Unleashing Social Change

We did something a little different this time. We're giving you an almost completely unedited podcast recording because you need to hear every single word Chris said, including those before and after the official "podcast" part of the podcast. This episode is everything to us. Chris has a profound ability to convey meaning and heart through story. We literally cried through half the interview. We learned. We grieved. We grew. We are better humans for listening to his story. And we want to share every moment of it with you. Chris is a gift to this world and we are so grateful he took the time to tell us his story and for the person he is. We hope you'll take a moment when you're done listening to share your learnings too.

40: Dr. Christine Ortiz, "Equity is a Verb, not a Noun."

Listen in on this episode for an insightful and deeply personal conversation about why equity is a verb with our friend, Dr. Christine Ortiz, Founder of Equity Meets Design. Christine invites us to get curious about the ways philanthropy and the nonprofit sector can be overly focused on spreading solutions at the expense of actually solving problems. We at the Billions Institute are proud to be partnering with her and Equity Meets Design on a new course called Solutions Worth Scaling.

Show Highlights:

• Racism and equity are products of design and thus can be redesigned

• The difference between Capital D Designers and lower case d designers and why the little d counts!

• Why process is everything

• Christine's adventures as a serial entrepreneur and how the most important thing she learned at Harvard was not in the classroom

• The pros and cons of working with the philanthropic sector

• The problem with jumping to solutions

• What it means to embody equity

Resources:

• equitymeetsdesign.com

• The Problem with Problems Course: https://courses.equitymeetsdesign.com/p/the-problem-with-problems

• Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva

p.s. Becky's book is available for pre-order. Visit http://www.billionsinstitute.com/books/ for more info!

39: Dr. Julia Colwell, "Shifting from Reactive Brain to Creative Brain"

In this episode, we talk with our friend, the brilliant and insightful psychologist Dr. Julia Colwell, about the physiological experience of shame and why it's so important that we learn how to shift out of our reactive brains - and the hierarchy that comes with it - back into our creative brains where collaboration, connection, and creativity are possible. Join us for this fascinating conversation about how our brains work and how we can use our brains - and our bodies - to advance love and justice in our world. You'll want to download the handout you can find on our Unleashing Social Change website to follow along with the show.

Show Highlights:

• The evolutionary purpose of shame is to dominate another person into submission
• How, as Tema Okun says, "Shame is a place to visit but not to stay."
• The difference between power versus force
• How the energy of shame is close to death
• How pride and contempt can lead to violence
• The difference between blaming and non-blaming anger
• The two problems with staying in reactive brain
• The importance of realizing when you are in fear and a persona so you can minimize any harm you might do from that place
• Reactivity is useful for survival, but not for thriving
• Getting unstuck from the "I'm not bad, you're bad" narrative and shifting to appreciation
• Moving from "It shouldn't be this way" to the neutrality of "this is what is"
• Anchoring yourself in ways that generate energy
• Repairing relationships by engaging above the line
• Implications for scarcity versus abundance from your brain state
• Connecting the dot with reparations and creating the world we want to live in
• Fuel, rest, move - getting out of the stress mode and taking care of our bodies

Resources:

Evolutionarypower.org

https://juliacolwell.com/inner-map

Stephen Porges, Polyvagal Theory

Dr. David Hawkins, "Power vs. Force"

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Fear Melters - Gay and Katie Hendricks

john powell - Linked Fate

The Open Focus Brain by Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins

p.s. Becky's book is available for pre-order. Visit http://www.billionsinstitute.com/books/ for more info!

Episode 38: Nancy Stubbs, Kolbe Certified™ Consultant, Big Leap Coach and Founder of Hire Resonance - "Aligning Team Talent to Maximize Impact"

In this episode we interview Nancy Stubbs who helps the Billions Institute make fantastic hiring decisions and optimize our genius as a team. We love her so much that we also bring her in to work with all of our Fellows. Bottom line: we think Nancy is genius at helping teams optimize genius! While most companies look for experience and education for hiring decisions, Nancy emphasizes the importance of motivation, intrinsic interests and how people actually get things done. These are the factors that drive job satisfaction and these are the key ingredients for creating a team that thrives. Tune in to see how you can build a team that maximizes impact by aligning the talent.

