Disrupting Our Practice
Welcome to the Disrupting Our Practice podcast archives!
This podcast was one way that I and my colleague, Greg Flynn, kept ourselves in our anti-racism work. In it, we share our often ungraceful attempts at being better anti-racists as well our thoughts on what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.
Ep. 14 - What are the ways I'm centering myself?
Following up on our conversation in Episode 13—Our stories aren't being told properly, with our friend and colleague 'N'—we thought we'd once again pull back the curtain a bit and do some debriefing.
N shared some vulnerable stories with us, which got us thinking about our experiences, and the ways we often center ourselves. We also explore how easy it is for us white-bodied folks to never actually explore how racism lives in us.
What did N's stories in the last episode stir up for you? What reactions do you have to our reflections?
Ep. 12 - Our role in the room
Once again we’re reaching into the vault to an episode we recorded a little while ago. That said, it’s an evergreen topic for sure.
All too often, we find ourselves contemplating the question of “what’s my role?” As white-bodied folks, this can be a complex enough question. Throw in the role of facilitator (or other holder of space), and things can get real tricky. We wanted to grapple with this question, using some lived experience as a jumping off point for discussion.
We’d love to hear how you think about the questions that we pose in this episode. What comes up for you when you think about navigating the charge of race in your role as a facilitator? A manager? A coach?
Ep. 11 - The impulse to leapfrog
In just about all of our programs, usually pretty early on, someone asks, “When are we going to get to taking action?” It’s certainly an important question, but perhaps it reveals something about the way we’ve been conditioned.
What if, instead of jumping right to action, we did some foundational work first? What if we wrestled with some hard questions, developed our capacity to be in the charge of race, build deep and meaningful relationships?
Ep. 10 - There’s a listening problem: A conversation with Aaron Johnson
We had a little technology glitch, and Shannon dropped off right at the top of this call. But the energy was already rolling and so we decided to keep going.
This week, we are joined by our teacher, mentor, and friend Aaron Johnson of Holistic Resistance. It’s a wide reaching conversation with Aaron modeling how we can disrupt our bios, introducing ourselves to one another in a deeper, more meaningful way.
We talked about the unfair questions that he’s introduced us to, and that he brings into his consulting engagements, offering the listener an opportunity to sit with one. And we talked about how our inability to listen makes it possible for racism to continue to fester in our organizations and our culture.
Ep. 9 - Let's get practical
We found out what happens when we both come in with a lot of capacity - we dive in deep! This week, we thought we would turn to the practical question of designing in light of the things that we’ve been talking about.
What does it mean to tak what we are learning, understanding, unpacking, and hopefully feeling into designing our facilitations? We highlight one of the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture - Quantity Over Quality - as part of what we might be thinking about in our design.
In this conversation, we explore:
When we put the agenda before the needs of the people in the room
Questions we get asked like, “Can the meeting be shorter” or “Isn’t that just the way things are?”
The role our personal practice plays in how we design
What is centered when we are designing?
Plus a lot more.
Ep. 8 - The intention under the intention was my comfort
This week we’re reaching back to an episode we recorded a few weeks ago, one where we share some of our own stories where we missed the mark when. As we know, as white-bodied folks it’s so easy to think we “get it” and not realize just how much we don’t.
We wanted to share these not for praise, but to help normalize some of the challenges around this work and encourage others to begin to look at the ways they have unwittingly caused some harm. How can we continue to develop the capacity to be with the shame that arises when talking about these things, without turning away from it (and we talk about the distinction between feeling shame, and being shamed).
Ep. 7 - Talking about trauma stories (and some of your questions!)
We’ve been really excited to start getting questions from listeners! Thank you to those who have taken the time to listen to the podcast and share what it brings to mind. As we were talking about the questions that folks have shared with us, it made sense to tie them to the ways that our trauma stories play a role in this work.
We talk a bit about individual and collective trauma (heavily influenced by the work of Resmaa Menakem), grounding into the body and regulating the nervous system, and the challenges of this for white-bodied folks in particular.
Ep. 1 - Trying to disrupt our own world
Welcome to Disrupting Our Practice – a weekly podcast dedicated to the exploration of what white-bodied leadership and organizational development consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers need to disrupt in their practices in order to stop unwittingly perpetuating racism, oppression and harm.
In this episode, Shannon and Greg introduce themselves, talk a bit about what the podcast will be, check in, and invite the listener to track how they are experiencing what they are hearing.