Noah Urban is one of D3’s Co-Executive Directors
Why did you choose to participate in the Worker Owner transition team?
I’ve been at D3 for over eight years, and during that time I’ve held almost every role that the organization has to offer. When I joined the transition team in 2016, I actually held a more junior role in the organization. Back then, it felt crazy to me that the voice of someone barely three years out of graduate school would be valued so highly in crafting and running an organization. It helped me realize that D3 is the type of democratic organization that can be really difficult to find nowadays, and I wanted to make sure that I was able to play a role in setting up a worker owned D3 that would provide the same opportunities to be heard for everyone who worked at D3.
Why is it important to you for D3 to operate cooperatively? And what about co-ops are important to you?
We do our best to run D3 as democratically as possible. Over each of the roles that I’ve held at D3, one thing that has always stood out to me is how many opportunities every team member has to provide input on really critical decisions. For example, the people running a hiring process are usually the people who are going to be working most closely with that new hire, not necessarily the Co-Executive Directors. We have really talented people working at D3, and wherever possible, we try to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the organization in whatever ways they feel comfortable with.
I think that our transition to worker ownership is really important to codify some of those practices and policies in the very fabric of the organization. This way, it won’t be just Erica or myself who’s responsible for ensuring that we have this open and democratic work culture. Instead, every employee will be able to have a say in the way the organization is run and governed long into the future.
What key takeaways do you have from your involvement with the D3 Worker Owner transition?
Worker ownership can be a complicated thing, especially for an organization like ours, with more than a decade of history in various organizational structures. The process wasn’t always easy, and getting to a consensus was at times really exhausting. Indeed, as I started to take on more and more responsibilities in increasingly senior roles, there were times that the process felt like a distraction from the work of keeping the organization moving forward.
That being said, now that we’re through to the other side, I can confidently say that the process has been a wonderful positive for D3 as a whole. Though we devoted a lot of time and effort to deliberations and consensus-building, that time was critical to providing leadership opportunities to some of our staff that otherwise may not have been available. Through investing the time and thought in the process the way that we did, I’ve been able to watch some members of our team build the skills needed to become owners before my eyes, and it’s really been wonderful to see.
So if this sort of conversion is something you’ve been considering but it seems intimidating or even impossible when you first start out with it, stick with the process. It’ll provide incredible benefits to your organization in the end.
What are you most looking forward to as a worker owner in 2022?
I’m really looking forward to welcoming more team members into the ownership role. The rest of the D3 team is so incredibly intelligent and thoughtful that I can’t wait to see what perspectives and ideas people start sharing once they become owners.
More about Noah
Prior to joining the D3 team in 2013, he worked as a Graduate Research Assistant and Research Technician at Wayne State University. At D3, Noah helps set organizational strategy, manages the organization’s finances and portfolio of projects, coordinates the analytical team, and works with prospective partners to develop new collaborations. He has led work with a diverse range of organizations, including Microsoft Corporation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Kresge Foundation, Forgotten Harvest, and Capital Impact Partners. Noah sat on the Executive Committee for the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership from 2017 through 2020. He has a master’s degree in Urban Planning from Wayne State University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University.