PART 2A: CLEARING THE TABLE, ROUND I

You’re seated at a restaurant…somewhere cosy and familiar. You’ve already eaten your delicious amuse-bouche and hors d’oeuvre and are eagerly waiting for the main course. Before it arrives, the waiting staff refill your drink and clear the used silverware and plates. You let out an anticipatory sigh as you sip your cold drink. The simple action of clearing though short and overlooked is quite profound. It signifies the end of one course as well as the in-between, the pausing, the digesting of, and the waiting for. It’s in such moments that must seize the opportunity to breathe and reconsider.

Finding time to pause in the startup scene is rare, but possible. Yet like most things here, you have to be cognizant of when an opportunity has presented itself. This brief moment came for me in year 4 —at the brink and dichotomy of deep frustration and growing clarity. It wasn’t an instant aha or light-bulb moment. I’d been working at the Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI) a cutting-edge creative school under the extraordinary mentorship of the then Head of School/Principal. The job was promising and exciting! New space, new challenges, potential for exponential growth, and (most importantly to me at the time) not a “startup”. I was immersed in new projects and programs, tapping into different schools of thought, and co-designing exciting solutions for young students about to enter the workforce or pursue higher education. It was meaningful work, no doubt about it! And with a boss who was as intentional about nurturing my technical capacity as she was about my professional capacity, I was also learning a great deal about being a woman in the workplace, double standards, and the tasteful art of outmanoeuvring the greys (more on this in parts 4). I was steady, on a path, and accelerating at full speed.

Fast forward and 6 months into it, the nature of my work started to deviate widely. I was focusing less and less on broader impact all the while my workload continued to increase - little justification, unclear timelines no commensurate compensation. Deflated and upset, I tried to find meaning, to advocate for myself, to demonstrate value, but to no end. I’d already ingested too much. Did I have the desire to proceed? Could I overcome the fact that career projection was unclear and so were my workstreams? Did I think I could influence or change the narrative? Did I understand what my contributions to impact would be? No. I didn’t…not then, and in hindsight likely not now. Despondently, I swallowed the hard pill — it was time to clear the table and reconsider. But it wasn’t for nothing. It was in the muddiness and the pausing that I came to find my why…hidden in plain sight!

I was working hand-in-hand with my boss to completely revamp ADMI’s capstone job readiness program. From resume building, cover letters, and job application guidance, to interview prep and mentorship from industry practitioners, the goal was to introduce students to new tools, practical instances, and immersive opportunities that would aid their journey into the workforce. Renovating the program required a lot of effort, collaboration and patience:

• First, we halted and discontinued the existing program for 2 semesters,

• Next, we dissected the current structure, collected feedback from stakeholders, and identified the major gaps. We then rebuilt a new framework that considered all parts alongside the market research we’d conducted on global best practices,

• Last, for a successful rollout, we continuously collected feedback and ensured iterations happened in real time.

The overhaul of the program was the first time in my career I fully contextualized the complexity and value of building a holistic solution. It wasn’t enough to address the gap from one angle. It required looking at the problem through different lenses and determining the most comprehensive approach for the long haul. The proof is in the pudding. The redesign of ADMI’s job readiness program is still in use today.

Solving BIG problems is a complex business. It often necessitates stripping the problem to the bone and assessing it in individual pieces. In doing so, we gain a better understanding of the problem and can determine if the solution makes sense. Moreso, it allows us to be realistic about our capacity to solve the problem holistically. The reality for most startups is that it’s impossible to address the problem to its full extent without being involved in and/or having ‘dominion’ over all facets. This is one of the reasons why partnership is so important. You can’t always solve the problem on your own (e.g. financial constraints, human resource limitations etc). However, in cases where there aren’t any other players addressing the angles of the problem, you may be “forced” or willing to consider being the player that does. If you choose to holistically address the problem, it’s important to consider all pieces. ADMI was the first time I’d worked with an organization that was addressing its target problem (employment) using a 3-pronged approach. From training (the Institute), to production (the Commercial), to ancillary support (the Foundation), the organization understood that for the ecosystem to change and for the outcomes to be fully owned, they needed to approach the problem from multiple angles. Building solutions for prosperity. So simple, but so brilliant! It was because of these core experiences at ADMI that my why became more clear; i) I cared about young people; ii) I cared about employment; and iii) I could readily relate to the struggles of finding work.

