We write weekly on the issues that are top of mind for us as we do the work of driving equity, shifting culture and co-creating inclusion with our clients. To receive these posts via email, join our free weekly email series, Self-coaching for DEI advocates and leaders.
We’ve been having a great discussion with one of our client groups about organizational, national and global turmoil, and what to do when we are sick and tired… and sick and tired of being sick and tired.
The idea of being obstinate in the face of overwhelming challenges and a bleak outlook came up.
And so we brainstormed ideas for “obstinate” healing and joy.
Read MoreI know that we’ve all been holding a lot of mixed feelings these past couple weeks. You may be somewhere on the spectrum of grief, openness, protection, anxiety, and hope. Finding yourself in that nebulous place where the ground feels unsteady can be difficult, and especially hard to navigate as you show up to work and are expected to do well.
I’m LaVoya Woods (ve/ver)—but you can call me V. I’m the Director of Trauma-Informed Methodologies at CCI, and I’m honored to bring my voice to this space alongside Alethea’s. This post marks the start of a new series where I’ll be sharing insights monthly from my own perspective as a Black, Queer, Trans Non-Binary, Neurodiverse, Disabled leader navigating complex systems and supporting folks in recovery and transformation.
Read MoreA lot of people have been processing a lot of emotions over the past two weeks since the US election, whether publicly, privately, outwardly or inwardly, in large or small, direct or indirect ways… or not at all.
We’ve held group processing sessions for at least some segment of staff at all of our client organizations as well as 1:1 coaching and each conversation has been very different.
Read MoreMy social media feeds are a cacophony of post-election shock, grief, despair, panic, reflection, analysis, strategizing, wisdom and business-as-usual right now.
I’ve been taking the time to curl inwards, rest, and remain steady, not that a total and utter freakout isn’t justified, but here’s what has been coming up for me.
Read MoreThere is always grief and trauma around us, at a local, national and global scale. Organizations often grapple with acknowledgements - what events should be acknowledged, and how can you possibly cover them all?
We’ve been talking about this at Co-Creating Inclusion as well, and have been considering the idea of a “grief acknowledgement.” We may not be able to acknowledge every single thing that is going on, but we can acknowledge that we are all likely struggling with varying degrees of grief and trauma, including secondary trauma.
Read MoreMy sister wrote this heartbreaking yet beautiful article for the Wall Street Journal.
This is a tender topic for me as well so please, no advice, thanks. Shared experiences from your own perspective are invited.
Read MoreA few months ago I wrote about how every memory hurts and everyone is traumatized.
Every memory still hurts.
And what I along with our team at Co-Creating Inclusion have been exploring is how grief is necessary for change.
The ability to grieve, then, is a rarely articulated leadership skill, if we are aspiring for creativity, innovation and transformation towards equity, inclusion, justice and liberation.
Read MoreWe’ve been talking about this for years actually. In fact, one of our running “jokes” is that organizations often come to us thinking we are “D consultants” and forgetting the “E” and the “E” or any of the other letters that might be included like “J” or “B.”
The fact is, this field did start out with “diversity consultants” so it is not entirely surprising those expectations linger.
We now make it a practice of being very explicit up front that this is NOT who we are.
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I wrote about how everyone is traumatized.
To be human is to be, to some degree, traumatized - that has not changed.
Nor has the fact that marginalized communities have long been living with the impact of intergenerational, historical and systemic as well as individual trauma.
What has changed is that we have ALL - globally - been through the collective trauma of the pandemic at a scale unprecedented in the span of our careers.
For leaders, this means understanding, expecting and accounting for the fact that we and our workforce, while not all equally traumatized, are all traumatized.
Read MoreLast week I shared about some of the planning and lead-up into our No Work Work Retreat. Today I want to talk about how it actually went.
First of all, I want to note that we weren't calling it a No Work Work Retreat before the retreat. This was more something that only started to come to my awareness in the last few days before the retreat, and it wasn’t until afterwards that I reflected on the experience of the retreat and the feedback from the team and I realized how radical it was.
What was important and radical was that we, CCI, paid not just for that time for people to rest and recover, but we also took care of expenses and logistics in order for us to do no work.
Read MoreLast week, I talked about vacationing and how our team retreat set me up for one of the best vacations I’ve ever had.
So, about that retreat - the “no work” work retreat. How did we plan it?
Read MoreThere are hard things going on in the world right now (when are there not?) which makes rest and recuperation more important than ever, especially for those of us actively working towards equity, inclusion, justice and healing.
I’ve been thinking about this as I just got back from a week’s vacation and I think I’ve discovered the secret to vacationing, at least for me right now.
And by “discovered” what I mean is that we have intentionally planned and designed and iterated on this over many years.
Read MoreWe’ve been talking and thinking a lot about change recently, both within the team at CCI and with our clients. DEI is, to us, inherently about change, not for the sake of change, but in order to shift towards equity and inclusion.
Change work, however, by necessity involves grief work, which by necessity involves acceptance work.
Read MorePeople and orgs tend to shy away from transparency out of fear of opening themselves up for critique or creating distrust.
However, what I've experienced and observed is that lack of transparency itself creates more distrust than it prevents. People tend to have a sense for when they are being lied to, gaslit, or handled, even if they can't necessarily put a finger on it.
Read MoreTry this - think about three things that would make the rest of your day great. Jot them down on a piece of paper or a note on your phone or computer.
Now, take a look at them and consider, how many of the things you wrote down are completely within your control?
Read MorePeople often think that DEI work is about race - at its most demonized, the misconception is that it’s about making white people believe they and the US are inherently racist. At its best it is often thought to be about how to hire more Black and other people of color so that the staff is more reflective of the communities they serve.
It is absolutely not the former, and the latter is only a very small part.
I’m not even sure I knew it when I started out, but what I’ve come to find is that, for me at least, DEI work is about healing - healing from the trauma and harm of systems of oppression.
Read MoreAt Co-Creating Inclusion, one of the questions we constantly ask ourselves, each other, and our clients is - do you have what you need to do your best work?
Psychological safety is a key factor.
This doesn’t mean we can’t do really great work without it - let’s face it, workplaces are typically not psychologically safe for most.
But the cost of doing work without psychological safety is significant, both to employees and the organizations they work for. I often think of the lost untapped potential that impacts us all.
But what can folks do if they identify that they are lacking in psychological safety?
Read MoreFeelings. Complicated. Messy. Awkward. Inconvenient. Subjective. Unprofessional.
One of the things we find ourselves doing as a result is creating space for feelings in our DEI work. And then people comment on what an awkward transition that is coming in from other workspaces.
The point is not that DEI spaces are spaces where you can have your feelings. What do feelings even have to do with DEI?
Read MoreOne of the things I’ve found so fascinating about parenting is how relevant the lessons learned are to work life and vice versa. I love being able to bring all aspects of my identify and self to all aspects of my life.
Read MoreWe are only seven days into my oldest child’s first year in high school so it’s early days but so far the experience of going from both my kids only ever being at schools with no more than a few hundred kids, my oldest child’s middle school having only 60 students, to a school with several thousand kids has been really fascinating.
My assumption was that it would be impersonal, overwhelming, and bureaucratic. I assumed my child would get lost in the system. How would he learn to navigate coming from a middle school that pretty much required no executive functioning skills?
Fast forward a year and yes I know we are only seven days in but so far I have been really impressed with the school for reasons I was not expecting at all.
Read More
