 Welcome to New America. Welcome to this ComNet local DC event. My name is Fuzz Hogan, I'm managing editor here at New America. So we're glad to have you in our space. You're taking too much space. You will find as Jamie gets started that you will not be allowed to sit that far from him or from each other. I can let that happen organically or you can make moves now. You will find such a terrific gathering. Thank you all for coming. Super important topic. Our job as communicators is to amplify the great ideas and get them into the public marketplace. But if we don't do that in a way that honors our values, it's really not honoring our mission and it's much better to come to work, honoring our values than to come to work to simply get the bills paid. So I appreciate you all coming for this very important conversation and I super appreciate Jamie, who's a terrific at this for helping us do that. Diversity is more than just a skill. It's a deep way of thinking about your organization and how you communicate to the outside world. Thank you. I'll let Sean introduce Jamie, even though I've thrown a lot of praise on Jamie already and my notes just disappeared. Stand by. Sean's the CEO of the Communications Network. He and I are old colleagues at CNN. Sean, I came to DC about six years ago and Sean's like, that's a new thing. Got this new job. That's cool. I have rarely seen a organization grow in your leadership as fast and as powerful as you've grown in the Communications Network. So thank you, Sean, for doing the great work that you do and your team for helping you along. This is tremendous. Makes us all very proud and makes us all very fun to work. A great group to belong to. There will be drinks and refreshments after Jamie's done and again, you're gonna be working with Jamie you're not gonna be listening to Jamie, so prepare yourself. You'll really want that drink when you're done and we'll be just basically right out there at the end of this session. It takes about an hour when Sean's done, so Jamie will start. So looking forward to having a drink with you after we're all done. Thanks very much. Sean Gibbons. Hey, everybody. How are you? Not used to standing in front of a microphone. You have to forgive me. I'm gonna make this quick because I'm in the middle of allergy season. So like my head is about to explode. But I can just tell you I am incredibly grateful that you all are here and expect we're gonna see a few more people toggling in over the next few minutes because I think we had 140 people signed up for this session, which is pretty gratifying to think about that there's 140 people out there who do the kind of work that you all do. And actually before I make a supposition, how many of you folks work in communications or what I call communications for good? All right. So you guys have pretty damn important jobs as you well know. You're the stewards, you're the chief listener and you're the chief steward of the voice of your organizations. And at a time when we live in an age of information that couldn't be a more important job. Even if maybe sometimes your boss doesn't quite get that yet or some of your colleagues don't quite get that. That's a little piece of the reason the network exists. I'm especially grateful that Fuzz and the team at New America were willing to host us here today. Incredibly grateful that they were willing to do that. And also the ComNetwork DC team for pulling us together, which is Gene Ellen and Jill who I don't think is here and Fuzz and Jamie who I don't think is here. We have a bunch of crew folks who've been building up this organization, this community over the last couple of years. And then out among you, just by a show of hands, how many folks are not from DC? Quite a lot, yeah. So for those of you, you're gonna be having conversations with folks who have come in from around town. This is actually kick off to the second annual ComNetwork Local Leaders Summit. Man, that's a mouthful. There are local groups like this ComNetwork DC group around the country and now there's actually, believe it or not, 15 of them. And so we're incredibly grateful over the next couple of days, a crew of folks from around the country are here and we'll be talking about how to make those groups stronger and better. And a big way that we need to do that is thinking about diversity, equity and inclusion. Not only in the jobs we do on a daily basis, but in the lives that we're living. And so that's why I'm incredibly grateful that Jamie Washington is here. Jamie is world famous. And I'm not exaggerating, although I guess world famous is a phrase that gets trotted out at the White House quite often these days. Jamie was named fairly recently by the Economist as one of the top diversity trainers in the world. One of the top 10 diversity trainers in the world. So we are going to have a really extraordinary and meaningful conversation where we all are gonna spend quite a bit of time getting acquainted and getting to know one another. So if you feel like you walked in here and you didn't know somebody, part of the aim of the network is to make sure that that does not occur. You walk out and knowing a few people. And as Fuzz promised, you've had a few drinks. So with that, Jamie, why don't you join us? Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Oh gosh. All right, thank you so much. Good afternoon. It's so good to be here. And just appreciating the energy that's in the room right now and all of the spaces in which that you occupy and that you've come from to spend just an hour or so beginning this conversation as a network, right? And so what does it mean for us in the work that we do every day to build our capacity to lead with diversity and inclusion? So as I'm engaged with audiences all across the country and outside, what I often add to my titles is the work for the next round. And so what I want us to be able to think about today is our work for the next round. One of those things, the reasons that I say that is because I don't assume that today's your first time at this conversation. I don't assume that you've not in the work that you do in the various places that you're in that you're not engaged in, what does it mean to engage with a lens of diversity and inclusion? What does it mean to be communications professionals taking into consideration the fact that identities matter, the fact that our own identities matter in terms of the ways that we see, share, and interpret and engage stories, right? So I don't assume that this happened today for the first time. With that name though, I do want to invite us to consider this. So some of us have been in this from our times in school and from our earlier jobs and our careers. And so I