Getting to the end of the road was bittersweet. I was hurt and dissatisfied with how things ended, but gained such amazing experiences that I’ve carried to date. Most of all, I had more clarity than ever in the direction of my career. I wanted to contribute to the employment space in more targeted and transformative ways for those who need it most. It was then by fate’s choosing and by the calculated investments made prior — i) I was a fan and customer; ii) I’d partnered with them on a project while at ADMI, and; ii) I had a glowing recommendation from my previous boss, mentor and sponsor —  that I landed a job at Lynk, a company that was quite literally transforming the informal sector. The company’s focus was building a platform that facilitated job connections for informal workers while owning the outputs (job delivery). Its approach was ambitious, disruptive and ahead of any other Kenyan player at the time. It didn’t take any convincing for me to buy into the mission and the vision. Instant and immediate impact in the form of job creation - win, win, win!!!

Lynk was the first time in my career I felt truly fulfilled in the work I was doing and my contributions towards the overall impact. It was also the first time I doubled down on my strengths and strategically pushed agendas for where I wanted to be. Starting as a consultant, my deliverables were clear — to support the company redesign and bring its “new” offerings to the market. Similar to my experiences at ADMI, this required me to take a step back, assess, redesign tactically and implement. It was through this work that the complexity of the gig and informal space became even more evident. How do you provide a service without being liable? Who takes responsibility when the job goes wrong? How do you ensure that services being delivered on the platform are similar in quality? It wasn’t enough to standardise service delivery or simply to connect service providers and service buyers. Even as a third-party facilitator, for Lynk to truly dominate the space, they needed to own (at least major parts) the outcomes (quality) of the services being delivered. Lumos!

My first 6-8 months at Lynk were spent doing loads of research, consulting with stakeholders, developing products and building frameworks (like go-to-market processes and training manuals) to scale service delivery. And while this required different kinds of thinking and various approaches (generalist), it also required a lot of honing in and going deep (expert). For my work, this meant understanding what the business wanted, what customers cared about, what competitors were offering, and how Lynk could present its unique value proposition accordingly. It also meant understanding who our providers were, their limitations to getting the job done, and how the company could support seamless delivery. Although tedious at times, going deep allowed me to understand the business intimately. I truly believe that because of this, and more so because of my ability to synthesise complexity into tangible parts and across various verticals, I became the go-to and in-between for standardization, quality, and worker performance at the company.

Management consultancy often requires you to become an expert very quickly in a particular topic or field. This entails gaining perspective on the context, deeply understanding the problem and where it sits, and finding smart and creative solutions within a short timeline. I’d argue that working at a startup requires the very same…with the added constraints of having fewer resources and significantly smaller budgets. In both cases, the power leveraged comes not only from effective and rapid problem-solving but also from creating solutions that consider the full context. At the earlier stages of my career, it was necessary to be a generalist. However, as time passed and I gained more experience, the true value added was being a generalist who could also be an expert. But, being an expert doesn’t necessarily mean deep specialization…it means thinking more strategically about the problem being addressed, and how to best approach it. Going deeper came when I was able to take a step back and see gaps as interconnected, and thus the solutions as multifaceted. At Lynk, it meant I could leverage my understanding of the products (consumer-facing) to support Lynk reframing its offerings while also advocating for more investment in worker outputs (business-facing). Leveraging my “expertise” is what eventually allowed me (after lots of coaxing, support from my manager, and additional grant funding) to spearhead the establishment and management of Lynk Academy, a department fully focused on Lynk’s core asset, its workers, their performance, and their wellness.

Your life’s work doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a repeated attitude and stance to invest in the things that matter to you. Doubling down on what you do well or best, is only half of it. The other half comes from doing work that’s meaningful and purposeful to you. You need to make time and space to clear clutter off your table. It’s the only way you can ask what you are doing, why you are doing it, and if you’re happy to continue doing it.