546. How It’s Built: Operational Magic That Puts Your Values to Work - Dorothy Chang

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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.”

— Dorothy Chang

Episode Transcript

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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