From keynoting their North American Inclusion Summit, providing in-depth learning to local leadership teams, and facilitating conversation for their LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, I’ve been able to be a part of a wide footprint of work with Honda. It’s been an honor. To partner with a global company of such integrity, whose leadership is in constant learning-mode, is an exciting journey. We’ve been able to work on everything from understanding diversity & inclusion, to personal growth and development in seasons of shift, to authentic relationship-building.
More than likely, you’ve experienced the work of Hobart Brothers and didn’t even realize it. This small but mighty team sits in Troy, Ohio, and puts out welding supplies for top tier construction projects all over the world. When I first engaged with Hobart Brothers it was to provide some D&I 101 training. The team was so eager to learn, I ended up coming back, over and over and over. Now, just two years later, they’ve gone from working to define what “diversity” does and doesn’t mean to hosting their own internal anti-racism employee group, designing and facilitating company-wide conversations.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with an elementary building over the last year and a half. We’ve gathered teachers, staff, and administratives to explore the dual nature of inclusion in a school: curating an organizational culture that benefits everyone, and designing inclusive classroom cultures that engage and empower all students. It’s been an amazing experience to coach, train, and ask hundreds of questions of the team. While I know I am not offering “fixes” to this team, as the challenges are multi-faceted and evolving, I know that I am providing meaningful support and new ways of thinking and addressing consistent challenges.
Discover has been one of my partners in learning for some time. I’ve worked with their ERG leaders, and created events that many of their folks have attended. I’ve gotten to talk with folks from the Chicago home office, the Columbus call center, and their young leaders. We’ve specifically explored the concept of “diversity fatigue,” and how those within the Discover employee footprint can address that fatigue, and help others engage anew in the work.
The GAR Foundation is a grant-making organization committed to helping Akron become smarter, stronger, and more vibrant. A significant part of this vision circles around ensuring that the leadership and board understands issues of inclusion and equity, and are creating space for their grantees to do the same. I’ve been able to work with the GAR Foundation in educating their team, and have been honored to be included in their “short list” of educators whom they recommend to their grant awardees.
This lovely little campus in central Ohio is home to about 3,000 Otterbein Cardinals. I’ve loved working with a whole retinue of leaders from this university, from the Chief of Staff to the Institutional Advancement team to groups of emerging student leaders. Through our time together we’ve unfolded thinking around inclusive excellence, leadership development, personal and professional growth through seasons of change, and creating an organizational culture where everyone gets to get better all the time.
PSA Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, and is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. I joined their executive leadership and managers to provide a day-long retreat about diversity, inclusion, and organizational culture. We explored content, engaged in dialogue, and worked through some collaborative exercises. The team left with self-created language toward a company statement of values and inclusion, and with vision to continue the work.
I was lucky to get to work with the Cabinet and leadership team of the University of Alaska Anchorage to unfold ways in which systemic racism and historic inequality actually plays out today. We explored how legislation and de-facto segregation created two different sets of opportunities for black and white Americans even as late as the mid 1900’s, and how those decisions have been reified and continue to create what is often two fundamentally different American experiences.
Working with this legacy brand has been so meaningful. It’s been an honor to help their leadership and management team develop shared vocabulary around diversity and inclusion, shared values around relationship-building across the company, and shared vision for developing sustainable, inclusive organizational culture.
