DEI - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - has been under attack for a while, but the issue came to a head over the recent public kerfuffle regarding the resignations of the presidents of Penn and Harvard Universities. Both women, one Black - they were portrayed on social and right-wing media as tokens, unqualified, and examples of affirmative action run amok.

Companies that have embraced DEI initiatives are being ridiculed and boycotted, their troubles blamed on hiring employees based on race, gender, and sexual orientation rather than competence. For example, Boeing's "door blowing out of the airplane" disaster has been portrayed as a company abandoning its mission in favor of a quest to redress historic inequality - with deadly consequences.

I reached out to my friend and teacher Sally Helgesen - author of Rising Together, How Women Rise, and The Web of Inclusion, among other titles - to ask her about the current backlash against DEI, and whether there's merit to any of its claims.

She came armed with facts, not theories. Turns out that Boeing was gutted decades ago - by rich white men, as it happens - and the manufacturing problems that are turning up now have everything to do with their desire to prioritize short-term profits over long-term excellence.

She spoke about her experience fostering diversity and inclusion in the corporate world, and explained that companies are seeking to expand their employee and leadership pools not in the service of "wokeness" but good business.

Enjoy this provocative and enlightening conversation!

Links
SallyHelgesen.com

Rising Together

How Women Rise

The Web of Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion: Wokeness Run Amok or Simply Good Business?: Sally Helgesen on Plant Yourself

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Nava Atlas has been writing and publishing vegetarian cookbooks and advocating for a more plant-based lifestyle for 40 years. In our conversation, we talk about:

the trajectory of the plant-based movementhow she feels about having to "compete" in a space where she was one of very few voices for a long timehow she went from vegetarian to vegan in a instant - and what triggered the shiftshifts in the natural foods industry and their positive and negative impactshow the process of writing a cookbook has changedNava's most recent book, Vegan Soups and Stews for All Occasionsher upcoming collaboration on a book on writers who've been inspired by their catsthe cyclical history of book banning and censorshipand much more....
Links
TheVeganAtlas.com - Nava's website

Vegan Soups and Stews for All Occasions



Four Decades of Mission-Driven Leadership: Nava Atlas on PYP 586

A "Walk and Talk" episode about the question that can help us go from fixating on problems to creating the future we want. 

I take you on a sonic tour of Sitges, my home in Spain, from the high suburbs to the beachfront promenade to the old city, as we talk about the neurobiology of a problem-focus.

We'll see that the mind treats problems as threats, which diminishes our capacity to respond to them creatively and effectively.

We'll listen to busking street musicians, couples strolling by while scuffing their sandals on the stone walkway, and wind and surf.

And we'll explore the "magic question" that you can ask yourself and others, that transforms problems into opportunities to create the future you want. 

Do you enjoy this kind of episode? Let me know, and I'll either do more or fewer of them based on your feedback.

Transform Problems into Opportunities with This Magic Question: Dr Howie Jacobson on PYP 585

Mark Butler was blindsided by burnout in the middle of a successful career in sales, marketing, and management.

He lost the ability to focus. He had trouble remembering the names of his team members. He missed deadlines and starting producing subpar work.

It got to the point where he was asked to step away from the work.

It hit so hard, he needed to know what happened. So he embarked on a second career in mental health, learning everything he could about what makes humans tick, and what can derail us.

His key insight: burnout is essentially what happens when we suppress an emotional response for long enough. It's one way that, in the words of Gabor Maté, the "body says no."

After years in clinical settings, working with clients one-on-one and in small groups, Mark realized that he wanted to work "upstream" -- i.e. in prevention.

And prevention, for Mark, meant working within the settings and systems that produce burnout and other mental health problems.

His work now spans helping individuals practice radical self-care, physically and psychologically; and working with organizations to create anti-burnout cultures and policies.

In our conversation, we look at the nature of burnout, why it's so prevalent, and what we can do -- individually and collectively -- to create workplaces that prioritize human wellbeing over profit-at-any-cost.

