Time Capsule Warriors and the Digital Heart
Rare ladies, almost elven, graced the revered halls of a genuine place. They swept down a golden staircase of brass and glass, papers in hand. They swayed through meandering spaces, long floral dresses swishing around their calves. Scrunch socks inside gym shoes softened their pathway of worn maroon berber.
I found myself in this new home, a landing of my own design. And for more than a few moments, this newcomer examined these fresh air “women warriors” like an oddity.
Ah, the comfort, safety and protection that this place afforded – it pulsed with a deep heartbeat. How could this exist? This population still in their 1980’s frocks, living in this enclave ever since, as if never influenced by the outside world… empowered to focus on a Mission… how?
Driven by science and medical expertise, their cause remained true: doggedly uninfluenced and unadulterated by Business. This was their source of safe isolation, where huddled in dark corners, the warriors made the engine run in a place of esteemed beauty.
Well, as beautiful as a maroon-carpeted office with brass doorknobs could be, anyway.
Seeing this living time capsule, I felt modern in comparison. A digital agency survivor, sprouted through the hottest (and silliest) days of the early web.
Yet at once, I was freed. The ability to express thought, opinion, and solutions took the place of putting on trendy airs. Oxygen once again raced back into my capillaries. After working too long with crafty (and at times manipulative) Pharma clients, this non-profit actually supported people’s health through software and learning. Hell, even I lost that “last 20 pounds” by just following their health guidance.
A short time after my health began to improve, excitement built as the maroon carpet was replaced with a modern grey. We had to keep up the meandering sprawl, which looked like one office section cobbled with another, and another. We loved this space that was not perfect, because we all knew we owned it.
Still, some of the maroon carpet remained, like the workers locked there in time. Never leaving the halls, dedicating their lives like nuns. So admirable.
Soon more new women like me started to pad the grey berber in buffed black boots. Now traveling with laptops vs. a stack of papers, we mixed like oil and water. Yet together we blazed a trail because we all believed in the Mission.
Yet, how to navigate this trail? Sometimes it wasn’t easy with territory carve-outs abound. Even taking great care to determine a move from one chessboard box to another didn’t always pay off. Though it might be right and just for the greater cause, stepping a toe into the next box shocked others. In no time, I was tasked with investigating a catastrophic loss of traffic to our website and the chessboard started to bend and skew like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.
There is no explanation for the website problem, other than when you’re somewhat sheltered, you can deepen expertise in specific areas. However, you’re equally sheltered from gaining expertise in new areas.
Thus the need for fresh blood, to train, deepen knowledge, and transform. To build an island of digital innovation… seek a new way of doing things… and foster the same in others. That was me… my role. And I didn’t know where it would lead next.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this and it brightened your day.
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