How to write down practice

You've had a go at a change initiative. You experimented your way forward and it feels like things have shifted as a result of your intervention. You've inspired people around you, you have a collection of life affirming memories that keep you pushing through the hard bits and now people want you to share what you've done.

You want to share it too. But every time you sit down to start, you get buried in a heavy sense of overwhelm. Where to even start? And then how on earth do you find the time to finish? And how will you sift through the myriad of ideas, theories and stories that make up your story and write in a way that helps those around you? 

My Finance Innovation Lab Co-founder Charlotte and I found this when we sat down and tried to write down a ‘how to’ guide to the project we’d spent 8 years building.

The Lab was spinning out, becoming an independent entity and we, (along with our other founders Jen and Richard), decided the responsible thing to do was to document how to do everything from hosting a brilliant workshop, to building an agile organization. It took us about 3 months in days, spread out over a year.

Here’s what I learnt from the process:

Create the conditions for success 

• Be pragmatic about who writes it up

Too many cooks in the kitchen will definitely spoil the broth, cause distraction.  

Put egos to the side and ask the question - who knows the most about our practice? Who works best together? And who writes the best?

We found two people was the perfect number. Someone to bounce ideas off and to hold the other to account, but small enough to be agile and keep momentum going.   

• Build a boundary around your time

Pick a time and date and clear your diary. Protect that time like a lion/ess. No you can't do a quick phone call that morning. Clear. 

• Pick somewhere distraction free

We didn't do a great job on this in some ways- I hosted most of our sessions at my house and had my 1 year old daughter circling around at time, but being away from the office way absolutely key.

Charlotte stayed the night at my house most nights and we did 3 to 4 day marathon sprints where possible. The informality of the situation was really important. 

• Clarify your target market

Who are you writing this for? Have a good conversation about this. Ideally pick a person you both know, write down their name, what they need from this publication, what style they would appreciate the most and stick this up prominently on the wall throughout.  

• Write in sprints, with lots of breaks

Lets face it, weeks of writing can be incredibly frustrating and also very, very boring. To keep ourselves motivated, we wrote in 40 minute blocks and held each other to account for finishing when 40 minutes was up. We woke up early, ate healthily and finished at 6pm at the latest. It was all very civilized. 

• Write FINISH on the wall, in big letters

Refer to it often. 

The process 

• Map it out on the wall

We took a stack of post it notes each and wrote down the name of chunks of content we thought needed to be in there, organized them as best we could created a general structure for the publication. 

• Get started, alone

Enough talking. Ask each person to pick the piece of content they could bang out quickly because they were responsible for it, and get started. Each writer should keep picking these up until you come to a natural pause. 

• Compare notes

Once you've written something down, come back together, swap computers and read each others work. Do this on day one. You will almost certainly have written in a different style, in a different structure. Have an honest conversation about which style works best. As you develop style rules, use post it notes to capture them and stick those on the wall too. 

• Get back to writing

Taking into account your new style and templates. 

• Take a week off to think about it

We wrote our two 80 page publications over the course of a summer. Taking a break in between sprints helped us clarify what we were trying to write and why. Very often we'd come back together with a major new insight about the overall structure of the document. Having a break gave us the strength to actually implement these changes. It was disheartening to have to cut major swathes of writing out, to admit what we'd written didn't really make logical sense. It was at these points that the chocolate and Tina Turner came out. Charlotte would also point out that I gave daily motivational speeches at the start and end of the day, summarizing what we were aiming to achieve or the progress that we'd made. I thought they were very effective! 

Trying to write it down and struggling to finish? We can help you cut through the noise and develop a clear way forward. Get in touch rachel@thesystemstudio.com

"I am still here" - Letters from Serbia

Ana Janošev

Ana believes that investing in youth, is investing in our future, and is fulfilled by helping them find their passions, interests and their career paths.

She has been working on youth social enterprises in Serbia, delivering workshops on idea generation, business modeling, planning and pitching for young people, developing incubation programs for idea stage social enterprises and creating a network of young social changemakers.

I am 25-year old Serbian. I was born in 1992, in the midst of Yugoslavia’s breakup and wars. My first year of elementary was marked by the NATO bombing, and the second year by the so-called “colored (or bulldozer) revolution”, when the authoritarian regime of Slobodan Milosevic was taken down, and the new “democratic” era started.

That means that in less than 20 years, Serbia experienced two huge systemic changes. What happens with youth in that situation?

Unfortunately, in Serbia that resulted in a big discontent and apathy. Only 10% of youth votes in elections and about 20% is politically active. There exists a widely spread disappointment in the system, due to corruption, nepotism, lack of rule of law, high unemployment…

Research shows that 73% of Serbian youth doesn’t think there is enough space for them to show their creativity and talent, 66% believe there is no perspective for youth in Serbia, and about 50% think the best job for youth is in public administration. Along with the data about youth unemployment (36.1%) it is understandable why Serbian youth has stopped believing in the system.

However, working as a youth worker for the past 5 years has made me hopeful the situation is not all that dark. There are several examples I would like to point out.

The IT industry in Serbia, mostly led by young, well-educated people, is shaping our economy. This community, mostly gathered around two organizations – Startit and ICT Hub, has made some impact on the creation of new trade, online business and financial laws. They are pushing for government to focus more on the potential of this industry, to invest in the education in the field and shape laws in a way that enables startups and entrepreneurs to bring in value, instead of taking it out of the country.

On the level of youth politics, Serbian Youth Umbrella Organization (KOMS) has been advocating for the involvement of youth in the decision-making processes, advising government on the youth issues, proposing solution and educating youth to become active citizens.

In recent years, a lot of effort has been put into promotion of entrepreneurship. The pioneers of promotion of entrepreneurial learning was Junior Achievement (JA) Serbia, which started with their programs in elementary and high schools in 2005. Since then, more than 60.000 pupils from 289 schools participated in their programs. JA Serbia was a big advocate for making entrepreneurship a subject in elementary and high schools, which is currently being implemented.

In the country where corruption is so widespread, the changes are slow. That’s why many organizations have moved away from working with or within the system, into working with individuals. Programs like Future Studies (Belgrade Open School) or Social Impact Award aim at developing individuals who will create change in our society. They are the future impact makers, with broader minds, developed skills and passion for influencing the system for the better.

Even though more than 40.000 people a year emigrate from Serbia, I am still here. I am here because I am still hopeful that young bright minds of this country can tear down this system of corruption and lawlessness, and create a system that benefits its citizens.

I am still here. And I am here to do everything in my power to create environment for more people like me stay.