Change Starts at Home

Change starts at home

I realized recently that it's been a year since I last wrote on The Changebase. While I don't like to make excuses, I think I've got a pretty good one: motherhood. In January 2013, my husband and I welcomed our wonderful little boy. Little did we know what a journey we were about to embark on.

Over the course of my first nine months as a parent, I've reflected often on the topic of community. When I started this blog, I set my focus and intentions around communities of change – high impact, innovative people and organizations doing great work out in the world. When I went on maternity leave last December, my own personal community of change was redefined, becoming infinitely smaller, tighter and ultimately much more meaningful than I could have imagined.

I've always believed in the 'it takes a village to raise a child' mentality, and I've learned firsthand that my child is truly a village baby. We're incredibly lucky that our inner circle of family and friends have stepped up and supported our little baby and our little family during this daunting, scary and amazing time of transition and change. There's no way we could have grown into the happy trio we now are without the love and support of our greater community.

This past weekend I went to the Net Impact conference in San Jose and spent much of my time there continuing to reflect. Last year at the conference I was 7 months pregnant; now I am mother to an almost one-year old! And yet, like always I felt wrapped up in the warm arms of that incredible community.

The theme of the conference was Change Starts Here. Each of the keynotes focused on various elements required to create lasting change: leadership, a network, dialogue, an idea. As I sat in the keynotes and many of the sessions, I thought about the kind of change I want to create in the world, and what I need in order to get there. Like any new mom, I face the internal (and sometimes very visible, external) struggle of balancing my career aspirations and dreams with an almost-primal urge to soak up every moment I can with my son. Let's just say that while the conversation about work-life balance for working moms has been carrying on for decades, all of a sudden it feels very relevant to me.

What I'm learning is there's no resolution, no end-point to this conversation. Rather than a period, it's a comma – or maybe a run-on sentence that twists and turns and never lets you know where it's going. Some days work feels like my #1, my purpose and my focus. But then I come home, racing in the front door in time for playtime and bath time, and I think to myself: how could I possibly miss this? What could ever be more important than this moment, right here and now?

In the end, I'm starting to see that there's a ebb and flow to this new way of living. A give and take between any number of identities that I hold true and core to me, to Ashley. I'm a mom – and I love being a mom. I'm a professional – and I find fulfillment through working. And I'm lots of things in between. Sometimes one part of me shines through more than the others, but these parts of me are always there. Working in tandem to make up the whole.

No where was this more evident than at Net Impact's three-day conference. For two of those days, I poured myself into the schedule, the networking and the learning. I was inspired and energized, and eagerly awaiting day 3. Yet as I pulled into my driveway at the end of a long second day, I turned inward and asked myself, "if I could do anything tomorrow, what would it be"? The answer rang loud and clear: family. So, on day 3 of Net Impact – while my twitter feed hummed with conference insights and learning from just down the road – I stayed home with my son and husband for some time together. And it was a great day.

When I think about where change starts and how it happens, I agree: it starts with leadership and networks and a big idea. But in my definition of change, it also starts with my family. I'm not yet sure exactly what my mark on the world will be, or how I'll create my own community of change, but I do know that investing in my son, helping him grow into the person he's meant to be and building a community around him is one big way I'll get there. Change may start in many ways, but sometimes – in my world – it starts at home.

I realized recently that it's been a year since I last wrote on The Changebase. While I don't like to make excuses, I think I've got a pretty good one: motherhood. In January 2013, my husband and I welcomed our wonderful little boy. Little did we know what a journey we were about to embark on.

Over the course of my first nine months as a parent, I've reflected often on the topic of community. When I started this blog, I set my focus and intentions around communities of change – high impact, innovative people and organizations doing great work out in the world. When I went on maternity leave last December, my own personal community of change was redefined, becoming stronger, tighter and ultimately much more meaningful than I could have imagined.

I've always believed in the 'it takes a village to raise a child' mentality, and I've learned firsthand that my child is truly a village baby. We're incredibly lucky that our inner circle of family and friends have stepped up and supported our little family during this daunting, scary and amazing time of transition and change. There's no way we could have grown into the happy trio we now are without the love and support of our greater community.

This past weekend I went to the Net Impact conference in San Jose and spent much of my time there continuing to reflect. Last year at the conference I was 7 months pregnant; now I am mother to an almost one year-old! And yet, like always I felt wrapped up in the warm arms of that incredible community.

The theme of the conference was Change Starts Here. Each of the keynotes focused on various elements required to create lasting change: leadership, a network, dialogue, an idea. As I sat in the keynotes and many of the sessions, I thought about the kind of change I want to create in the world, and what I need in order to get there. Like any new mom, I face the internal (and sometimes very visible, external) struggle of balancing my career aspirations and dreams with an almost-primal urge to soak up every moment I can with my son. Let's just say that while the conversation about work-life balance for working moms has been carrying on for decades, all of a sudden it feels very relevant to me.

