Reducing the mental load of work & increasing capacity through working with Collaborative Future’s young talent.
WE SPEAK WITH NISSA RAMSAY, FOUNDER OF THINK SOCIAL TECH, WHO TOOK PART IN OUR 2021 TALENT PROGRAMME AND THROUGH IT, WORKED WITH SHANICE.
Nissa Ramsay, Founder of Think Social Tech and 2021 Collaborator on our programme
COULD YOU GIVE US A SIMPLE OVERVIEW OF THE WORK YOU DO AT THINK SOCIAL TECH, AND WHAT RESEARCH IS?
Nissa: I work on projects which involve talking to people about how they think and feel about their job, or it might be some other aspects of their lives or the support they've received. And it just really involves being curious about why they're facing particular problems, or what's really bothering them. When you ask lots of people the same questions, you start to see patterns in what they say, what they think and what they do. Then from those patterns, you can start to say, well, actually, this is a fault of the context of the situation that they're in, or it's the fault of someone else who needs to improve what they do. And then you can start to see that actually, there are ways that the organisations who want to work with these people more effectively can do their job better. So research really involves being really good at listening, asking questions and seeing patterns. And writing it up and telling a story about the problems that people face in a way that everyone can hear, listen and respond to them. This helps you and your clients see how to improve the situations and circumstances everyone finds themselves in.
WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN OF TAKING PART IN THE PROGRAMME?
Nissa: It was an absolute pleasure to share what I do with someone else. I don't think I get to talk about it [my work] very often. I’m really secretly very geeky and passionate about what I do, and having someone to talk to, made me realize how lonely it has been [working on my own].
When Shanice first started, she suddenly just powered through this literature review. I went from a point of being like “Oh my goodness, I have to do all this stuff”.. it made me formalise the approach a bit more. She really took to thinking about the subject and the challenges of a whole new field. Some of it I knew well, but I just didn’t have capacity to review it again. Some of it was new and quite dry - her systematic approach and doing this together meant I could focus on setting up and shaping the project well with the client. Just suddenly having someone to just get on with it was so nice - we talked about it a lot - but just not having to go and find every single thing myself, read every single thing myself, write out myself, think about it myself, just have someone else take some of that mental load off - it was fantastic to be able to move at a much faster pace, because it wasn't just me and I wasn’t relying on just my time, and my ability to focus on a new task while I had loads of other stuff in my head.
WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU ABOUT YOUR TIME WORKING WITH AN INTERN?
Nissa: [Working with Shanice] was an absolute godsend, because it takes a while to trust someone with your business, your work, all your tasks.. and to know that they know what they're doing and how they're doing it and to get to know how each other's work and so on. That was really, really great.
And as time went on, the inevitable happened.. COVID has hit my son's nursery, I had no childcare. I didn’t know if I could make any of the interviews on the day.. or that my internet went down… and that was really tricky when we had 3 interviews scheduled on the day. It was just so nice to be like, do you know what, if I can't come to any of the interviews, I know that Shanice will 100% be there, she can lead it and she’ll do a good job. And that we'll be able to use all the research material, and I won't have to delay the project timeline. It would still have been just as valuable if I had joined or not, and that was a really lovely feeling. I had all sorts of dramas come up in life and it was lovely to just have the reassurance [of someone else doing the work] there.
Also, I think in my head, I'm very trusting, and I will give someone anything. And I'm sure in reality, I was a bit more like “Oh, actually are you doing this the right way? Have you done this?” I didn't realise quite how controlling I was. I thought I was really open and trusting and open to change. And actually, I was a bit like “Oh my God, I want to check everything's right all the time”. I had these visions at the start of just almost like giving these interviews away to Shanice and letting her go off on her own. But in reality, it makes a lot more sense to bounce off each other and do it together and work more collaboratively. And so I hadn't imagined it would be like that at first.
Lastly, I wasn't expecting to be so sad at the end [of working with Shanice]!
WHAT ARE YOUR KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE PROGRAMME, AND WORKING WITH SHANICE?
Nissa: [Working with Shanice has] been helpful to kind of force me to think more about the processes that I want to develop, what I want them to look like and what's helpful to us when working with someone else. I've been doing [the same thing when working] with other freelancers, and I've still not nailed it, as I suspect working with the next person, I'll invent a whole other way of doing it. But eventually, we'll get it right.
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR FREELANCERS OR BUSINESS OWNERS JOINING FUTURE PROGRAMMES?
Nissa: With research, you have to enjoy the process as much as the problem and the goal. I guess it's a lesson for other businesses to really make that value clear - why you're doing that project, why you think it's important, why it’s important for your business, why research is needed, why each bit of the research adds to the bigger puzzle - just making it clear that there's a goal.
WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR ANY YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE ON PLACEMENTS WITH OTHER BUSINESSES THROUGH THE COLLABORATIVE FUTURE PROGRAMME?
Nissa: I'd say pretend it's your business and your projects, own it, make it a success. And you just never know, even if it feels like the most mundane or pointless, boring task in the world, at some point you'll be in a job interview, and you'll find yourself referring back to this amazing thing that you did, that you hated. You never know how it's going to be useful to you, or your skills, or to help you figure out what you do and don't want to do in the future. And I think everyone needs a breadth of experience. Now for every job, you need to bring all sorts of different skills and examples of how and when you've done things. Just throw yourself in as an intern, and act like it's yours. Take as much ownership as you can like, and don't feel like you're doing it for someone else. I take on my client’s work as if I was them, and I really am passionate about seeing them improve their funding or do something differently.
Inspired by Nissa’s story?
You can support our work by joining our next Creative Futures programme, purely focussed on working alongside young creative Nottingham talent. Find out more by emailing hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk or by booking in for a chat here. Or, you can always buy our team a ko-fi!