Labor of Care Working Group @ New Inc

ClientNew IncURLwww.newinc.orgYear2024ServicesFacilitation

Labor of Care: When Bell Hooks meets Org Operations

Me and my co-conspirator Ploipailin Flynn led a working group for New Inc members (6 x 90-minute sessions held from February 13 to March 19) exploring how we operationalize care in our individual and collective practices (AIxDESIGN).

“In these collaborative working sessions, our aim is to translate different theories of care into practical applications within micro-small business operations – like Ways of Working documentation, possible contract clauses, budgeting and project planning, project rituals, and more. Together, we will compile our learnings into a toolkit for us all to refer back to and continue to build upon. Let’s start living in these worlds that don’t yet exist (but we very much deserve!).”

  • Week 1: Intro to Care Theories
    We introduced participants to care theories, from bell hooks to Feminist Business and Racial Wellness. During this session, we explored existing theories of care and participants self-defined the elements of care that were most important to their unique practices.
  • Week 2: Expressions of Care
    Building on the first session, we examined how care is expressed both inside and outside of work. Participants documented behaviors that made them feel cared for and those that did not. We then translated these insights to identify areas of interest for further exploration in the following session.
  • Week 3: The Cost of Care
    In this session, we discussed the resources required to foster and sustain care, including time, money, inspiration, trust, joy, and vulnerability. We also addressed the challenges that arise when these resources are limited.
  • Weeks 4-5: Operationalizing Care
    These were action-oriented weeks where we delved into building care infrastructures within participants’ practices. We analyzed how others had approached this and adapted those strategies to our own needs.
  • Week 6: Ribbons + Bows – Making Our Care Packages
    In the final session, we wrapped up the working group by each creating a “care package” to reflect our understanding of care in practice. Whether through sketches, Notion pages, Miro boards, or Are.na channels, participants shared their creations, demonstrating that building care into their work was possible.