just start often asking folks, how many of you remember technology from the 80s? Anybody remember technology from the 80s? Remember you got mail, right? Dial up, right? Remember when a mobile phone was for the car, right? We remember all of that, right? Now you all in the communications world certainly know that we are in a much vastly different place than we were in the 80s. And if we were using 80s technology to engage communications, would we be missing some stuff? Absolutely. It has been my experience that many organizations around the country are trying to do the work of diversity and inclusion with 1980s technology. And as a result, we are missing some things. We're missing people, we're missing opportunities. And so I want to invite us today to in a space of let's upgrade our technology. Let's begin to think about what does it mean for us in the year 2018 to consider leading with and through a diversity lens. With that name, I want to just invite a couple of things. My intention over this next hour is to create a space for a deep and more authentic level of engagement with through the lens of diversity and social justice. So what does it mean for us to have a more authentic conversation about this as communications professionals? Now, how many of us know we can be honest without being fully authentic? Like we can tell the truth, but not say everything. I like that blouse. I wouldn't wear with that skirt. Now I didn't lie, but I didn't say everything. How many of you would agree that these conversations can be the I like that blouse conversation, right? We absolutely have figured out what to say and how to say it in this communications professionals. You got some skills in that area, right? And what I'm hoping today that gets generated is this energy to go to a deeper level of authentic engagement. To be again to say the unsaid, to ask the unasked questions. What I often will say is the stuff that gets said in the meeting after the meeting. Who's been in a meeting after the meeting? Anybody been in a meeting? Look around, yeah, right, right? So you're not alone. There's a lot of us who've been in the meetings after the meetings. And it is my belief that we will maintain status quo and not move to our next levels if we're not able to reduce the need for a meeting after the meeting, particularly as it relates to this topic. Does that make sense to you? Right, so that's where I'm hoping that we can head to share some foundations for building a learning organization so that we more effectively can engage this inclusion, we're diversity and inclusion work. And what I wanna say folks is that as I travel around and I engage lots of folks, part of what's happening is that there is this bump that's happening because it's not okay not to know. And there's a disconnect in environments where it doesn't feel safe to learn. You'll often hear today the vernacular of woke. We wanna be in woke communities, right? And it's just, you know, it's just 2018 where they get it and you don't. Kinda dynamic, right? And so I just want us to think about what does it mean for us as communications professionals to create environments where people don't have to be woke but they can be waking up, right? And how do we create spaces within our own organizations where it's okay not to know but we can learn and engage more deeper and more effectively. And then finally I just wanna offer a couple of key frameworks that I think are important for us to engage for the next round, right? So there's some stuff, I've been doing this for over 33 years. And there's some stuff that I did 33 years ago that worked in that context, right? And it was the best we had in that space, right? And it was with our best intentions and our best knowing and that today we're in a different place. And it's important that we're able to again consider what that means. Does that make sense to you? Okay, so I had some handouts. Where are they in the room? Are they in? Yeah, if we can get those passed out, they're gonna, everybody's gonna get a handout. And so again, we've just got about an hour or so together in this configuration. But I want some of this to be about us building our capacity to be engaged in deeper and more authentic conversations. So once you get the handout, then I'm gonna give you instructions as to what we're gonna do for about eight to 10 minutes together in the room. Thank you for your help in getting those passed out. Anyone still need a handout? Everybody got them? They're still coming around, all right? So these are questions that's really about us beginning to build our capacity for having deeper and more authentic conversation. So what you're gonna do in the next few minutes is I'm gonna invite you to stand and move about the room if you're able. If there's, for some reason, you're not able to stand if there's a physical condition that's limiting you, please feel free to not do that and just let people know that you're not able to stand and that they would move toward you. Does that make sense? Right, that they would move toward you. With that name, here's what we're gonna do. We're all gonna move in the room. So it would look like this. I might start here and I start with my friend and so everybody's gonna start with this top box right here. Each person starts with what's up, whatever has your energy or attention as we move into this space. So you may have traveled in, you may have traveled in on the train, you may have lots of things on your desk. This feels important but I'm in a very different place. I'm trying to be in the room. How many of us know you can be here and not here? Like we can look out and see you but you're not here. So this first box is actually about getting us in the room, right? So what's up, whatever has your energy or attention, it can be about work, it can be about family, it can be about whatever has your energy. What I often will say to folks is there is no wrong way to answer this but I also invite you to pay attention to what you've already decided you won't share. So you know it's got your energy and attention. You know it's distracting you but you're not gonna talk about it. There's no judgment in it. There's no wrong in it. Just pay attention to it, okay? I'll talk about why that matters in a minute, all right? So you're just gonna, so we're talking, we're connecting, what's up, we're sharing what's up. Then the next piece is how are you feeling about being here? Now here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a moment and get to, hmm, how am I feeling about spending the next hour with this group of people having the, I wouldn't wear with that skirt conversation as it relates to diversity and inclusion in communications work and in