Talking Talent

How do we determine who is the most valuable contributor to our team when we all do different jobs? Who gets the bonus at the end of the year? How do we make sure that everyone valuable on the team feels that their value is honored? We explore these questions through the story of the Trojan War and the Ajax Dilemma.

The origin story of the Trojan War - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrdiwdVQkto

The Ajax Dilemma by Paul Woodruff

Paul Woodruff talking about The Ajax Dilemma

Untapped Talent: Individuals With A Criminal Record

Show Notes

Links & Resources From The Episode:

Cornell Justice and Employment Initiative

The Cornell Prison Education Program

Article on the benefits to companies and government budgets from employing the formerly incarcerated: (https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/from-incarceration-to-employment-how-hiring-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-give-your-business-an-edge.html) & ACLU Paper (https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/060917-trone-reportweb_0.pdf)

An Employers Guide toCompliance with New York Correction Law Article 23-A

The Fortune Society

The Marshall Project

Vera Institute of Justice

The Rand Study on the effectiveness of correctional education

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html

Pete Leonard "I Have A Bean" - https://www.faithdrivenentrepreneur.org/pete-leonard-of-i-have-a-bean

Jails to Jobs

The Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison

Sean Pica, Executive Director

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit

Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center's studies on employment after prison

Loyalty and higher retention rates (https://www.inc.com/peter-economy/from-incarceration-to-employment-how-hiring-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-give-your-business-an-edge.html)

Our Guests On This Episode:

Rahson Johnson

Rahson Johnson goes above and beyond to positively impact youth and his community, utilizing his lived experience and his compassionate heart to inspire and support hundreds of youth and adults.

At the age of 16, Rahson was sentenced to serve 23-60 years in prison, leaving his neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn for the remainder of his teen and early adult years, only to return just months before his 40th birthday. While incarcerated, books became Rahson's family. He not only completed his high school coursework, but went on to receive a bachelor's degree in behavioral science and a Master of Professional Studies in urban ministry. He also took advantage of opportunities to begin working with young people facing issues similar to the ones he experienced. While incarcerated, Rahson became a Youth Counselor with the Youth Assistance Program, an intervention program that brings kids to prisons, where he coached and educated young people on gang violence prevention, harm reduction, and sex education. While fulfilling, Rahson felt limited by his ability to only meet with these young people for a single 2-3 hour visit, and wondered how much more could be accomplished if they were able to establish genuine connections with the youth. Rahson realized he had more to offer.

Less than a year after his release from prison, Rahson began working with the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, now known as Neighbors in Action. In his current role as Youth Programs Coordinator, Rahson works with a team to engage young people in afterschool activities, summer employment, and other enrichment programming though school and community-based workshops and groups, internships, and on-site activities. These initiatives focus on leadership development, social justice and media literacy, antiviolence, community mobilization, social-emotional learning, and college and career readiness.

As part of NIA's Arts to End Violence initiative, which engages young people in conversations about art as a tool for personal healing and community change, Rahson has led workshops across Brooklyn and Manhattan. He is also a lead facilitator for three NIA site-based afterschool programs: Youth Organizing to Save Our Streets (YO S.O.S.), which trains young people who have been exposed to violence to become peer educators and community organizers, Justice Community Plus, which connects young adults with work-readiness opportunities, and the Alumni Youth Advisory Council, a new initiative spearheaded by Rahson, which supports further engagement and leadership development for young people, declaring that "emotional safety is the more important piece for me."

Selfless in sharing himself and his own experiences, Rahson leads with kindness and integrity and amplifies Neighbors in Action's anti-violence message with grace and passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMi23Hz2rUo

Babita Patel is a freelance humanitarian photographer documenting social impact issues around the world. Her work has appeared on ABC, Al Jazeera, HBO, MSNBC, NY1 and PBS; featured in Forbes, The Guardian, The Marshall Project, The New York Times, Slate and The Washington Post; and exhibited in multiple countries.

She is the founder of KIOO Project, an NGO that advances gender equality across the globe by teaching photography to girls who, in turn, teach photography to boys.

