Expecting the Ally that You Refuse to Be? – Part II
A Gemisode™ Series – Part II Dr. Sarah Webb, in a 2017 essay explained that internalized oppression was “the belief among historically oppressed people that negative stereotypes about themselves and positive stereotypes about a dominant group are, in fact true.” Delving deeper into the dangers of internalized oppression, the 2022 Forbes article by Janice Gassam […]
Expecting the Ally that You Refuse to Be?
A Gemisode™ Series – Part I “The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.”― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed If guaranteed allies were freely handed out, who wouldn’t line up? Receiving support when experiencing difficulty can have a positive impact on our mental and emotional state, yet, […]
So, You Want To Be AJEDI-B™ Master? – Part II
A Gemisode™ Series – Part II In part I, we shared established terms connected to the tenets of diversity and then offered our own and broader approach, AJEDI-B ™. We then went on to highlight the harm and impact marginalized communities experience as a result of organizations continually narrowing diversity to an exercise of count. […]
Leadership Fail Statements, Gemisode 1, Pt. 2 (What to Say Instead)
In part I, we shared the first and might we add, epic, Leadership Fail Statement, “I’ll find time in the coming weeks”. The statement was made by a C-suite executive to an employee who escalated an issue they’d been unsuccessfully navigating and attempting to resolve with the direct leadership team of said executive for months. […]
“Psychological Safety” is Aspirational, not lived Reality – Part II
A Gemisode™ Series – Part II In part I, we presented the concepts and definitions central to the series, specifically, intersectionality and psychological safety. We then connected the concepts and highlighted the researched benefits (e.g., increased team performance, retention, and effective communication) of psychological safety in the workplace before sharing our belief around why psychological […]
“Psychological Safety” is Aspirational, not lived Reality – Part I
A Gemisode™ Series – Part I Could one ever feel safe in an environment that refused to acknowledge their intersectional identities and experiences? Simply put—nope. Intersectionality, as coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, is defined as: “A lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not […]
Leadership Fail Statements, Gemisode I, Pt. 1
When an employee finally musters the courage to reach out to you after being subjected to a toxic and harmful situation that has involved several parties, including your leadership team, who have either: 1) Been the cause of said harm or 2) Failed to adequately acknowledge or address the harm Your response should NOT be, […]
So, you want to be AJEDI-B™ Master?
A Gemisode™ Series – Part I “Do or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda In the more than 40 years since Yoda first uttered those words in The Empire Strikes Back, they still hold true today—we either commit to AJEDI-B™ Mastery, or we don’t. Recently, we heard an organization proudly state, “We have a […]