Show Highlights:

• Don't work on weaknesses; maximize joy and productivity instead

• Why it is essential that everyone on your team knows not only their genius, but also their "not genius"

• The gift underneath those aspects of yourself that you've been told are "too much" or "not enough"

• Why we'll never hire again without the help of Nancy and the Kolbe A Assessment

The Billions Institute is partnering with Nancy to offer a new course called Unapologetic Genius. Enrollment is open and the course will include your very own Kolbe assessment, an individual coaching session with Nancy, and a six-week deep dive into uncovering and fully expressing your genius in the world.

You can learn more about Unapologetic Genius here:

https://billions-institute.mykajabi.com/unapologetic-genius

p.s. Becky's book is available for pre-order. Visit http://www.billionsinstitute.com/books/ for more info!

Episode 37: Mike Thompson, Billions Institute Faculty, "Finding Common Ground in Community"

We kick off Season 4 with a candid discussion between Becky and her dear friend, Mike Thompson. Mike has been a nonprofit Executive Director several times over, and seven people who have worked for him have gone on to become exective directors themselves. In this candid conversation between two old friends, Mike shares his secrets for bringing out the best in each person he works with and each organization he leads. Mike is especially passionate about creating a context where people feel safe and supported to bring their whole selves to the work, and creating impeccably clear agreements with his colleagues, especially his board members! Anyone who serves on a board (or answers to a board) will want to listen to this one. Becky and Mike reflect on the importance of community because this work can be lonely and exhausting. Magic and inspiration naturally flow when leaders come together to form authentic community, something both Becky and Mike are passionate about doing.

Show Highlights:

• The ways your identity and experiences of privilege and marginalization shape how you lead

• Creating safe spaces so that your people can bring their authentically whole selves to the work

• The importance of clear agreements between Executive Directors and their Boards

• Why we need to slow down and make time for deeper relationships

• The difference between consulting and coaching to support professional growth

• The antidote to the loneliness that can come with leadership

p.s. Becky's book is available for pre-order. Visit http://www.billionsinstitute.com/books/ for more info!

Season 4 Teaser

36: Meredith Shockley-Smith and Elizabeth Kelly, "Reducing Infant Mortality by Following the Lead of Black Women"

Over the past several years, Hamilton County has moved from having one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States to being in the lower 25 percentile. While there is still so much work to be done, this staggering improvement deserves our attention. In this episode we check in with Dr. Meredith Shockley-Smith and Dr. Elizabeth Kelly with Cradle Cincinnati who attribute their stunning progress on this progress to deliberately following the lead of Black women in the community. In too many sectors, racial equity is given lip service. We can learn so much from these two powerful women who didn't just redistribute resources, they also redistributed power.

Dr. Meredith Shockley-Smith, Director of Community Strategies and Dr. Elizabeth Kelly, co- founder and Director of Systems Strategies, Cradle Cincinnati

Show Highlights:

• Why humility is a "must-have" quality for any social change leader

• The initiative to hear, see and celebrate Black women

• How a recurring potluck dinner became the basis for powerful community organizing

• The importance of building bridges and forging authentic relationships across difference

• Leading large scale change is really about letting go, but letting go is easier said than done

• What happened when Cradle Cincinnati recognized that it wasn't just a health care problem, it was a justice problem

Links: Cradle Cincinnati: http://www.cradlecincinnati.org/

Articles: SSIR Collective Impact model https://ssir.org/articles/entry/collective_impact

Start Strong Avondale https://www.cradlecincinnati.org/2018/04/12/the-neighborhood-of-avondale-develops-a-promising-model-to-save-lives-as-hamilton-county-infant-mortality-improvement-levels-out/

Get $100 off Impact with Integrity https://www.billionsinstitute.com/impactwithintegrity

35: Melissa Rodgers, "Community Always Trumps Cruelty: Inside the New Americans Campaign to help 500,000 Green Card holders become US citizens."