combat. Does that make any sense? So I'm not just how am I feeling about being in the world or being in D.C. How are you feeling about being in that conversation in this space? So what feelings come up for you as you consider saying the stuff that you would say in the meeting after the meeting or hearing the stuff that you've heard in the meeting after the meeting as it relates to this topic? Does that make sense? That's where you're going. So we've shared, we've had about three or so minutes there then I moved to my new friend. Sean, Sean, I moved from Sean to Janelle. Hi, Janelle, right? How do you know my name? Right, right, it's right there. Sean didn't have his own, that's how come I didn't know his. So now I'm at Janelle and Janelle and I can enter anywhere we want, all right? So Janelle and Janelle might say, what Janelle sees every day that makes it necessary for us to be in this conversation. Like, like here's what's going on in the work that I'm navigating and what I'm trying to do every day. This is why it matters, right? I might enter it, an insight in our learning that I had from a last experience and how that's impacted the way I do my work today. Does that make sense? So you can go anywhere that you want but that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do that in shape. Here's the goal. The goal is not to get all boxes done. The goal is to have three, maybe four deeper levels of real talk as it relates to diversity and inclusion. I'm gonna ask that you start by, you know, just kind of getting the energy up and moving about, right? Going to a different person, moving different spaces in the room. So I'm gonna say, don't just turn to the person next to you. This is an energetic move up and around. And we're gonna be in this for about seven to eight minutes, not a long time, right? So if we had more time, we might spend more time but I just wanna get you in the practice of being in the conversation. Does that make sense? Go. About four more minutes. Make sure you get to the second person. About four more minutes. If you can hear my voice clap one time, you can hear my voice clap two times. You can hear my voice clap one time, you can hear my voice clap two times. Perfect, you're doing great. This energy is, how we doing? All right, excellent. So here's what I need. All right, so the next part is for the next 60 seconds, what you get to do is you get to move about the room and say just hello to five or six people that you haven't met. Hold on, hold on, wait a minute. Wait, wait, cause there's another part. That's part one. Say hello, just greet. You know, this is my name, where I'm from real quick, right? Then the next thing is, you're going to get yourself a partner. Someone you didn't know when you came in the room and you're going to have a seat with that person, okay? So repeat after me, I need a partner. Someone I didn't know when I came in the room and I'm gonna sit with them. After, I say hi, five or six people. You got one minute and move this direction. Go, say hi, then come this way. Have a seat, begin to find a partner and have a seat. Everybody needs a partner. Begin to find a partner, have a seat. If you don't have a partner, your hands should be upset. I need a partner. Begin to find a partner, have a seat. Seats up here, work. Find a partner, have a seat. Excellent, thank you so much. All right, who's need a partner? Who still needs a partner? So give your partner a high five, high five your partner. All right, so if you didn't like this and you slapped a hand, you got a partner. You didn't like this and you slapped air, you ain't got no partner. If you didn't like this and you slapped more than one hand, you got too many partners. Now that's not my business, but for the purpose of this session, I'm gonna need you to get one, all right? So do I have any triads in the room? Any triads? Okay, so everybody, just one, just this. We should have one, only if we have what? An odd number, I need you all to know that, right? That's what's going on. All right, so thank you. Give them another high five, high five your partners. Thank you so much. This will be your com net, diversity and inclusion, high five buddy, all right? So for the rest of your time together here, you will high five this person anytime you see them, right? Just high five them? Because it is also about the connection and the energy that is needed to stay in these conversations at a deeper level. Does that make sense? So maybe you felt the energy in the room. I did. It was a very powerful energy and I want us to be able to stay in that. We don't have a lot of time, but I want you to, with this partner, just to take a few minutes again, just with them because my hope is, again, as was already named, the desire for you all to build this network of connection that doesn't just stop during your time here in DC right now, right? So that you can build connection beyond this space. With that, what I want you just to do is just have a moment with your high five buddy, just sharing anything that came up for you over these last 10 minutes. So as you were in this conversation, she's like, wow, I had a really good discussion about this piece. I didn't get to this box. I wanted to get to that box and maybe we'll get to some of that. So here's what, so just any, so just general reactions and things that came up for you doing the experience. I would like each of you to share. What do you see as you consider your day to day that makes this necessary, right? So now here this folks, there's no wrong way to answer that. So if your answer to that question is, well, you know, we do pretty good. Like, you know, I don't really see, you know, I mean, I wanted to come to this, but I'm not sure what the problem is. If that's the answer, if that's your answer, you must speak that in order for us to do the next level of work. Does that make sense? So there is no wrong, right? And then we get to be in what that's about, right? So what do you see that necessitates our coming together and having this conversation at the deeper level and then anything in particular that you think would be useful for you. So you know, you know, I'm glad we're here. I'm hoping that he talks a little bit about. I'd like to hear some more about that would be really helpful to me. Okay, right? So that's where we want you to go. You've got about four minutes. That's what you got. About four minutes together, get connected, have that conversation. Grab our comments. Focus back this way. Thank you. Give your partner a high five. High fives, all right, excellent. So how many of you could have kept talking? How many of you kept kept talking? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Guess what? You can, right? I'm gonna keep us moving, but one of the markers of going to a deeper level of authentic conversation is that my voice is an interruption. So if when I start the countdown, you're like, then you're having a real talk, right? If you're like, it ain't been five minutes yet. Then you're doing good workshop participant. That's a very real dynamic in these conversations. That folks show up as participants, but they don't really go there. And so I'm appreciating the energy in this space that feels like we're trying to go there. We're trying to actually be there. While we don't have a lot of time, I just want to offer some key things. The sheet that I gave you to move through was at one level that folks will say, well, it was an icebreaker. And every question was deliberately picked, right? As you think about the work for the next round, it is about everything that's on the sheet, right? It is about getting present. It is about knowing what your experience has been, engaging, it is about understanding what your learning has been and how that has impacted and informed your work. It is about knowing, in fact, what it looks like to be in a race conversation, right? All of the questions were deliberate. And so whether you got to all of them or not, I encourage you to stay present with them. And as you go back to your individual and particular organizations, to imagine what it would be like to be in this conversation with the rest of your colleagues. And to see how that would move the work forwards. Makes sense to you? So thank you for doing it. I always say to folks, everything I do is deliberate and intentional. I'm not trying to fill time. I don't have a problem filling time. I'm a black preacher. I can fill an hour like that. That is not an issue for me. I want you to have an opportunity during this experience to practice some of what's needed to do the work for the next round. And that's what you're doing. Often folks will come into these kinds of sessions and they expect that the learning will happen this way, right? And so that the person will speak, that they will give us information, we'll take a nugget or two and then we'll go from there. But they are not using their voice to engage in the discussion. And what is needed for the next round is us using our voice, every one of us. And we have to be practiced in that. With that, I wanna invite two voices into the room. What do you see as you look around and consider your day-to-day work that necessitates this conversation? So who's willing to put it in the room? What do you see? Just two, just because of time. But I would like two voices in to share for the full community. What I've seen or what I experienced that says as communications professionals, this is an important conversation for us to be in. So I've got one, I will take these three hands. One, two, and I'll take these three hands. Go ahead, please. Just share your name with the folks and so just go ahead. So what I see every day is a lot of people who care very deeply about this issue, but may not have the framework for how we have the conversations, how we address the issues, how we build support and get everyone on board. And just making ourselves comfortable with being, as you said, in that space. And sometimes we have to have difficult conversations, but how do we do that? So that's what I'm saying. How many folks relate to Jackie? That what I see is lots of passion, lots of desire, lots of great hearts. But not necessarily the skills or the frameworks to be able to be in the conversation so that we can have ourselves more comfortable and effective at engaging, very much so. Yes, right here, please. I'm Kirsten and this conversation is important to me because as a communications director I looked around my organization and our program directors are all white women working on global health or global health and economic development. So we're talking about women of color often and I'm not comfortable sending a white spokesperson out into the world to have this conversation without really having this conversation about what we're representing when we do that. Okay, who relates? That as I look around my staff this creates a disconnect at some level. And so without us building our capacity to be in the truth of that and the impact of that, right? So it's not about making the white women wrong or bad but it is about understanding it matters, right? As we are again particularly committed to the work that we are committed to our mission really does require that we have a lens that has us be more effective in that engagement. Last one, let's go back to your show. These conversations have me thinking and I think I thought this as I walked into the room that we as folks leading communications and foundations and nonprofits are part of the problem. That we are perpetuating narratives and stereotypes and images that are deeply harmful. And we gotta think deeply about the responsibilities that we hold and the jobs that we do. So who relates? Anybody relating that some of, we have such powerful roles and that if we are not doing our own work we can continue to perpetuate the problem. And often again folks I wanna go back to not because we get up in the morning saying huh, Tuesday, racism, that's where I'm headed today. Not because we're operating in this space at a conscious level that we're intending to but what's our lens, right? And the work that we've needed to be to do to really deeply interrogate and examine that in terms of how it informs what we see, what we don't see, how we show up, what we engage, what we don't engage. Is that landing for you, right? And so I invited you to share those three things because one of the things that's important as you go back into your organizations and you talk about so what was the kind of the special conversation about and it was about diversity and inclusion and folks say well why do we need to do that? We gotta diverse staff, we get along, why do we need to do that? I need you to have an answer that's about more than simply, well that's what they offered. We must be able to talk about how this matters in our work. Every day, how we see it and how it's playing out, how it's impacting us, does that make sense to you? Right and so my hope is that you've gotten a couple of things that you would add to your toolkit as it relates to that. So with that I'm gonna move us into just a couple of more things. I do wanna invite us in this space of what's up, I invited you to start there because one of the things is part of the work is getting present and being present and recognizing that what goes on for us often informs how we show up in the space. So whether we're overworked, whether we're overwhelmed, whatever