Silicon Mountain: Finding Multi-Stakeholder Wins in the eWaste industry

by LeeAnn Mallory | Conscious Capitalism, Leadership, Purpose/Mission, RiseRadio

Silicon Mountain | Finding Multi-Stakeholder Wins in the eWaste industry

Hillary and Joel Patterson transformed a business opportunity into a passion project. After designing ERP solutions for clients in the electronic waste recycling industry, they jumped into the fascinating world of recycling, repair and redistribution of the electronics we regularly toss in our trash. They became SO passionate that they privately funded and produced a documentary, Silicon Mountain.

Episode 20 | September 15, 2020

Links

Joel Patterson

The Vested Group

Silicon Mountain Movie

IFIXIT

Show Notes

It’s the ultimate win-win-win situation where we help the environment, we help businesses, we help people – the products that are sent off to other countries can help with education. There’s just such a big benefit. I wanted to show what all the opportunities are, and how individuals and companies can make a difference.

– Hillary Patterson, The Vested Group

The Unintended Impact of Constant Innovation

Today we use more electronics and gadgets than at any point in history. Electronics are used in everyday life, with people upgrading their phones to the latest model, buying new technology for their companies, homes and more. This raises the question: What happens to the waste? How can we recycle and safely dispose of it? And who might this benefit?

What is Electronic Recycling?

[17:05] “Only 20% of any of the waste in the world gets recycled. So that shows you the potential of growth and the amount that can be gained by just recycling our own devices… “Such a small percentage of what’s out there that can be recycled is actually being recycled… Approximately 400,000 smartphones are thrown away every day in the United States.”

[18:14] There’s $343 million worth of gold in those phones, $46 million worth of silver. If we don’t recycle that, then we have to dig that out of the earth again. The environmental ramifications are obviously ongoing and large – something that we can easily take a big chunk out of.”

[33:31] “They have almost unlimited demand for their products when they recycle and repair these items that come in. Their struggle as [an eWaste company] is getting this stuff.”

What About Data Security?

[20:58] “As long as you’re going to a certified recycler, they have the process in place…as long as you’re using somebody reputable, they’re going to take care of it … because their reputation is on the line as well; they’re going to make sure that that that it’s secure before it’s actually sent to anyone.”

A Circular Economy

[22:47]“It’s taking something that one person has stopped using. And a lot of times people will buy the new iPhone because they want a new iPhone, not because there’s anything wrong with the last one that they have. Instead of leaving it in a drawer, they’re giving it to somebody that can either sell it, refurbish it, and putting it back into the economy.”

Silicon Mountain Documentary

Premier Information:
Date: Thursday, September 17th , 2020
Time: 7pm CST
Streamed through: http://www.siliconmountainmovie.com/

Thank you for listening and reading! I’ve included links to various resources covered in this episode.

And remember…Elevate Your Part of the World!

To learn more about Joel and Hillary Patterson and The Vested Group please visit:
Joel Patterson http://www.thevested.com/meet-your-team
The Vested Group http://www.thevested.com/netsuite-provider-the-vested-group
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-vested-group/?trk=top_nav_home
https://twitter.com/TheVestedGroup
https://www.instagram.com/thevestedgroup/
https://www.facebook.com/VestedGroup/

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Achieving Workforce Excellence | Trudy Bourgeois: Equality, Inclusion + Diversity Expert

by LeeAnn Mallory | Culture, Engagement, Leadership, RiseRadio

Achieving Workforce Excellence | Trudy Bourgeois: Equality, Inclusion + Diversity Expert

Trudy Bourgeois came to the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reluctantly. She wanted ‘nothing to do with’ previous ineffective efforts to improve DEI in organizations. Yet the work kept calling her. As a former executive in a Fortune 500 consumer products company she brings pragmatism and passion. And results.

Episode 19 | September 8, 2020

Links

Trudy Bourgeois

Center for Workforce Excellence

Equality: Courageous Conversations About Women, Men and Race to Spark a Diversity and Inclusion Breakthrough

Proctor & Gamble #TakeOnRace

Show Notes

When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up.

You have to say something; you have to do something.

John Lewis

Former U.S. Representative

Civil Rights Activist

Trudy Bourgeois came to the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reluctantly. She wanted ‘nothing to do with’ previous ineffective efforts to improve DEI in organizations. Yet the work kept calling her. As a former executive in a Fortune 500 consumer products company Trudy brings pragmatism and passion. And results.

Here’s what to pay attention to as you listen to the episode today: first, where she sees hope for the changing landscape in terms of equity in organizations. Second, listen to Trudy’s perspective on how to own the value that you bring to your organization so that you can speak with authenticity and with power. This is particularly for women of color and women in general. Third, listen for Trudy’s perspective on the role of white and black women in moving the equity conversation forward.

Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a Business Imperative? Tell the Truth

[09:31]: This is not new. What is new is that through the power of a smartphone, people had an emotional connection. Their consciousness was touched. I think that organizations would say many of them, that they were on the journey. I would humbly submit that they might have been on the journey, they hadn’t gone very far.

So many of them would say, it’s a business imperative. I don’t know – as a former line manager, I don’t know what business imperative would go unresolved for 50 years and people would keep their jobs.

Owning Your Value = Power to Choose

[15:45]: If people realize, you spend the largest percentage of your life at work. Why do you want to wake up every day and put a mask on and go pretend to be somebody that you’re not, just so that you can get a paycheck? If your value is that good, then you know what? Your attitude, it should always be, “I am choosing to give my gifts and talents and add my value and impact here. I’m not being held hostage to stay here. I’m making a choice.”

[18:49] … organizations talk about innovation, yet when you stifle people and you put them in a box and then they get scared and then they don’t know their value, you’re not going to have any innovation and you’re sure not going to have any collaboration. You sure are not going to have all the things that people write up about how they want to function as a company, but this notion of knowing your value is so important. It’s important for everybody, that it’s especially important for women and people of color.

Women Hold the Key

[28:42] … I am specifically calling on women, us, to stop pointing the finger at men and the lack of progress that we’ve made. This is not to suggest that we don’t need male champions, but I am calling on us to have the courageous conversations.

Thank you for listening and reading! I’ve included links to various resources covered in this episode.

And remember…Elevate Your Part of the World!

Trudy Bourgeois https://workforceexcellence.com/trudy/

Twitter: @trudybourgeois

Center for Workforce Excellence https://workforceexcellence.com/

Equality: Courageous Conversations About Women, Men and Race to Spark a Diversity and Inclusion Breakthrough

https://www.amazon.com/Equality-Courageous-Conversations-Diversity-Breakthrough/dp/1976596335/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1X53JAOD87D10&dchild=1&keywords=trudy+bourgeois&qid=1599318403&sprefix=trudy+bour%2Caps%2C168&sr=8-1

HBR: Why Diversity Efforts Fail https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail

Questioneering, Joseph Bradley https://www.amazon.com/Questioneering-Model-Innovative-Leaders-Digital/dp/1944027440/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=joseph+bradley&qid=1599318601&sr=8-8

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/06/share-the-mic-now-instagram-campaign

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

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Using Poetry to Expand Perspective | Start Close In

by LeeAnn Mallory | Awareness, Engagement, Leadership, RiseRadio

Using Poetry to Expand Perspective | Start Close In

Poetry can be a powerful developmental tool to help high-achieving personalities transcend the linear and analytical world of business in order to integrate a world of beauty and whole-system thinking. Rick Voirin has incorporated poetry in his coaching and leadership for years and has seen firsthand the profound impact that it can have in professional growth and self-development. In this special episode, LeeAnn and Rick discuss the work of author and poet David Whyte, and how the poem “Start Close In” directs us to take the first step that leads to change.

Episode 18 | September 1, 2020

Links

Rick Voirin

A Guide for Reading Poetry

David Whyte

David Whyte reading Start Close In

Show Notes

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, engineering, business, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.

But poetry, beauty, romance, love,

this is what we stay alive for.

John Keating

Dead Poets Society

Leadership Beyond ‘Just the Facts’

Good literature has the power to help us better understand the human condition. Poetry and other creative writing evokes something deep in us; it widens our perspective and helps us connect with parts of ourselves (and others) that otherwise we wouldn’t have easy access to.

Poetry can also be a powerful developmental tool to help leaders and ‘Type A’ personalities transcend the linear and analytical world of business. In this special episode, LeeAnn and Rick discuss the work of author and poet David Whyte, and how the poem “Start Close In” directs us to take the first step that leads to change.

Start Close In

2020 has been a year of big, complex challenges. Racial tensions have been high and organizational leaders are expected to meaningfully respond. This pressure, and the fear of ‘cancel culture’ has caused many to pause; to defer doing anything until they have it all figured out. David Whyte’s poem, Start Close In admonishes us to, “… don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take.“

Links to the poem, A Guide for Reading Poetry and additional resources can be found at the end of these notes.

24:53 – “If we really engage something, whether it’s a poem or a piece of art or a piece of literature or something that’s happening on a screen In front of us in a movie, the first approximation is just the way that the information lands in our senses. And then what starts to show up as we relate with that, that happens, like in a back and forth conversation.”