The goal of the New Americans Campaign is to help 500,000 - out of the 9 million Green Card holders who are eligible - become citizens by 2021, the Campaign's 10th anniversary. There are many barriers and obstacles to meeting this ambitious aim, but Melissa Rodgers and her colleagues at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, together with the Campaign's non-profit partners across the country, are forging ahead with courage, empathy, and wicked smarts! Join us for a conversation about the current state of immigration in the US and why it's so important that we reform this broken system.

Melissa Rodgers, Director of Programs, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Director of the New Americans Campaign

Show Highlights:

• How difficult it is to become a naturalized citizen of the US, even when you're eligible

• The ways the Trump Administration is making it even more difficult

• The systemic cruelty of our immigration system

• How community is a protective factor when facing such cruelty

• Law as a collaborative profession and co-creation

• The New American Campaign's 5 principles for doing this difficult work

• How the New Americans Campaign quadrupled their network of local non-profit partners across the country

• The profound benefits of equality under the law

• What can happen when we believe something is really doable

• Why, for many people, immigration is literally a matter of life and death

Links:

New Americans Campaign https://www.newamericanscampaign.org/

https://www.newamericanscampaign.org/about/

Stories From New Americans: https://www.newamericanscampaign.org/from-new-americans/

Immigrant Legal Resource Center: https://www.ilrc.org/

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34: Peter Fitzgerald, "Honoring Our Elders: Providing Voice & Choice So People Can Grow Old at Home."

As we grow older and our ability to live independently diminishes, we may find ourselves contemplating an assisted living facility or a nursing home. The thought of giving up your home, where all your memories live, can be heartbreaking. What if we could make it easier for people to grow old in their homes? Enter PACE (Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly). PACE currently helps almost 55,000 older Americans stay in their homes by bringing the care to them. They have ambitions to grow to 200,000 clients by 2028 and their services couldn't be more timely as during COVID their mortality rates are half those of nursing homes. Listen in on Becky's conversation with Peter Fitzgerald, Executive Vice President of Police and Strategy for PACE, as they discuss the challenges of expanding something that's already working pretty good.

Show Highlights:

• What's the "just right" amount of expansion so that you don't overwhelm people?

• How PACE originated their program model with the Chinese community in San Francisco

• How the UK's adult day care model also informed PACE's development

• The importance of interdisciplinary teams in delivering care

Links:

https://www.npaonline.org/

LaShawn Routé Chatmon and Kathleen Osta, Executive Director and Managing Director of the National Equity Project, are unapologetic about advancing equity from a place of love. Join us for this inspiring and thought-provoking conversation as they discuss a unique form of leadership that is called for in these times, what Francesca Gino calls "Rebel Leadership." This kind of leadership invites us to stand firmly in the midst of persistent injustice and racial reckoning without giving up on our collective humanity. This kind of leadership requires us to be courageous and humble at the same time. Becky has witnessed LaShawn and Kathleen demonstrate this kind of leadership many times over the years they've known one another, and we are so delighted to hear them speak about it here. We need more of this kind of leadership in the world.

LaShawn Routé Chatmon and Kathleen Osta, National Equity Project

Highlights:

• What is the National Equity Project?

• Three questions you should yourself before you say something you might regret

• Why it takes training and preparation to not restrain your humanity as a leader

• Why they say, "The soft stuff is the hard stuff."

• Why we need to dissolve the boundaries between community and school

• Standing in the "not knowing" instead of jumping to "we have this under control"

• A glimpse into the 20 year and going strong friendship between LaShawn & Kathleen

Links:

• National Equity Project Twitter: @equityproject

• Nationalequityproject.org

Books:

• Francesca Gino - Rebel Talent

Video:

• Mo Cheeks video:

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