On my first day I sat down with Jay and Helén. We had a long chat about the state of the company and their goals and wishes for my time there. I realized I would have to adjust some of my thinking and plans…

Pivot #1
Though Jay and I had previously discussed an apprenticeship of interviewing competition, clients and other players in Toronto’s Social Impact space, during this first talk I began to wonder if this was really the deepest need.

Their public face was fine… the playing field was wide open, competition was rare and they were great at landing the work they wanted… the real issue was that the studio’s internal goals were unclear, they weren’t sure how to accomplish those goals and there wasn’t an established process to help bridge the gap from their present situation to their ideal future.

I began to redefine my project. Instead of an open exploration of the social impact community of Toronto, I would be spending my apprenticeship learning what made small service-based businesses successful, improving my understanding of the particular strengths and wishes of Studio Jaywall and figuring out the best way to help Studio Jaywall define and reach its goals.

Pivot #2
Jay and I had planned for me to pitch in on 3 projects which explored issues of urbanism and community building in Toronto. Unfortunately, as I attended introductory meetings for these projects, it was clear that there was no role for me. Either there were too many volunteers already involved, or the work that needed doing was outside my skill set, or there just wasn’t any work to be done.

So, what about my learning goal? How would I learn how to work with a community if my project had become internally focused and the side projects were off the table?

This was a little trickier to tackle than my first pivot. I started by trying to create projects that would help me explore a connection between Studio Jaywall and its greater community. Maybe a design charrette/potluck to host a conversation around what it means to be a Social Impact communication partner? Or a series of beautifully designed placemats featuring local food deserts to build awareness for Toronto’s urban ag and food equity projects? Or maybe I could build on an existing Studio Jaywall project and help firm up execution and build a distribution network?

Unfortunately one of the symptoms of Studio Jaywall’s need for internal streamlining was that there was no extra time to devote to strategic thought, let alone time to devote to an auxiliary passion project. It was taking all of Helén and Jay’s time to do the main work of the studio, I needed to figure out a project that didn’t further tax these guys…

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