What I'm learning is there's no resolution, no end-point to this conversation. Rather than a period, it's a comma – or maybe a run-on sentence that twists and turns and never lets you know where it's going. Some days work feels like my #1, my purpose and my focus. But then I come home, racing in the front door in time for playtime and bath time, and I think to myself: how could I possibly miss this? What could ever be more important than this moment, right here and now?

In the end, I'm starting to see that there's a ebb and flow to this new way of living. A give and take between any number of identities that I hold true and core to me, to Ashley. I'm a mom – and I love being a mom. I'm a professional – and I find fulfillment through working. And I'm lots of things in between. Sometimes one part of me shines through more than the others, but these parts of me are always there. Working in tandem to make up the whole.

No where was this more evident than at Net Impact's three-day conference. For two of those days, I poured myself into the schedule, the networking and the learning. I was inspired and energized, and eagerly awaiting day 3. Yet as I pulled into my driveway at the end of a long second day, I turned inward and asked myself, "if I could do anything tomorrow, what would it be"? The answer rang loud and clear: family. So, on day 3 of Net Impact – while my twitter feed hummed with conference insights and learning from just down the road – I stayed home with my son and husband for some time together. And it was a great day.

When I think about where change starts and how it happens, I agree: it starts with leadership and networks and a big idea. But in my definition of change, it also starts with my family. I'm not yet sure exactly what my mark on the world will be, or ultimately how I'll create my own community of change. But I do know that investing in my son, helping him grow into the person he's meant to be and building a community around him is one big way I'll get there. Change may start in many ways, but sometimes – in my world – it starts at home.

Diary of an Intern: My Summer in Corporate Giving

It's amazing to say it, but last week I finished up my corporate philanthropy internship at ABC. The summer just flew by! In all, it was a really terrific experience that challenged me to think creatively and strategically about how to educate employees about our corporate giving program and how they can get involved. More than that, it was an opportunity to brainstorm and devise an action plan for how the organization can use philanthropy as a strategic advantage in business. I've given a pretty good overview of my internship in other posts on The Changebase (Learning How to Communicate Change, for example, or one of my Recap posts), so I won't spend too much time talking about my projects. In general, I split my time between two main areas:

• Communications: this summer was all about the "Socialization of Corporate Giving" at ABC - which basically meant coming up with ways to educate our employees and leadership team about our program, how they could get involved, and perhaps most importantly, why it's good for our business. Within communications I focused on creating educational campaigns to let employees know about their option to donate product to charity; redesigning and expanding our program's presence on the company intranet; building out a more robust employee volunteer choice system (letting employees nominate nonprofits to work with beyond our network of partner organizations); and generally raising awareness and involving employees in the conversation. Here I am (below) at a Corporate Giving "expo" I set up to talk to employees, showcase our newly redesigned intranet pages, and encourage participation in the program.

• Branding: I ended my summer by building the case for branding. As a short summary, right now the corporate giving program at ABC is called "Corporate Giving". Without a name or a visual identity, the program doesn't stand out and get noticed by internal employees. Not to mention the fact that currently ABC does not really communicate at all with external stakeholders about how it gives back. All in all, calling it Corporate Giving is impersonal and doesn't convey any of the heart or meaning behind why ABC is involved in the community. My report included competitive benchmarking (looking at how Land o'Lakes, Del Monte Foods, and V8 Juice externally market their community programs), making the case for why philanthropy in business is a strategic imperative, and outlining how and why branding our program is good for ABC.

Beyond my own summer projects, I also learned a lot about ABC's business overall. I had the chance to meet with members of the senior leadership team, including the CEO, the COO and a Director of Manufacturing, as well as with various department heads from Quality, Customer Marketing, Consumer and Business Insights, and others. As a nonprofit "veteran", it was eye-opening to spend 10 weeks at a company with 2000+ employees and learn how all of the various functional groups work together to make ABC so successful.

I was also lucky to meet and work with a friendly, smart group of MBA and undergraduate interns. Here I am with a few  intern friends at a tour of one of ABC's plants:

 

As my time at ABC wound down, I started to reflect on what I'd done and learned over the summer. A few highlights:

1. Working in a for-profit setting is not all that different from a nonprofit: Sure, there is that one vital difference (ie: making money) - but besides that, I found that I acclimated pretty quickly. Interestingly, the part I found most "normal" (ie: similar to my nonprofit experiences) was the everyday, regular stuff: managing interpersonal dynamics with colleagues, finding enough time in the day to get everything done, and identifying ways to promote ideas and gain allies in the office. Ok, so ABC is for-profit. But beyond that, I felt right at home.
2. How you talk to your employees is just as important as how you talk to your consumers (if not more!): Ultimately everything ABC does (from R&D to Marketing to Operations and beyond) is focused on driving sales, which means that the company (and every company for that matter) can get caught up in focusing on how it talks to its consumers. This is an imperative for business - but it doesn't take precedence over the conversation a company has with its own employees. To have happy consumers and customers, we must have happy employees. Sometimes when we get so focused on the bottom line, we forget how important it is to engage internal audiences in a conversation about our company values, heritage, mission, and goals. But as I learned in corporate giving, employees are our greatest asset and ambassadors; without them, the business just can't succeed.
3. Change is sloooooooow: Change is such a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the idea of it gets our blood pumping and makes us feel energized and empowered; on the other, it can be overwhelming, unwanted, or feel like an unnecessary intrusion. Like any new employee, I came in to ABC this summer full of ideas, energy, and action, and I'm pleased to say I accomplished a lot. But any trouble I ran into this summer revolved around the idea that change - even good change - is slow moving. It takes time to get buy-in from the right people and package a message or idea in a way that your audience will understand - and even when you've done all of that, it's still a challenge to actually move the dial in the direction you want. I did a lot this summer, but I could have used way more than 10 weeks to really make an impact.