the environment is in, all of that matters. So what's up for you is the first place. So I'm inviting leaders all across the country and everywhere I go to get present but not just cognitively present, also emotionally present, right? And so when I ask the question, how are you feeling about being here with this group to have this conversation, I want you to consider what some of your feelings in the room. So I just wanna hear a couple of folks named feeling. As I consider saying and hearing this stuff, I hear in the meeting after the meeting that I wouldn't wear with that skirt conversation. With these folks, I feel hopeful, okay? Terrified, okay? So now, what's your name? Kiersen. So here's the other skill. So hopeful is what Kiersen felt. Anybody else feel helpful? Hopeful, right? Okay, some hopeful. Your name? Meredith. How many folks join Meredith in terrified? Anybody else terrified, okay? Right, you're not alone. So what I'm inviting is as I say who else feels, I'm inviting you to practice the skill of joining. Why does that matter? In particularly in the context of this conversation, joining is critical. Who's been in a meeting and in a space where someone has named the unsaid and everybody just did like this? And then after the meeting, that was so important. Am I making sense? What's the impact on Claudia during the time of the meeting? Alienation, isolation, alone. Left there, right? And then the dynamic that gets created is, there she go again. The feeling that I'm always the one who has to raise this stuff. I'm always the one who has to talk about this stuff. This often lands on minoritized folks, right in terms of the dynamic. Am I making sense? Are you getting me? And so we must practice the skill of joining and whatever that looks like in your culture, right? So for some cultures it's like, yes, yes, exactly. Thank you for saying that. For other cultures it's just a head nod, right? But whatever it looks like, don't leave people alone, particularly when they've named the unsaid in the context of this conversation, right? Now the last thing I wanna say about joining is joining doesn't necessarily mean agreeing, right? So Claudia might name something and I don't actually agree with what Claudia said, but what I do say is, so here's what I heard. And I don't see it in that way. This is how I see it, right? What that does is it says I'm willing to be engaged, right? So I don't have to see it the same way. I don't have to agree, but to shift the status quo from the silence that often happens in these conversations, you must be willing to join. Is that landing? Does that make sense to you folks? So I'm challenging you and I'm inviting you to join each other in these discussions in order to move them to a deeper level of realness and shift the status quo, right? So joining is the skill. So with that, as I talk about this emotional knowing, I want you to pay attention to not just what you know about this stuff, but how it feels to engage it, right? So we're a bunch of smart people in this room, right? Have been into work, I've done a lot of stuff. We can have cognitive knowing, but intellectual knowing is not enough as it relates to this discussion. You are going to need to be as emotionally intelligent as you are cognitively intelligent. So it doesn't matter that you've read all the articles, that you've written half of them, right? It does not matter. What matters is how do I feel as I engage with about and across that dynamic, right? So I can know all there is to know about gender identity, gender expression, recognize the difference in gender identity and sexual orientation, and I got all that down, you know? Roadpaper on it, right? I got that. But when someone is standing in front of me that is gender nonconforming, what comes up for me? When I'm talking about this dynamic, how do I show up beyond my cognitive knowing around this topic? Is that landing for you? I can know all of the data around how race plays out in this particular context, in that particular context. But when it comes to engaging across about race dynamics as they're showing up in the discussion, I get anxious, I get nervous, I get shut down, I disappear. Is that landing for you? I might feel very comfortable as I engage the dynamics of race as it relates to Latinx or African American folks. But I don't particularly get this multiracial dynamic thing or I don't know how to, what comes up for me around API and APDA folks, and I just feel in some different kinds of ways. Am I making sense to you? So again, to pay attention to your affective knowing as well as your cognitive knowing is a critical skill piece for the next round. If we, again, we had a full day, we'd be doing some of that work, right? We'd be getting us there. But I'm introducing to some and affirming for others the importance of that, right? So my cognitive knowing and my affective knowing is gonna help me move to the next level. The next piece that I wanna introduce is the importance of creating learning organizations. I talked about how important it is for us to recognize this dynamic that bumps folks and I think it's some of, is it Jackie? Some of what Jackie is raising around, the discomfort for folks being in the conversation is because they don't wanna get it wrong, they don't wanna hurt people's feelings, they wanna try to get it right. Am I making sense? Is that some of the dynamic? I don't wanna be called out, I don't wanna discover some stuff that might be there. I didn't even realize it was there. So I skirt, I walk on eggshells, I don't actually get engaged in the discussion in that real way. The next round of work is going to need for us to develop organizational environments where we can move through those things, okay? That takes real practice. Now, for most of us, how many of you have been in a diversity and inclusion workshop before? Who's been in one? Okay, look around. Most of us have been in something like that before. Generally in those workshops what gets created is a list of learning norms, right? So how do we wanna be together? And you'll often see things like this, open and honest communication, all voices in, listening respectfully. You'll see these kinds of things. And what generally happens in that half day, full day, three day experience is that we go some places because we've agreed how we will be together. Is that making sense, are you getting that, right? And then what happens is we leave the space and leave the commitments in the room. And then we can't figure out, and folks will ask, well, Jamie, when you came, we had a really good experience, but when you left, nothing happened. And my response is, well, what did you do? And then there is the, well, they were supposed