Week 1
I was full of energy and ready to get to work. However, I also realized that it takes time to enter a new role. I devoted most of my time to get to know Tortoise and our team’s task better. I think I learned the importance of getting to know not just formal aspects of the organization when starting a new job, but especially the informal aspects – and that this takes time. It felt a little overwhelming with so many new people, so much happening around me and so much new knowledge to keep track of.
Week 2
As Tortoise is still a startup, tasks, responsibilities, and processes are still highly dynamic. I think it made me realize the importance of prioritizing. There might be 100 different things that could be improved; however, we do not have enough capacity to tackle all those 100 and then how do we consciously and strategically spend our capacity. For the community outreach team especially, I think that meant that while it was great for the team to be self-reflective and finding many areas for improvement, we also had to be realistic about what we could take on with the current capacity, and hence identify which work tasks would make the greatest impact.
Week 3
I think our team is slowly settling into a dynamic. A key part of that is becoming aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. In this process I have also become more aware of my own strengths and weaknesses. I have worked together with the other Laidlaw interns to take stock of the current community partners and identify gaps in the type of people and organizations we are reaching. Focusing on diversity we are assessing all different types of parameters from geographical diversity where NGOs in London are overrepresented, while NGOs outside are sparse, to issue diversity where we are trying to make sure that we are engaging with a variety of social issues and not focusing all our energy on one population. I am learning how to work together both with my Laidlaw peers in a professional environment, as well as how to work together with management. I realized that this is my most “corporate” setting I have worked in, and so it is refreshing to be working in a different way than in a school or NGO and seeing how social impact takes form in corporate organizations.
Week 4
I have been doing a lot of data organizing. I think I realized how much bureaucracy goes into social impact work. I think when we picture social impact we think of working “in the field”; teaching children in a classroom, talking to elderly in a nursery home, cooking food in a food kitchen. But now here I am in front of a computer moving numbers in an excel spreadsheet. And not only is this kind of “back-office” work necessary for social impact and a well-functioning organization, but I also realize many social impact organizations struggle with these type of data storage and analysis tasks. Connecting my previous experiences working in NGOs with my experience now in Tortoise that I something that has become clear to me. Why is this the case and what are the consequences? Perhaps I will do my LiA showcase on this topic.
Week 5
I got to listen to the previous prime minister of Denmark speak about leadership! One of the good parts about working in a newsroom is the exposure to so many different stories, interesting people, and industries. Having in previous weeks worked on doing a deep analysis on the current community network, we are at the point where the recommendations as to how we can diversify the community network and increase their engagement should now actually be put into action. It is much easier identifying problems, give recommendations, than it is to take action on these issues afterwards, because it is either easy to fall into the same patterns, or we have not realized the limitations which led us there in the first place. For instance, we had an overrepresentation of organizations in London, and we wanted to expand the network beyond London. However, now that we are trying to identify new partners or reengage old partners it becomes clear that 1) most medium to large NGOs in the UK have their head office in London even if they also serve populations outside London and 2) our own office and majority of events are in London, and we therefore do not offer much of an alternative. This feels like a failure on our part. However, I guess if the NGO space was perfect, most social issues would have been solved already. The NGO and social impact space is full of limitations, overlaps, disconnections, and conflicting interests – I found this a valuable lesson to resettle my idealism with a good cold shower of reality.
Week 6
My last week here. I am beyond sad to be leaving, as I feel like I just got settled and got to know the office and all the wonderfully inspiring people here. I feel that I learned most about the “realities” of social impact, and I say that with the most respect. That is, at Tortoise I feel like I not only saw behind the scene of social impact, as instead of being “in the field” I was in the decision-making room and working the numbers that drive social impact. Moreover, by analysing the NGO landscape in the UK I feel like I learned as about the social impact space from a different perspective than I have in the classroom or volunteering – that is about the relations, organizational structures, communication, and market. All these aspects combined with my newfound seeming talent for data analysis has had a massive impact on how I view social impact and see my future career path. As a way of closure I wrote a summary of all the work I have done in my 6 weeks below.
Final Task Summary
In my 6 weeks at Tortoise Media, I have worked extensively with the community network, particularly on data analysis to improve the constellation of and engagement with our community partners. I collaborated with a fellow scholar to generate in-depth insights on the current constellation of the community network using Excel, and the data visualisation tool Flourish. Together, we identified gaps in the social/societal issues covered by our community partners. For instance, we identified gaps in our partnerships with nonprofits focusing on racial inequalities, and an oversaturation of partnerships with career organisations. Moreover, we identified the average engagement flow and key metrics to record future engagement. Our insights made the foundation for the improved community network strategy going forward, including, extending the diversity of organisations. I improved the internal data categorization and storage for the community network team and helped set up processes for recording engagement data. The result is the improved data utilisation, accuracy, and accessibility, necessary for the expansion of the community network. I further advanced the growth of the community network by researching relevant non-profit organisations and initiating first contact with potential partners. Moreover, I supported multiple events attended by our community partners, namely, the launch of The Better Food Index, ‘Does Democracy Work for You?’ in Birmingham, Slow News Café at the British Library, and KITE Festival.
Overview of main tasks
- Improved the community network strategy by identifying engagement trends and diversity gaps through in-depth data analysis of over
- Strengthened the information infrastructure of the community network team and set up improved data recording processes
- Grew the community network by researching and reaching out to potential partners
- Supported Tortoise events attended by community partners, on- and off-site
Overall, my experience at Tortoise introduced me to a completely new side of social impact work and I learned a lot about working with nonprofit/charity organizations from a completely different perspective than before. But most of all, I have learned more about my own strengths a weaknesses. I have learned that I may be ambitious, but as a result, overload myself with work. I have learned that I may be capable of completing complex tasks, but it is just as important to know when a complex task is worth the time and resources. I have learned how to navigate working with several teams within the same organization at once, and how to work with external partners of many different types. Most of all I have discovered my strength in analysis and supporting executive decision-making through creative and effective use of data science. I can say with confidence, that few things have shaped how I approach my career after undergraduate studies more than the Laidlaw programme for these exact reasons. I look forward to paying back the generosity I have received being a Laidlaw scholar, through my future career in the social impact field.