With just two weeks left until I begin my second year of my MBA, it's fun to look back on the summer and see what I accomplished. My experience at ABC really helped "round out" my understanding of how philanthropy (and CSR in general) can reinforce business goals and be a strategic advantage for companies that do it right. Now it's time to get back to school!

Diary of An Intern: Learning How to Communicate Change

Over the last few weeks at my internship, I've gotten an insider's view of a corporate philanthropy program in action. I've learned about how ABC gives (through donations of money, product and time) and what kinds of programs it will support (generally, family health and wellness, although the guidelines get more narrow for more restricted things like cash grants). And so far it's been a great learning experience, one that has reinforced my view that, when done right, for-profit companies really can use corporate giving programs to not only better their communities but connect more effectively and genuinely with their customers and employees. In all of this learning, though, there's been one unexpected challenge: what happens when a company has put a corporate giving strategy in place...but no one pays attention?

Perhaps the biggest bump in the road that I've encountered so far is a true lack of knowledge, awareness, and unfortunately in a large handful of cases, what appears to be a disinterest in ABC's corporate philanthropy program. The lack of knowledge and awareness shouldn't surprise me - afterall, this is why I was hired in the first place (that whole "Socialization plan" I talked about a few weeks ago). But I've been a bit taken aback by some of the employees at ABC who don't seem all that interested in our program and what we're trying to accomplish.

Case in point: I've talked about those intern training meetings the company holds, where senior leaders from different functional areas come to talk to us about the work they do. At the start of every meeting, we go around the table and introduce ourselves and what department we're in. ABC has interns in finance, marketing, new business development, even packaging - and when those interns say what they're doing for the summer, no one raises an eyebrow. But when I explain I'm working in corporate giving - well, all I can say is it's like on TV when all of a sudden the record screeches to a halt and the room goes silent. People just don't seem to get it.

This got me thinking: what can I do to not only educate employees about corporate giving at ABC, but actually incentivize them to get involved?

I've often spoken with employees about the program, and while a little education helps them understand the point of it, it still doesn't seem to register with them that they can actually participate in it. They seem to "get" why it's important in the grand scheme of things (at least as it relates to making our consumers happy), but often it appears there still is a disconnect when it comes to why this should matter to them specifically. On the other hand, I know through both actual and anecdotal evidence that corporate giving is important and that it should matter to our employees - which I guess just demonstrates how assumptions (and perhaps my own idealism) can get in the way of actual progress.

Anyway, what's interesting is that this whole epiphany around how to effectively promote this kind of program and activate employees to get involved coincided with a recent conversation I had with a new friend of mine, Monica Nakielski. Monica is Principal at Harmeda, a CSR strategy consulting firm in Boston. Over the last few months she's been kind enough to serve as a source of information, background, and insights for me during my own career exploration (you can follow her on twitter and read her insights for yourself at @mnakielsi). Anyway, Monica and her colleague Heather Stagl (@enclaria) have just written a workbook entitled "Plan to Avoid Scattershot Change: A Step-by-Step Guide to Communicating for Change" and they were kind enough to give me a sneak peak. What's great about it is that it literally walks you through the steps involved in communicating change at your organization, including targeting your message to the specific audience you're trying to reach as well as carefully choosing the medium through which you'll transmit your story. It turns out that it's not as simple as just telling people about your program and expecting them to get on board - which, in hindsight, is what I have been doing without even realizing it.

One of my favorite sections of the workbook talks about how to "Entice, Educate, and Engage" the stakeholders involved in the change initiative, and I've been thinking a lot about how to do that at ABC. Interestingly, the Educate and Engage parts don't seem as tough as the Entice idea. In the end, I think it comes down to creating a message and action plan that is so compelling, transparent and genuine that the reasons to get involved seem obvious (which I know is easier said than done, but in theory shouldn't be too tough considering we're talking about philanthropy). I can educate employees about corporate giving, and I can recruit employees who have participated to engage their colleagues in the program.

But when messages constantly compete for employee attention and you can't offer incentives beyond "feeling good," how do you entice people to sit up and pay attention? 

This is a question I'll be working through over the next few weeks and I'd love your feedback. How have you caught people's attention and inspired change from within? What's worked? And what hasn't? And of course I'll keep you posted on my progress.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Monica and Heather's workbook, they're going to be hosting a webinar on July 17th for Net Impact members to introduce their ideas and walk people through the plan. You can check out more details on the The Changebase events tab under July or click here.