In 2020, Babita debuted her first book, Breaking Out in Prison, which introduces 15 men who were locked out of society long before they were locked up — men who got an education inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and used it to break out of the cradle-to-prison pipeline. Today, they are role models for young men in their communities as they are credible messengers for at-risk youth, pushing them towards different opportunities over incarceration. The book puts a human face on effective solutions to ending the epidemic of mass incarceration in America today.

Esta Bigler Director, Labor and Employment Law Programs

Esta R. Bigler, Esq., is Director of Cornell University ILR's Labor and Employment Law Program, the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative, and the Cornell Project for Records Assistance. Ms. Bigler uses her extensive background in labor and employment law to convene conferences and forums studying current and emerging legal issues impacting employment, with the goal of influencing legislation and public policy decisions. A major focus of her work is the use of criminal records as a screening device for employment, the impact of employment on reducing recidivism, employer attitudes toward hiring people with criminal records, and the collateral consequences of incarceration.

Talent in the Time of a Pandemic - Part 3

What Organizations are Doing to Remain Essential and Help Their Employees and the Community

Organizations today are looking to see how they can either become or remain an essential part of the current economy while keeping staff employed and helping the community. It's not a small "ask" and a number of companies are demonstrating real creativity in rethinking their product offerings, if not their business.

Join David and Angela as they look at both the challenges and the opportunities through the following lens:

• Same products, different channel
• Same infrastructure, different products
• Same products, different infrastructure (employee transfer)

They also discuss how doing the right thing for your employees, the business and the community is ultimately the right thing to do for your brand and your business future.

https://wck.org/chefsforamerica

AB InBev Making Hand Sanitizer

Three Proactive Response Strategies to COVID-19 Business Challengeshttps://www.gallup.com/workplace/308210/evolving-covid-responses-world-largest-companies.aspx Lego's Face Masks

Telling an employee that he or she no longer has a job with your organization is never an easy conversation. Especially when that loss of a job is due to financial or other business concerns beyond the employee's control, it news no one wants to give and no one wants to get.

However, for those times when there is no other choice but to furlough or layoff an employee, how can you do it in the most thoughtful, helpful and compassionate way possible? How can you let go of your own feelings of discomfort or fear and focus on the individual being impacted?

Join David and Angela as they discuss five things to keep in mind as you prepare for, and then have, that challenging conversation. Because no matter if this is your first time having the conversation, your fifth or your fiftieth, you have the opportunity to treat the person impacted with respect and dignity. In doing so you can help them feel seen and appreciated during a particularly difficult time.

Five Crucial Points to Remember When You Need to Lay Off or Furlough a Team Member

Elyse joins us today to discuss her story of learning to showcase her talent and how to help others do the same. Elyse Kaplan, Vice President of Business Development for Delmay Corporation, shares how a critical conversation changed how she thinks about talent in a fundamental way.

Today we're excited to share Beth Rivera's Three Minutes or Less on Talent. Beth, a friend and former colleague, is the head of HR for the eCommerce company Uncommon Goods. Learn why rather than a dreaded event, Beth believes that performance conversations can be about "reflection and celebration.

A quick return from our hiatus for a bonus episode of Talking Talent.

What does leadership look like during this time of crisis? What are the opportunities to identify talent in your organization? How can organizations strengthen their relationships with employees, clients and vendors? Lastly, what can you do during this time to strengthen yourself and your business?

As we reviewed the topics we had explored in Season 1 of Talking Talent we realized there was one we hadn't yet tackled: creativity and talent. So we are excited to bring Season 1 of Talking Talent to a close with Walter Bernard and Milton Glaser discussing their new book Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines. After more than fifty years of revolutionizing the look of magazine journalism they both had a lot to say about collaboration and creativity, bringing the right talent together and why some collaborations work better than others. Walter and Milton also talk about working with people you like, the role of risk-taking, and why the quality of paying attention is key to creativity in every field.

Pre-Order The Book: Mag Men: Fifty Years of Making Magazines

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Twitter: @TalkingTalent1

LinkedIn: Angela Scalpello

Email: [email protected]

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