to. There's always the infamous they. But no, what did you do? And what generally happens is folks leave and they leave these commitments in the room. They leave and they stop being open and honest. They leave and they stop creating space for all voices to be in. They leave and they stop listening respectfully. And as a result of not practicing what we need to do to create a learning organization where it is safe to make mistakes and learn, we maintain status quo. Okay? We inch along and we back up and we have meetings after the meeting and things don't change. So your next task is to take just one minute together with your high-five buddy. And I want you to talk with them about what you know you do well. So whether that is you show up open and honest, you are one who respects and creates space for all perspectives to be valid. Whether you are the one who will speak from your eye self and create space for we. You listen respectfully, open to new perspectives, willing to take risk. Prepare to engage conflict and discomfort. Say that together with me. Prepare to engage conflict and discomfort. Tell your partner. Prepare to engage conflict and discomfort. One of the dilemmas that I face often as I'm going into spaces is they want me to come in and help them to move through challenging times but nobody can be uncomfortable, right? And so to do the work for real for the next round, we must prepare to engage conflict and discomfort, right? The next pieces there are to move up and to move back, again recognizing what voices get to be in and what voices don't get to be in. Am I paying attention to that? Is that a strength of mine? To trust intent, to name, engage and explore impact. So what does it mean for me to trust the intention that nobody got up this morning looking to piss off a black man, right? I trust your intent. But what you said, what you just did, what we did not do, landed on me in this way. Is that making sense to you, right? So I'm naming and engaging the impact while I trust your intent to not show up intentionally evil and hurtful trying to do a harmful thing, does that make sense? To recognize and explore triggers. Let's do triggers for a moment. How many folks know what a trigger is? What happens in your body when you're triggered? Anybody? Heart rate speeds up, right? Generous, tense up, right? Generally triggering causes a fight or flight or freeze response. In none of those spaces are you effective. You're not doing a whole bunch of engagement in those spaces, right? And so the importance of recognizing triggers. I pay attention to when I'm in fight, flight or freeze mode. And then I get to know that's where I need to do some work. Why am I shut down? Why am I about to take this person out every time I hear this thing? What is under that? Is that landing for you, right? Make it sense? And then the last things, then our trusting that our dialogues will take us to deeper levels of understanding and acceptance. Again, it is important for us as leaders to get if we create space for us to do our real work, then it'll make a difference. If we don't believe that that will happen, then we won't show up. We might physically be there, but we won't show up energetically to really do the work. And so am I the person who shows up inviting people to just kind of be in that and then the last thing there is to have some fun? Where are my fun people at? Any fun people in the room up here? Folks, do I bring the joy to this conversation? And I'm not just talking about food festivals, heroes, and holidays. That's not what I'm talking about. But am I willing to be in the joy of the learning and the engaging about and across difference? That is not to minimize in any way the struggle and the pain of oppression and injustice. But if the only time we come to the discussion is herb, adversity. If that's our only entry into this discussion, it's not one that people wanna be in, right? And so you've got 60 seconds with your partner to just share what you know you do well every day. As I show up in my office, people say I am an incredible listener. That's, in my family, I listen well. I am open and honest. People can count on me to do what I said I was going to do. I show up in that way. So just I pay attention to making sure all voices are in. If I'm in the meeting and I notice that some voices haven't been in, I'll slow us down to get some other voices in. That's a strength that I bring. Does that make any sense what I'm asking you? You've got just one minute. Share what it is you know you do well. Go. All right, let's come back together. High fives, high five, your partner's in the room. High fives. Excellent, excellent, excellent. All right, how many folks could identify what they do well? Who could identify what they do well, right? So here's your charge. For the remainder of this year, just do that. Go back into your organizations and show up in your strength and watch what happens. There is no way that we can maintain status quo if you just practice doing these things. It doesn't matter that other people aren't. You practice it and watch what happens, right? That same situation, that scenario I told you about we're in the meeting, somebody made a comment and everybody went, oh, she did. What happens in that moment if you're the person who's open and honest or you take risk is this. So I know we're tied on our time and we need to move but something just happened in the room and it happened after you said that. And so I know that we might not have time to really digest and engage all of that but I believe we have to do some work around that in order for us to move forward. Does that shift the dynamic? Absolutely. Now, what's important for you to get is then you must be prepared to engage conflict and discomfort because that's what's going to happen in that moment. Does that make sense? Yes, please. Emmy. Sure. If you want me to. Yes, Emmy's naming the power dynamic that's in this space. So I want to practice but there's a power dynamic in the room, right? And so how do I engage when that's real, right? And so what's at stake for me as I raise my hand and say this, right? Very real and what our work is then is to create an environment where we mitigate for that. So I know that, and again, all of what I say is not about waving a magic wand and all as well, right? It is about an active creation of a culture. So who works in an environment where they don't want people to tell them the truth? Who's a... Ha, ha, ha, who, who? So when I think about leaders, so here's the dynamic. One of the things that I know is that as a leader I want to be a leader that can hear open and honest feedback, right? It does not serve me to have an environment where people don't