A day in the life at Kinetic West: Annie Graham
Annie Graham (author of the blog)
The Riveter: Fremont (our co-working space)
When I pitched this idea for a blog to the Kinetic West team a month ago, a day in my work life included far fewer Zoom meetings, fewer opportunities to see my wife wave hello from her own make-shift desk, and more in-person collaboration. For all of us, the nature of work has shifted. But our purpose on the team remains the same: serving the needs of our clients across several sectors - non-profits, business, government, community partners, and funders - and adapting to the new, socially distant reality.
Instead of the row-by-row trip through my current Excel spreadsheet, what follows is a day in the life at Kinetic West - a typical Monday before the quarantine began.
6:00 a.m. Wake up and prep for the day
Before Kinetic West, I worked in Seattle Public Schools and Western School of Science and Technology in Phoenix as a teacher, an occupation whose minute-to-minute functions are guided by a schedule posted on the classroom wall. In contrast, my workday at Kinetic West is often driven by team goals and priorities more than any set, uniform calendar. But the habit of rising early and following a morning routine has endured.
I start my day by checking email to find any pressing requests (and critical Slack notifications from teammates - our teammate Julia is keeping us up to date on meme culture and Seattle-area ballet). I respond to the time-sensitive emails I can get to before business hours, but avoid becoming all-consumed by Outlook - my dog Fred is eyeing me until I take him for a walk. On Sunday evening I went through the calendar to make sure all my team members were prepped with the materials they needed - a couple drafts for managing staff to review and emails already fired off to clients, so I’ve preserved the rest of my morning at home to get ready for the day.
8:00 a.m. Leave for the office
Kinetic West is based in Seattle - I can leave my house and arrive at the office within 20 minutes. I get my first cup of coffee when I arrive at the Riveter - my manager Andy is at the office early as usual, while our other teammates are at client meetings or finishing their work from home this morning (a more luxurious concept pre-quarantine, I know). We’ll be headed to Olympia tomorrow for a meeting, and continuing our work on the statewide Career Connect Washington initiative. I need to get an early start on slide deck revisions and outreach to our partners across several agencies like OSPI and SBCTC - we’ll be talking through student messaging strategies and outcome data collection on career connected learning programs - there will be a great deal of material to cover during our 2-hour meeting.
9:00 a.m. - First check-in meeting of the day
With several new tasks on my plate and a rapidly emerging skill set in the Microsoft Suite of consulting tools (slides are my friend), I look forward to check-in meetings with my Kinetic West team. We review our tasks across each project and align on priorities. Recently we started a project to better understand opportunities and barriers for skill centers across the state for which we’ll conduct ~30 interviews over two months with education leaders across the state. Internally, team check-ins allow us to share insights, meeting takeaways, and connections that move our projects forward. My teammates have worked across several sectors we can draw ideas from - Marc and Andy in teaching and consulting, Julia in city government, Liz in education consulting, and Melissa in advertising.
9:20 a.m Check emails and get to work
I take away a firm priority list from my morning check-in. Detailed notes and clear next steps move projects forward. As I get to scheduling, I’ll need to track progress closely, so it’s time to create my first new Excel spreadsheet (!) of the day. I send an agenda for the weekly Career Connect Washington team call at 10:00 a.m. - this will be our last chance to talk together before our meeting in Olympia. Now that most members of the Kinetic West team are at the Riveter, we squeeze into our office for our call - the firm is growing, and we’ll soon have to admit to ourselves that we need more chairs for these meetings.
10:00 a.m. Weekly client call
During the call we land on several last minute changes to be made to the presentation for tomorrow - easily done as the slide deck is up on my screen during the meeting. Throughout the day, I can check in with Andy about any quick questions - from managing client needs to adjusting alignment on some of my slides. I’m on a team that values efficient communication but also supports me to get to the deeper “Why?” for our clients. I’m not just taking notes and sending emails - I’m trying to connect the work of our partners across the state, region, and country who might be able to offer answers to one another. Especially in the space of career connected learning, I get the chance to work with partners at the K-12, CTC and university level, sharing best practices across our projects.
11:30 a.m. Eat lunch and review deck
Another perk of working locally is that I can bring lunch with me - Julia is sitting across the table with what I must admit is a superior lunch. I eat while tweaking discussion questions for our conversation in Olympia tomorrow and, importantly, learn about the finer points meal prep with Julia.
12:00 p.m. Client meeting prep & commute to meeting downtown
With another client meeting for our skill center project downtown this afternoon, I need to review past meeting notes and the deck we sent this weekend. We’ll be going through a project progress update, so we’ve already had the chance to meet - this also means I know my way to the building, so no need to leave too early.
2:00 p.m. Client meeting
Marc (Kinetic West’s CEO) guides the meeting, while I discuss early data cuts on student enrollment by geography for each skill center and next steps for analysis.
3:30 p.m. Debrief client meeting
Marc and I get the chance to review key takeaways from the meeting and make sure we are aligned on next steps. I head to a nearby coffee shop in the basement of our client’s office to crank out some emails before the end of the day. Best not to waste time commuting when I can get some work done here. Also there is coffee, and a flaky looking croissant, so that’s a win for the afternoon.
5:30 p.m. Go home
I usually try to go home (or even to the gym) around 5:30 - allows me to clear my head from the day, and ponder some of our client recommendations. I see my wife for dinner, we take Fred on a walk, and watch some important re-runs of Bravo television (Real Housewives of New York: Emmy-award winning television). I’ll get to a few additional emails and slide tweaks after dinner. With plenty of items continuing to roll into my inbox, I’ll prioritize items for tomorrow’s meetings so that I have a head start for Tuesday.