27:25 – “Poetry or good literature is an invitation into a deeper relationship with life, a deeper reflection on the meaning of one’s life. And what one is caring about (…) and what one might intend to do with one’s wild and precious life.”

29:24 – “When I try to start big, it’s probably because I’m seeking an excuse to get out of doing anything. The big stuff is beyond my reach, at least at the moment. But if I start close in, I’ll find things I can do right now.”

Resources Mentioned on this Podcast:

A Guide for Reading Poetry

The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, by David Whyte
https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Aroused-Preservation-Corporate-America/dp/0385484186

Interview with Bonnie Pittman:
https://rise-leaders.com/awe_art_observation_bonnie_pitman/

Connect to Rick Voirin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-voirin-a43413/

David Whyte’s work:
https://www.davidwhyte.com/

David Whyte reading Start Close In:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=030YqrN4SFc

How to Talk about Race at work:
https://rise-leaders.com/how-to-talk-about-race-at-work

Start Close In – The On Being Project
https://onbeing.org/blog/start-close-in/

Dead Poet’s Society – John Keating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1esgRV4Rc

Autobiography in 5 Chapters

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Building Trust at Work: The Trust Equation

by LeeAnn Mallory | Culture, Engagement, Leadership, RiseRadio, Servant Leadership

Building Trust at Work| The Trust Equation

High Trust environments invite people to focus their precious energy and passion on creating and delivering value rather than on managing politics, their reputation and their image. In this episode, I walk through The Trust Equation, a model that illustrates distinct, yet nuanced elements of trustworthiness.

Links

LeeAnn Mallory

Trust Equation Guide

The Trusted Advisor

Trusted Advisor Associates

Show Notes

If you want a high-trust workplace, be trustworthy!

The Value of a High Trust Workplace

High Trust environments invite people to focus their precious energy and passion on creating and delivering value rather than on managing politics, their reputation and their image.

The ability to show up authentically and to openly collaborate creates a path of least resistance. The lack of friction produces freedom and flow. In high-trust organizations, people show up as their authentic selves, maximizing teamwork and solid relationships.

So how do you go about creating a high-trust environment? A quick search on Amazon for books on Trust reveals over 80,000 titles; narrowing the search to building trust gives us over 10,000 results. There is no shortage for approaches and models for Trust.

In this episode, we delve into Charles Green’s Trust Equation, a model that illustrates distinct, yet nuanced elements of trustworthiness. You’ll have the opportunity to explore the level of trustworthiness in one of your relationships from three different perspectives by using the Trust Equation.

Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy and Self-Orientation

05:06 – “(…) think of all models as a trellis. They give us something to hold on to – a structure for growth and reaching out. And not to get too deep with the metaphor, but we also need to remember to clear out the dead stuff that no longer serves the living organism.”

06:50 – “Both Credibility and Reliability can be observed, or measured, and take less emotional energy than Intimacy.

09:25 – “Self-orientation – Take a moment to reflect on the term, self-orientation. What do you think of when you think of someone who is self-oriented?”

14:26 – “Use the equation as a journaling tool, using the initial ratings as a starting point and going deeper from there. (…) Focus on yourself and raising your own rating. You can even ask someone whom YOU trust to share their ratings of you.”

How did you do? What were the most surprising results?

For more resources highlighted in this episode please visit the links below:

A Guide to the Trust Equation:

https://rise-leaders.com/trust-equation-guide-2/

Episode 15: How to Talk About Race at Work
https://rise-leaders.com/how-to-talk-about-race-at-work/
Charles Green: The Trusted Advisor on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Trusted-Advisor-David-H-Maister/dp/0743212347/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Charles+Green%27s+The+Trusted+Advisor&qid=1597958450&sr=8-2

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

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High Fidelity Conversations: Nine Elements for Launching Culture Change

by LeeAnn Mallory | Change, Culture, Engagement, Leadership, RiseRadio, Servant Leadership

High Fidelity Conversations: Nine Elements for Launching Culture Change

These types of conversations are High Fidelity because they provide strength and resonance for the people who engage in them. They’re designed to support the Core Ideology of the organization and especially support the people experiencing the change. LeeAnn describes nine elements important for launching these conversations.

Links

LeeAnn Mallory

A Guide to High Fidelity Conversations

Episode 15: How to Talk About Race at Work

Show Notes

“Waiting until you have created the perfect, most elegant solution keeps you out of today’s game. Launch it!”

High Fidelity Conversations Support Culture Change

Organizations are constantly changing and responding to both external and internal events.

Mergers and acquisitions, disruptive technology, and various economic pressures, like those brought on by the Covid pandemic are prime examples. This year, in addition to facing a pandemic, the US had to deal with hard truths on racial injustice, and the need to address the topic in the workplace was no longer avoidable.

