Welcome to She+ Geeks Out, the podcast bringing you the voices of women+ from all walks of life to share with you what they geek out about-- their passions, talents, struggles, and successes. In each episode, hosts Rachel Murray and Felicia Jadczak will feature different guests and discussions about topics including health, psychology, art, music, learning, and more. Episodes are fun, engaging, and provide some nuggets of information that you can take away. Oh, and yeah, they might be awkward sometimes. That's just how we roll.
This season of She+ Geeks Out is unlike any other so far. Together, we will be unpacking what the future of work looks like for different groups of people in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition to our special guests, listeners will also get to hear snippets from our facilitation team on what DEI really looks like in the workplace from a practical, actionable standpoint.
When we think about work and the current hustle culture climate, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Today, we spoke with some of our favorite experts, leaders and facilitators about workplace trauma, psychological safety, somatics and emotional intelligence. To begin, we hear from Belma McCaffrey, Founder and CEO of Workbigger, about what it looks like to work from a healthy place. She shares that finding our sense of purpose within ourselves is key to feeling clarity and satisfaction in our jobs. Additionally, we should recognize that we have the power to decide what work should fulfill for ourselves rather than letting society make the decision for us. She also breaks down the concept of the 3 selves: the healthy, wounded and survivor self.
SGO’s Fatima Dainkeh defines somatics as a technique, theory, movement or method which helps us think about our body and the things we may be processing internally but are unaware of. The idea that things like trauma, joy and pain live within our bodies is traditional among ancient cultures. Then, SGO’s Rachel Sadler defines psychological safety as the belief that you will not be punished for speaking up. It is an important component of employee satisfaction and retention, and can help ensure that people are willing to take the intellectual steps necessary for innovation. We live in a fear-based society to the point that a resting state feels unnatural for many people. Dr. Huong Diep elaborates on the concept of intergenerational trauma and offers advice for how we can show up to work in a supportive and authentic way.
Next, we hear from Dr. Becca Shanksy, Associate Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, about the research her team is working on at the university’s Laboratory of Neuroanatomy and Behavior. The research focuses on what happens to the brain when a person experiences a traumatic event. They are also aiming to understand the neural circuits that cause darting to happen in certain subsects of female animals. Then, Karina Becerra, Director of Customer Advocacy at Podium, shares about modeling healthy team boundaries and supporting individuals with different backgrounds from her own. She finds that when people are happy and maintain work and life balance, it shows in the work that they do.
We also hear from Melanie Ho, author of Beyond Leaning In, on the common psychological and emotional abuse which frequently occurs in the workplace. This is also what has driven much of the great resignation. As we see more young people entering the workforce, we need to be sure that we do not continue to perpetuate these behaviors. If there are no people in power who will hear these concerns and respond with empathy, then an organization will never really make progress in this area. Naomi Seddon joins to share about work life boundaries for women and how she began to implement them for herself. She acknowledges that we all do hold certain biases whether we realize it or not. The first step is to recognize these biases, and then start to work on implementing change on how we perceive others.
Dr. Victoria Verlezza, DEI Facilitator at SGO, speaks about how we can show up to support a healthy work environment. When we’re supporting a healthy work environment, we want to consider how the systems (ableism, sexism, racism, etc) are playing into our daily interactions and how we think of productivity. As leaders, we need to embrace flexibility and model that same behavior ourselves to show the people we’re supervising that it’s okay to take time off. In closing, we hear from Elisa Campos-Pratorof Scott’s Cheap Flights about addressing psychological safety during the onboarding process of hiring. It is top of mind for everything to be documented and communication to happen asynchronously. It is a major priority of hers to allow new employees to showcase their own style of working rather than giving them specific guidelines to adhere to.
Thanks so much for listening. Please don’t forget to rate, share, subscribe and tune in next week when we talk about building out a DEI program!
Timestamps:
1:38 - Introducing today’s episode.
2:01 - Belma McCaffrey shares her perspective on what working from a healthy place looks like.
9:22 - Helping people address workplace trauma.
13:40 - Discussing somatics with SGO’s Fatima Dainkeh.
17:44 - Discussing psychological safety.
24:22 - The shifting discussion around the body experience from Dr, .
27:15 - Advice for people struggling to show up to work in a supportive and authentic way.
29:37 - Dr. Becca Shansky on the research being conducted in the Laboratory of Neuroanatomy and Behavior at Northeastern University.
32:19 - Karina Becerra on modeling healthy team boundaries and supporting people from different backgrounds.
39:00 - The difficulty in leaving abusive job situations.
42:02 - Naomi Seddon speaks against the mindset of “pushing through”.
58:55 - Elisa Campos-Prator on supporting new team members.
1:02:12 - Thanks for joining us for this episode of She+ Geeks Out.
Contributors to this episode are:
Visit us at InclusionGeeks.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out Inclusion Geeks Academy and InclusionGeeks.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.
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