Hey First name / friend, Just popping in here with a personal note from me, (Erica). We don't normally send our digest on a weekend, and truth be told, this was originally scheduled to go out on Thursday. I decided to postpone it to give myself some space to process what was happening in my home state of Maine this past week. As many folks know, Two Piers is a Public Benefit Corporation based out of Houston, Texas. I was in Texas for work this week while watching the events unfold in Lewiston, about 30 minutes from my home in Maine. Please know that I appreciate all of the messages of concern, and I am grateful for the chance to be in community this past week as part of the Women Offshore annual conference. I'm not known for doing hugs, but I welcomed the warm embraces from long-term friends, former fellow board members, and brand new acquaintances, (not mutually exclusive categories by any means). Things are pretty volatile in the world right now. I hope that you are able to find some measure of peace wherever you are. Over here, we're trying to focus on what we're able to impact, and we're making sure to hold our loved ones close. With lots of love, Erica Your TL;DR: On Tap 🚰 - Unlocking Resilience 🔐 The Power of Color and Cultura 🎨 The Future of DEI 🔮 DEIBJ Digest 🗞 - LGBTQ+ History, ADHD Awareness, Disability Employment Awareness (NDEAM) Coaches Corner 🧭 - Effective Communication 🗣 PS: We recognize this digest has a lot of info to, ehem, digest. So, we've shuffled the order, and we're planning to split it into two bi-weekly parts going forward. Have a preference? Let us know by using the voting buttons below! |
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Two Piers Events 🗓 In our ever-changing volatile world, resilience is more than a buzzword; it's a fundamental trait that enables you to thrive in the face of adversity. Tailored for early and mid-career professionals, this course equips you with the tools to understand, cultivate, and harness resilience to reach your goals and find your impact. This five-day intensive includes a mixture of self-paced content, reflective exercises and a live hour-long webinar each day. Registration is $150 and we're limiting the group size to allow individualized attention. Going forward, we'll be hosting a mixture of self-paced courses as well as facilitated cohorts on our learning platform. You can also find digital downloads and free resources. If you missed out on our free October Reclaim the Floor series, fear not - you can still access all of the content, including the replays ⏯. Be sure to check it out. |
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The Two Piers Podcast 🎧 Earlier this month, we were joined by Nicte Cuevas of Nicte Creative Design for an episode on the power of Color and Cultura. Nicte shares how her own personal journey and multicultural Latina heritage have shaped the way she uses the power of color to help people and brands tell their stories and connect with their audiences. We've also got a brand new episode on the podcast and it's a special one. We're honored to have two distinguished experts, Darius Johnson and Leland Jourdan of FTI Consulting, join Erica in a nuanced conversation about the Future of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, confronting the increasingly common question of, “ Is DEI Dead?” Darius and Lee both share their wisdom and insights from international careers spanning multiple industries and efforts. It's an absolutely stellar episode with an incredible balance of practicality and hope. |
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Book List This month's booklist is packed with great reads related to our themes. Here is a sample of what we've been reading. Please note that we typically link to a Bookshop.org affiliate page as opposed to Amazon because we prefer to support independent bookshops. Should you choose to purchase a book from one of our links or lists, your purchase also helps support Two Piers. Rest assured that you do not incur any additional fees and we only share books that align with our mission. Articles This month's suggested articles converge around the future of DEI and the question we addressed in our recent podcast episode: is DEI dead? And if not, where do we go from here? What are you seeing in your organizations in terms of DEI progress and investment? Let us know! |
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This October, we celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month, ADHD Awareness Month, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month - three areas that are quite near and dear to our hearts at Two Piers. Coming up in November, we'll be honoring Native American Heritage Month, Transgender Awareness Week, and Veteran's Day. |
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LGBTQ+ History Month 🌈 Doesn't Pride month occur in June? Yes, it does! LGBTQ+ History month differs from our summer celebrations in a few ways. This awareness month has an educational focus, and was originally established in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, the first openly gay public school teacher in Missouri. October was chosen because it falls within the academic year and commemorates the first and second LGBT Marches on Washington that occurred in October 1979 and 1987 respectively. It also lines up with National Coming Out Day which we celebrate on October 11th each year. Each year, Equality Forum highlights 31 LGBT icons, celebrating one for each day of October 📆. |
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ADHD Awareness Month As more is learned about the different ways that ADHD can show up, we are understanding the extent to which girls, women, and people of color have historically been overlooked in research and underdiagnosed in practice.
