Big Idea, Incremental Steps

Sometimes being a big idea person can feel defeating, especially when your idea is a few steps ahead of where the rest of the team is. But when you finally see it come to life - it's magical!

Over the last few years, I've learned how to craft proposals, draft business cases, and pitch an idea to senior leadership. Not only does it take hard work and long hours to put this prep work together but learning to influence and how to lead that project once you get buy-in is a feat all on its own.

I'm incredibly proud to share that I finally had one of my big dreams come to fruition and it may seem like a small deliverable but a big dream I've been chasing for the last 3 years.

You see, I've been volunteering for SHPE (formerly known as the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) since I joined back in 2012. I took a leap of faith in myself and my abilities to be a leader when I was nominated and elected as Regional Vice President for Region 5 overseeing 7 states and 3,000+ members at the age of 25 (2015-2017).

After my 2 year term, I was grateful to then serve as a committee member for NILA (National Institute for Leadership Advancement) - the annual leadership conference for chapter leaders throughout the nation - when this dream hit me. For the majority of transformational education I have ever received, there was usually a workbook involved - fill in the blank, share your experiences, what stood out to you, etc. So it was an "of course! SHPE Chapter Leaders need something like this" kind of idea.

2017: I drafted my first outline of that idea. The feedback received was "love the idea but we're too far along. We would have had to have prepared for this months ago". okay, okay - understood.

2018: I re-pitched & even got the green light to "go ahead & draft what I was envisioning" and the committee leads would do what they could do to make it happen. Here's what that draft looked like.

In the end, we didn't have enough details about the speakers, the final presentations, or the budget allocated to roll it out in time.

2019: I was hired full-time to work for SHPE staff & was dedicated to other priorities. I didn't give up on this dream, just knew I needed to keep it in my pocket for a better time and when I had a stronger position of influence and a chance to make it happen.

2020: I saw it coming from a MILE away and I was ready! like an underhand pitch to myself come hell or high water I was making this workbook a reality!

I knew this was a solid resource and our chapter leaders deserved a year-long resource. I personally still pull out some of my reference materials from classes over 10 years ago. That feeling of accomplishment, that sense of "yeah! I have this reference!", to have a physical reminder and something to go back to even if it's just your notes and hints of what you learned and how capable you are - that holds power!

So yes, it may have taken the last 3 years to make my dream a reality but through this long grueling process - it made the biggest impact it ever could have, in the midst of COVID, in the middle of pivoting our life-changing event to virtual, this physical workbook helped make people feel appreciated, present, and celebrated.

I'm forever grateful to my boss who bought into my vision & wholeheartedly supported me and my idea, my marketing guru, who helped walk me through the entire design process for this, and my project lead for all of NILA who helped drive milestones & deadlines to make it come to life!

Seeing my dream of 3 years in the hands of over 930 SHPE chapter leaders was beyond humbling and having it show up all over my social media feeds gave me an overwhelming amount of pride.

I'm excited to have more ideas, resources, and efforts come to life but this one was something on another level. This success was a strong reminder of the power of "yet". As a big idea AND quick-start person - I prefer things pivot, shift, & update as soon as possible when in reality doing those things take a solid conscious timeline and reiteration and several pitches and years of buy-in and sometimes even just timing and circumstances working in your favor. The power of "yet" keeps me pushing and ideating. It's still on its way, improvements can still be made... it's just not here, YET.