546. How It’s Built: Operational Magic That Puts Your Values to Work - Dorothy Chang
Listen to this episode
Overview
Meet Dorothy. Her mission is to activate everyone’s capacity to become a more powerful version of themselves—in the workplace and beyond. She helps teams and leaders design the organizational tools, systems, and processes they need to put their values into practice. In this episode of "How It's Built," Dorothy shares how those of us in the social impact sector can create conditions intentionally designed for people to do their best work. Tune in for pro tips on operationalizing values in your work🛠️
💡Learn
The Impact + Case for Putting Your Values to Work in Your Operations
The Importance of Participatory, Community-Driven Processes
Pro Tips + Lessons Learned
Today’s Guest
Dorothy Chang, Business Operations Consultant
“Our values are not the why, they are the how.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode Highlights
Dorothy’s journey to where she is today (3:55)
The impact of organizations leading from their values (8:45)
How It’s Built: Operational Magic That Puts Your Values to Work (11:15)
The reflection process (25:35)
Case study (30:45)
Dorothy’s Pro Tips + Lessons Learned (35:40)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Dorothy’s life (39:00)
Dorothy’s One Good Thing: The stars align far more often than we think. Try and try again, and look for when the stars align. (42:40)
How to connect with Dorothy (44:00)
Impactful Quotes
“So many of our operating structures incentivize the wrong behaviors and the wrong priorities.” -Dorothy
“Our values are not the why, they are the how.” -Dorothy
“Our systems aren’t broken at all, they are working as they were designed to.” -Dorothy
“This redesign of operating systems is is actually just a reclaiming of agency, and that's super scary, but also super empowering, because you get to simultaneously say, this inherited system isn't my fault. I can have compassion for myself and the other people caught in this power dynamic, and at the same time, I have the ability and maybe even an obligation to change this.” -Dorothy
“There’s a lot of magic in who we get to call a designer.” -Dorothy
“I saw this opportunity to integrate racial equity and inclusion into the “how” of their workflow.” -Dorothy
“The tiniest little tweaks beam out a very different story and create a different experience of belonging and access.” -Dorothy
“Righteous anger can only keep you going for so long. Anger and sadness isn’t a sustainable force that drives change.” -Dorothy
How It’s Built: Building Operational Magic That Puts Your Values to Work ⬇️
Who gets to be a designer?
People closest to the problem are closest to the solution
What works for the most marginalized tends to work for your “average” user, curb cut effect
Who gets to be a facilitator?
Misconception that the answer is training or safe space convos or finding a token person of color to lead
Making the implicit explicit
What are the steps we need to take?
Defining the right problem
Coming up with solutions
Testing solutions in a low stakes way
Reflect and learn for next time
CONNECT WITH Dorothy
Connect with Jon
Connect with Becky
CONNECT WITH WE ARE FOR GOOD
Join the We Are For Good Community
You can think of it as the after-party to each podcast episode 🥳
Say hi👇
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter
