It is time for a virtual reckoning.

Somehow, it was mid-March 2022, and I found myself listening to a fabulous Spotify playlist called What Does It Mean To Be White? pulled together by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell of Charlotte, NC.  I reflected back on hundreds of years of “do-gooding” white people that took me all the way back and up to the present moment.  May 25th is the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.  Watching people be murdered in front of my eyes is a reality not a television show.  So, it is time for more than reflection.  Please join me. 

Tons of people march(ed) and we made promises to be better – do better – do something.  I invite you to a 4 hour live course on zoom as something that can be done immediately to better understand who and how you are in the world.  You are welcome to invite your friends and family for an all ages appropriate conversation that will take us all through a proven educational experience that builds on awareness to action.

Each workshop will be roughly 45 minutes long followed by a break and then we are back at it.  Sessions will not be recorded and will be offered live. Donations will be given to both the George Floyd Memorial Foundation and The Privilege Institute.

Join us for an Even Better Diversity Training Virtual Reckoning Event.

2pm pacific Diversity and Social Justice: A Starting Place
3pm pacific Unconscious Bias: Perceptions of Self and Others
4pm pacific Messages I Learned: Race, Racism, and Whiteness
5pm pacific Working Across Difference: Making Better Connections

$500 registration for the entire event.

Upgrade for $2000 to attend a one time only future session for a Train the Trainer conversation and a behind the scenes discussion of the curriculum so that you can facilitate this important conversation yourself. (Only 10 seats available)

Diversity and Social Justice: A Starting Place

Unlike other online diversity trainings, this course introduces the concepts that the user or learner can utilize in their own lives immediately. Regardless of each participant’s identities and lived experiences, the concept of how we coexist, interact, and impact one another is imperative to build better teams, better connections, and deeper relationships.

Spend an hour, reflecting on how you fit into the conversation of diversity. Coming to terms with our own unique positive and negative bias as well as how that intersects with our responsibility of perception and sense of entitlement to validation is the foundation of social justice work. Our experiences, choices, and impact, both intentional and unintentional, matter. This is the starting place.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognizing difference and engagement habits;
• Personal reflection and seeking out new experiences;
• Feeling safe and prepared;
• Conscious and Unconscious Bias, both positive and negative;
• Recruitment, Retention, and Fit; and
• The role of Curiosity, Generosity, Authenticity, Vulnerability.

Unconscious Bias: Perceptions of Self and Others

Have you experienced an optical illusion where you don’t initially see all of the options? Was the dress blue with gold stripes? Were you team Laurel or Yanny? Can you see the rabbit and the duck?

Our lived experiences are the tools we use to interpret the world around us. This is why we may assume there is a monster in the garage when we haven’t experienced an earthquake before – we literally don’t have the experience to pull from to understand what is happening. We believe what we know – whether we know it or not.

Take some time to notice how you perceive yourself and others. The role of perception is directly linked to all that we are conscious of as well as all of the stuff we aren’t! We must learn our habits to be able to be open to understand something we don’t understand.

Learning Outcomes

• Self reflection activities to identify difference
• Recognize the role of positive bias in our conscious & unconscious bias
• Recognize the role of negative bias in our conscious & unconscious bias
• Paying attention to one’s own habits and beliefs & reinforcing or editing them to align with our own personal values.

Messages I Learned: Race, Racism, and Whiteness

Doing Social Justice work is a simple concept, but it isn’t easy. While moving forward, we must also trace from where we have come from and what we have learned. This activity is primarily a silent self-reflection journey through one’s past to better inform our futures.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify messages you learned about one key identity that made you who you are
• Identify messages you learned about at least two groups to which you are not a member
• Identify an event where you actively or passively supported oppression;
• Connect the functions of internalized and externalized oppression with one’s own identities and experiences
• Participate in an authentic conversation regarding emotions, anxieties, and realities of doing social justice work.

Working Across Difference: Making Better Connections

We communicate across difference in passing, on purpose, and can even arrange a virtual conversation where everyone can see everyone easily even though we are potentially thousands of miles apart whether that is on the other side of the country, continent, or planet.

And while we “know” our co-workers, we often struggle to understand the cultural nuances of dealing with people of different cultural backgrounds, religions, languages, sexual orientations, gender expressions, socioeconomic variety, and more.  We may be well intended when we enter or step back from a conversation. We know better, but what we don’t know how to do is fix it right?

Make sure that everyone understands what is required to work with people who are “not the same” as you are. Spoiler alert – its not about them – it is all about you!

Learning Outcomes

• Understand cultural and social differences exist
• Clarifying cultural differences tips to function better in a diverse workplace
• Help our self understand and respect each other
• Addressing forbidden or contentious topics
• Develop skills for a significant and powerful (and free) method to change the culture around difficult topics and see other’s as differently right.

Sign Up Today!

Thank you for stepping up and considering registering for the Virtual Reckoning!  Keep an eye out for a Zoom registration link for the course May 25th 2-6pm pacific time.  There will be breaks and you are welcome to make this a family affair.  Spread the word as well any invite your team, co-workers, neighbors, friends, and family.  The more that attend, the more learning we do, the bigger the donation, the more responsibility we take for our future. 

$500 registration for the entire event.

Upgrade for $2000 to attend a one time only future session for a Train the Trainer conversation and a behind the scenes discussion of the curriculum so that you can facilitate this important conversation yourself. (Only 10 seats available)