🍂 Autumn.
I love a sweatshirt and a woolly hat. 🤎
Becca: Behind the Work
Leadership, collaboration, and cooperative working
What's your role at The Developer Society and what does a typical day look like for you?
I am COO here at The Developer Society - I spend my day overseeing our day-to-day business operations with a particular focus on supporting our project management team, our finances and all things process. I spend a decent chunk of my day collaborating with the team on the challenges and needs of the day - this can look like one-to-one support sessions or group spaces. If I’m not in a meeting, you’ll probably find me deep-diving into our financial details or documenting a process change. Sometimes they let me loose on a project or two, where I love to connect more closely with the work of our partners.
How would you describe what you do to someone who's never heard of our work?
I would describe what I do as weaving the thread of our team's work so that they can focus on their pieces. We work with change-makers to solve their digital challenges - I make sure the team can keep their mind predominantly focused on the solution of the day, by keeping everything else running as smoothly as possible.
Favourite season and why?
What's the most rewarding project you've worked on recently and why?
I’ve recently been working with the team on a rebuild of an app that supports victims of stalking to log incidents in as much detail as possible. This allows victims to accurately record information, knowing that it is stored for them to come back to if they need to, taking away (hopefully) some of the mental load of recalling incidents, but also ensuring that there is recorded evidence should anything need to be escalated legally.
How did you end up at The Developer Society? What's your origin story?
I had been working in education, supporting post-16 learners with their maths and English qualifications. When I started looking for new opportunities, the only thing I really knew for certain was that I wanted to continue to work in the service of others. I wanted to make sure that the work I was doing was contributing to making our world a better place - and the not-for-profit tech space was a door to creating impact in a variety of ways with several different groups. It really felt like a perfect fit.
What's one skill you've developed here that you're particularly proud of?
I think I’m proud of my growth as a leader - I’ve been in my position as COO for a few years now, and I feel like over that time I have really pushed myself to be a better leader. For me, some of this has meant remembering that my ideas aren’t the only ideas in the room - so making sure I empower and give space for other voices in the room has been a big part of that. I’m definitely an eager beaver when it comes to problem solving - but trying to really embody “two ears, one mouth” I think has helped me to become a better leader.
Favourite place you’ve travelled to?
🏯 Japan
(see image from Mount Fuji!)
What's the last book you read, podcast you binged, or show you couldn't stop watching?
Severance is amazing - tonally electric, and the visual is perfection. I’m also currently re-reading “Journey to the River Sea” with my little one at bedtime. It’s a really gorgeous read.
What values drive your work?
Collaboration with my peers is really important to me, and that then feeds into working in the service of others. I am really driven by my work being meaningful to other people, so that might look like improving one of the ways we work together at The Developer Society, or it can be getting the joy of supporting our partners with their work.
What does being part of a cooperative mean to you?
I’m a person who thrives when given responsibility - so what higher responsibility could you have other than co-ownership of the business? Having the ability to really engage with that higher-level thinking, longer-term strategy and decision-making is really rewarding. I also find that we get to tap into a breadth of knowledge and perspectives in a way that traditional models don’t. We’re all in the room, discussing the problem and bringing a different view - it can be really exhilarating to hear an entirely new perspective. That light bulb moment when a new dimension is added to a problem you’re looking to solve is really fun.
Cats, dogs, or neither?
🐶😺
Both!
(Shout out to Chelsea)
How is working at a co-op different from other places you've worked?
We get to set the tone. We’re less shy about bringing up ideas and issues, and we’re open to hearing all solutions. It’s great to know I could bring something to the table that I’m not completely sure of, or might have some missing detail on, and I will be met with a constructive team of collaborators who will help me fill in the gaps, riddle out the thinking and bring thoughtful reflections.
What's something you're looking forward to working on?
I always enjoy working on the next phase of The Developer Society. The best part of being a co-op is that we’re always thinking “what’s next?” - I like that we’re ambitiously looking for our next improvement or our next challenge.
