Real Talk & Brave Spaces will help your organization along your diversity, equity & inclusion journey by leveraging the power of vulnerable and candid facilitated discussions, lectures, interactive workshops, and coaching.
Let’s get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you cannot practice any other virtue consistently.
You can practice any virtue erratically
but nothing consistently without courage.”
Facilitated discussions hosted across the entire company or organization, a specific department, or small team that explore current events or movements deeply impacting your employees or members.
Examples include:
LGBTQ+ Rights & Religious Freedoms: Mutually Exclusive, One in the Same, or Somewhere in Between?
[Blank] While Black: Understanding Black Generational Community Trauma
History, Heritage & Hate: What Do The Monuments Mean to You?
Straight, White Men: What Does D&I Mean for You?
Chinese Virus Hysteria: Dealing with COVID and Anti-Asian Sentiments
Detention Centers & The Muslim Ban: Being an Immigrant in the US
#MeToo: Should Men Be on High Alert?
I love supporting people as they get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I do this by cultivating a space of curiosity, following signals from the body, and working within one's capacity to expand it.
Looking for an ongoing thought partner and truth teller for your personal DEI journey? Seeking to progress to being an ally or an advocate but not sure how? Coaching is available to assist you where ever you may be on your DEI journey to achieve greater inclusion in both your professional and personal life.
Others specialty areas include:
Generational/Community Trauma
Setting Boundaries
Expanding Capacity for Joy
Prenatal/Postpartum Overwhelm
Child Birth Trauma
Child Birth Planning
All lectures can be conducted in-person or virtually. Lectures last 90 minutes, with 60 minutes of content and 30 minutes of Q&A.
In this lecture, we review the basics of DEI. What is diversity? What is inclusion? Why do we need both? Why is equity now added to the mix? Why does DEI increase innovation, productivity and financial returns? How do other companies leverage DEI to increase relevancy with consumers and potential employees?
In this lecture, we review the spectrum of support. Angela Davis said, “In a racist society, it’s not enough to be non-racist — we must be anti-racists.” This quote is applicable to all forms of discrimination. Simply because we aren’t using derogatory terms, doesn’t mean we are truly inclusive, i.e. allies or advocates. In this session, we identify the 7 steps we can all take to start our advocacy journey, explore how we should leverage our privilege(s) in order to be allies/advocates, and the difference between performative allyship/advocacy and productive allyship/advocacy.
This lecture series offers a deep dive in to a community with which participants may be unfamiliar. Each lecture will provide a brief historical overview of the segment’s experience in the US, a clarification of key terms related to that segment, a exploration of key cultural values of that community, examples of miscommunication or points of tension they often experience with the “dominant culture,” and some interactive scenarios where we’ll explore what it might be like to be a member of that community.
Sessions in this series include:
Black People
Latinx People
Asian Americans
LGBTQ+ People
People with Disabilities
The Generations: Boomers, Xers, Millennials, & Gen Z
All interactive workshops can be conducted in-person or virtually. Workshops last two hours and participants are limited to ~100 people to ensure engagement and participation. Multiple sessions can be conducted for large organizations or groups.
What is bias? Is it a bad thing? How do you know if you have a bias? Can you get rid of your biases? These are all great questions we explore in this session. Participants learn the difference between bias, prejudice, and discrimination; why we have biases, how to identify their own biases, and ways we can mitigate our own biases as individuals and an organization.
We’ve all been told to leave our personal life at home but in this session we’ll explore how events throughout our life impact and influence how we show up at work. We’ll also explore the difference between professionalism and covering, why some have to cover more than others, what unintentional cues we may be giving to others suggesting they cover, and how covering reduces productivity.
In this session, we explore what microaggressions are, why they are in fact microaggressions (and not someone being PC or “overly sensitive”) and why microaggressions can be so damaging to individuals and the productivity of organizations. We also take a look at examples of different types of microaggressions and how we could respond if we witness a microaggression, are the receiver of a microaggression, or are the perpetrator of a microaggression.
In the wake of a community trauma, many leaders question how they should respond. “I’m not a member of that community, should I say something? What if I say the wrong thing or make it awkward? If I raise this at a staff meeting will it get political?” In this session we explore why and how a leader can effectively address community in one-on-one discussion as well as across their entire team. We discuss ways to initiate the conversation, keep the conversation on track, and build cultural fluency so leaders can respond proactively.