Meg Bolger: Process Geekery + Designing for Desired Outcomes

Meg Bolger is a social justice facilitator, passionate about creating resources, workshops, and projects that lead us towards a more beautiful and socially just world.

But that’s just what their website says.

This is Meg’s website. It’s a happy place.

We recently sat down with Meg to talk not only about their work but about the why that drives that work. Their insights on everything from the challenges in their field to workspace design were eye-opening and inspiring. In fact, they continue to encourage us to make Office Nomads a more beautiful and socially just place in the world. How’s about that?!?

Read on for our interview with the delightful Meg Bolger.

Meg Bolger

Susan Dorsch: So what does a social justice facilitator do, really?

Meg Bolger: I work with people who want to do some work in their organization or community around identity, power dynamics, and/or diversity/equity/inclusion initiatives. Typically that means workshops and trainings that are really more like learning experiences/places for us to have hard, new, vulnerable conversations with each other.

Facilitate means “to make easy” and that’s what I try to do: make it easier for us to talk about the things that are getting in the way, whether thats difference, identity, oppression, etc.

SD: How did you end up in your field?

MB: I came out in college and got more involved in LGBTQ things. I started seeing the gap between what I wanted people to be accountable to, what information they had access to, and what information they really understood. I couldn’t be mad at people for information they didn’t have, they didn’t know how to get, or didn’t know that they should get. I saw that as an opportunity.

As an undergrad, I started doing workshops and trainings for other students. Somewhere along the way a professor who I thought of as a mentor said to me “you know we pay people to do this.” He said, “I think you’re better than a lot of the people we bring in. You should do this.”

SD: What brought you to coworking?

MB: I was the person who wanted the coffee shops to work, but Seattle’s coffee shop work scene just didn’t work for me. Then I tried working from home. I knew coworking was there, but it was hard for me to make that financial commitment.

So eventually I went out and tried them all – I think I visited every coworking space in Seattle. I joined a few when I found good deals. I knew how much more productive I was when I was in a coworking space, but still the financial hurdle was steep. When I reached out to you, I mentioned the possibility of a work trade. You said yes! And that’s how I landed here.

Riley and Meg displaying their excellent taste in shirts.

SD: I was so excited when I got your email. I could talk about it but I’m interviewing you. So Tell me about this work trade of ours.

MB: Well, you expressed an interest in being more intentional around diversity, equity, inclusion, and about the intentional community you are building. We’ve had some one-on-one sessions, then we’ve started having monthly-ish conversations with the community members about the work we want to do together. We’ve been working on developing a goal, a vision, for what that work would bring about.

There’s not a specific strategy we are working through, but we are emergently responsive to the conversations we’ve been having – every month leads us to the next month’s work. It’s been great.

SD: Have there been any surprises?

MB: I think because I’ve been in this work for so long, I’m not surprised at the content that we’ve talked about so far.

SD: Have there been challenges?

MB: One of the continuous challenges of DEI work is that it can be such a broad stroke thing. It’s hard for people to feel like they know what to do or like what they are doing is making a big enough impact to matter.

I think what we’ve been doing, trying to work us to organically narrow the DEI conversation to identify what the most important thing is for our community, has been great. What’s so hard for everyone, including this community, is that as soon as you pick one thing you’re then possibly saying no to 20 other things. That’s hard.

But everyone who works for themselves knows that you have to give yourself specifics to make tangible change. That’s the work we’re doing together right now.

SD: What strikes you about Office Nomads?

MB: I appreciate that there’s no hard distinction between people who have established desks and everyone else. There isn’t a hierarchy or segregation in that way.

I love that you don’t have gendered bathrooms. I don’t like to think about my gender when I don’t have to. That was significant for me.

Another thing that I would say is remarkable is that I fully believe you can take a nap on the couch and that it’s OK. In other settings I’ve seen couches but the culture of that space wouldn’t allow for a nap. Here it feels like “by all means!”

I think a lot of people talk about community, but the vibe in their space doesn’t facilitate that. That was something always evident to me here – you’re talking about it but you don’t have walls, you don’t have private offices, and you don’t segregate by membership type. All of those things make it easier to have community.

SD: That is a lot of design feedback to a question I didn’t expect design answers to!

MB: I am a facilitator. I am a process geek. I think the setup is so important to the outcome. You and your design choices make it easy for people to accomplish the goal of community.

In my work, I know that when I put people in a circle, they’re more likely to talk to each other.

If people aren’t contributing in a group session, I’ll put people in pairs to debrief or brainstorm. People might not say anything in a big group but if you say “talk to one other person” they almost always will.

If people have desks in front of them they are more likely to be guarded. If they don’t, it’s a little more exposed or vulnerable (knowing this and using it intentionally).

Simple props like sticky notes, index cards, or blank sheets of paper help people mix up how they’re thinking and interacting.

I also cut things off before they close. If I wait until conversations completely die down, the energy gets lost. If I end it a little before that, there’s still energy left that can continue to power the conversation.

We often improperly assume that everyone is like us. You need your design (whether it’s a workshop or a coworking space) to be flexible and open to help capture more people and more perspectives.

Always focused on better design, Meg customizes an office chair for improved ergonomics.

SD: WHat is happening in your work now that excites you?

MB: I’m about to radically change what I do, but within a very small perspective. To me, it’s like my head is exploding – in my field I am expecting to get a lot of push back. But to others outside my field it’s not much of a change at all – I’m still doing social justice facilitation.

It’s great to be in a place around other people who are outside my field. It’s helpful to remember that other people in other fields have the same experiences.

SD: How do you stay grounded as you approach that change?

MB: I remember how I got started. When I used to do talks, I felt like people found them useful and empowering. I would bring people into awareness in a way that felt valuable. People would feel more potential than when they came in.

SD: That happened for me. When you told me “Word of mouth” (marketing) is intrinsically biased, I felt like you cracked my world open in such a helpful way.

MB: That’s my superpower: to deliver information that could otherwise be crushing in a way that makes people feel like “well, I could do something about that!”

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We are so excited to continue working with Meg to continue our work around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We’re all pretty darned excited to have them always helping improve our systems, processes, and designs for the better.

Are you inspired to dig into this conversation with us? Please schedule a visit to come through the space and see if it might be a good fit for you. We’d love to have you here with us.