Sitting in my trailer in Black Rock City, I can’t help but laugh waiting out the windstorm and watching as dust blows through the cracks of this 1960s aluminum charmer. This feeling of seeming immobility, being rocked without warning, and resting in the polarities of immediate challenge and the certainty of a calm future feels hilariously (and quite recently) familiar.
In the spring of 2021, our 100-person, B-Corp consulting firm, Future State, was acquired by the then-600k+ person seeming-behemoth Accenture. The news was a surprise, the size of our new employer was a shock, and the impact of the change we were about to engage was unimaginable.
As we entered this foreign world, it felt like everything was different. There was a different language (acronyms much, ACN?), new ways of navigating project work, and all the systems required to learn to be successful in a day*. The change was overwhelming, the scale of operations was unfathomable. Accenture’s leadership team consistently highlighted the importance of networking, leaning into your passions, and finding “your people” across the organization. Exploring this new environment, the intimidating scale of the operation began to give way into an awareness of the scale of our influence, and the responsibility. I was a part of something greater, something which can create real world-scale impact.
As soon as that realization hit, I recognized I was in familiar territory, and had been here before. As a 20+ year veteran of Burning Man and it’s surrounding community, as well as a contract staff member of the Burning Man Project for the past decade, I realized the rich similarities of both environments.
Most individuals know Burning Man as an art-driven bacchanal in the desert with 80,000 individuals expressing themselves in unique and at times, confusing ways. I know Burning Man to be the event which hosts Black Rock City, the third most populated city in Nevada for one week a year, located deep in the Black Rock Desert. The core of Black Rock City is built by the Burning Man Project, supported by thousands of individuals, both paid and volunteer, to provide the structure of the city — roads, boundaries, and camp placement while also providing essential resources for health and safety, such as ice sales, bathrooms, and medical services. The participants fill the city with thousands of camps, activities, and art projects, providing everything else. At Burning Man there is no main stage, there are no scheduled performers, there is nothing for you to “do” other than participate.
Sure, you can go to Burning Man and look at incredible art, party, and reflect all the images one sees on their social media feeds, but those spectators don’t generally last very long. Black Rock City and the global culture which has grown from it is built, filled, and activated by the doers, networkers, and makers. Black Rock City is a defined space for experimentation, curiosity, and exploring what’s possible. A literal and proverbial sandbox.
In this sandbox, while recognizing each talent is unique and contributes to the greater whole, there is room for everyone working towards a fuller expression and implementation of our core values.
Coming into this community in 2002 as a deeply passionate individual around the human experience, I quickly found “my people” and began to grow my skills in ways I never could have imagined. Designing and running a theme camp, helping build and eventually mentor regional communities, producing official Burning Man events, joining the Burners Without Borders Advisory Board, and using the learned wisdom to create a better, more inclusive, and joy-filled path for others, I began to see the bigger picture. I began to see what was possible. My passion deepened. My confidence bloomed. My sandbox grew.
Working for Accenture is a unique, yet not unfamiliar experience. The organization provides structure, shared learning, and opportunity; while you provide the participation, talent, and passion. There is room for everyone working towards a greater expression and implementation of our core values; and recognizing the scale of our influence, I deeply believe we are working towards making room for and working to build the best culture possible for as many as we can.
Working towards any greater outcome, especially one where we have the ability and influence to create genuine change, requires the strength of many, and those many must be empathetic, driven, and courageous. Spectators do not thrive in a do-ocracy.
Recognizing Accenture as it’s own nation of doers has been a comforting and exciting realization. Being able to scale our sandbox and learning in this rich client environment has been elevating. Knowing the responsibility of our influence and impact is taken seriously, and enabled, fuels my passion.
Sitting in Black Rock City as the white dust pounds my trailer, I remember everything is fragile. None of this is seamless, none of it guaranteed. The week in Black Rock City prior to Burning Man, the event, is a priceless time of knowledge exchange and connection with a team of incredible doers from all over the world. Every year, I consider this my professional development week. Discussing stronger models of working, how we make lives better for others, and balancing out the ridiculous joy of our shared humanity, which is easily evoked working in such an absurd and constantly changing environment.
At times Accenture feels absurd and constantly changing. We are 700k+ strong now at writing and the growth continues. Is everything perfect? Of course not, nothing is. We aim to do better with our learning, and we continue to explore new ways of working, ways of working which have the ability to change the world.
After this many years working in the Burning Man ecosystem, I have seen genuine change and miracles happen when we create brave environments encouraging people to show up with their authentic selves and talents. When people are given permission to explore and learn in a safe environment, they thrive. Being able to connect and translate this human-centric learning at Accenture as a Leadership & Culture Manager has given me great charge and responsibility.
Walking into the desert twenty years ago, I wasn’t shocked, I was inspired. I realized my living room had gotten a whole lot bigger. Walking into Accenture twenty months ago, I wasn’t shocked, I was curious. I am realizing now my curiosity was also awe. Awe for the scale of what’s possible in this new environment when we learn, grow, and build together.
The life I live now, balanced between and often melding these two worlds is one of such opportunity, joy, and learning, I could have never dreamed. The imagination of what can be achieved in the next twenty years, is one I am eager to explore.
Admittedly this may sound like some corporate plug for both Burning Man and Accenture, it is truly neither. I am fiercely independent, I don’t particularly enjoy participating in large groups, and find the bureaucracy of scale tiresome. Yet, I also realize we can not change the world until we understand it, immerse ourselves in it, and co-create for optimal outcomes. Isolation will never create genuine impact.
Despite the wind still beating against my trailer, I can hear activity happening in camp, and it’s time to go join my team members in the work needing to be done.
No matter the conditions, we are all still in this together. Plus, there’s a really good soundtrack.
*Noted with irony as I write this on my personal computer sitting in a dusty trailer, with no internet access, having managed to accidentally lock myself out of my work computer. Again.
