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Recapturing dreams and actions of the past 10 weeks

12/18/2016

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​“Finding the balance between curiosity and courage, work and pleasure, risk and safety, creative and structured, was the ultimate challenge at this point of GreyC2’s development. Working with new friends, we had to be patient and open to different approaches to individual thinking.”
 
When the 5 of us started working together ten weeks ago some of us hardly knew each other. So while figuring out a whole lot of things related to our startup, we also had to learn about our ways of approaching things, how we function in a team and what’s important to each team member.
 
As a team we are clearly diverse in our personalities and ways of dealing with things. Some of us are very organised and know a lot about different implementation tools. Others are creative fashion lovers, and love to brainstorm and play with dreams and visions. Although this diversity of personalities has been quite a challenge in certain situations, we believe that magic happens when these things are mixed together – when the dreamer meets the implementer halfway, something in heads and on paper might actually become a real creation. To find the ideal balance in team dynamics has been a working debate and open discussion within GreyC2.
 
“At first it was daunting - sitting across the table from people I viewed as extremely organised and that knew what they were talking about. I found myself questioning whether I was cut out for what I was doing? But then I realised there may be moments where I would babble on and they would find themselves just as clueless. But that’s the thing about team dynamics - where you all come together with your inputs and areas of expertise to create something amazing.”
 
During the last ten weeks we not only faced challenges within the team, but also externally we had to deep dive into fields very new to all of us. We had to make tough decisions and let go of initial plans to eventually find a new path. Courageous actions where needed in small as well as bigger decisions. From reaching out to wool suppliers in the Western Cape to speaking up in a team meeting, each of us faced their own challenges, but slowly and steadily we learnt how shared passion and drive can be used to overcome barriers.
 
We are extremely curious to find out where the next year will take us, as a team, but also as individuals. 2017 will be a year full of challenges: There are missing pieces in the supply chain that have yet to be established, there is money involved, legal structures, and overall our fashion should contribute to uplift people and also foster sustainability. We know that our plans are big, but we also see these challenges as our fuel to keep us moving.
 
“Having the courage to fail and recover is maybe the biggest lesson I have learned. Not to give up, to keep on searching for more and stay in the challenging space, where growth happens.”
 
After all these learnings we are now happily off to our vacation. See you guys in mid January.
 
Merry Christmas,
GreyC2
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Today's and tomorrow's essence of work 

12/4/2016

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​This week we went to an institution where people do hand weaving. It sounded like this could be a potential future partner since they offer a safe working environment and pay a fair salary. But when we saw the people working there it didn’t feel right. We just couldn’t imagine that doing the same movements for hours and hours every day could be fulfilling. While talking about it afterwards we had to realise that we were judging these people by our own standards. Just because machines could theoretically do their job and we can’t see ourselves doing their work doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t enjoy it. Nevertheless it still didn’t feel right. We realised this was due to the fact that their view of work is not aligned with our values (curiosity, balance and courage), which shape how we do business both within the team and with our partners.
 
This visit triggered further discussions in our team about both the meaning and the future of work. In 1930 John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the 20th century in countries like the US or Great Britain people would be working about 15 hours a week due (or thanks?) to technology. Clearly, we haven’t reached that point. Elaborating on the reasons why in many jobs we’re still working our solid 40 hours a week despite technology’s huge progress would require quite some research (David Graeber for example has spent quite a bit of time on that). However, we decided that we wouldn’t want to uplift people by supporting out-dated skills as part of our supply chain.
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Instead we’ve tried to come up with our own definition of work: “Cover your own and somebody else’s needs at the same time, while not purposefully harming anybody or anything in the process.” The second part of the definition is definitely more of a vision when looking at the outrageous amount of goods that are being produced (and consumed) at other people’s expense. But the first part is already a reality today, right? We are all trying to cover needs with our work. But what kind of needs are we currently covering? And wouldn’t there be other needs that are currently being neglected?
 
This lead us to think that if we created a working environment that is not only aligned with our values, but also uses todays technology to gain time (for example by using an electronic weaving machine) we could take care of other needs. Which needs these will be and how we’ll be addressing them is yet to be defined, but we’ll definitely keep you i
n the loop. 
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    Recent Posts

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  • ROBIN GREY STORE
    • Coat attributes
    • Product journey
  • COLLABORATE
  • Blog
  • About
    • Our philosophy
    • Value-driven fashion
    • The team
  • Contact