As a Senior Director of Operations, I spend most of my time thinking about systems, policies, workflows, excel sheets formulas, payroll cycles, performance management, onboarding plans-  the infrastructure that allows an organization to function effectively and efficiently.

When I was first introduced to BraidedWork, I saw it as an integral part of our organizational culture. I understood its value in helping our team connect across global diverse experiences and perspectives. I saw how it supported our mission and programmatic work, and each of us as humans working at a social justice-oriented nonprofit. What I didn’t realize was how profoundly it would impact the way I approach operations.

I imagine that, like me, many operations leaders view organizational processes as largely objective. If a workflow is efficient, if a policy is compliant, if a system produces the desired outcome, then it’s working. BraidedWork challenges these assumptions.

For me, it made clear that every process reflects the values, perspectives, experiences, and assumptions of the people who designed it. The question is not whether perspectives shape our systems—they always do. The question is whether we are intentional about understanding which perspectives are present and which are missing.

That realization changed how I do my job.

What BraidedWork Surfaces

One of the most valuable aspects of BraidedWork is the dialogue it generates between people. These conversations invite people to share experiences, challenge assumptions, and examine how different identities and lived experiences shape the way they move through the world. They ask people to be vulnerable, authentic, raw, and to step outside their comfort zone and challenge their own actions and assumptions, which was incredibly challenging for me. My initial draw to and comfort with operations was its objectivity, straightforwardness, fact-basis, and neutrality. Vulnerability isn’t required to develop a project plan. But BraidedWork surfaced how operational decisions are a reflection of values and are therefore incredibly subjective, complex, and even emotional. It emphasized the human aspect of a project plan by compelling you to consider who will use it, how they will use it, and how that affects its success and speed.

Processes that appear straightforward on paper can create very different experiences depending on an individual’s background, working style, access requirements, financial circumstances, or past experiences. Without intentionally creating space to hear those perspectives, it is easy to design systems that work exceptionally well for some people (usually the designers) while unintentionally creating barriers for others.

BraidedWork has helped me ask different questions when evaluating policies and processes:

• Who was this process designed for?
• Who might experience friction within this system?
• What assumptions are we making?
• What perspectives were included in its design?
• Whose voice may be missing?
• What values do these policies or processes reflect?

These questions have fundamentally changed how I think about operational excellence. Because operational excellence is not simply about efficiency, it is about designing systems that allow all people to contribute, participate, and thrive.

Why This Matters in Operations

Originally, I was hesitant, even reluctant, to participate in BraidedWork. How could an all-staff conversation about a social justice issue help me build a better budget? However, through BraidedWork, I began to see how deeply connected operational effectiveness and perspective inclusion truly are.

For example, conversations about trauma-informed practices and sensitive nervous systems influenced how we approach the creation and sharing of new processes. We began thinking more intentionally about multiple learning modalities, creating opportunities for check-ins, and ensuring staff members have multiple pathways to engage with information.

Economic justice discussions brought greater attention to the employee experience of compensation systems. Payroll is often viewed as a purely administrative function. Yet the timing of payments, transparency around compensation practices, and accessibility of information all have real impacts on people’s lives. Understanding those impacts helped us approach these systems with greater care and intentionality.

Environmental justice conversations influenced how we think about organizational responsibility and long-term decision-making. More recently, those same principles have informed our approach to AI. As AI tools become increasingly integrated into workplaces, we have focused on developing a policy and an ethical decision-making framework grounded in our values. Rather than asking only what AI can do, we are asking what responsible AI use looks like within our organization.

Perhaps most importantly, BraidedWork reinforced the importance of feedback loops between Operations, Human Resources, and staff. Trust, transparency, and connection are not created through policies alone. They are built when employees see that their experiences inform organizational decisions and when leaders are willing to listen, adapt, and improve.

These changes may seem small individually, but collectively they create stronger systems. Systems that people understand, trust, and can actually use. And when that happens, organizations become more effective.

What This Means for Leaders

For leaders considering BraidedWork, I would encourage them to think beyond the culture-building that is at the center of this work. Yes, this work strengthens relationships, deepens understanding, and it creates opportunities for meaningful dialogue. It also improves organizational processes, policies, and performance.

When Global Nomads started BraidedWork, we intentionally surfaced diverse perspectives and started to design better policies, make better decisions, identify gaps earlier, and build systems that are more likely to succeed in practice, not just in theory.

The operational cost of missing perspectives can be significant. Processes become challenging to adopt, which can create disengagement among employees, even distrust. Leaders spend time fixing problems that could have been prevented during the design phase.

By contrast, when multiple perspectives and experiences are incorporated from the beginning, organizations often experience stronger implementation, greater buy-in, and more sustainable outcomes. This is strategic work at its core and in my experience, it is some of the most practical work an organization can undertake.

A New Set of Questions

I have spent more than a decade building and refining operational systems. During that time, I have learned countless lessons about efficiency, compliance, communication, and organizational effectiveness to help me answer the question – will this work? BraidedWork added another lesson to that list.

The best systems are not built solely through expertise, they are built through values, perspective, understanding, listening, and digging into the topics that matter most though often not discussed.

Now, every time I sit down to design a policy, review a process, or evaluate a system, I find myself starting with a new set of questions:

What assumptions am I making, as the designer, based on my own experience and perspective? What lived experiences and perspectives are missing? What do I need to do to fill in the gaps?

The answer to those questions often determines how I must approach the process so that it truly works for the people it was designed to serve.

I used to think operational excellence was about designing the most efficient process. BraidedWork taught me that it’s also about designing processes that reflect the realities, experiences, and needs of the people who use them. So I invite you to be vulnerable, lean into the discomfort, participate in BraidedWork with your colleagues, and be willing to challenge your assumptions. You may discover, as I did, that the most effective systems aren’t built solely by how they will work—they’re built by creating space for perspectives you don’t represent—“who will they work for?” And in doing so, you’ll build not only stronger relationships, but stronger organizations.