Thank you for your support and engagement with the D&I Digest. This digest is designed to be used as a learning resource throughout the quarter for County employees. At your leisure, please enjoy the content our D&I champions have helped source.
“Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat” - Audre Lorde
Digest Contents:
Stories of Us
- TED: How to come out at work, about anything | The Way We Work, a TED series (6 min)
- PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs: Talking to my friends and family about body discrimination as a young Black woman (5 min)
Connecting the Dots
Inclusive Conversations Toolkit (Lens) Introduction
- Video: The Need for Inclusive Conversations (2 min)
- Video: Perception and Communication by Communication Coach Alex Lyon (13 min)
- Reflection Resource: Self Understanding Reflection (pdf)
County Spotlight
- StoryPods Episode 2: Growing Mentorship
Exploration Zone
Podcasts:
- TED Radio Hour: Adam Grant: Why rethinking our ideas means we're growing (18 min)
- Moth Radio Hour: Lost in Their Eyes (5 min)
Articles:
- Farnam Street: Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want (6 min)
- Medium: It’s Not What You Know, It’s How You Think (6 min)
Webinars/Trainings:
- Leadercast now: Webinar: What is Your Lens? (32 m)
Stories of Us
When TED media coordinator Micah Eames came out as trans at work, he quickly realized he'd need to start having tricky conversations with coworkers. Here's his advice for how you can open up about your identity at work and what your colleagues can do to help.
The Way We Work is a TED original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid changing workplace conventions. (Made possible with the support of Dropbox)
Student Nairobi Barnes asked her mother, cousin and best friend -- all Black women -- about their experiences with body discrimination.
This piece was produced by Nairobi Barnes at Oakland Military Institute in California with support from Youth Media Producer Marie Cusick.
Connecting the Dots: Inclusive Conversations Toolkit (Lens) Introduction
We are fortunate to have a diverse, dedicated, and passionate workforce within the County of San Diego. Our County’s new vision is inspiring - A just, sustainable, and resilient future for all. The vision is not only aspirational for our region, but also for us internally. With this vision, we can focus on an organizational culture that values integrity, equity, access, belonging, excellence, and sustainability.
As a member of the County’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Executive Council, I’m delighted to introduce a training program that will further our goal of fostering an inclusive workplace. Each of you have an opportunity every day to contribute to cultivating an inclusive culture and a culture of belonging, no matter your level in the organization. Creating and maintaining this culture takes determination, dedication, and thoughtfulness.
We understand that conversations about equity, diversity, and inclusion can be challenging. In response, the D&I Council has been working on opportunities for employees to reflect and discover how racial and social injustice impacts our communities. Facing those issues in our community and within our departments takes skill and sometimes bravery. As an organization, we want to give each employee the tools to develop some of the skills necessary to talk about those issues with others.
With this objective, the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Division of Human Resources, created a toolkit to help foster inclusive conservations. Over the next three quarters, this space will be used to share pieces of the toolkit so we can all participate in creating inclusive spaces. Our goal with this training toolkit is to:
• Build communication skills necessary for successful cross-cultural conversations on polarizing topics,
• Shape opportunities for self-understanding and discovery of potential blind spots, and
• Offer frameworks that allow employees to feel safe, understood, and valued when sharing in meaningful dialogue.
The program is designed in four parts: Lens, Listening, Conversations, and Moving Forward. The first component in the toolkit will be Lens. This unit will help us engage in self-reflection on what we bring to conversations; our identity, culture, bias, and experiences; and examine how that shapes our own perceptions when discussing these issues.
I encourage you to come back to this space over the next two quarters to learn about the other pieces of the toolkit.
Author and thought leader Glenn Singleton said, "Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community, and organizational change.” Let’s foster these conversations to continue to build an inclusive workforce towards our vision of a just, sustainable, and resilient future for all.
– Clerk of the Board and D&I Executive Council Member, Andrew Potter
Inclusive Conversations Toolkit: Lens Resources
In this introductory video, Mary-Frances Winters of the Winters Group offers insight into how developing "Skills for Inclusive Conversations" can help invite deeper listening, learning, and employee engagement.
Perception and communication. Is our perception of reality THE reality or is it just the way we personally see things. We'll look at our perception with some key concepts in mind from the coordinated management of meaning and social judgment theory to see how our psychological filters shape the way we perceive others.
Reflection Resource: Self Understanding Reflection (pdf)
This Self-Understanding Reflection is designed to help you formulate some initial thoughts for exploring, identifying, and reflecting on the influence of racial and cultural identity and readiness for engaging in inclusive conversations. Use this tool to generate ideas that may help determine areas to raise awareness or understanding.
County Spotlight
StoryPods Episode 2: Growing Mentorship
In this second episode, we connect with individuals from the Department of Child Support Services to hear about the secret sauce of their thriving student worker program. Get inspired as you listen in as Daisy and Maria talk about the evolution of the program driven from the personal experience Daisy had as a student worker herself. Then hear the story corps style engagement of Shyanne and Steve and their current experience as mentee and mentor.
Voices You'll Hear:
Narrator: Thesala Jones, Group Program Manager, DHR Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Division
Host: Taryell Simmons, HR Services Manager, DHR Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Division
Guest: Daisy Choreno, HR Specialist, Department of Child Support Services
Guest: Maria Pacheco, Sr. Departmental Human Resources Officer , Department of Child Support Services
Guest: Shyanne Shanley, Student Worker, Department of Child Support Services
Guest: Steve Lujan, Assistant Director, Department of Child Support Services
Exploration Zone
Articles
Farnam Street: Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want (6 min)
Medium: It’s Not What You Know, It’s How You Think (6 min)
Podcasts
TED Radio Hour: Adam Grant: Why rethinking our ideas means we're growing (18 min)
Moth Radio Hour: Lost in Their Eyes (5 min)
Webinars & Learning Opportunities
Leadercast now: Webinar: What is Your Lens? (32 m)
Each of us views the world we live in through a unique lens. In a culture that seems more racially divided than ever before, our ability to empathize with one another — to view the world through someone else’s lens — is integral to finding healing and a path forward. It’s time to take a critical look at the lens we're each using (or are hiding behind) and how it inhibits our ability to engage the topic of race with courage and love.
In this webinar, Courageous Love Founder, Chuck Mingo, will lay out a framework for developing the superpower of empathy and accelerating trust in our relationships, communities, and organizations.
Countywide Learning Subscription to Diversity Inc Best Practices: Diversity Inc Best Practices is a subscription website that offers insights, best practices and case studies on diversity and inclusion management. Corporations, nonprofits, academia and government/military organizations utilize content on the website to help gain support-for and evolve their workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives. Activation Instructions