Why I created “Bring it to the Office”

Hi! Amanda here. I’m so glad that you are here!

I want to tell you a little bit about why I created the program “Bring it to the Office” and a little more about me in the process.

Here are some things that I know to be true (for me) about work.

The workplace offers SO many possibilities for making the world better.

And when I say better, I mean to create solutions that we never thought possible, in small and large scale ways. When I think about the large scale solutions I think about climate change or women’s health . When I envision small scale solutions I get excited about folks finding a true sense of purpose, and being able to utilize their particular genius in a way that feels fulfilling, and generally finding a place where they feel peace.

I dream about a workplace where we: 

• actually have the conversation in a meeting that is most pressing rather than just getting through an agenda, 

• pause in a meeting or conversation with a colleague (or even senior administrator) to address all the obstacles in the room rather than just the ones that are appropriate to talk about,

• prioritize self reflection and safety as much or more than increasing profits and customer satisfaction; and

• celebrate being human.

From College to the “Work Force”

And maybe it is for these reasons that working (my experience of having a 9 to 5 job) has always felt a little “off” for me – like there were instructions, or an informational meeting that somehow I missed. In my teens and twenties, I was eyebrow deep into a liberal arts education. I learned a lot about things like French literature. So I always figured I missed something there. Like it was my fault.

But guess what? ? That education made me really great at writing accreditation reports (much to my dismay, accreditation wasn’t my favorite). Where other folks saw complicated instructions, I saw an outline of the concepts that we needed to write about. The accreditation report was just another French literature paper.

In my twenties, my life felt a little like this blurry photo of my childhood bedroom - lots going on that was all related (somehow), very colorful, and yet slightly out of focus, with some cheese balls thrown in, because they are yummy.

The colorful, related, out of focus concepts were theories, ideas, science fiction stories, and really interesting philosophies published in books and depicted in art.

I started working as an adjunct college instructor and then at a nonprofit. Those theories made more sense to me than the instructions I was given to teach my classes or help donors enjoy the philanthropic process.

At this point, I was 26ish, and was disillusioned with the world of work - it felt pointless and futile. My parents kept telling me that “the grass was always greener” to help explain that all work felt somewhat dissatisfying (or so was my interpretation of that parental lesson). I felt that ideas and textbooks made more sense than the world that I was supposed to make a living in. Like there was something wrong with me.

From the “Work Force” Back to School

So of course I went back to school. In my PhD program I really wanted to understand everything I could about what it looks like to take an idea and make it a “thing” in the world and not just any “thing” but a thing that had an impact.

At the back of my mind, I was always thinking about how I could create an organizational space where

• people felt empowered to act more than they felt cautious to make a mistake.

• one person or idea wasn’t allowed to dominate a conversation. over, and over again.

• we asked customers, clients, students and other populations businesses wanted to serve what they wanted and thought rather than making assumptions about them

I studied education policy implementation. I researched things like what it looks like when the federal government gives educators guidelines on how to:

• keep kids safe,

• understand what students are learning, and

• feed students in the mornings.

The colorful out of focus concepts went from being a chaotic mess to having some distinct shape. Like in this picture I drew for my therapist a couple years back to try to explain how I experienced the world (in colors and shapes).

So in my PhD program, I read, and I haven’t stopped reading. Research reports, professional growth books, articles, case studies, science fiction, still you name it.

I learned what it looks like to break learning down into tangible objectives. I learned what it looks like to try to measure things that are hard to measure (like learning). And I went to academic conferences, o so many academic conferences. Where people talked about the exciting ideas that they were researching.

And yet it felt so futile.

So much about talking about cool and fascinating ideas, but what, really was it changing, what was it impacting? It felt like this next image, also that I drew for my therapist, lots of color and exciting things being communicated but in whisps and lines, but no shape.

(Re)Joining the “Work force” in my late 20s

So I got a job doing research for an organization. I thought, finally! I can help organizations take ideas and do something with them - in the form of research and data and make changes to improve the experience of college students. I learned more skills and had more experience working with people around making change in the workplace.

And still, there were instructions that I somehow missed and even rules that I did not know about that somehow I broke. I still did not fit (even though, I had a lot of the puzzle pieces as a result of the research that I did).

And here is why I created Bring it to the Office

To elevate the potential of the workplace, which is really just ideas and information that humans have and want to bring into the world — it can look ALL sorts of ways, but often we expect it to look one of maybe three different ways.

What I have learned and the experience that I want you to have, in your nervous system, not just your beautiful brain in that: There is no one right answer. There is no one way to do it. No best way to teach students, build a new app, or market a business.

There is just a moment in time, with humans who all have different experiences and we can either spend our moment in time fighting to make those experiences the same to make something uniform or surrender to the differences to make something beautiful.

To be less abstract and conceptual, research shows that the workplace was made for a particular kind of person. My experience is that that person was definitely not me. I come from an upper middle class family, I’m white, I’m heterosexual. I went to an ivy league school. I check a lot of “normal” American experiences. And still I don’t feel like I fit.

I’ve just developed the skill and have the privilege to speak up and try to hold my ground for the things that don’t work for me (with varying degrees of success).

I want to live in a world where the workplace is made for all sorts of types of humans.

I want you to feel like that is possible too.

I share my story as one example of what it can look like to navigate the workplace. I look forward to telling you about some things that have worked for me.

I don’t know (yet!) what works for you. What works for me might not work for you. And we get to explore that together in Bring it to the Office.