Found Again: The Journey of a Story - Part 2
In Part 1, we saw how we at FlexiBees decided to write a book about the women professionals we had placed in flexible roles. We were always in awe of their trials and victories. We had long since wanted to log our appreciation for these tenacious, driven, and ambitious women. The Book was envisioned as our helpful offering to the World. It would comprise Real stories, hero the Women, and offer practical advice without being pedantic. We embraced a parallel ambition of publishing it for Women's Month - which was 3 months away, against well-meaning advice. This was because we believed in our team, our ability to execute complex time-bound projects and the value of our stories. More importantly, as true blood entrepreneurs, we had a mindset of experimentation - after all, this would be our "first book". In an ambition of this scale, further editions were inevitable.
The elements
With the soil prepared and the seed sown, all the plant needed was air, water & sunshine, and a lot of love, to grow and bloom. We quickly formed a "book team" drawn from multiple functions to identify the key "gardeners" who would provide the time, commitment and skills needed to make the project happen, in addition to their day jobs at the company.
The Protagonists - capturing the stories of Real Women
A couple of team members had the unenviable responsibility of selecting the protagonists from the vast pool of women we had placed. There was diversity in the functions they represented - such as Sales, Marketing, Graphic design, HR, Tech, and Finance, but also in the locations they came or worked from. From Metro to Tier 2 cities like Tirunelveni and Vishakapatnam, the environments they were part of were integral to their life choices and stories. Beyond these factors, an essential element of diversity was in the life stage or preference of the protagonist in terms of marriage, motherhood and singlehood after marriage. Flexibility at work was involved in all these stories - whether born out of constraint or choice.
The stories
Stemming from our experience of providing a non-judgemental, safe space for women in our selection processes, our team members pushed the boundaries of empathy. They allowed personal and professional stories to mingle and mix like life itself. We wanted the stories to paint an honest and authentic picture of women's experiences as they traversed constraint, choice, ambition, and reality.
While we knew what the stories needed to represent, we deliberated extensively on who would write them. We decided that with the Book being an extension of our vision, it would be apt for us founders to write it and show how we saw the women - with our utmost appreciation and respect.
The editing naturally had to extend beyond fact check, language, and structure to ensure that each story was given the dignity and nuance it deserved.
An unintended but happy outcome was that we uncovered many talents amongst our team members, which would otherwise not have been apparent. We unveiled writers, editors and project managers just below the surface of their day jobs.
The project
While having a "book team" together with cofounders turning authors sounds like a simple enough design, in practice, completing the Book was a monumental task stretching the capability, time and mental strength of each one of us. It took a precious few weeks to arrive at a workflow that could hum like a well-oiled machine. There was the question of consent of the protagonist at every iteration to honour the trust each protagonist had placed in us. At times we were plagued with writer's block - but of a different kind. We were paralyzed with the pressure to do justice to the richness and depth of a story by our mere words. What anchored us back to the task at hand was our vision - of providing this platform for women's voices to be heard and celebrated.
The team was patient through it all. Sometimes we carried the team, and at other times they carried us.
The blooming
We were paid handsomely for all the effort, not in money terms, but in fulfillment and pride. Holding the finished Book in our hands felt surreal for us authors and those in the book team, the protagonists, their families, and friends who were part of their Journey throughout. The Book seemed to have something for everyone - the woman who wished to get back to work, the woman who wanted to balance work and life, the family member who wanted to see her happy, or even a potential employer wanting the best for his/ her team and company.
"Found Again" became an anthology that encourages and uplifts. But beyond that, the Journey of making Found Again became an Overstory - of finding hidden talents, overcoming obstacles, and having the courage to dream and believe. 