Chicago Virtual Monthly Workshop: Creating Belonging: A Practical Approach to Accelerate Belonging in Organizations and Communities

In my nearly 20 years as a practitioner in the talent development field, I've encountered a number of interventions related to Diversity & Inclusion. Yet, with all the time and resources invested, we've  collectively failed to move the needle. 

Based both on my personal experience and through research, it seems many interventions turn away the very people they’re intended to impact. As I continued to explore why this is, I kept coming back to concepts of deep self-awareness and radical acceptance of others. The result of this work is my 2022 book, Creating Belonging: A Practical Guide to Accelerate Belonging in Organizations and Communities.

The Creating Belonging model describes how belonging is created at the intersection of authenticity and acceptance. Additionally, it describes four areas we may find ourselves in various communities: recluse, overbearing, minimizing, or belonging. We can move among those four areas depending on the community and what’s going on in our lives.

In this session, I’ll briefly describe the Creating Belonging model and then lead the group through individual reflection and small group discussions to explore how they balance authenticity and acceptance, and create a plan to move further into belonging.

Learning Objectives:

• Reflect on one’s own identities, which they present with authenticity and those which they may hide. 
• Examine one's own expression of Authenticity & Acceptance in a community to which they belong. 
• Create a plan to move into a place of Creating Belonging in a community to which they belong.