Tailwinds, talking trees and wombats — how to visualise an organisation’s ‘why’.
This is the first in a series of blogs exploring how purpose and values can be identified and activated to ensure resilience, relevance and sustainability within an organisation.
Having spent the past 8 years building or supporting tech startups, my colleagues and co-founders have (not surprisingly) been predominantly male and skewed young. Last year I found myself searching for something else, to find a tribe outside of my workplace for professional support.
I landed in the 2019 WiT Board Readiness Program and tapped into the impressive network of WiT (Women in Technology). In 2020, I joined WiT as a board director and we have just completed a strategy day focused on unpacking why our organisation exists.
Our homework for the strategy day was to bring pictures that sum up what WiT means to us and its purpose.
I thought about the women I’d met over the past two years and why I had become a member. I knew I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself, to belong to a like-minded pack and to get swept along in the slipstream of other ambitious women.
My first image was a peloton of cyclists, using the aerodynamic technique of slipstreaming or drafting. As someone who spent 18 months of my life cycling around the world, I can promise you that there are few things more demoralising than cycling into a relentless headwind.
Women make up half of all science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) PhD candidates and early-career researchers in Australia — but only 20% of senior leaders. Many leave because the culture makes it difficult for them to be there. It’s the difference between going through your career with a headwind or tailwind.
I think a big part of WiT’s ‘why’ is to improve gender equality by creating tailwinds for women in science and technology.
There’s a trick in cycling, where you can use the strongest cyclists to beat the wind. Sitting behind another rider shelters you from the worst of the wind, and makes pedalling much easier. It’s a good metaphor because many of our members have had to pedal twice as hard, to go half as far. But with the support of WiT to advance, empower and connect, this headwind has been significantly reduced for many. I joined WiT because I wanted to slipstream with other women so we would all make faster progress than we ever could alone.
But speed is not the only goal of an organisation like WiT. Its power lies within a vast network that creates a thriving community between individuals.
My second image depicts how trees talk to each other underground, through a network of mycorrhizal fungi.
Like trees, we are all part of a big super organism, passing and receiving information and resources, as part of the WiT wide web.
The biggest and busiest nodes, also known as the mother trees, nurture the young ones growing in the understory. In a single forest, a mother tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees. Our founders, award winners and leaders are our mother trees. People like Sonja Bernhardt, Ann Ulridge and Bernadette Hyland-Wood created the first slipstream and culture of mentoring and connection that so many have benefitted from.
At WiT we interact like trees in a forest, not as competitors but as cooperators.
We also need to remember that forests aren’t just a bunch of trees competing with each other, they’re super-cooperators. The entire ecosystem relies on a vast diversity of members to survive and be resilient in the face of change.
To quote David Attenborough, “a complex ecosystem is more likely to survive and change and be productive than a simplified one in which the number of species has been grossly reduced.”
The WiT ecosystem is no different. If we were all the same, like characterless, planted grids of palm trees, there would be no growth, adaptation or magical serendipity. Imagine a networking event with no diversity, it’d be like having a conversation with a mirror!
Visualising your organisation as a series of images is a fascinating exercise, and gives you insight into other perspectives.
My fellow board member, Angela Jones chose an image of a wombat. At first we were unsure but she went on to explain that for their size, wombats are remarkably strong, incredibly quick (they can run at speeds of 40km/hour), and can move with great agility. They are understood to be intelligent, determined and because of their strength, they often smash through an obstacle, rather than go around it. Sound familiar?
No wonder a female Wombat was chosen to be the hero of a new feature film called Combat Wombat from female-founded Brisbane animation studio Like a Photon.
My next project involves digging into the roots of our forest to identify and activate a set of values that represent the heartbeat and aspirational ambition of our member organisation.
If you’re a WiT member and would like to be a part of the project, I would love to hear from you. Drop me an email at indi.tansey@wit.org.au
Now ladies, if you’ll excuse me its time to go and kick some wom-butt!
