Limits or No Limits?
Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you?
Doing two sessions for the Nonprofit Technology Conference really took it out of me. I think the hardest part was figuring out how to work within the constraints of the tech system we had to use. When I first started designing my sessions with my co-presenters, we thought deeply about how we would use the virtual space to try to create some kind of energy and experience matching that of an in-person space. We wanted our session attendees engaged...I mean, like, REALLY engaged. We had big plans for breakout rooms and shared-doc activities and lots of chat and coming off mute.
I was really proud of the time and generosity of so many people to this presentation - we shared our work with trusted friends and received such wonderful input. Then about a week before our final presentation slides were due to be uploaded, we learned on a call about the tech platform we would be using for the sessions. No video for participants. No audio for participants to speak on (only listening in to us presenters speaking). Chat for participants but presenters could not type into it also. When screen sharing you can’t see video or chat. If you screen share a Google slide presentation with speaker notes, then everyone sees the speaker notes (not the case in Zoom). There was a 10-second delay.
So, when I first heard all this I took the night off.
You’ve heard about my “I-hit-a-wall-limit” already, right? It is about recognizing when your tech is pissing you off or frustrating you so much that you just have to close it up, walk away, and find some activity to put you in a better mood (and later come back to your tech feeling better). I felt like I was hitting a wall that night, because we would have to re-design a good amount of our sessions within these constraints.
The next day when I opened up the slides to work on one of my sessions, I realized the irony. One of my sessions was called Beyond Beginner’s Mindset, and I was sharing my 4-step process for practicing beginner’s mindset when doing anything with technology. Throughout the steps I encourage people to put aside their a priori knowledge about technology and to imagine solutions without boundaries. For example, before creating some sort of data tracker in a spreadsheet, first we would draw what our ideal tracker would look like without any lines or boxes, so that it wouldn’t look like a spreadsheet. I was going to ask people to work outside of the tech limitations and to just dream and design big. But at the same time I was going to have to re-design my sessions to accomplish the same goals for knowledge building, but to do so within the restrictions and limitations of the tech system we were using for the conference.
Which is better, limits or no limits?
I’m happy to say that these presentations ended up in a great place - there was still interaction between us as the presenters and the participants, and we managed a few group activities on shared Google Slides. Both of my presentations ended up feeling something closer to a TED-Talk, especially when I was rehearsing them on my own at night), which was likely another outcome of working within the limitations of the tech platform.
In our session called Do No Harm: Creating an Ethical Oath for Your Data & Tech Work, my co-presenter and I discuss binary-appearing concepts (like “limits vs. no limits”) that are more truly on spectrums, and the benefits of discussing where on the spectrum you are leaning towards at any given moment or decision. Instead of “choosing” one side or somewhere in the middle, we urge ourselves and our participants to create a value statement from those discussions. The value statement I created for these presentations was “Learning comes from many different approaches, so it is valuable to share knowledge in many different formats and spaces.” Working within the limits of the conference technology helped push me to dig deeper into different ways of sharing knowledge and asking for participation in my sessions, and the end result was enriched for the effort.
There are times when limitations can become helpful and times when we need to break free of limitations. How can we know when we are in the former category and when we are in the latter? We can know if we approach the decision of how strictly or not to follow within limits from our value statement, and then we will come to answers much quicker. Will working within these limitations contribute to sharing knowledge in different formats and approaches? It can take time and lots of discussions to come to value statements and revisit and revise them as needed.
In non-profit and mission-driven work, there is one place where I would encourage everyone to think without limitations - and that is in who can learn, use, and love data & technology.
Not only can everyone be confident in using data & technology as powerful tools in their tool belts when building social change, but everyone must be. From fundraisers to program directors to office managers to the president of the organization, we all have an imperative and an obligation to use whatever tools can make us more efficient and effective, if we have any hope of actually achieving our missions. Data & technology are tools that are already deeply enmeshed in our work and will continue to get exponentially better over a relatively short time frame. We all have to keep up, so we can take advantage of the insights and support of the data & technology we have available to us.
Just in case you were starting to sweat about needing to take a coding bootcamp - wipe your brow, that is not what I’m saying. Not everyone needs to be a computer programmer or data scientist. To use data & technology for mission-driven work is 90% mindset, and only 10% technical. It means utilizing beginner’s mindset, and grit & resilience, and critical thinking and problem-solving. Most importantly, it means keeping your values at the center of every decision and being confident using the tools that are available to support you in doing your best work. You absolutely have what it takes to use data & technology as tools in the work for social justice.
You already lead with your values in the work that you are doing - now just point that compass towards data & technology and you will be unstoppable.
What’s coming up:
Beginner-To-Advanced in Spreadsheets: Every month I have had the absolute pleasure and joy of facilitating this workshop. On the surface, we are going from zero-to-PivotTables in 60-minutes. But more importantly, we are putting YOU in the driver’s seat when you are working with spreadsheets. Register for any of the upcoming workshops here.
Shut Down Your Computer at Night Challenge: This week I really needed help shutting down - my kids were on Spring Break so distraction was everywhere and my working hours were limited. I started feeling overwhelmed and behind. It is these times when I need more self-care than ever, and shutting down the computer at night is part of that. Join this month’s cohort as we strengthen our relationships with our computers by saying goodnight to them.
NEW! Beyond Beginner’s Mindset: How to do ANYTHING with technology: This workshop had a really positive response at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, so we are bringing it to you every month going forward. In 60-minutes, learn and practice a process for practicing beginner’s mindset to help you learn and use any technology for your mission. Register for any of the upcoming workshops here.
