The War Room
You know that the Bird & Bear has roots in our backyard barn, and now takes residence in a historic downtown bank building ~ but on this Monday morning, let me tell you about its roots in a corporate boardroom, also known as the war room.
On a Monday morning in October of 2003, the day after I got engaged to my now husband, I went to off to work and stepped into what would be a defining moment in my career … and ultimately core to the beginnings and every day happenings of the Bird & Bear.
In 2003 I was a 23 years old marketing assistant at one of Boston’s top investment firms. On Mondays we had to be in the office early, for our division’s mandatory 7:45am meeting. I arrived that particular morning, excited to share with my boss + colleagues that I got got engaged over the weekend. My boss, kindly and graciously congratulated me with a hug and a smile, and then proceeded to tell me that something had happened at the firm, and that they needed my help.
She told me to skip the mandatory 7:45am meeting, and go to meet IT to set-up my new laptop in the 13th floor conference room, located just outside the President of the division’s office. It was 2003, laptops definitely weren’t a thing for the 23 year old marketing assistant ~ and neither were meetings in the 13th floor conference room. I dropped my coat and my lunch in my cube, and went downstairs ~ a cube I didn’t return to for over 3 months.
I knew absolutely nothing of what had actually happened at the firm ~ remember there Twitter and Instagram weren’t a thing yet, and this 23 year old was reading her first copy of Martha Stewart Wedding, not the Wall Street Journal. I knew nothing, other than that it was complicated, and that I was responsible for setting up a space that would provide support and help for the team. We called it the War Room.
I was the 23 year old marketing assistant who didn’t need to understand the complex legal and financial implications - I was simply being tasked with opening doors and creating space for whatever the organization needed. It was beyond wild, and the absolute best learning experience I could have ever imagined. I think about it every Monday morning at 7:45am ~ and how that opportunity ended up shaping my career throughout my years in corporate, and how it’s in the fibers of everything the Bird & Bear does today.
The “War Room” was reimagined in hundreds of different ways during my 15+ years in corporate, and today through the many experiences at the Bird & Bear Collective. We don’t call it the war room anymore, instead we call it the wilderness ~ a space created to equip and empower Birds & Bear to brave the unknown. A place where we dont’ have to have all the answers, but where together we’ll journey together to find them
The girl behind the laptop isn’t the 23-year old, just engaged, marketing assistant anymore either. Instead of a mandatory Monday morning meeting, you’ll now find her behind some barn doors in her backyard or at the Bird &Bear. But the same wild heart remains, opening doors and creating space for whatever the organization, that is the Bird & Bear Collective needs.