Listening is a key practice in creating connections and breaking down racial and cultural barriers. Pain, fear, and distrust dissipate when someone knows that they have been heard and understood. This presentation will offer unique perspectives, powerful tools, and invaluable skills to enhance your effectiveness as a leader, educator, and ally so that you can create welcoming, inclusive environments that go beyond satisfying the requirement for diversity and open the opportunity path of advancement, leadership, and growth for everyone.
Key Points/Learning Objectives:
• Listening Framework: Learn how to put aside your assumptions of what you think you know or understand by using an inclusive listening framework that allows you to build relationships and trust. Listening beyond the words is a critical ingredient in the recipe for a more just, equitable, and inclusive culture.
• Asking Powerful Questions: Learn how to focus attention, deepen insight, and ask powerful questions to create forward movement, deepen relationships, and develop collaborative solutions.
• Recognize and Respond to Microaggressions: Learn how to recognize when microaggressions are occurring and ways in which you can become a better ally to your colleagues of color and underrepresented groups. Naming, blaming, and shaming people doesn’t work. The key is to describe the bias without attacking the person.
This presentation is designed for those who are committed to promoting equity and inclusion and are looking for concrete strategies to help them achieve this goal. Through interactive sessions, audience participation, visual aids, and examples, participants will gain practical tools and skills they can implement to create more welcoming and supportive environments.
