BEHAVE

"I might be experiencing marginalization or inequity, and I might be reinforcing it at the same time with how I think or how I behave."

Trina + Alfonso take this episode to share some of the ways' they're currently doing their own self-awareness work around some of their identities. Alfonso talks about doing deep-reading to connect with his Mexican-American identity. Trina talks about work she's doing to continue deepening her relationship to her whiteness, while also sharing her ongoing complex relationship to the #Metoo movement.

"We have got to actually make it possible, as leaders, for folks to take the time they need to be well enough to work."

Trina + Alfonso dig into how leaders can get ready for what happens after this election. They share tactics for how to actually listen to staff, how to give people the time they need, + how to get the best out of their people through empathy rather than sympathy.

"A binary that has never been true is that there's a separation between workplaces & politics."

Alfonso + Trina really dig into the idea of how politics impact workers and how leaders can & should support their people as various identities are politicized. They share suggestions on how to have conversations that are necessary & appropriate at work without overstepping roles.

"You're never going to stop making mistakes. You're always going to learn something new which means you're always going to do something better."

Trina + Alfonso record a live episode of BEHAVE at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofit's 2020 Advancement, Communication, and Technology conference. They welcome special guest Rocky Jones, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Director at MN Opera. Alfonso, Rocky, & Trina talk about a communications approach to equity and diversity work. They also talk about the past three years MN Opera has spent working with Team Dynamics!

"Different types of people get praised or punished for how they perform different kinds of flexibility."

Trina + Alfonso dig into the hows and the whys of ways people are asking for flexibility at work and not believing leaders when they are told to take time off or step away from their projects.

"Anger and shame can be motivators, but they're absolutely exhausting places to live."

Trina + Alfonso dig into the ways folks are experiencing activation amidst an ongoing racial reckoning. They talk about four ways people are processing while at work and suggest ideas for moving through into action.

"If comfort is what you're in pursuit of then I think it's time to really reflect on why is your comfort important?"

In the past five years, a lot of words have moved from the Urban Dictionary to the Webster's Dictionary. Trina + Alfonso dig into a common desire to focus on getting and knowing the right words to say. They talk about their own work around what words they do or don't want to use and how a focus on the words themselves can get in the way of capacity growth.

"Which words feel easier or harder to say and which identities feel easier or harder to imagine and why?"

Trina + Alfonso dig into some of the ways race, gender, and sexuality are inextricably linked. They share some of their own experiences through their own lived identities and extrapolate those into ways workers and workplaces can move towards their equity and inclusion goals.

"The stealing of and claiming of this continent for European colonizers and settlers represented freedom for some people, specifically, white, male, landowners, and a decrease in freedoms and liberties for women, for people of color, in particular Black enslaved people and indigenous, original inhabitants of this land."

Alfonso + Trina have a quick chat about how companies can wrestle with time off and how we can learn more about holidays without having to give up joy.

"How do we navigate knowing so much about one another that we didn't know before we were looking into our homes all the time?"

Alfonso + Trina dig into some things to consider as more workplaces start having people move from all remote work and spending time in offices with one another.

They cover some questions like; How are you feeling about working from home? What stories have you told yourself about how it feels for other people on your team? And then what have you decided that means for the future of your work? And, have you tested that story with anybody else?

How do we become good stewards of all the new information we've learned about coworkers as we've been looking into one another's homes more?