GV in August: bikes bikes bikes

Written By Genevieve Smith

It's August! The heat in NYC is breaking and we're getting lots of rain. By the way, I’m now publishing this newsletter on LinkedIn. Feel free to subscribe (or not)!

I'm reading: David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years. It's so good - if you liked The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (David Graeber & David Wengrow), you'll also love this. ...I'm also flipping through the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair and Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance, but more on that later.

I'm listening to: Remi Wolf's Big Ideas (I can't stop dancing!) and Josaleigh Pollett's In The Garden, By The Weeds (who is playing Boise tonight [8/8], Seattle tomorrow [8/9], and Portland on Sunday [8/11] in case you're in the area - they're INCREDIBLE live.)

UPCOMING HANGOUTS

I'm gearing up to do a bit of travel and some speaking this fall! Let me know if you'll be in these areas (in-person or virtual) and let's say hi to each other!

  • September 23 -26, Denver, CO: FluxxCon - on Tuesday, September 23, I'll be joining the 'Big Ideas' panel conversation called Data, at the intersection of Intent and Impact, led by Ori Carmel of Sowen. The next day (Wednesday, September 24) I'll be talking about cultivating an organizational change practice - after yelling for just a bit, I'll be joined by Jeannine Corey of Philanthropy.io for a panel conversation!

  • October 16 & 17, virtual: Generosity Xchange hosted by Neon One (and the wonderful Tim Sarrantonio) - I'll be presenting about data + feelings! We'll talk through how emotional roadmaps can support social impact organizations' technical work.

  • Late October, dates TBD - Andrew Means, M.P.P. and I are planning on hosting a small restorative retreat for social impact leaders (nonprofits, philanthropy, social enterprises, etc.) that are wanting to find a way to sustain their impact through better wellness practices. We're focusing our first retreat on senior leaders (Director and above) from across the United States. Let me know if this sounds interesting to you and I'll send over a brief expression of interest form!

LEARNING

Something simple AND revolutionary was Lana Kristine Jelenjev's post about The Hum's Collaborative Rhythm exercise. I've done some of this, but always in either an ad-hoc, reactive manner or with just one element of what they lay out in the linked article. Check it out! I'm curious about what resonates for you, or if you and your teams have done something similar.

If we've met in the last few weeks (or if you caught this post), you know I'm newly re-obsessed with my bike and learning about bicycle building and repair. Rebuilding my bike was an opportunity to work with my hands and exercise a different part of my brain! When I started, I thought, "what a great way to stop thinking about work" - ha! No chance! The way Park Tool's repair videos, articles, and book are laid out are fantastic examples of content and presentation that enable learning.

A few elements really stuck out to me:

  • Each repair article begins with two sections to make sure the aspiring bike mechanic is prepared: 1. What do I need to know how to do? and 2. What tools do I need? What a way to know what you don't know and to avoid getting very stuck and very frustrated halfway through a process!

  • Not only did the resources have clear process steps, but along the way the content included lots of "watch out for X" (X was usually something like damaged threads, misaligned parts, or some other issue that, to a newbie, might not seem like a big deal), so there's a higher chance of getting something right (or close to right) the first time and a lower chance of destroying components in the process.

  • The content felt compassionate. At no point did I feel silly or unintelligent because I didn't understand something. In the introduction of the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair, the author and bike mechanic extraordinaire, Calvin Jones, writes,

"In my years of working on bikes and teaching people about working on bikes, I have come to realize that people learn in many different modes. One person may prefer to see pictures of something and not read any text. Another person may want to strictly read written procedures, step by step. And yet another may like to have the basic principles of a part explained, and then just figure it out themselves. If I have done my job in writing, this books will have something for the many different types of learning."

And wow, he did do his job! I feel like we talk about "honoring different learning styles" a LOT, but I rarely see it in practice (I include my own work in that assessment).

So - I'm thinking about how these elements might support my + our work in Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, and Measurement & Evaluation. I know that not everything about bicycles is immediately transferable to this work (do I really know that?), but I think there's something here.

When it comes to my own learning, I've been keeping a learning log. I'm "eating my own cooking," as they say. I documented all of my learning with each component, from how to get the right cable tension to what silly mistakes to avoid. (jeez, I love Miro so much.)

fingers crossed that the next build goes faster/smoother.

I also documented issues that came up during my test ride and how I fixed (or didn't fix) them!

Rebuilding my bike got me working with my hands, yes, but it also helped me look at learning a bit differently, and I'm looking forward to seeing how these seeds germinate.

The final product, graciously photographed by Claire Bleiler when we met up earlier this week. I was so obviously excited that she said, "don't you want a photo?!" Gone are the days of playing it cool!

feeling more like a little kid every day

My next bike project involves a mid-70s Italian road bike, so buckle up! This isn't a phase!

QUESTIONS

What do you do to exercise your brain and problem-solving skills outside of work?

AND/OR

Has the above stirred anything for you about how we learn within organizations? Are there folks who are doing this really compassionately and effectively? How much of this do you think is transferable to social sector learning?

P.S. as long as clowns don't freak you out, this video of Calvin Jones building offset wheels is one of the best things I've ever seen.

xoxo,

gv

Genevieve Smith

Genevieve Smith (they/she) is the Founder of GV Advisory, where they work as a Consultant and Strategic Advisor to social impact organizations looking to get in right relationship with data and organizational learning. Genevieve is known for bringing empathy, joy, and humanity to work that can not only feel lifeless and robotic, but has real potential to cause harm to communities and social justice movements.

In early 2019, after five years of working inside of organizations in the social sector, Genevieve founded GV Advisory to work across issue areas to support practitioners to not only design for their data and learning more effectively, but to do so in ways that align with organizational values, missions, and principles of equity & justice. Since then, Genevieve has supported organizations across focus areas (immigration justice, education reform, reproductive justice, health equity, international development, and trust-based philanthropy) to develop community-centric and values-aligned data and learning practices.

The ever-growing lineage of Genevieve's work includes Black feminist thought (bell hooks, the Combahee River Collective, adrienne maree brown (especially Emergent Strategy & Holding Change)), Crass (the band), time spent playing music on sidewalks and makeshift stages across the United States, histories of the archive(s) (Michel-Rolph Trulliot, Lorgia Garcia Peña), and colleagues who have become dear friends and co-conspirators.

Genevieve's favorite description of what can happen when we commit to this work together comes from a past client: "we wrote a love letter to the work and to the communities that sustain it." Genevieve loves how enlightening this work can be - we can gain clarity together while we build new ways to think, dream, and work.

When they're not working, you can find Genevieve playing music and laughing with their friends, loving on their people, bicycling around NYC, and cuddling with their cat, dog, and husband.

Genevieve wants to live in a world where we're all free - where no-one needs to rely on nonprofits and philanthropy to get what they need. But they do - so let's get to work.

https://gv-advisory.com
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