Practicing Connection

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Most of us don’t ignore input - we just ask for it too late. And by then, the decisions are already made.

What if the biggest issue with community engagement isn’t whether you do it - but when and how?

In this episode, Jessica and Erin explore a simple but powerful two-part practice that can transform how collaborative work unfolds: engaging with people before decisions are made, and closing the loop afterward by showing how their input shaped the outcome.

They unpack why even well-intentioned teams often bring in community voice too late, how that affects trust and participation, and what it looks like to embed engagement into the way you work - not just treat it as a final step.

If you’ve ever wondered why engagement efforts fall flat - or how to make them more meaningful - this episode offers a small shift that can make a big difference.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Episode: "What the Room is Telling You: How to Read the Room"
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter 
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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Empathy mapping is a simple tool for helping you imagine someone else and their experience.

In this From the Archive episode, Bob and Jessica explore a powerful tool designed to deepen your connection with others—empathy mapping. 

Whether you're working with military families, service members, or anyone navigating life's challenges, this practice can help you step into their shoes and understand their experiences on a whole new level. 

Jessica shares her insights on how empathy mapping can move us beyond surface-level interactions, offering practical steps to apply this tool in your work or personal life.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Empathy Map Activity
• Opening to Joy and Love by Sebene Selassie
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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When military kids move, their whole world shifts—schools, friends, routines, and support systems. 

In this episode of Practicing Connection, school liaison Karen Watkins-Diouf and 4-H educator Jeremiah Johnson share how they work together across military and civilian systems to make sure those kids don’t fall through the cracks.

Military-connected kids move more often than most of their peers, and every move disrupts their relationships, routines, and sense of belonging at school and in the community. In this episode of Practicing Connection, we talk with Karen Watkins-Diouf, Army School Liaison at Fort Campbell’s Army Child & Youth Services, and Jeremiah Johnson, Christian County Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development at the University of Kentucky.

Karen and Jeremiah describe what school liaisons and county Extension educators actually do, how their roles intersect, and how their partnership creates a wider network of support for military families—on and off the installation. They share practical stories about bridging military and civilian systems, navigating “two languages,” and keeping families at the center when youth are dealing with repeated transitions.

You’ll hear concrete ideas for connecting with school liaisons and 4-H in your own area, and a simple first step any school, organization, or community leader can take to start building similar collaborations to support military-connected youth.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Look up the 4-H military liaison in your state: https://www.4-hmilitarypartnership.org/find-your-liaison.html
• Find a Military School Liaison near you: https://installations.militaryonesource.mil/search?program-service=12/view-by=ALL 
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

LinkedIn Practice:

In our latest Practicing Connection episode, we talk with Karen Watkins-Diouf, Army School Liaison at Fort Campbell, and Jeremiah Johnson, Christian County 4-H Extension Agent, about how they work together to support military-connected youth.

We explore:

• What school liaisons and county Extension/4-H educators actually do
• How a simple relationship between their roles became a strong partnership
• The ways schools, youth programs, and community organizations can collaborate with them to better serve military families

If you’re a family service provider, community leader, educator, or nonprofit professional, this conversation offers concrete ideas for strengthening your local network around military-connected kids.

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Most of us don’t mean to work in silos - but our calendars and inboxes quietly build them for us. 

In this episode, Jessica and Erin guide you through a five-minute exercise to map your work relationships, notice who’s missing, and take one small step outside your silo this month.

We get busy, go to the people we already know, and stay in our lanes. In this episode of Practicing Connection, hosts Jessica and Erin walk you through a simple, five-minute exercise to map your work network and make the invisible visible.

You’ll list the people you’ve talked with about work over the past month, then explore patterns across sectors, roles, geography, and experience. Along the way, you’ll surface quiet assumptions, notice who’s overrepresented, and identify whose voices are missing from your conversations.

Finally, Jessica and Erin invite you to choose just one gap to focus on this month—and to reach out for one conversation that takes you a step outside your silo. It’s a gentle, practical way to start building a more intentional, inclusive network that strengthens your work and your community.

LinkedIn Practice:

If you’re working to solve complex problems or serve a community, who’s not in your network matters.

What’s one gap you notice in your own network right now?

Links and resources from this episode:

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter 
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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This month’s listener Q&A gives us three juicy areas to cover: struggling with frequent task switching, dealing with burnout and unachievable workloads (and the expectations associated with this), and how our practices integrate with personal reflections.

Erin and Jessica respond to your questions with insight, experience and resources, to give you some great, actionable steps in your daily life.

Episodes referenced in this episode:

• Everyday Practices for Organizational Resilience:
  https://oneop.org/learn/everyday-practices-for-organzational-resilience/
• Turning Conflict Into Collaboration:
  https://oneop.org/learn/turning-conflict-into-collaboration/

Links and resources from this episode:

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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You've walked into a meeting and felt it immediately - something's off. The energy is flat, or there's a tension nobody's naming. 

What do you do with that? 

