This is part 3 of a 3 part series on the practice of learning to write by emulating the brilliant minds that have done it before. If you haven’t yet, read parts 1 and 2 to get all caught up. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Let’s get right to it; for the sake of brevity, we’ll stick to the first short stanza of the poem- I’ve numbered the lines for easy reference.

1. In Xanadu did KubIa Khan
2. A stately pleasure dome decree:
3. Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
4. Through caverns measureless to man
5. Down to a sunless sea.
6. So twice five miles of fertile ground
7. With walls and towers were girdled round:
8. And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
9. Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
10. And here were forests ancient as the hills,
11. Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

First we will count out the syllables. Lines 1–4 all have 8 syllables, with 5 being a shortened line of 6 syllables. If we overemphasize every other syllable, we can figure out the meter of each line; we won’t get into fancy naming conventions or anything here, this is just about how to break it down.

For example:

in XAN a DU did KUB la KHAN

a STATE ly PLEAS ure DOME de CREE

(Note: this is great to do for this exercise, but please never do this while performing a poem. You will sound like Dr. Seuss- I do not like them on Mount Abora, I do not like them with incense-bearing flora!)

Lines 6 and 7 go back to 8 syllables, and then lines 8 and 9 do something very interesting, which is to switch to 11 syllables. This gives them an odd cadence (pun very much intended) because a syllable in each line is going to get swallowed; in other words there will be 2 unemphasized syllables in a row.

And THERE were GAR dens BRIGHT with SIN u ous Rills,

Where BLOS somed MA ny an IN cense BEAR ing TREE

When read aloud, sin-you-us becomes closer to sin-yus and, and many an becomes ma-nyin. Again, you don’t hear that emphasis when you perform a poem like this, but knowing where it lands (and why) will help both your writing and reading skills.

Finally, lines 10 and 11 drop down to 10 syllables- what you’d find in a classic sonnet.

We can see that if you simply read this stanza through the meter might feel random, but most lines are at least paired with another of the same length into a couplet. The exception is line 5, which provides an intentional break- notice it is also the end of a sentence.

Next let’s look at rhyme; lines 3 and 4 rhyme (ran/man), with 1 being a half rhyme to them (at least in my Pacific Northwest American accent) Khan with a long ‘ah’ sound. Lines 2 and 5, and then 9 and 11 also all rhyme. Finally we have rhymes in lines 6 and 7, and then in 8 and 10.

So, what does all that tell us?

Okay, since we are looking at 11 lines, there will probably be an odd-line-out. That looks to be line 1 with its half rhyme, so let’s ignore it. Now we have 3 seperate rhyming schemes.

Lines 2–5 make a classic A/B/B/A rhyme scheme. Lines 6–7 are a C/C couplet. And lines 8–11 are the different but also classic D/E/D/E rhyme. This is great info to have. We can use any of these later on, but we see right away that we should be writing with some classical rhyme schemes in mind.

I won’t go through every line here, but I urge you to do so for the rest of the piece (written in full in part 2 of this series). When you do, you’ll see that while Coleridge slips into looser structures of both rhyme and meter, he always returns back to a more classic form- so if you were writing your own sections for this poem, do the same. But then mix it up again, use lines that are a syllable too long or short, or that have half rhymes- remember you aren’t writing a sonnet. But it’s not Beat poetry either, the form still exists.

When I wrote my conclusion to this poem, I would literally count out Coleridge’s lines- “Okay, he’s got 4 lines here with an A/B/A/B rhyme pattern, the first 2 have 12 syllables, the next 2 have 10. I’m going to write 4 lines with exactly that same pattern.”

If you are working with prose, do the same thing. Take a paragraph and break it down by numbered line like we did here. What’s the meter? Do you see any rhymes? Do the vowel sounds repeat (assonance)? Or the consonant sounds (consonance)? I like starting with older poems because they have more structure built into them already, there’s less guesswork involved. But you can do this with anything using this same process to gain a better understanding of the mechanics behind the page.

Remember, the point is to emulate, and the more you do this, with different kinds of writers and work, the greater your ability will be to create something new, interesting, and entirely your own.¹

So now you’ve read the poem (or short story or essay or scene) through a couple dozen times, and then combed through it a couple dozen more as you break down line structure. Next it’s time to write. Don’t sweat this part too much- it’s the byproduct of all your actual work. Nevertheless- once you have something on paper, check your work.

Look at those lines you have, how do they match to the size, sound, and feel of the originals?

Read through the original another 10 or 20 times. Do the same with your writing. How does the feeling match up? The emotion?

Finally, read the whole thing to someone who doesn’t know the original. Can they tell where the old piece ended, and yours began? If they can, that’s okay, but try to figure out why.

And finally… Huzah! You’re done!

Well, you’ve done 1. Do it again. And again. And again. Change it up, challenge yourself. After a Coleridge poem, try a scene from a contemporary Indian sci-fi comedy. Or a short essay from a Peruvian author on what the latest discovery that T-Rex tasted exactly like chicken means to both the worlds of ornithology and Kentucky-fried fast foods.

This isn’t always fun or exciting, but it will get easier. Remember, we’re sketching. We’re running scales. We’re practicing. And that, as they say, is how you get to Carnegie Hall. Although, to be honest, I haven’t heard from them yet.

¹ Writing something “entirely your own” is actually a misnomer, it doesn’t exist. Unique writing is actually just writing that has stolen bits and pieces from other writers, and put those pieces together in a moderately new way. So don’t worry about sounding unique, worry about stealing from as many writers as you can- the larger that pool is, the more “unique” your voice will become.

You can read my finished emulation poem, along with the original, below. But try it yourself first! Feel free to ask me why I made certain choices, or about anything at all.

In Xanadu did KubIa Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chafly grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And `mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And `mid this tumult KubIa heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight `twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honeydew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

And so it was with vision done
That I then set my feet to move,
To seek the palace of the sun
To chase my Abyssinian love.
Reclined in pleasure domes above that sunless sea,
These dreams from Heaven’s dulcimer had come:
One foot before the other, how uncountable my steps,
‘Till lifetimes I had traveled, and yet I had to rest.
But oh! and there were gardens full of light,
And yes that deep romantic chasm,
Chasing laughter down the slope
To where I crouched no muscle moving,
Cedarn boughs my face concealing.
Eyes ever watchful for The Kahn,
But with my ears did spy him first:
I drank his words down in my thirst.
As he spoke with voice outside him,
In tongues I’d known but only heard,
In visions which precluded choice.

And those same ancestral voices
Which from fountainhead had sung;
Spoke again in rolling thunder,
Telling Kubla she would come.
And her poems, and her playing,
Just as they had always done:
Would turn the one against the other,
Brother laying sword to brother,
Fathers slaying only sons.
Lifeless armies sailing sunless oceans-
Wave to sky their endless masts would span.
And without breath their ranks would overflow:
Those caverns measureless to man!
And only blood would flow where once the sacred river ran.
And I saw from cedarn cover where I hid,
Those visions meant for Kubla’s eyes alone
Of Xanadu in ruins and in flame
That caves of ice alone could never tame.

Oh! false visions which had held me,
Disguised as damsel when at first she came.
Now seen in Glory! Oh that vengeful angel!
Who shall put Xanadu to sword, to flame.
But she had brought me all these miles,
I knew she had but knew not why.
Was I the bard to tell the story?
Her sacrifice: brought here to die?
And lost in musings where I wandered,
The Warrior King had disappeared.
No pleasure palace any longer
With gardens growing only spears;
All twice-five miles once fertile ground
And towered walls manned all around,
Spread out before their fearsome lord:
The tens, the thousands, His Mongol Horde!

Fog arose from horse’s nostrils,
Thick as foam upon the sea,
Only pierced by standards hostile.
Strong and brave they spread subastral
To fight for homes they’ll never see-
For momently I felt that fountain
Bursting forth from deep inside,
With power of that fearsome mountain
Erupt, Abora, in my mind!
And so momently I knew
That Abyssinian’s temptress will,
Mouth flavor-filled by honeydew,
Though no fruit had passed my lips.
And my body; nay, entire being filled
By maid-come-angel, from her bowl I sipped
The milk that paradise did spill.

And as I rose into the air,
So too did cries rise up around me
And loud the shouts: Beware! Beware!
Now flash my eyes! Now float my hair!
So many other fountains now.
And down it came that rocky hail,
Till screams arose as horse and man
Were crushed under Her thresher’s flail.
My body twisted, bent, contorted,
She fills me with a Godly pain:
My mouth split wide to scream to Heaven,
To call for mercy in His name.

No mercy nor a scream are given,
For only light escapes my mouth.
Her lighthouse now my body beckons,
As her armies ships are driven
By winds unnatural from the south;
No sound they make as they approach us
On Alph’s waters which run red,
Their sails are flapping silently
Over Her armies, lifeless, dead.
The clash of swords! The cries of battle!
And I there watching from above,
As Kubla’s Hordes are slain like cattle
Gasping out their last breaths rattle
Dying on this land they loved.
Then into chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
The earth indeed in thick fast pants now breathing
Swallowing both armies whole.
As ground begins to heal back over
Kubla’s fearsome roar I hear;
Emerging from the earth below me
Defiant cries, now only fear.
Then twice as awful as their screaming
Is the silence on its heels
That deafens me with nightmare dreaming
In Xanadu, where Khan once ruled.

Now damned by light I lie here dying,
Without her milk my race is run.
No soldier, king, or prophet living
Can face her armies or her will:
And you will know when she approaches,
But that to-morrow is yet to come.

How Do You Actually Become A Better Writer? was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on the practice of learning to write by emulating the brilliant minds that have done it before. If you haven’t yet, read part 1 to get all caught up. It’s okay, it’s short.

Okay, ready? Let’s go. Well, almost. First we need to have a little history lesson.

Wait! Come back!!

When we are all done here, you’re going to pick a short story, scene, or poem to try and emulate yourself. But for our example, we’re going to be working with the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The first thing to know is that Sam was fond of opium. Like, really very fond. What happened with this particular poem is, one day, while sitting in his cottage, he did some opium. Okay, a lot of opium. And when he awoke, there was a brilliant poem, start to finish, just sitting in his brain, waiting to be taken down on paper.

This is clearly ridiculous.

He started frantically writing it down, and managed to scribble 54 lines before a strange visitor from the nearby town of Porlock knocked on his door.

This is completely absurd.

By the time he got rid of this unwelcome visitor, he had completely forgotten the rest of the poem, and had no other choice but to submit the unfinished cliffhanger of a poem to his editor (or whomever) as it was.

This is so obviously preposterous, so absolutely bananas, that it might actually be true. Either way, Coleridge managed to get a half finished poem published while simultaneously creating a literary trope (The Person From Porlock) that still exists and is referenced today. Not bad Sammy, not bad at all.

It also, by chance, gives us the perfect base for our exercise. It’s a relatively short work, unfinished, and written with a mix of rhythm, meter, rhyme, and free-form. That last bit is important; either too much or not enough structure in the work you want to copy will make your job much more difficult.

Even if the writing you choose is finished, it’s helpful to continue the story from the ending point you’ve chosen, whether it’s the piece’s actual end or a random point in the middle. If it’s the latter, try and use something you’ve never read before- it’s going to be much more difficult to be organic and creative if you already know where the author intended to take the story.

Okay, we’re going to look at the actual poem now. Give the whole thing a read through, and then we’ll break it down together.

Kubla Khan
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chafly grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And `mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And `mid this tumult KubIa heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight `twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honeydew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Step 1, done! That was easy. Now, when I was actually working on this project, I read that through maybe 100 times before I was done. We’ll get into all the nitty gritty details in part 3 of this series, but that repeated reading is just as important of a step in the process.

If figuring out line length and rhyme scheme are learning the notes of a song, reading the sheet music, then reading and re-reading your chosen piece are listening to the song being played, feeling the emotion. Is it longing? Happiness? Angst? In writing as in music, there is no wrong answer here. If the song or poem or story sounds melancholy to you, then it’s melancholy. It’s not important which emotions and tones you decide on, as long as you carry that through into your own writing.

Coleridge leaves things pretty open ended here; it could be a love poem, an epic adventure, a morality tale, or a story about taking a nap in a field. In fact, he hasn’t really started a story at all, but merely laid out some random scenes. It feels at turns mysterious, romantic, angry, a little sexy, filled with longing, and not a little bit melodramatic. You may get other and entirely different feelings- go with those. I won’t show you where I took it yet, in case you decide to use this piece yourself when we’re done.

In some ways this makes things easy, because we can go literally anywhere. But that type of freedom can also be overwhelming. Either way, if you find yourself constricted or overwhelmed by the piece you’ve chosen, it’s okay to recognize that and pick something else. You can always come back to it for your 2nd, 3rd, or 97th attempt.

Join me in part 3, and we’ll get (a little) technical!

How Do You Actually Become A Better Writer? was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

There are better answers than “read and write more” — here’s just 1

A question that’s been on my mind lately is, how do you actually become a better writer?

Whenever this question is asked the same answer appears- read a lot, then try writing something. That feels like an easy, cheap answer.

Writing is art, and so I’ve been framing my answers in terms of other art forms. If you ask “how do I become a classical musician?” The answer isn’t “listen to a lot of Bach and Beethoven, then try and write a symphony.” If I want to know how to become a painter, no one is going to tell me to visit a lot of museums and I’ll be ready for my blue period.

So what is the writing equivalent to running scales for hours on end, to sketching a hand 327 times? It’s a hard question, because there is no exact translation. Filling an entire notebook with the quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog won’t get you anything except possibly committed.

Now, every art form moves at its own pace. In music, you might spend years playing other artists work before you ever try and create something of your own; in theatre, it might be your entire career. In drawing or painting you’ll move a little faster but you’ll still spend time tracing, copying sketches, and eventually full works of art.

If the examples above of a symphony or a whole body of visual art are comparable to a novel (or even a series) then a scene, or short story, or poem, might be better places to start. But even these are like creating a unique song or drawing; we’re still missing a critical step of practice.

While writing will always require the most willingness to leap before you have any idea what’s at the bottom of the cliff, there is more we can do here.

And that missing step is emulation. More than emulation: embodying. Try to become another writer, copy their work, and learn, at a cellular level, what they are doing. If that sounds like a lot of work- sorry, it is. Like most things, there’s no magic bullet answer here.

But it’s no more work than any other student of the arts is doing. It’s simply studying a song one note at a time, or understanding why Picasso used that particular brushstroke. We all understand the work that goes into mastering those art forms- why have we decided that writing is any different?

And that’s all well and good you say (except for those of you saying it’s utter hogwash) but what the heck does it mean? What does that actually look like?

Well I’m glad I asked! It looks a little something like this…

How Do You Actually Become A Better Writer? was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

From Thrive Together Leadership Conference 2020: Advancing Women of Color in the Workplace with Minda Harts

Racial Growing Pains

After 15 years as a fundraising consultant, Minda Harts is used to being the only woman of color in the room. Five years ago, after yet another particularly hard day of being made to feel “other” at work, she sat in her car on her lunch break and cried. The radio was playing, and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” by Whitney Houston came on. Harts wondered- where do the broken hearts of women of color go when they’ve been broken through their daily struggles? And she knew that she needed to do something to be part of the change that was desperately needed. As she says: “I’d cried some of the same tears that my grandmother had cried.”

What Minda Harts decided to do in July of 2015 was to start a weekly blog post, and The Memo was born. She publishes every Monday, and hasn’t missed a week since. At the time there was no larger plan, this relatively small action felt like enough. And that’s an important part of what Harts teaches: finding your voice is not a single monolithic discovery (what she calls a “Beyoncé Moment”) but “a series of small acts of courage.”

Of course, it didn’t stop with a blog. There were more small acts of courage that, when taken together, represent a great journey. Harts started the #SecureTheSeat Podcast, where listeners can “Hear stories of everyday women of color as they lean into a workforce that isn’t always invested in their success.” She has always believed that “success is not a solo sport,” so she worked with co-founder Lauren Broussard and turned The Memo into an LLC. They began consulting full time, 60-plus hours a week. For four and a half years, they didn’t get a paycheck or a day off. And now, the blog posts that started as a way to take back some control five years ago have turned into The Memo, a bestselling book.

Four out of the five major publishing houses turned the book down. They said that it was too niche, that it would never sell. One even offered to publish if she would make it “more inclusive,” a book for all women in the workplace. Harts said no. As she saw it, this book already existed. She had read books like Lean In, and while she appreciated what they had to say, they came from a viewpoint of white women in the workplace. Some of her experiences were the same, but many were not. She believed that what she had to say was important, and she fought for that belief.

To anyone who knows Minda Harts, none of this should come as a surprise- she’s always been a go-getter. At 12 years old she wanted to learn to horseback ride, but her family couldn’t afford it. Where most 12 year-olds would have moved on to a different, more achievable activity, she started calling everywhere in town with a horse. She offered to work cleaning out stables in exchange for riding lessons, and it worked.

That’s not to say that Minda Harts has always felt confident or that she belonged. She recognizes that people of color, and particularly women of color, “have to deal with the reality that you will go through things that the majority of people in the workforce will never have to go through.” This presents itself in a tendency to experience above-average levels of imposter syndrome. At times like this, Harts likes to remember what Audre Lorde wrote to Pat Parker: “Beware feeling you’re not good enough to deserve it.”

Harts understands this feeling better than many: as the first person in her family to go to college, the first to work in the corporate world. As she puts it, “There are so many forks on the table, which one do I use? My coworkers are taking a vacation to the Hamptons- where are the Hamptons?”

What she reminds others — and herself — when these issues come up, is to change the story that you’re telling yourself. Instead of thinking that others are smarter or better because of where they came from or the schools they went to, remember that, like you, they’re just living their lives. And that you are there for a reason. “I have a unique perspective and this rooms needs it. I am the prize. Our backgrounds are beautiful.”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that this journey is the hardest thing Minda Harts has ever done. But whenever she isn’t sure if she can keep going, she tries to remember that what she is doing isn’t just for herself, or her peers, but for the next generation, and the one after. That maybe they won’t have to cry the same tears that their grandmothers did.

This article was published at on the Career Thrivers Website here.
Listen to the full talk on the Career Thrivers Podcast here.
Watch the full talk here.

Advancing Women of Color in the Workplace with Minda Harts was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

To understand double loop learning, we first have to understand single loop learning. While an oversimplification, a good place to start is that single loop learning is reactive, whereas double loop learning is proactive.

Believe it or not, you are already familiar with the concept single loop learning- even if you’ve never heard the term before. It’s the process of problem solving that we are all taught, and the one that we instinctually gravitate towards. We come up with a plan. We put that plan into action. We observe the results, analyze them, and make adjustments based on what didn’t go well. We revise the original plan. We put the new plan into action. Rinse and repeat until our objective is achieved.

This appears, on the surface, to be a good system. In truth it isn’t a bad one, but it is incomplete. The problem is that using single loop learning makes one big, important assumption: that you are starting in the right place when you make you initial hypothesis or plan. Worse, it doesn’t leave open the ability to change that basic assumption- only to tweak the details of it. What if the solution you are working on isn’t even for the right problem? Single loop learning doesn’t account for these kinds of questions.

The way that double loop learning addresses this problem is by adding a third step that occurs before the hypothesis: the assumption phase. It’s a step we all include, but because we do it subconsciously, we don’t recognize it as something we need to adjust.

When we create our hypothesis, we necessarily have assumptions built in. If those assumptions are incorrect, our hypothesis will be incorrect. We can change the hypothesis, but if we fail to recognize our assumptions we will be limited by them, and will only change the hypothesis in ways which still conform to our incorrect base assumptions.

By adding those assumptions consciously into the chain of the decision making process, we allow ourselves to make more significant changes, thus increasing the odds that we come up with the best, most efficient answer.

That isn’t to say that single loop learning is useless. It still allows us to improve, to increase efficiency or ROI, but only within the constraints of those initial assumptions. By questioning our assumptions and expanding the scope of our trial-and-error process, we can find solutions that are more right, more efficient, and move beyond efficiency to efficacy.

Nor is double loop learning in opposition to single loop, in fact it utilizes and includes the process of single loop learning. A hypothesis can be tweaked multiple times and retested based on a set of assumptions, and a satisfactory solution may be reached. What is missing in many individuals and companies is the ability to recognize when that answer eludes them, when it is necessary to question how they arrived at the current process, and to change their initial assumptions in response.

Unfortunately, none of this is as easy as recognizing that single loop learning on its own is problematic and accepting that double loop learning is an improvement. While it is a wide held belief that recognizing a problem and accepting that it needs to change is enough to initiate that change, this is actually yet another example of single loop learning rearing its ugly head- we don’t understand that our unrecognized assumption is that we know enough to fix this problem once we understand it, when in fact we don’t.

A case study by Chris Argyris, one of the originators of double loop learning, showed exactly this. A president at a company was not getting the results he wanted from his VP. He worked on the issue with other executives at the company, and determined that he himself was the cause of the unsatisfactory performance, because he was pushing the VP too hard. He responded as most people would, and decided to back off. Other executives pointed out that this could be taken by the VP as the president no longer investing in their working relationship. He came up with multiple other solutions, none if which produced the effect he was after. He did not, in fact, have the necessary skill set for double loop learning; the ability to understand which subconscious assumptions he was basing his current decisions on. Simply recognizing the problem and understanding the concept of the solution wasn’t enough.¹

The issues of successfully utilizing double loop learning are deeply imbedded in the psyche of most businesses and the people working there. People fear reporting on corporate inefficiency, problems with products, or other systemic issues to their superiors. If they do, those superiors are often afraid to report on them to their superiors. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, as they are afraid it will reflect badly on them. This mindset leads to a multitude of problems; departments that are underperforming will blame other departments, ones who are over budget will invent reasons why it was unavoidable. Because the cultural norms of most workplaces do not allow for questioning the basic assumptions of the company, no one will do it, and the company as a whole will suffer. When problems never get reported, or get buried along the way, The people who are making the highest level decisions aren’t doing so with the full breadth of knowledge available to them.

Many companies do this to themselves because the emphasis from day one is on suppressing failures, or avoiding the appearance of failure, and on maintaining full control. When a company realizes a product is doing poorly, tries to figure out why, and attempts to fix the issues, that is single loop learning. When a company is able to question if the product should be being made at all before it fails so catastrophically that they have no other choice, that is double loop learning. A company whose executives never know that the product is underperforming will never be able to make that decision- and a company who hasn’t built a culture of the openness to do so, from the top down, will never have that kind of information reach them at all.

This kind of culture is difficult to establish in already established companies, but not impossible. It will often require an outside expert come in and help leadership understand and implement the changes from the top down. It is a slow process, but in the end will be better for the company as a whole, and for every individual working there at every level. In a new company, it is easier, but not easy. There is obvious benefit to structuring a company this way from the first day, but only if the founders have the willingness to honestly examine their own assumptions at every step, and allow others to do the same. We see this in the way a few modern tech companies conduct business, though not as much as many of them would have you believe. At an early stage startup, you will undoubtedly spend a lot of time talking about iterations, and working towards a Minimum Viable Product. These are functions of single loop learning. At certain iterations, you may also discuss a pivot. A pivot, when done honestly and correctly, is an example of double loop learning.

So, pay attention to how your company runs. Do employees, at any level, have the ability to report on the problems they see? And when they do, are those issues not only seriously considered, but measured against the basic assumptions the company made which resulted in the current situation?

If not, don’t be surprised- your company is in the vast majority that is not operating as well as it could be.

¹More on this case study can be found in the paper Argyris published in the September 1997 issue of the Harvard Business Review, Double Loop Learning in Organizations.

What is Double Loop Learning? was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Background

AirWork is a company that pairs experienced and established professionals looking to work an extra 10–15 hours a week with startups who do not need full-time staff for those positions. Our mission is to de-risk the freelancing market for entrepreneurs and to give talented industry professionals added freedom and market-rate income.

Challenge

Startups who wanted to hire copywriters on AirWork were required to define a writing style, or tone, in order to purchase the correct services. The challenge was to define these tones in clear, concise ways that helped to direct the purchaser to the correct type of content.

Role

As the Head of Copyrighting at AirWork I was in charge of writing all of the content blocks in a way that was intuitive for the client and helped ensure the copywriter completed their work to the clients specifications.

Discovery

In researching, I looked at many existing freelance sites including Upwork, Freelancer, and The Content Factory, as well as online agencies such as Copify and Creative Copywriter.

One thing I found consistently missing from all these sites was the option to select the desired tone for the copy.

Iterations

The need for a tone guide wasn’t something that was requested in any initial testing. After several beta tests it became apparent that there was a disconnect between the final copy and what the client was expecting.

Because this was often not something the client was consciously aware of, it wasn’t enough to ask more general questions like “what type of article are you looking for?” Clients would only give technical answers to these types of questions.

We tested options with open format answers (What tone would you like the article to have?”) and when that was still a pain point we moved to selecting a single tone. This worked well for the client, but was too broad for the copywriter and did not fix the underlying issue.

Final Deliverable

Our final iteration was to expand the selectable tone guide options, and force the client to select at least two options. This was still relatively easy for the client, and significantly more helpful for the copywriter.

After testing various tone keywords, I selected the ones that clients chose most often and responded most positively to.

Key Takeaways

It was interesting to see that a factor that no one was consciously aware of played such an important role in both client and copywriter satisfaction. It motivated us to look for other questions that could similarly open up communication, such as our Client Brief question. You can see that case study here: Client Brief Cast Study.

Tone Guide Case Study was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Overview

BACKGROUND

AirWork is a company that pairs experienced and established professionals looking to work an extra 10–15 hours a week with startups who do not need full-time staff for those positions. Our mission is to de-risk the freelancing market for entrepreneurs and to give talented industry professionals added freedom and market-rate income.

CHALLENGE

Startups who wanted to hire copywriters on AirWork were required to answer several questions to adequately define the specific copy they were looking for. The challenge was to balance the ability of the client to easily and efficiently input their parameters for the copywriter while receiving enough information to allow the copywriter to successfully complete the task.

ROLE

As the Head of Copyrighting at AirWork I was in charge of writing all of the content blocks in a way that was intuitive for the client and helped ensure the copywriter completed their work to the clients specifications.

Discovery

In researching, I looked at many existing freelance sites including Upwork, Freelancer, and The Content Factory, as well as online agencies such as Copify and Creative Copywriter.

Iterations

Our initial questions, in line with what we’d found on other sites, were mostly technical and focused on what the client needed. After several beta tests it became apparent that there was a disconnect between the final copy and what the client was expecting.

After studying the questions we were asking and the feedback from clients to try and determine the missing piece, I thought the problem might be what the client was looking for subconsciously, or what they hadn’t realized they were looking for.

To get to the heart of this missing communication, I tested the questions “What is the desired outcome of this (article, email, etc.)?” This improved the outcome some, but we were still getting a lof of answers that were too technical.

Final Deliverable

Our final iteration was adding the question “What do you want the reader to do when they’ve finished reading this (article, email, etc.)?”

This simple question did something that none of the other questions had, which was to force the client to stop thinking about the details of their project, and think about it from a more general viewpoint. Because of this, the answers we got were significantly more helpful in guiding the overall direction and purpose of any given task.

Key Takeaways

It was amazing that such a seemingly basic question could completely change the viewpoint of how a client looked at their own project in a way that was hugely beneficial to the copywriters ability to communicate the underlying message so much more effectively.

Client Brief Case Study was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Below is a sequence of five emails from initial signup to a completed service “block.”

Welcome

Hi [FirstName],

Welcome to Airwork!

We’re excited to work with you.

Our goal is to provide you with the best possible final product. To do that, we need you to tell us as much as you can about your company; the more we have to work with, the more we can tailor our work to your specific needs.

Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the process.

Ready? Let’s get started! Click here to begin

If you have any questions, you can reply directly to this email and Airwork will get back to you in a flash.

All The Best,

The Airwork Team

User Confirmation

Dear [FirstName],

Your Airwork account has been created. Welcome!

Your login will be your email address [EmailAddress] and password.

Please click this link to confirm your email address termin@or.com/airwork-profile-signup/hasta-la-vista

If you have any questions, you can reply directly to this email and Airwork will get back to you in a flash.

All The Best,

The Airwork Team

Service Purchased

Hi [FirstName],

Congratulations! You have successfully created your Airwork block.

You are about to take the next step forward in growing [CompanyName].

We’ll take it from here but don’t worry, we’ll be in touch every step of the way. You can check in on your block here.

Your Airworker may contact you with follow up questions on your block — remember, the more information they have, the better the final project will be.

If you have any questions, you can reply directly to this email and Airwork will get back to you in a flash.

All The Best,

The Airwork Team

First Draft Completed

Hi [FirstName],

Your [BlockType] block is ready to be reviewed!

Our highest priority is to deliver you the results you’re looking for, so let us know if there’s anything at all you’d liked changed. We’ll walk you through the revision process to make sure nothing gets missed. As always, revisions won’t cost you a penny.

Ready to check out the results?

Click here to see your [BlockType] block!

If you have any questions, you can reply directly to this email and Airwork will get back to you in a flash.

All The Best,

The Airwork Team

Final Draft Completed

Hi [FirstName],

Your [BlockType] block is completed!

We would love to help other aspects of your business grow just like we have with your [BlockType]. When you’re ready to start a new block, click here or visit your Airwork profile and select a new block to start.

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

Click here to see your shiny new block!

If you’d like to leave us any feedback, please click here. While we love a pat on the back as much as the next folks, what we really enjoy is your constructive criticism. It’s the only way we can make your experience even more awesome next time.

All The Best,

The Airwork Team

Airwork Emails was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is my final day in Juba, and I am back to the essence of Sudan- back to waiting. Even with this torrential rain it is over ninety five, high humidity, sweat-coma inducing degrees.

Pouring over my notes of the trip, I find a conversation I had with a Sudanese man a few days earlier. His name was Jean Paul, and he had been in Juba longer than most. He was here before the peace, when the city had been adopted as the Northern Sudanese Army’s southernmost garrison. He was here towards the end of the war, when it was clear the south would prevail and the revolutionaries shelled the city for weeks on end. His brother had been killed while out trying to find food for their family. When I asked him if he resented the Independence Movement because of this he smiled, as if to say there were things I would never understand, and simply said “It is war.”

The motto of South Sudan is Justice, Liberty, Property. For many living there now, these principles are still a long ways off. When I land in the capital city of Juba, I am struck by the infinite dichotomies of the place.

There have been those who have likened Juba to the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the landscape that comes into view does not disappoint. A wash of rich green flora, trees and grasses and vines; the lush feel offset harshly by the red mud and dirt that the plant life springs from. But it is not merely the jungle that connects the two; in both cities the hillsides are dotted with large, government funded complexes built from a seemingly infinite supply of oil money. That same supply has not drained down to the flatlands below. Here, the handmade houses speak nothing of the clean West African jungle. And as my gaze shifts from hillsides to hovels, how quickly my eyes forget the beauty- overwhelmed instead by Kilimanjaro trash piles, motor oil Niles and acres of grass huts, somehow as foreign as New York skyscrapers in Wichita. Just as quickly as I forgot the beauty, it returns amidst the quick smiles of those I meet upon my arrival.

Many men and women still wear traditional, colorful robes of swirling patterns, with shaved heads and small caps. But the outer-worldly influences permeate here as everywhere- a small child, four or five, poses for a picture wearing only tattered boardshorts and his fiercest scowl. He plays, as he lives, amongst this same trash strewn landscape which he shares with the goats. The goats — even the child — seem to me as discarded as the old shoe boxes and empty soda cans. Everyone seems to be waiting. They are not sure what they are waiting for, maybe. For newborn South Sudan to finally become the country they fought for. For their lives to begin again. For anything that means they no longer feel discarded.

I arrive at my hotel at around 7:30 that evening, although hotel would really be the wrong word. I had been told I was being put up in a campground. Before leaving I had imagined perhaps a large tent, some running (non-potable) water, and folding army cots. The sort of setup one might encounter on safari. Upon landing, I would have been content with anything not actively sited in a trash heap. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have worried. The Complex (as I came to call it) is situated directly on the banks of the White Nile. It is heavily fortified by what amounts to a private army, and has semi-sheltered rooms with mosquito netting. (Those damn mosquitoes nearly drove me insane. Trying to sleep with several hundred thousand of the little beasts trying to tear their way in, it was enough to send better men than me into fits). It also had functioning bathrooms, and most importantly of all, a bar.

The mass of people here is staggering at first. In the shops, in the streets, day and night. There is no such thing as privacy here, and it has nothing to do with government surveillance. I cannot breath. The smell of garbage does not bother me. I have traveled plenty of places just as hot, just as humid. But never anywhere so crowded.

Juba is a quintessential boomtown. Its population has swelled since the end of the Sudanese civil war in 2005, when South Sudan finally gained its long fought independence.* The official population for Juba is two hundred and fifty thousand, but in reality, it is well over a million. A huge number are refugees who swarmed back once the war had ended. They came to Juba on the promise of easy employment, which was soon discovered for the farce it was. So instead, they build roads in the dry season. In the rains, they return to waiting.

Everybody builds roads, over thirteen hundred miles of it so far. The road may not be the work that so many came here for, but it is vital all the same. The roads surrounding Juba are made of that same red earth, and travel to the nearest city of Nimule takes hours. This is when the roads are dry, and all that truck drivers must deal with are dust clouds and potholes. In the rainy season, the road is mired and swamp-like, and trucks become stuck or swerve to avoid puddles and into other trucks. The unluckiest hit one of the hundreds or thousands of land mines that remain from the war.

*Though the peace treaty was signed in 2005 it was on a six year Visa of sorts, and final secession was decided in July of 2011.

It may not be the work they came here for — building roads and removing mines — but it is work enough, money enough, for the young men — often just boys — to buy themselves cheap Senke motorbikes. These bikes are everywhere, entire hospital wards devoted to their disciples. The new roads also bring these accidents- after all, much of the population has no idea what traffic safety is. But at least the ambulances will be able to get to the crashes. Juba’s ambulances have never been used, they cannot drive on the unpaved roads.

One of these boys tell me that he is eight before he drives his Senke away with scrawny knees. As I watch, a goat which had been asleep on a basketball court awakes and nearly collides with the child on his bike. I see him swerve, but he does not crash. Once again my eyes smile, and wonder at a place where no one else so much as blinks. Why should they? More promises have been forgotten here than the pit-like graves can hold.

Despite all that is wrong here, there is hope for all that Juba lacks, for all that South Sudan is not. What hope there is comes from a man named John Garang. Garang was the leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, a group largely responsible for winning independence. Born in Sudan and schooled in the United States, Garang was a natural leader who gave up additional schooling and life in America to return to where he knew he was needed. Garang died under “mysterious circumstances” a few months after he helped bring about the signing of the treaties that eventually led to the birth of the country he lived, fought, and died for.

The people have not forgotten. His tomb sits on a hill near the center of the city amidst its tangle of roads, a heavily guarded structure containing an elaborately tiled floor, and the large, white, slab-stone grave itself. Every day school groups attend the site. On this day, all of the boys stare solemnly, glances shifting between the portraits of the deceased and the men clad in green camouflage, automatic rifles and berets who stand all around. A girl prays for John Garang and tells me she is thirteen and cries and says it is “because I never got to meet him.”

It is not easy for my western mind to connect with these feelings. I think of politicians at home, in America, and their soundbite references to Founding Fathers and Revolution. I have never felt anything for them like the emotions I feel listening to this girl discuss a man I have no reason to care about. He was not my people, his cause was (no, is) not my cause. I have been in Juba for four days, and I know in that moment that I would have followed John Garang wherever he needed me too. Maybe it’s for him. Maybe it’s for her. I take the flowers I have brought and lay them near the edge of the area. I remove one, handing it to the girl as I leave. She smiles up at me through her tears, and I hastily leave before the soldiers (or the stoic young boys) see my own.

After I return to the states I take a cab ride with a man who tells me his name is John. He is from South Sudan, and I ask him about John Garang. He smiles widely, but corrects me when I explain to the other passengers that he was a leader. “Not a leader,” says John. “He was our messiah.” Everywhere his memory remains. Everywhere people are waiting for his return, knowing it will never come.

Juba was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A new ordinance, passed by the City Council of Olympia, went into effect on February 8 making it illegal to camp on public property. The new Chapter of Olympia Municipal Code Title 12 states that “it shall be unlawful at all times to camp or construct camp facilities at or on the grounds of all City Property and City Parks.”

The new law has immediate consequences for the local homeless population including Kyle, a 16-year-old homeless youth. “When my mom lost the house we lived in, she disappeared with a dude she had met a few months before,” said Kyle. “I was pretty much left to fend for myself.” Most recently, he had been weathering Olympia nights on the front steps of the city’s capitol building; a well-lit area with a large overhang that he said “helped protect people…from all the rain and wind.”

The incidents that prompted the ordinance were several complaints by city staff and civilians regarding trash and human waste around the capitol, feelings of being threatened, and one instance of a dog tearing the jacket of a city employee.

An update on a separate ordinance was also passed last December which mostly addressed the so-called “sit/lie” regulations, which are the laws that detail when and how people may use the sidewalks, streets, and alleys of downtown Olympia.

The new updates were designed with the idea of safety for the citizenry-at-large. They include stipulations that pedestrians and drivers are not to be interfered with during their normal routes through town, and that there can be no “aggressive panhandling” (which consists of solicitation of items of value, or taking intimidating action to induce another person to relinquish anything of value) and that panhandling will not be allowed within 25 feet of ATMs. They also lengthened the hours during which individuals will be allowed to use areas in compliance with these laws, originally from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. — they now extend to midnight. Additionally, the city repealed current restrictions on busking, or playing music outdoors.

According to Laura Wohl, a spokeswoman for the OPD: “Because these are new ordinances, all offenders will be given verbal warnings before any legal action is taken against them. This is to ensure that everyone understands the new laws.” She went on to state that “If there are repeat offenders, but it is believed that they do not fully understand the laws, there will be a further attempt at education. If it is believed that an individual has been warned and understands the new laws, but continues to utilize these spaces, then arrests will take place.” No one at the Thurston County Prosecutors office knew at this time what the maximum penalty for such offenses would be.

One homeless woman, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that she planned to “occupy the capitol” in protest. She and her son had been sleeping in a downtown doorway last week when they were informed by a local police officer that they needed to vacate. When her son asked where they could sleep, she maintained that he responded with, “There isn’t anywhere you can go.”

She said that the city’s attitude, from what she could see, is that “during the day we have to be at work, and in the evenings we have to be in a house.” She went on to say that “very little of the homeless community knew of the ordinance, that of the protesters at City Hall [the day the ordinances took effect] almost none were actually homeless.”

One group that has been vocally against these ordinances is PANZA, an inter-faith organization that has shown its support of the homeless community through its project Camp Quixote. Not a permanent camp, it houses those who are homeless in a moving tent city which relocates once every three months. The current location is at First Christian Church at 701 Franklin St. where the camp is able to use a covered parking garage for added safety and comfort.

Grace Dzyacki, the current Camp Quixote Intern, said there are things that set them apart from other shelters. “They hold elections every four months to elect a President, VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, which gives the residents a sense of control not found in most shelters. They strive to be an egalitarian, fully democratic group that makes no executive decisions, meaning that people who have long been voiceless can once again speak up,” she said. “They are open during the day where many shelters are not, and they are an all-age group.”

“Unfortunately,” she continued, “like so many shelters, Camp Quixote is full to capacity and openings are rare. They are working to build a permanent camp in the next two years with upwards of 30 small buildings supplied with heat and light. If all goes as planned, they would also try to maintain the current mobile version of the camp.While these are important steps forward, they will not in and of themselves solve the problem of homelessness, here or anywhere.”

Olympia Mayor Stephen Buxbaum has pledged 30,000 dollars in aid of the problem, but according to Dzyacki, “this is nowhere near enough to do what is needed;” namely, to “open additional shelters that have the staff and ability to get more homeless, and in particular homeless youth, off the streets and into beds.” In her opinion the City Council’s continued pledges to enact change do not meet the reality of their actions. “I do not believe that they are on the same side as Olympia’s homeless and their advocates,” she said. “One thing that is certain, though, is that the options for Olympia’s homeless are fewer than they were last week.”

When asked about what he would do now, Kyle was unsure. He was tentative about sleeping downtown for fear of legal repercussions: “I don’t want to be another kid in jail for no reason.” The only option left that he knew of was to camp out in the woods around town. While not technically legal, it is known that these areas are not patrolled.

However, he mentioned a fear of staying in these areas precisely because they are dark and secluded. In 2008 two homeless men’s bodies were found strangled, beaten, and burned. At the end of 2012 a homeless man was stabbed to death by another young man who had just been released from prison, supposedly in a dispute over territory.

Olympia Officially Bans Camping On Public Property was originally published in Patrick’s Portfolio on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.