultural consultant, and also was in-house in a global consulting company as a director for several years, so that’s like, my previous life. When global organisations need help knowing how to work with their other offices around the world, I would help to bridge the gaps, help them to understand each other’s work style across cultures. And that’s under a lot of the work and do, and that’s also what I did my Masters in.
Then I got introduced into the agile world, and that really got me. Especially the stuff around supporting people to self organise.
“Because I think we do self-organising all the time, in our relationships, raising children, having pets — but in our work environment we leave those life skills behind, and defer to hierarchy, command and control.”
If we listen to those self-organising voices in our work environment it frees us up, and most of us get a lot more motivated and excited when we have more say in our work environment.
What do you think drew you to this kind of work?
I think for me, coming from Northern Europe, the things that have come out of that same cultural breeding ground speak to me in that way. Having less need for formality and structure around how respect is shown for seniority.
When I went to my first Open Space conference I thought I was on drugs or something, it released a completely different kind of exchange between people! Where in a traditional conference the committee have sat down for a year and planned out the perfect program, in an Open Space conference people show up, and whatever they read that morning, the conversations and the critical questions they’ve had that week, that’s what shaped the conference that 120 people had that day.
That’s so cool!
It is so cool! And we do that very naturally. That is our competitive edge as human beings, when we talk about where we’ll be in the future, in terms of automatisation, that’s where we pull ahead. It’s that adaptable, agile way of moving in and out and grabbing what’s most relevant.
Do you work that way yourself?
I’ve always needed that wiggle room, to run with my own ideas as I want to. My husband and I designed our life for flexibility — we’re not flush, we don’t own a big house and nice cars, we decided a long time ago that this was the priority. So now we live on ten acres in an old funky house out in the country, and have never had two full time jobs at the same time.
It means I can bulldoze through with a certain project, go a few months really working hard and seeing my family less and then other periods where it’s time for development: I don’t travel, I go for a run in the morning, pick my kids up from school, keep it as 9 to 3. I like that it can ebb and flow in that way.
How would you define success for you?
If I can carve the time out of my day to run with a ‘shower idea’! If curiosity, learning and exchanging with others is at the forefront. If I’m fully in charge, and can make my own decisions, and able to follow inspiration as it comes. Like most of us, I get worried about money and have to deal with doubts, but at the same time I don’t think I would wanna be without that excitement.
What’s been the biggest challenge that you’ve overcome in your work?
I think I’m having it right now…one of the reasons I went to Ashram was that I wanted to make a change, but I didn’t know what it was gonna look like, and didn’t dare to look even though in my gut I sensed it was needed.
I feel like it’s time to cut some of my old consulting ties, and be truer to my voice and my passion in this work, with less of a selling voice. Daring to step away from that, and into this new voice, and trust that there’s enough value here.
I feel grounded in that process but I feel it’s gonna take a little while. Which is also why the timing of joining this community has been so perfect because, there’s definitely a lot of support needed, I’m really loving the group coaching calls!
When I’m out the other end maybe I can be the person giving the support, but right now that’s where I’m at.
How was Ashram for you?
I felt I got a little bit more than I bargained for! I went because of a business and development need I was feeling within my work, but like a lot of us, when you are purposefully driven and a solo entrepreneur, your life and your work is super ingrained. That work becomes very personal.
I kind of knew that, but I didn’t think what I was looking for was as much about myself as it turned out to be.
It was a fantastic experience, our group are still well connected, and I definitely got hooked. It was very inspiring to make professional friendships where those filters disappear, where you very quickly can have in-depth conversations about your whole life, and also your doubts and worries and insecurities about the work that you wanna promote.
Starting your own business you have to be all ‘I can do that’ or ‘ Come to me for this’- it’s a lot of promoting yourself, so a lot of the other questions ‘Am I good enough?’ ‘Is this worth people’s money?’ ‘Is this unique enough to be offered, like, out there?’ Those conversations can be hard to have, to find the right people to have them with.
I think there’s something really powerful about being out of your context, with people you only just met (though you know them pretty well by the end) talking about your passion. People get really real with each other.
They do! And it’s adults, right? It’s unique, that feeling. We kept saying on Ashram, ‘It’s like we’re twenty again!’ But of course we are not twenty, we are adults with a lot of life experience. At the same time, we don’t have our kids and our community and our partners with us, right, so we are stepping in to some conversations without those layers, which is why you can be very real. You’re just yourself.
Did anything come from it?
In the spirit and the sentiment of Ashram and this community, of just getting the first draft out there and doing it, I’ve just launched two big projects in the last month and a half. I’m really proud of them!
One is a little laboratory called Leap Lab (my business is called Global Leap) where I interview people who are experimenting with new workplace cultures. That’s been a brainchild of mine for a while, it’s really exciting that I’ve done the first soft launch of that, and I’m probably ready to do the big launch, ‘second draft’ soon.
Another brainchild is a savvy virtual facilitation course, structured in a new way, I’m like a little kid doing this one- it’s an excellent group of people for this first pilot and I’m like yes, this is what I want to be doing more of. I’ve got a couple of Ashram folks on this course too which is great.
How awesome is that! OK so we’ve done the big questions, now it’s time for the little ones.
Early bird or night owl?
I am an early bird!
What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
Take a shower, my shower is my ritual. I’m always up before everyone else, that’s where I ground my thoughts and then typically I have a six or six am meeting.
Do you have a pre bed ritual?
I work from home, so I always have to make sure that my space is straightened for me for first thing, then I feed my barn cats before I go to bed.
Barn cats!
Yeah, we live in the country so we have a couple beautiful long haired cats living outside who make sure we don’t have mice and rats and things. And they just had four kittens we found out, she had them under the house and now they’re bigger and so cute. We have coyotes here so she has to be a good mom and keep a good eye on them. Our neighbours have a night camera in the garden and they say every two months or so they see cougars, mountain lions, on the property.
Ohh! Those cats have to be seriously tough.
It’s the wild wild west! We also have big bald eagles by this huge river out the back of the property.
Wow. You live in a postcard!
Oh yeah. There’s a lot of big waterfalls too. It’s paradise, in my opinion!
What would you like to learn from the Happy Startup Community?
I’ve heard other people say this too, but I feel like I’ve finally found my people. We all share this mindset of shaping and building your own business, the power that comes from that and the heartache, and we’re being supported and held in that process. I’ve been on several group calls with people and then had them reach out individually, that culture is another level of community for me.
