Everybody Wants To Belong

There Are No Quick Fixes

Organizations face growing pressure today to convince their stakeholders they are doing something about institutional racism. Racism is not new, of course. Awareness of it isn't new, either. What may be new is the sustained intensity of public pressure to do something about it. And in the rush to do something, many organizations look for quick fixes. Things that could easily be mistaken for action. Things that look serious, brave, even prestigious. Things like diversity councils.  In this episode, Dionna Anderson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionna-anderson-15b4b6ab/] breaks diversity councils down for us, reveals what really happens at those particular tables, and offers insight into more meaningful action. Spoiler alert: it's about giving up control and sharing power.  If you've been thinking about establishing one at your company or organization - wait. Pause. Listen to this episode first and sit with the questions Dionna challenges us to consider.

God Save The Moms

This week, we're circling back to see how working moms are faring in the pandemic. Spoiler alert: Things aren't getting better.  Jess Eggert is the Founder and CEO of LegUp [https://www.legup.care/], a startup that delivers enrollment tools and support to help childcare providers grow, which in turn makes it easier for parents to find open seats in childcare centers of all kinds. While she's fundraising and growing her company, she's also momming hard, which these days means negotiating pandemic life with a toddler and a school-aged kiddo. And even as an industry insider with in-home help, Jess is tired, really tired, because none of this is easy. Jess made time to break down the current state of reality for working moms and shared ideas about how we might get through to the other side. If you're parenting in the pandemic, how are you doing? Have you found solutions that work for you and your family?

Sh*tty Choices at the No Win Saloon

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unmitigated disaster for working women.  It's been especially brutal for moms who shoulder far more than their fair share of responsibility for young kiddos whose schools and childcare centers are currently shuttered. Parents are exhausted, overwhelmed, and angry as hell at the systemic failures that have left them to fend for themselves. This is the first episode in a series about the sh*tty choices women face right now.  We do not have all the answers. Actually, we don't have any answers.  But we do start to scan the landscape of possible solutions in search of hope, and we begin with a look at Ed Tech trends with Priyanka Raha of PopSmartKids [https://popsmartkids.com/]. Her company is re-imagining digital playtime for next century learners, and she spends a lot of time exploring the ways adults and children can use technology together to enhance learning. She shares what's possible, what's promising, and what really matters in the end.

Everybody Wants To Belong

The word "community" gets thrown around a lot. Businesses and organizations use it as a proxy for all kinds of things that have little to do with belonging - from the number of followers a brand has on social media, to the number of people who have purchased a company's product.   But community - real community - is much more than that.  In this episode, community expert Carrie Melissa Jones [https://www.carriemelissajones.com/] helps us understand what community really means, and what role it plays in business and life today. Especially today. And she reminds us of the competitive advantage small shops have right now in nurturing the sense of belonging we all want. Thanks for listening and sharing this episode. For more inspiratoin and practical tools, check out Carrie's new book Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed By Creating Belonging [https://www.buildingbrandcommunities.com/].

The Gift of Confessions From Your Token Black Colleague

We can't build anti-racist workplaces without confronting the racist reality of modern workplaces. In her new book Confessions From Your Token Black Colleague, Talisa Lavarry helps us do that by drawing from a deep well of personally traumatic experiences to gift us a brutally honest look inside Corporate America for Black Women.  In this interview, just DAYS before her book is available to the public, Tali shares why she had to write it, even at great personal cost. And she shares her hopes for what those of us in power will do with the insights she is placing in our hands.