Saturday
A More In Depth Look At My Work:
I guide leaders in organizations through conflict, specifically intercultural and interracial conflict which often stems from organizational equity work. The quality of these conflicts shows up with the weight of collectively unprocessed historical and intergenerational trauma in our society. These deep wounds require a specific lens and grace to support folks through and out of conflict.
what I look for:
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What are the cultural differences and how do they play out?
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What aspects of the interactions contribute to the concerns?
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What aspects contribute to the solutions?
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Is this a historic, contemporary and/or personal hurt?
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Who or what is contributing to the struggle?
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Is it people, a person, place, or system
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Who or what is contributing to the healing, joy, resilience?
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Center identity for BIPOC folks: Tell me about your identity and how this conflict hits through your lens?
I refer to conflict as an actual event, where there was heat and hurt. But I also refer to the subtle disconnections that keep picking up momentum. Those small micro-movements that push people away from one another.
Sometimes an organization goes through a tremendous transition in leadership that leaves staff and teams disconnected and disempowered. A restorative process can offer a reset, and a recommitment to their mission and each other. My process can be a one-on-one, or a large restorative event, anywhere from 2 people to 50 people. A timeline can go from one week, to a few months.
VALUE TO MY CLIENTS:
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Sustainable and more authentic relationships in organization
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A felt sense of belonging among team members
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Retention and increase employee satisfaction
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A greater sense of ease with a commitment to call-in culture
I understand people as symptoms of a system, and conflict tends to point us in the direction that needs attention. Think of conflict as the fever that lets you know something is off and needs attention. Systemically, Conflict and DEI-work go hand-in-hand. By default, when we start to do equity work, inequities are exposed and felt, so underlying conflicts naturally emerge.
101 Systems Thinking tells us that the job of any system is to keep running in order to survive. Anytime one system pushes on another, there will be an equal or greater force as a response. This should be expected, normalized, and depersonalized.
Systems by themselves are benign. It’s what the system is producing that we must pay attention to. I work with historical systems, societal systems, institutional systems, and in highly personal systems.
Systems, Conflict & DEI:
My Why:
I spend my time and energy in this area because:
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It contradicts the polarized and disconnected society we live in, anytime folks choose to step-in to repair, they are contradicting the systemic dominant culture of disconnection.
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Because it feeds my soul in a way that nothing else does. I get to walk people through conflict with the objective to support group dynamics and communication. I get to create a space where people can step in with the intention of learning and understanding.
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I get to contribute to a culture of human connection and care; I work on breaking down the illusion of our separation.
Questions that have guided my work for the last 8 years:
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How is it that brilliant people, in great organizations with clearly good missions end up as Adversaries?
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Why and how does this happen?
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After all… they all share the same mission – don’t they?!
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I believe in the absolute goodness in every person. I believe that everyone is doing the best they can. AND I believe that offering space and grace to people in conflict is healing not just for them and their workplace. But also, the restorative process or reconciliation has the power to transform your personal system as a human being.
My own identity journey as a Chicana-Mexicana has brought light and life into my work. My own reconciliation of having both colonized and colonizer ancestors has given me the gift of clear seeing, which gives me choice in how I respond to conflict. It also gives me a unique perspective of victims, perpetrators, and saviors.
My life and work purpose are shared, I want to contribute to the unification of the world, so I focus on people. My background in human development, my master in Management and organizational leadership, my foundation as a spiritual director and a practitioner of family and organizational constellations ground my practices.
My work is not only responsive to a conflict, I also work with organizations preemptively, to create a culture they want to live in. I get to help them create their island of sanity, a different way. One that is informed of the multiple layers of their systems in every interaction.
Please let me know if any of this resonates with you, and if you’d like to schedule a time to meet. I would love to support your leadership and your team’s cohesion.