feel like they can tell the truth. It doesn't serve the organization, it doesn't serve our mission, right? And if that is the truth, right, for real, not just what you're supposed to say because you went to a leadership workshop, right? But if that is for real, then I work to create an environment where it's okay to struggle. It's okay not to feel comfortable. So here's what I often will say to folks. How do we address and begin to create that? We begin to address and create that in the space where there's no issue. Meaning it's our retreat. And we're talking about stuff. And so I might raise in that space. So one of the things that I think is important for us to begin to talk about is the power dynamics that show up in here that impact people's ability to use their full voice. Does anybody else experience that? Not when there's been a moment, not right at the moment, but when there's a space to talk about how we're doing. Does that make sense, right? So to invite the conversation, it's harder to do in the moment, right? When that's not the environment and the power dynamic isn't leading with that. The person who has the greatest amount of power isn't leading with that. But when that is a space where we're invited to, we want all voices in around the culture, the how we're doing, what it is that we might be doing better, right? Then I can invite that conversation in those spaces in that time. Make sense, right? Yes, please. Yes. You're there for a specific reason. And I think that if you can do that. Yes. You can really kind of shrink that. Absolutely. You're right on. So again, as I talked about earlier, my value is to create an environment where all of us can have our full voice being in that way. And that's what this organization is about. So tapping into values is an absolute critical place in ways in which to do that. So go back, high five your high five, buddy. And whenever you see them, what you're gonna do is say, make sure you're working your strengths. You work your strengths, right? So whether it's actual a physical high five or a text high five, find that little text, that emoji that will send a hand, high five them and say work your strength. Here's where I wanna go in our last bit of time. Folks, first of all, if you do this, just this, you will see change that you had not imagined. If you just begin to practice this. The next things I want you to get though in terms of understanding is this key concept. And that is context before content. Say that with me. Context before content, all right? So as we're in the space of this content of diversity and inclusion, what all that mean? Often what happens is folks run to the content too fast without understanding the context. Now, I know, I'm in a room with communications professionals, you understand the importance of understanding context, now why that matters particularly in this conversation is that as we begin to think about the context, I want you to consider these five things. And this isn't all that informs context, but it is an important piece for you to consider as you think about doing this work more effectively as it relates to diversity and inclusion. The first one is that informs, what informs our context, right? So the first thing that I wanna offer that informs your context is you. What your identities are, what your experiences are, the lens through which you see and engage, what your personalities, your styles, your practice, who am I, that's informing the context. As I move into the room, if I move into a room and I'm really shy, that matters, right? I'm moving to a room, I'm really extroverted, I'm out there, that matters. I move into the room and my gender expression is masculine, feminine, that matters. I move into the room and folks read me as a white person, black person, Asian person, that matters, right? So how I get seen and who I am matters is a contextual thing, right? So how much attention have I paid to that? I often will say to folks, I've been black all my life, far as I know. But just because I've been black didn't mean I knew what it meant to be black. I didn't always know how my blackness informed my interaction in my engagement, how people saw me, how people engage with me, who I thought was smart, who I didn't think was smart, whose voice I trusted, whose I didn't, right? I didn't always know that because I hadn't done my race work, right? Is that right? Likewise, the same is true for me as I think about being Christian, as I think about being male, as I think about being cisgender, all of those things, I've been but I hadn't always done the work around what that matters. So me, who am I and what's the work that I've done to understand how being me matters, right? The next thing I wanna invite you to consider in terms of context is, again, location. Where are you, right? And so how many of us know the conversation about diversity and inclusion might look a little different in South Dakota than it does in Miami, right? Your location matters, your region of the country, right? That matters, my location, my environment, where I am, that is another thing that informs my context, right? The next thing I wanna just put in the room is timing, right? So my timing, what time is it, right? Did we just have a shooting in Charleston? Did we just have a killing somewhere? Did we just have some violence that occurred that matters in terms of entering this content? Does that make sense to you, right? So what's the timing? Is the time around, are we onboarding people? Or is this a conversation that we're having with folks who have been around for a minute? Is that land for you? Right, so we've got me, we've got environment, we've got timing, right, and how does that matter? The other thing that matters is engagement, the quality of the engagement. Are you in an organization that engages this stuff at all? Are you in an organization that engages anything? Cause some of us are in spaces where we confuse communication for engagement. Just because you gave me information doesn't mean we've engaged it, right? And so what's the quality of our engagement? So how do we engage around this topic, yes? Sure, so not just communicate, so for example, you've communicated this information with me, now then I get to talk about how that lands on me, what I understand about it, there's a back and forth that happens in an engagement, right? There's a seeking of deeper understanding or deeper knowing is what I talk about in terms of engagement, right? So it's not, engagement is not a one way thing, right? So there's opportunity for exploring and engaging that. Why, I wanna go there folks, because one of the things that I struggle with as I'm trying to help organizations is that we run