**[INTERNAL MEMO FROM MANAGEMENT](https://vickygu.com/internal-memo-rainbow-dumpster-fire-retires)** **From:** Department of Strategic Leadership **Date:** Effective Immediately **Summary:** Due to recent incidents, management would like to remind employees that power abuse, sexual harassment, discrimination, infancy, cynicism, positivity, or misconduct of any kind will not be tolerated. Any future complaints will be recorded for training purposes. We acknowledge that we are navigating unprecedented times that have not changed much since the American run of _The Office_ concluded in 2013. As such, we have uploaded new custom Slack emojis to accommodate the rainbow of emotional expression (pepes, peepos, cowboys, and the politically neutral blobs). --- Update: Managers have the opportunity to join a leadership development module: The Strategic Value of Squishiness. Course Objectives: - Learn how self-expression creates psychological permission structures for teams to experiment and innovate. - Explore examples from Figma’s Kaitie Chambers and Brand Lead Vicky on how elasticity—not rigidity—builds the strongest innovation cultures. - Apply these insights to internal teams, cross-functional projects, and vendor relationships. --- ### **Case Study: Bringing Energy Elasticity to Meetings** Brand lead Vicky would amend _"bring your full self to work"_ to "*show up as yourself, but no sweat—no need to exercise your full self at work.*" Work wasn't a practice of expression; it was a practice of healthy restraint. But then she sat in meetings led by facilitators who approached collaboration differently—more fluid, designed for play, structured for flexibility. One of the most memorable examples came from Kaitie Chambers, a Figma Advocate, whose ["you belong here, too" approach to design](https://www.figma.com/blog/its-time-we-expand-our-definition-of-design/) and community-building made work feel expansive rather than extractive. She’d rarely been in corporate spaces with such playfulness, a spirit of learning and listening, a pliancy bouncing off the browser walls—a place for minds to not just meld, but squish around. It modeled an energy elasticity that she hadn’t thought to methodically exercise at work. And then like 8 months later it clicked: **Squishiness was her edge.** She'd seen how psychological rigidity creates fragility. People become afraid to experiment, question assumptions, or admit what they don't know. What Kaitie modeled wasn’t "no structure"—it was a different kind of structure: one that could stretch and accommodate new ideas without snapping. Vicky carried this revelation into her own collaborative practices, initiating: - A **visual meeting template** for the brand & marketing, product, engineering, and ops teams to make progress on complex, cross-functional needs - An **AI opportunity/discovery matrix** within the brand & marketing team to get everyone on the same page with usage standards and needs - A **monthly bullpen** between creative leaders on the brand and product teams to trade tips and stakeholder stories **Takeaway: Being squishy is necessary for innovation and the invariable blips along the way. By practicing psychological elasticity rather than rigidity, leaders create cultures for people to grow in ways neither could have foreseen.**