We are really thrilled to be joined by our friend and colleague Leilani Mañulu, an Intuitive Leadership + DEI expert, a keynote speaker, the author of “Paradox of the Water Bearer” (with another book in the works!), host of “The Intuitive Catalyst” podcast, and a shaman!

We met Leilani a number of years ago at a program leaders event at the Whidbey Institute. Right away, we could tell we were in good company.

This conversations covers a lot of territory, so buckle up. From grief and the loss of identity in relationship to DEI work, to shame and how important it is to give it a voice, to the kinds of competencies we may want to develop to do this work (hint: the title may give that away).

Many thanks to Leilani for the contribution of your time, energy, and emotional labor.

We’d love to hear how this lands for you. Feel free to shoot us an email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Some links for things mentioned in this episode:

Leilani’s website - there you can find connections to her podcast, book, programs, and more

Leilani on LinkedIn

This episode was recorded on September 5, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

This one is personal. Having done some workshops to promote the Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness program, and getting ready for the program itself, we’ve had some insights.

Insights that hit home rather close. So close, that Greg gets to sit with a giant knot in his stomach in the middle of the episode. Today we’re exploring those insights, talking about the ways that we still – after all of this work, after becoming facilitators of this work – center the comfort of white-bodied folks. We talk about the kinds of discomfort we (white-bodied folks) all need to step into.

And we talk about how to get support in it.

Please let us know how it lands.

And join us in our fall program - starting September 11th.

Some links for things mentioned

Holistic Resistance - this is the org led by Aaron Johnson, and supported by Jennie Pearl and Dylan Wilder Quinn. Both Aaron and Jennie will be co-facilitating sessions in our program this fall.

Aaron Johnson’s TEDx Talk on the Chronically Undertouched program

Adam Slade on LinkedIn - another fantastic colleague who will join us in the program

DoP Ep. 5 with Adam Slade

DoP Ep. 10 with Aaron Johnson

DoP Ep. 28 with Jennie Pearl and Dylan Wilder Quinn

This week we take you into a real experience Shannon had on a recent client engagement. It was an experience where it didn’t take long for race to become named explicitly, and Shannon was able to look at what she was, and wasn’t, tracking.

We explore what came up for her, how she navigated it, and what some of the learnings she’s taken away from the experience. You’ll want to give this one a listen.

For those interested in taking these conversations deeper, and having a space to “get in your reps”: Our 9-week program Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness starts on September 11th. Let us know if you have questions or want to discuss it.

Some links for things mentioned in the show:

Holistic Resistance - we mention them a lot, but they are our mentors and teachers. Check them out. They run great programs.

Resmaa Menakem - A fantastic teacher and activist from Minneapolis, MN. We’ve been hugely influenced by his work.

Rev. angel Kyodo williams - Another fantastic teacher and activist who we’ve been influenced by.

This episode was recorded on August 1, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

We decided we wanted to explore some of the topics we’ll be looking at in our 9-week program this fall, and decided to start with control.

It just so happened that Shannon was on a family getaway, and some stuff was up for her, so we recorded part of our conversation.

Join us as we consider the ways that control plays out in ourselves and in the rooms we facilitate.

For those interested in taking these conversations deeper, we have some opportunities for you.

We are holding two free workshops - one on Aug 1st and one on Aug 8th - as a taster for our longer program this fall. You can learn more and register here

Our 9-week program Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness starts on September 11th. Let us know if you have questions or want to discuss it.

This episode was recorded on July 10, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

We were both really struck by an interview with Resmaa Menakem, Báyò Akómoláfé, and Orland Bishop as they prepared for their event Three Black Men on June 24th and 25th.

Their interview is far reaching, and it had us thinking about our work, what it means to facilitate, and how do we do this deep, uncomfortable work. We are incredibly grateful for these men, as well as those who are holding and supporting them as they do this work.

We highly recommend listening to the interview with them (link below), as well as checking out the Three Black Men project, which will have two more events on two more continents this year.

Please let us know how this episode lands for you. You can reach us at shannon@connectionworks or [email protected]

For those interested in taking these conversations deeper, we have some opportunities for you.

We are holding two free workshops - one on Aug 1st and one on Aug 8th - as a taster for our longer program this fall. You can learn more and register here

Our 9-week program Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness starts on September 11th. Let us know if you have questions or want to discuss it.

Some links for things mentioned in this week’s episode:

Insights at the Edge - Three Black Men - the podcast interview we are referring to in this episode

Three Black Men - the project that Resmaa, Bayo, and Orland have kicked off

Resmaa Menakem - Trauma therapist and somatic abolition educator

Báyò Akómoláfé - Teacher, researcher, and former therapist

Orland Bishop - Teacher, mentor, leader

This episode was recorded on July 3, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

We are excited to be offering a new program this fall - Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness.

In this episode, we wanted to talk about the program - why we are doing it, what you can expect, how it’s different than a lot of other programs out there. It’s a deep dive into the heart of what it means to be in this work, and what it is that we are trying to build.