Sound Bites
"Burnout in its essence is actually suppressing an emotional response or emotional needs.""The brain doesn't know shit. The brain is locked in a dark box.""It's more important that we get to say the words we need to say than it is for the other person to hear it.""Working out should be about mental health, feeling better about ourselves, and feeling good.""Our bodies are like cars that need to last the journey, and how we treat them determines how they carry us.""The future is human, and organizations need to recognize the importance of looking after their people."
Links
MarkButler.com.au

Emotional Intelligence 2.0, by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

When the Body Says No, by Gabor Maté, MD

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk, MD

What's the Deal with Burnout? Mark Butler on PYP 584

I share with Glenn my admiration for the book Immunity to Change, by Kegan and Lahey. It shows how resistance to (seemingly) desired change is often rooted in deep-seated beliefs and identities, which are typically unconscious.

Now we know the neurological details of that phenomenon, as well as the precise experiences necessary to overcome it. The science of memory reconsolidation has given us tools that we can use to rewrite old beliefs that keep us from achieving what we want.

That's not a new concept, especially in the touchy-feeling self-help world. What's new, and incredibly useful, is the understand of the conditions under which neural patterns in the brain can become "labile" -- that is, open to change.

This gives coaches and therapists -- and anyone who wants to help other people grow into their best selves -- a powerful protocol for creating transformational change.

We now have an alternative to "counteractive" strategies, such as willpower, external constraints, and repeated exposure, to keep bad old habits at bay.

Glenn asked me to demonstrate the process with an issue he'd been struggling with.

He needed to restart his YouTube channel (about defeating food cravings and regaining control over one's eating), but he hadn't done so. Despite his clear knowing that it was an important step in building his business.

He was aware that part of the issue was his appearance; he had put on a few pounds since the last time he made lots of YouTube videos, and felt uncomfortable showing himself on screen to people who would turn to him for, among other things, weight loss.

Rather than coach him to "make a plan" and "put it on his calendar" and ask him lots of motivational interviewing questions about why this was important, I sought to help Glenn discover the emotional necessity of not putting his slightly heavier self on display.

What we got to first was a recognition of why his reluctance to make videos made perfect sense. Once he "owned" his agency in producing that symptom, he was able to disconfirm the core belief behind it.

And he reconnected with an essential part of his mission: to act with kindness and abolish shame in everyone he comes in contact with.

Enjoy!

LinksImmunity to Change, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey

Unlocking the Emotional Brain, by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic, and Laurel Hulley

How to Remove Trauma Response, by Alun Parry

The Art and Neuroscience of Transformational Change: Dr Tori Olds on PYP 553

Removing Trauma Response with Yes/And Healing: Alun Parry and Yael Zivan on PYP 572



Uprooting Resistance to Change: A Memory Reconsolidation Demo with Glenn Livingston, PhD: PYP 583

Behavioral economist Matt Nagler returns to the podcast to discuss the urgent question of whether acting "as if" can lead to genuine transformation.

Standard economic theory holds that we have innate preferences, and that life is more or less about going around getting those preferences met. People who like chocolate go to work and make money so they can buy chocolate. People who are into danger and thrills take up skydiving. And so on.

But that's not the way we actually work. We can acquire tastes, not just for lima beans and beer, but for activities as well.

If you want to become a runner but the thought of breaking a sweat leaves you cold (I hear the approaching sirens of the "bad writing" police), you don't have to wait until you magically change your mind. Instead, you can just start running. According to Daryl Bem's Self-Perception Theory, seeing yourself running, day in and day out, will signal to your mind that you do like running. Because, it reasons, why the hell would you be doing it every day if you didn't?

And that mind hack is the key to behavior change. As God is reported to have said to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, "Na'aseh v'nishma." That is, "You will do and you will listen." The "DO" part comes first.

In our conversation, we cover lots of ancillary behavioral economics topics and follow Matt's roller coaster mind as it ranges from Mel Brooks to Japanese art films to Bayesian Updating (which blew me away and totally put my work on Memory Reconsolidation into a very cool theoretical framework).

Enjoy, and let us know what you think in the comments. 

Links
Matt's "Zen and Economics" Substack (free)

To Be Or Not to Be (Mel Brooks movie) trailer

Shall We Dance? (Masayuki Suo movie) trailer

Daryl Bem's Self-Perception Theory

Jon Connelly's Rapid Resolution Therapy

Bayesian Updating explained

Diversity & Inclusion: Wokeness Run Amok or Simply Good Business?: Sally Helgesen on Plant Yourself

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