“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde A week ago my partner, Lia, and I boarded a plane and put our phones on airplane mode. It had been over two years since we’d taken a vacation, and with the swipe of […] Read more…
emotional intelligence
The tiny word that changes everything
The power of YET I recently facilitated a day-long engagement on unconscious bias, equity, and sparking courageous conversations at a school. It was a powerful day. Afterward, while the leadership team and I debriefed and planned our next session, I shared that a natural next step would be to talk about how […] Read more…
Confronting With Care
How The S.P.A.R.K. Acronym Helps us Lead Courageously Have you ever avoided conflict? Maybe you’ve felt uneasy or anxious about having an equity conversation? Perhaps you’ve felt nervous about telling someone that their actions or biases impacted you? Maybe you didn’t want to say the wrong thing, so you chose to say nothing at […] Read more…
Hidden Curriculum
A Case For Putting The WHY In The Driver’s Seat “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou I believe we’re all teachers in some way. While it may not be a tradition, school, […] Read more…
Leading with Integrity: What It Really Means
And The Power Of Good-Enough “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.” ― Zig Ziglar Integrity is one of my most core values. Everyday I aspire to lead with integrity, and everyday I make […] Read more…
Put Out The Fire
3 steps to intentionally effective communication The community meeting was getting heated. Tempers were rising, accusations were cast, insults issued, and disruptions were spiraling the meeting into chaos. The leader, trying to take control of the situation, demanded everyone to take their seat and listen or not only would the meeting would end immediately, […] Read more…
Do You Know The 3 Anxieties That Affect Leaders (and how to overcome them)?
Facilitation Is A Fine Art A handful of years ago, I was debriefing an event I facilitated, lamenting that–despite feeling like I had thoroughly prepared and practiced–I was shocked that my stomach was in knots and my voice felt shaky the entire time. Even though I knew the content, my body was acting as if […] Read more…
Let’s Talk About Starbucks
Some thoughts on why we need to address the root cause of racial bias If you’ve watched the news, you have probably heard about the reprehensible event that occurred at Starbucks on April 12 (summary here). At first I had a lot of reactions and wanted to post with fury. But then, I […] Read more…
Supporting Challenging Students
Supporting Challenging Students Raising Awareness Of Blindspots + Invisible Tensions Challenging students are sometimes viewed as manipulative, attention-seeking, limit-testing, coercive, and even poorly motivated. Have you ever wondered why? The Collaborative Problem Solving Model believes these students simply lack the skills to be anything but challenging. Doing well is preferable to being in trouble, […] Read more…
Transform Pain Into Power
Why It Takes Courage To Lead From Our Scars We carry our past like baggage. The worst of of the pain is the heaviest. We try to keep it close to us, wearing it like a backpack. While we try to simultaneously hide and/or ignore it, there are times when it just can’t be […] Read more…