into the content because we're often trying to fix but we've not engaged the context, right? And there's work to be done around engaging the context and deeply understanding the context. It might slow us down just a little bit, but what I like to say to folks is the more you practice paying attention to context, the faster you get at it, right? And you're more effective in doing it. And as we begin to wrap this conversation, I want to talk a little bit about the content. When most folks hear diversity and inclusion, they think we're gonna talk about what? Race, when we're talking about race, who are we talking about? Black and white people, so if you're not black and white, good luck, maybe we'll find some time for you in discussion, maybe we won't. Now, how many of us know that diversity is about more than race and race is about more than black and white? We all know that, if you didn't know that, don't tell me, so why is it that that's where our minds still go? Why do our minds still go to race and they still go to black and white? So it's hardest and most challenging of all the dynamic, yes, it's our context. How many of you would agree that we have a particular race context in the US, right? And it is important for us to understand that given that truth, in order for us to do this work well, we must be willing to do race. Now, repeat after me. Jamie did not say, race was more important than other social identities. One more time, Jamie did not say, race was more important than other social identities. All right, don't lie on me, don't go out here and say I said that, I did not say that. What I did say is, given our context, there's a particular saliency around race that we must be willing to engage. That means that as we move into holding diversity bigger than race, we must engage our race narratives. And so, when I hear race, what comes to mind? How has my narrative erased Native Americans and First Nations folks? How does that not even show up? How has my race narrative positioned Asian Americans and Apeeta folks as the model minority so that they don't get seen in often many of our discussions? How has my narrative positioned Latinx folks as one group and positioned black and brown folks against one another? How has my race narrative shows up as a mono-racial conversation? So folks who are multiracial and biracial don't get seen in the discussion until I can figure out what box to put them in. How does my narrative hold whiteness is raced to? And so there's a white experience that shows up. How does it engage the truth of an anti-blackness narrative that shows up even in black community and across all other minoritized folks? Is that landing free? Is it making sense, folks? And so what's my race narrative and how does that matter in the work that I do as a communications professional? And as I'm considering that, allowing myself to stumble through and to not get that all right and to be in relationship with others, then I can be more effective at engaging with the lens of to lead with diversity and inclusion. But I must do my race work in order to do that. Now, if you were to leave here, you're about to go and have some drinks right now and do what Jamie said. So you know what? Jamie said, we must do race. I'm about to go do some race. I've been in spaces where I've said, you know, I need to ask people if they know what I'm talking about. So if you were to leave here and you were gonna do race, what would you be doing? What would I be doing tomorrow if I were doing race? So note that whenever I asked that question in a room silence is not a bad thing as people try to figure that out. I've been in a room where somebody just shook, just honestly said, I have no idea. What I would be doing if I were doing race. Well, that's the first place to start, right? That I don't know what doing race means. And so I just wanna invite a couple of things in the room. You would allow race to be present. Like I would allow race to matter, right? I wouldn't have to push race off the table when it got raised, right? So that race is informing this moment, not necessarily the only thing, not even necessarily the most salient thing, but it is informing this moment. So I'd allow race to matter. I would allow myself to have a racial identity and begin to explore how is my race experience, my race consciousness mattering in this moment, right? So allowing myself to do that and being okay that I hadn't thought about that initially. And that is not, hear me, that's not just for white people. I need white people to get that, but it's not just for white people. Because as I said, I've been black all my life, but I didn't know how blackness informed what I saw, who I listened to, who I heard, who I didn't, how I might step over my black colleagues who were my supervisors and go to a white colleague for the answer because I didn't trust black voice. Take a deep breath. I know that's a genitonic worthy, right? That was my posture when I wasn't, when I didn't have a conscious race lens. Does that make sense to you, right? So again, it's about all of us recognizing that we've been raced. And I appreciate, as was named, our work is global, right? And what often happens is we don't often engage, particularly when we're engaging with our colleagues and friends and siblings who don't come from a similar raced context, the impact of being raced and how that shows up as they show up in these places and how it matters when we show up in those. Does that make sense, right? So how race matters wherever we are, right? And so getting a handle on your raced lens is critical and we can't stop it race. All of our identities matter. Class and ability and gender and age and sexualities and sexual orientation and religion and spiritual practice and ways of knowing. And so folks, as I wrap up, the work for the next round is to let identities be in the room. Let them matter and start with your own. How they're informing your work, how it informs our work based upon who we work with, who we don't work with, who comes to our stuff, who doesn't come to our stuff, and that what does gender have to do with that? What does race have to do with that? What does ability have to do with that? And what's the stuff that we need to continue paying attention to? We're at time. And your energy has been amazing. We certainly could have gone much longer, but I'm hoping that you're able to leave here thinking about, huh, so what does this look like back in my agency? What does it look like in my day-to-day work? How might I be in some of these conversations? And what's the support that the COM network can offer us to be more effective in the way that we do this? Thanks so much. I hope it was helpful. Thank you.