As the diagnoses are catching up, there is an expected bow wave of adults receiving a diagnosis later in life. 📈 And while the medical realm may still characterize ADHD as a deficit and a disability, (just as left-handedness was previously considered a deficit to be rectified), many in the ADHD community embrace their neurotype as a mixture of gifts and challenges. This mixture can bring both success and difficulty as individuals navigate a world that was not designed for their neurotype. 🗺 |
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National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) ♿️ This year's NDEAM theme is Advancing Access & Equity. |
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Did you know that there are different models of disability that frame how we view the concept and therefore how we should respond to it? While there are multiple models, two of the most common are the medical model and the social model. You can read all about it in our recent LinkedIn post. The social model of disability is important to us at Two Piers because it honors the inherent diversity within our human existence and it focuses on more efficient and effective ways to remove barriers and provide access to opportunity and success. |
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Coming Up in November 📆 Native American Heritage Month Since 1990, November has been recognized as Native American Heritage Month. As Thanksgiving imagery begins to proliferate, it's a good time to reflect on the true contributions and history of Native Nations in the United States, and the current issues and concerns facing Indigenous communities. Language matters. If you're wondering which terminology to use, check out these resources from The Smithsonian and The Native Governance Center. In short, the terms Native American, American Indian, Indigenous and First Nations are often used in different contexts, however it's best to refer to individual Nations where possible. As always, we should defer to how individuals self-identify. Veteran's Day 🇺🇸 This Veteran's Day, we have a special podcast episode scheduled with West Point graduate, former US Army Captain, and current Executive Leader, Angela Parker. She shares her career journey and some of the ways that her experience within the military has shaped her success. The episode goes live November 9th. You can follow our podcast on your favorite streaming site so you don't miss a new episode. Click here to find the show. Transgender Awareness Week 🏳️⚧️ Observed November 13 to November 19, this one-week celebration leads up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) on November 20th, which memorializes members of the transgender community who have lost their lives due to violence. If you are looking for actionable ways to support the transgender community and advocate for change, check out the HRC's Count Me In initiative for links and resources. |
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This month's theme is Effective Communication. During our workshop at the Women Offshore conference this week, we asked participants what word(s) they associate with being interrupted. As you can see from the word cloud below, the responses vary widely. We all experience interruptions differently due to a multitude of internal and external factors, but it's not surprising that the responses skew negative. Being interrupted impacts our ability to communicate effectively and effects our status within the organization, as we explain over on our blog. |
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While we can't always control external factors such as workplace norms, power dynamics or culture, we can often shift how we relate to communication challenges and, in turn, how we respond to them. The first step to communicating effectively is to look inward and understand where our own reactions, patterns and habits come from. In our Reclaim the Floor series, we used a helpful reflection exercise to explore those patterns. |
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In coaching, we will sometimes refer to “The Thinking Path” which essentially says: Thinking (or Beliefs) → Feelings → Actions → Results Oftentimes, our emotional reaction is driven by an unquestioned underlying belief, and we inherently assume that belief is obvious or shared by others. By surfacing that belief, we can better understand the data that our feelings are providing. As Brené Brown asks in her book Rising Strong, “ What story are you telling yourself?” Let's use an example. If I feel frustrated when someone interrupts me to ask for clarification, that could come from a variety of underlying beliefs about cultural norms, myself or my interlocutor. Here's a sample of possibilities - Any interruption is inherently rude and an understood display of disrespect
- My conversation partner knows I will lose my train of thought and isn't considerate of my struggle
- My communication is clear and their lack of understanding signals a lack of attention or care
In many cases, a strong emotional reaction points to an underlying belief around respect, safety or love. These beliefs are usually deeply rooted in our individual experiences and tied to our values. |
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Once we can understand our own response, we are able to interrogate our own assumptions and then approach our interactions with intentionality and insight. While kindness and curiosity can be a powerful communication tool when extended to others, it's important that offer them to ourselves as we seek to improve our communication skills. When it comes to your biggest communication challenges, what story are you telling yourself? And what stories could your counterparts be telling themselves? 📖 |
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As we close out October 🎃, we hope that you are staying safe and warm, and continuing to focus your energy where it can have impact. If you've received this email as a forward and would like to subscribe, you can do so here. And if you have feedback about this digest, just hit reply 📧 |
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Erica and the Two Piers Team |
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