In this practicast, we share a simple, repeatable practice for reading the emotional temperature of any room.

Reading the Room is a short practice in social awareness — one of the core skills of emotional intelligence. 

In this practicast, we walk through three steps for tuning into the emotional temperature of a group before and during meetings: the early arrival observation, the 3-person scan, and the traffic light check. 

Perfect for service providers, coalition leaders, nonprofit staff, and anyone who facilitates groups.

LinkedIn Practice:

1. Pick one meeting per day to practice a deliberate 3-person scan. 
2. Afterward, jot down one thing you noticed that you might have otherwise missed. 

Over time, this kind of intentional observation becomes second nature.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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What if the key to resilience is practicing together?

This episode fom the Practicing Connection archives features a conversation about burnout and resilience with guests Dr. Charles (Chip) Benight and Nicole Weis from the Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. 

Their research on human resilience paves the way for therapies that address the needs of trauma survivors, including service providers and others who may suffer secondary trauma. 

Links and resources from this episode:

• Greater Resilience Information Toolkit: https://grit.uccs.edu/ 
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter

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What if the key to getting more done is doing less focusing? 

In this episode, Erin introduces the concept of unfocusing - not slacking off, but intentionally giving your brain a chance to rest and recharge. 

Drawing from Dr. Srini Pillay's book Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try, we explore why hyperfocusing leads to burnout, mental rigidity, and even impaired decision-making. 

Then Erin walks us through a simple, low-pressure practice to help you build a healthier cognitive rhythm — no major schedule overhaul required, just a 10-minute alarm.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try by Dr Srini Pillay : https://drsrinipillay.com/resource/tinker-dabble-doodle-try/ 
• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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Have you ever asked, “So what do I do with this?” after listening to a Practicing Connection episode? 

Put the pieces together with us on our first Q&A episode! 

Join Erin and Jessica as we answer listener questions on how to start actually doing practices, including must-listen episodes and what practices you can combine.

We share some of our favorite episodes and practices, along with suggestions for listeners to take the next steps in their own practicing journey.

There's lots here, so bookmark this one, these episodes will keep you company for a while!

Episodes referenced in this episode:

• Encouragement That Works: How to Give a Real Pep Talk https://oneop.org/learn/how-to-give-a-real-pep-talk/
• Beyond Sleep: Four Kinds of Rest We All Need https://oneop.org/learn/beyond-sleep-four-kinds-of-rest-we-all-need/
• More than a Meal: Building Community and Resilience with Chef Mary Long https://oneop.org/learn/more-than-a-meal-building-community-and-resilience-with-chef-mary-long/
• Collaboration in Action: Serving Military Families through Strengthening Communities https://oneop.org/learn/collaboration-in-action/
• Adventure-Ready: Strengthening Military Families Through Teen Camps https://oneop.org/learn/adventure-ready-strengthening-military-families-through-teen-camps/, https://fcs.mgcafe.uky.edu/MTAC
• Do Less of What Drains You https://oneop.org/learn/do-less-of-what-drains-you/
• Using the Feeling Wheel to Know Your Emotions https://oneop.org/learn/using-the-feeling-wheel-to-know-your-emotions-s-4-ep-11/
• Listening for Strengths and Values https://oneop.org/learn/listening-for-strengths-and-values-s-5-ep-2/
• An Ecosystem of Military Family Support with Nicola Winkel https://oneop.org/learn/learning-from-each-other-s-5-ep-5/
• Notice Offers & See Them as Gifts, with Shannon Hughes https://oneop.org/learn/notice-offers-see-them-as-gifts-s-5-ep-13/
• Strengthening Military Community Connections with Amy Rodick https://oneop.org/learn/strengthening-military-community-connections/
• Habit Stacking https://oneop.org/learn/habit-stacking/
• Ending the Day Strong: A 5-minute Daily Reset https://oneop.org/learn/ending-the-day-strong-a-5-minute-daily-reset/
• Reconnecting with Wonder to Spark Creativity https://oneop.org/learn/reconnecting-with-wonder-to-sparl-creativity/

Further links and resources for the podcast:

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected] 

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You're frustrated with someone you’re collaborating with, but you can't quite explain why. 

Chances are, the problem isn't their performance - it's the unspoken expectations neither of you knew the other had.

Most of us walk into collaborative relationships with an unwritten rulebook, and then feel quietly frustrated when others don't follow it. 

The problem? We never handed them the book.

In this episode of Practicing Connection, Jessica introduces the Expectation Audit, a simple but powerful practice rooted in organizational psychology. Drawing on research about unspoken workplace expectations, and what Brené Brown calls "stealth expectations," Jessica and Erin explore why crossed wires at work are rarely about performance or personality. 

More often, they're about invisible norms we've never made visible.

You'll walk away with a practice you can use on your own or with your team to turn frustration into honest, productive conversation.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Sign up for our monthly newsletter: https://oneop.aweb.page/practicing-connection-newsletter
• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: [email protected]