On a previous Podcast episode, How to Talk About Race at Work, Drew Clancy and Lori Bishop shared how they tackled the topic head-on at PCI. They explained why they didn’t wait for the perfect long-term solution to address concerns about race and how they tied the conversations to their values and focus on increasing trust throughout the organization.

Whether your goal is to step fully into conversations about race, or to committing to the successful adaptation of a critical change to your culture, it’s important to provide strength, alignment, and resonance, – or fidelity – for the people who engage in them.

Do you know how to provide the proper framework for these delicate conversations?

This entire episode has been created to guide leaders on how to begin culture change in their organization by following these nine actionable concepts for designing high fidelity conversations.

A Few Elements from the Guide Described in the Episode

05:52 – “Create a vision that everyone can see themselves in. And what that means is, create a compelling future that matters for people. People need to see how the change is going to benefit them and the organization long term.”

07:26 – “And with conversations, that means listening and learning and being open to other points of view.”

10:36 – “Waiting will keep you out of the game today. And you want to balance this immediate action with the longer-term creation of policies and structures that provide resistance-free solutions.”

11:43 – “Naming the effort gives people language for how to refer to the change”.

For more resources highlighted in this audio episode please follow the links below:

Episode 15: How to Talk About Race at Work

A Guide to High Fidelity Conversations

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How to Talk About Race at Work

by LeeAnn Mallory | Change, Conscious Capitalism, Culture, Engagement, RiseRadio, Servant Leadership

How to Talk About Race at Work

Publishing Concepts (PCI) didn’t wait for the perfect long-term solution to address concerns about race. Drew Clancy, President, and Lori Bishop, CPO, saw people hurting and they responded. They thoughtfully organized Meaningful Conversations as a way to talk about race. This is their first step for improving long term trust and for healing throughout the entire workplace.

Episode 15 | August 11, 2020

Links

Show Notes

“What we’re creating here is, first and foremost, just living our values. Just being who we say we are and digging deeper as it relates to the structural racism that we have all been forced to live in here in the United States...”

Lori Bishop, CPO, Publishing Concepts – PCI

“I think this calls for leadership and leaning into it… I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to ultimately strengthen the culture of the organization and have better conversations, better relationships, a stronger organization. ”

Drew Clancy, President, Publishing Concepts – PCI

Are You Having Meaningful Conversations About Race?

Organizations are all over the map in terms of how they’re addressing the issue of racial and social justice within their own companies. I can empathize with the feelings of uncertainty and fear of doing or saying the wrong thing.

Where do you even start?

Conversations in this domain can be delicate and deserve to be handled with care. It takes courage, commitment, and humility to open oneself to hear the experiences of those who have been marginalized. It can be uncomfortable.

It can also be transformational – on all levels.

Following are a few quotes and several links. I will be following up with more podcasts and tools to help you along your journey. Stay tuned.

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

Start By Listening to Experiences

[06:28] Drew: …what I said to them that afternoon was, I’m really just here to listen and I’m interested in your perspective. Many of these guys, we’ve worked together for many years but we’d never had a conversation about race or these types of issues, and it was, I will say, for me, very eye-opening and just the level of frustration, the level of discouragement, the hopelessness in certain cases around what was going on.

Each of the men told some version of a story of growing up and a parent or maybe a grandparent saying, “When you leave this house, you need to be very careful what you say, how you act, especially around law enforcement.” After that conversation, it really struck me that the advice they were getting was you essentially have to be invisible. Again, good advice, but what a message to hear.

I’m just fed up, and we’ve reached a moment in time when action is required here. As businesses, as a for-profit business, perhaps businesses can be on the – We can be part of the solution.

Vulnerability + Courage

[10:21] Lori: I was afraid. I have learned that I’m going to have to take off some masks. …. There was a level of safety and caution that I wasn’t sure I can let go of and really embrace from a trust perspective. I had to tell myself, as a black person, all the things that I’ve heard from growing up and how my safety depended on me never trusting in white people. I had to admit that to myself before I could help Drew on this journey.

Structure Your Conversations About Race

[19:04] Lori: … the original conversations had breakout sessions … and people are very unvarnished and open … people are embracing it. They’re asking questions. They’re doing their homework. They’re sharing stories. They’re coming into levels of self-awareness that they never thought that they would have as people, and they’re doing it at work. To be able to experience this with people has been incredibly fulfilling.

… and people are answering with real-life experiences. We’ve made that a rule because we don’t want to start debating, as Drew says, politics and a bunch of whataboutisms and frankly just ways to stay stuck on either side of this issue. … We decided that trust was the only way to get there…

More Links from this Episode: