The most daunting challenge for leaders joining new organizations is adapting to unfamiliar cultures. – The First 90 Days
This quote jumped out to me as I was reading my Kindle edition. At that particular moment, I was reading it on my laptop on the dining table in the common area of the Airbnb in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The sun just rose over the mountains a few moments ago and is now gracing the valley with the beginning of its’ sunshine.
In an hour or two, the entire valley will be doused in full sunlight.
In three hours, I will be checking in with a distributed team to tackle accessibility issues affecting the organization as a whole. By no means am I in an official leadership role. However, I am positioned in a role where I can guide people towards a united goal of accessibility and disability inclusion.
It is an excellent opportunity to gain adaptive skills. Especially in a role that requires the ability to move from the design team to the print team to the UX team to the product team to management answering questions. Right now, the hard part is getting anything done. However, the mere act of moving from team to team (which fits the definition of being nomadic) advising on accessibility could be interpreted as being the “accessibility leadership ball” in motion.
The moral of the scene is that it is possible to lead from afar as long as you understand the culture of the organization.