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Nico Carpenter

Nico Carpenter (they/he) works on the People team at Fractured Atlas, where they find ways for tools and processes to better align with the organization’s purpose. Prior to joining Fractured Atlas, Nico worked for a variety of arts organizations including MoMA PS1, Walker Art Center, and Heidelberger Kunstverein, and he still has a particular love (and skepticism) for museums. They also serve on the board of Fireweed Community Woodshop. Originally from Minneapolis, they received a BFA in Art from the University of Minnesota and continues to stay creative through knitting and sewing clothes. He is currently in too many book clubs, but still finds time to read books about organizational culture for fun.

Blog Feature

Big Ideas | Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression

By Nico Carpenter
June 18th, 2020

Maybe you’ve recently published a statement in support of Black Lives Matter and committed publicly to begin working towards being an anti-racist organization. Maybe folks internally or externally are asking what changes you plan to make after seeing that statement. Maybe you think that you’ll have your staff go through a full staff training and will be “done with it.” Maybe you’re a white person in an organization who thinks that it’s not something you need to worry about because it’s something that some other department needs to figure out. That’s not enough. If we are committing to being anti-racist organizations, we have a lot of work to do that touches every organization and every department. There is a lot of rightful skepticism about statements companies are making right now, so how can we as organizations work towards making sure these statements are not hollow or performative?

Blog Feature

How We Work | Remote Working | People Operations | COVID-19

By Nico Carpenter
March 23rd, 2020

People talk a lot about remote work, and I don't love the word. It makes me think of people working on a deserted island, disconnected from the organization. That's not a great way to run an organization; it creates silos and a disconnected team. Silos and disconnection are a perfect recipe for organizations that can’t adapt to change, innovate, or make the world a bit of a better place.

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Blog Feature

How We Work | Tips and Tools | Remote Working | How We Work Virtually

By Nico Carpenter
August 27th, 2019

by Nicola Carpenter, Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas This is part of a series. If you read part one, two, or three, skip the intro and head straight to the interview. At Fractured Atlas, we really love sharing many of the inner workings around how our organization works. By sharing the things that work (or don’t) for us, we hope to help out in making the sector, as a whole, stronger. A few years ago, we shared our How We Work site so that anyone could see how we work at Fractured Atlas. We’ve also shared how our use of OKRs increases transparency, alignment, and accountability (that post even included a free template). We’ve shared updates on our Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression journey, why we have race-based caucusing, and so many other things.

Blog Feature

How We Work | Tips and Tools | Remote Working | People Operations | How We Work Virtually

By Nico Carpenter
July 25th, 2019

by Nicola Carpenter, Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas This is part of a series. If you read part one or part two, skip the intro and head straight to the interview. At Fractured Atlas, we really love sharing many of the inner workings around how our organization works. By sharing the things that work (or don’t) for us, we hope to help out in making the sector, as a whole, stronger. A few years ago, we shared our How We Work site so that anyone could see how we work at Fractured Atlas. We’ve also shared how our use of OKRs increases transparency, alignment, and accountability (that post even included a free template). We’ve shared updates on our Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression journey, why we have race-based caucusing, and so many other things.

Blog Feature

How We Work | Tips and Tools | Remote Working | People Operations | How We Work Virtually

By Nico Carpenter
July 8th, 2019

by Nicola Carpenter, Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas This is part two of a series. If you read part one, skip the intro and head straight to the interview.

Blog Feature

How We Work | Tips and Tools | Remote Working | How We Work Virtually

By Nico Carpenter
June 26th, 2019

by Nicola Carpenter, Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas At Fractured Atlas, we really love sharing many of the inner workings around how our organization works. By sharing the things that work (or don’t) for us, we hope to help out in making the sector, as a whole, stronger. A few years ago, we shared our How We Work site so that anyone could see how we work at Fractured Atlas. We’ve also shared how our use of OKRs increases transparency, alignment, and accountability (that post even included a free template). We’ve shared updates on our Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression journey, why we have race-based caucusing, and so many other things.

Blog Feature

Tips and Tools | Event Planning | People Operations | Human Resources | Uncategorized

By Nico Carpenter
May 14th, 2019

by Nicola Carpenter, Associate Director, People Operations at Fractured Atlas Full team photo from All Hands 2019 At Fractured Atlas, about half of our team work fully distributed so we started having full staff events 6 years ago when we realized that there are conversations and activities that are better to do in person. We originally called these week long events “OkTECHberfest” but changed to “All Hands” last year. Through these years, we’ve found ways of creating an event that supports our organizational shared purpose.

Blog Feature

Big Ideas | People Operations | Holidays | Human Resources

By Nico Carpenter
December 14th, 2018

It is December, which means that I am watching way too many holiday movies -(specifically the romcom variety that Hallmark and Netflix do so well), and it seems like I’m not alone. As I’ve been watching movie after movie, I have noticed some common themes: baking cookies (yum!), accidentally falling in love with a prince (or Santa’s son!), really fake looking snow (or incredibly not winter friendly outfits!), and people loving their jobs (just kidding).

Blog Feature

Big Ideas | How We Work | Okr | People Operations | Human Resources

By Nico Carpenter
May 21st, 2018

Earlier this year I wrote a post explaining why I think Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are great ways to track goals. As a quick refresher, OKRs allow teams and organizations to align goals for a set period of time in a transparent and connected way. Since then, I’ve gotten questions about the logistics of implementing the OKR framework in an organization and the process that Fractured Atlas uses. I decided to compile this information into a toolkit that you can use and iterate on. I hope that it helps in your process of deciding whether to use them in your organization and how to implement them.

Blog Feature

Tips and Tools | Okr | People Operations | Self Improvement

By Nico Carpenter
January 24th, 2018

How many of you made New Years resolutions? How many of you have already given them up? I wouldn’t be too surprised if many of the resolution setters have already given them up, and we’re not even a full month into 2018. This is one of the reasons why I think there is a better solution to planning goals, and that solution is OKRs.