on bringing in those who don't belong, dealing with unwieldy moments, and the audacious hope of building something new
It used to be that work was a singular choice: a job, maybe a career, perhaps even an entrepreneur. But today, these paths are blending. You may be working with clients, building a business of your own, incubating a new project, or doing all three simultaneously.
Meanwhile, on a parallel set of rails, doing good has evolved from solely being the domain of philanthropists, into non profits and corporate social responsibility, through to sustainability, B Corporations, and social enterprises.
These shifts offer alchemy and optionality, but also tension.
How do we blend and combine the possibilities to move things forward? How do we find the places where we feel we belong? And what happens when bring together people who don't belong?
These are all questions that inform the work of Shanley Knox. She's a brand strategist based in New York, as well as a social entrepreneur working in East Africa, and is currently sculpting two new ventures that synthesize systems change, strategy, and social entrepreneurship.
In this conversation, we get into dismantling a business on the cusp on success, a dangerous bias around meaningful work, the audacious hope of building something new, and why a set of traffic lights in Downtown Manhattan changed just about everything…
08:00 A tipping point to dismantle a company
12:00 Returning to Africa
21:00 Recognizing real problems as a founder
28:00 The feeling of belonging and not belonging
32:00 The photographer as observer
41:00 Stakeholders that strategists don’t always notice
52:00 The audacious hope of building a thing
59:00 What happens when you freeze in the face of possibility
66:00 Cultural bias around meaningful work
on bringing in those who don't belong, dealing with unwieldy moments, and the audacious hope of building something new
It used to be that work was a singular choice: a job, maybe a career, perhaps even an entrepreneur. But today, these paths are blending. You may be working with clients, building a business of your own, incubating a new project, or doing all three simultaneously.
Meanwhile, on a parallel set of rails, doing good has evolved from solely being the domain of philanthropists, into non profits and corporate social responsibility, through to sustainability, B Corporations, and social enterprises.
These shifts offer alchemy and optionality, but also tension.
How do we blend and combine the possibilities to move things forward? How do we find the places where we feel we belong? And what happens when bring together people who don't belong?
These are all questions that inform the work of Shanley Knox. She's a brand strategist based in New York, as well as a social entrepreneur working in East Africa, and is currently sculpting two new ventures that synthesize systems change, strategy, and social entrepreneurship.
In this conversation, we get into dismantling a business on the cusp on success, a dangerous bias around meaningful work, the audacious hope of building something new, and why a set of traffic lights in Downtown Manhattan changed just about everything…
08:00 A tipping point to dismantle a company
12:00 Returning to Africa
21:00 Recognizing real problems as a founder
28:00 The feeling of belonging and not belonging
32:00 The photographer as observer
41:00 Stakeholders that strategists don’t always notice
52:00 The audacious hope of building a thing
59:00 What happens when you freeze in the face of possibility
66:00 Cultural bias around meaningful work
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