All We Do Is Win Win Win Win Win

Inspiration for this blog post:

A conversation with a person looking to get into nonprofit data & tech consulting

It is no new topic to talk about the need for partnership, community, friendship, and colleagues in this work. There is a lot of opportunity and tendency to work in isolation, but also luckily there are many opportunities for connection in user groups, Slack channels, conferences, meet-ups, professional gatherings, even the blogs and newsletters shared by generous individuals and teams.

Who is in these groups? Who runs them? Who shares their thoughts? Who joins? Who can and can’t join?

Nothing and no one is perfect. Nothing and no one will always get it right. Nothing and no one is being blamed here - but it happens that people end up feeling excluded or simply logistically unable to join.

One more option: Partnering up. Just two people working together, bringing in their perspectives and experiences. There can be many different arrangements of partnerships, one of which would be a person with a lot of experience in the work, and another who has less experience. Bringing these two perspectives together is so beneficial for both people and for the work. They teach each other, learn from each other. The years of experience are not necessarily related to the technical knowledge or skill that they bring to the conversation - the person with less experience might have more technical knowledge or skill, at least in some areas. But there is knowledge and skill from doing this work over the years in many different capacities and areas that brings a huge benefit and value to the partnership.

Find a partner. Find multiple partners. Find partners in different parts of their careers than you. You both will benefit, the work will benefit, the nonprofits will benefit, and our constituents and community will benefit. Win win win win win.