(Hint: it’s community, connection, and spaces for all of us white-bodied folks to wrestle with the challenging conversations about race and our work.)

To get ready for the program, we’re offering two free workshops at the beginning of August. They are an opportunity to get a feel for the program, as well as to learn a tool you can take into your work right away.

Let us know what you think! Have questions about the program? Want to learn more about the workshops? Want to just share your thoughts?

Email us at shannon@connectionworks or [email protected]

Some Links!

Disrupting Our Practice Taster Workshops - these are free (though we are asking participants to make a donation to a BIPOC led organization)

Disrupting Our Practice: Understanding Whiteness - our 9-week deep dive program for white-identified facilitators, consultants, leaders, etc.

DoP Episode 5 - Centering Those Most Impacted - A conversation with guest co-facilitator Adam Slade

DoP Episode 10 - There’s a listening problem - A conversation with guest co-facilitator Aaron Johnson

Dop Episode 28 - Race & Gender - A conversation with guest co-facilitators Jennie Pearl and Dylan Wilder Quinn

This episode was recorded on June 26, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

We’ve been wanting to have Jennie and Dylan on since the beginning of this podcast. This is one for the books, friends.

Dylan Wilder Quinn (they/them) founded TransIntimate in 2020, to build connection and skill-building for cisgender people who want to be close to transgender people to know us beyond our pronouns. Jennie Pearl (she/her) is on the team at TransIntimate, working closely with Dylan. Both Jennie and Dylan are also on the core team at Holistic Resistance.

We can’t really think of two better people to bring in to talk about this intersection of navigating race and gender. Our conversation goes deep into this, and still we an only scratch the surface!

One of the best aspects of this episode is the “story question” that Dylan and Jennie bring in. Take some time with it, and reach out to them if you want to go deeper into it.

Some links for things mentioned on this episode:

Disrupting Our Whiteness - a 16-week cohort-based program to support white-bodied folks in their anti-racism journey. Both Greg and Shannon have done this program, and it’s fantastic.

Disrupting Our Whiteness for White Caucus Facilitators - a 6-week program for those who are holding space for white-caucuses. Highly recommend.

TransIntimate Online Programs - a menu of options for those interested in learning more about how to support trans youth and others.

This episode was recorded on June 15, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

We started this conversation with an inquiry that Shannon’s been in for a bit: How do i build the capacity to really interrogate the tools I’m using? How do I develop a practice of looking at the tools and the ways that I use them that supports actually disrupting the norms that are making it so not everyone is heard?

It ends up being a rather far reaching conversation that not only includes all of that, but looks at the ways we (white-bodied folks) don’t tend to give credit where it’s due. This is especially true when we consider the origins of many of the approaches we use in our work.

We talk about the starting points for the conversations, and what does it really mean to move beyond the “formulaic approach” to some facilitation processes? How do we deal with situations where bottom up decision making is requested, but not actually respected in the end.

There’s a lot in this one.

How does it land for you? What questions does it raise? We’d welcome your questions! You can always reach us at [email protected] or [email protected].

Some links for things mentioned in this episode:

Disrupting Our Practice LinkedIn Group

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

DoP Ep. 18 - The Tools of the Trade

Patrice Palmer’s TEDx Talk - this is where we first heard the point, “there’s a difference between ‘you are welcome here’ and ‘I had you in mind.’”

Systems Change and Deep Equity paper by Change Elemental

Liberating Structures

Resmaa Menakem

This episode was recorded on May 15, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

Reaching back a couple of weeks to when Greg interrupted Shannon’s thought to invite in the idea that maybe, just maybe, leaders should consider not making meetings, retreats, workshops mandatory—that’s what we’re doing today.

What if instead of trying to figure out what to do next, we thought about what to stop doing? What if we gave people the freedom to walk away? What might we learn?

And what are the sides of this that we might want to consider when it comes to systems of oppression? Who might not feel safe simply walking away?

It’s a slightly shorter episode, but we cover a lot of ground.

So, what do you think? What might you want to disrupt this week? Let us know!

Some links for things mentioned in this episode:

Rick Rubin’s new book - The Creative Act: A Way of Being

This episode was recorded on May 1, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com

Today we come back to a powerful question that we started working with a few years ago: “What’s on top about race?” It’s one we learned from our teachers and friends at Holistic Resistance, and we’ve turned to it again and again.

This time, we were both swimming in some different types of issues related to race: from how do we support our friends and colleagues who are People of the Global Majority when yet another horrific act of violence happens to what does it mean to be a white-bodied consultant among Latinx employees?

How about you? What’s on top about race? We’d love to hear!

This episode was recorded on April 17, 2023.

We want to hear from you. Use this Google Form to send us feedback (anonymous or not!).

Disrupting Our Practice is a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.

Finding this useful? Please leave a review for our podcast, and make sure to hit subscribe!

Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit www.connectionworks.com