Week 46: Chocolate Crinkle Cookies & "Right Within"

Why this book?⁠

⁠

As I am on this journey to read 52 books this year there are some books that create different feelings for me. As I read Minda Hart share her story of reclaiming power and working through the trauma of toxic workplaces the words calm, clear and grounded kept coming to my mind. ⁠

⁠

Every example highlighted how she chose to take her power back and heal. Her book is filled with compassion and lots of tools to help the reader regain their power. Now I am a white woman reading this book so for me I really appreciated learning and understanding from her experience as a black woman. The part that I could relate to was the toxic work culture and having a toxic manager which led me to going on short term disability in 2019. ⁠

⁠

The chapter titled “How Will I Know” discusses a mindset shift where Minda realized instead of asking the question of can I bring my authentic self to work but whose version of authenticity are we talking about. I find this really interesting because it really is the authenticity that is acceptable in white environments. ⁠

⁠

Another powerful term she used was “vibrating higher” and that situations will happen but you will be unbothered by them. By vibrating higher you realize you do not need to deal with dumb sh&t anymore. ⁠

⁠

Minda shares the tools that helped her heal with the intention of helping others. She is very real and says your journey may take longer and you have to be easy on yourself. I appreciate her chapter on the importance of her faith and religion. Religion is still not talked about a lot these days and it is an important part of people’s lives so I am glad she shared her story and tools with the world. If you haven't read her first book the Memo please go do that as well. ⁠

Week 45: Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies⁠ & "No Regrets"

This week we are featuring "No Regrets": How To Live Today For Tommorow's Emotional Well-Being" written by Dr. Bill Howatt and Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies⁠

⁠

WHY THIS BOOK:⁠

Maybe it is that time of year where I am taking time to reflect on what I have accomplished in 2022 and thought this book would help provide some support.⁠

⁠

This book provided a framework called ERP (No not Enterprise Resource Planning) but Expect unpleasant emotions, Resist reacting and Pivot toward a pleasant emotion. The author goes into great detail about these three items. Each chapter has reflection questions at the end which I am noticing now more authors are doing that. I really like to have the recap and questions at the end for when I want to review again at a later date.⁠

⁠

There is a section in the book that discusses what can you control and what can't you control. I spend a lot of time asking myself this. When you want to move things along to create an inclusive environment there are some things that happen and you have no control over. I am slowly learning to let these things go or approach it differently. ⁠

⁠

The chapter on writing a positive mindset was my favourite and discusses how to practice gratitude on a daily basis and how fun is good for your emotional well-being. Fun is one of my core values and being able to bring fun into difficult and often serious conversations is one of my super powers. This book was a great reminder to take the time, have compassion and expect that unpleasant emotions will come up. The question really is how are you going to respond to these emotions. ⁠

⁠

I will leave you with a couple questions that really stood out to me:⁠

Where will you focus your energy?⁠

When was the last time you felt peace of mind?⁠

⁠

Week 44: Vanilla Almond Biscotti & "Leading Inclusion"

This week is dedicated to Leading Inclusion, by @GenaCoxPHD and Vanilla Almond Biscotti.

Leading Inclusion is another favourite book of mine. I was able to read the book on a recent flight from Vancouver to Montreal and I will say I love this book and I learned a lot.

The author Gena Cox uses “REDI” instead of “EDI” which stands for Respect, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Her reasoning for having Respect as the first word is because if leaders do not first ensure that equity deserving groups feel respected, nothing else matters. I couldn’t agree more with this statement.

Respect is absolutely crucial.

The book is broken into 3 parts: Mindset, Boldness and Action. Each chapter has a recap and questions for you to reflect on which is really great as a reminder.

There is a really great exercise on page 89 to understand your beliefs asking you to reflect on questions like do you interact with others outside of your race outside of work?

Later in the chapter the author shares an example of sharing a meal with employees where the host would ask this very important question “If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life whom you don't give enough credit or thanks to, who would that be?” Now this was my aha moment where I thought how can I use this in my daily work. Just think if we asked ourselves this on a regular basis.

Every Thursday I have put a reminder in my calendar to reflect on who I haven't given enough credit to. There is a great section on organization readiness outlining whether you have a diversity, equity or inclusion issue. For example you have an equity issue if you discover employees of colour are hired and promoted into the least paying, least flexible jobs. Again this is very tangible to measure.

Cox does a really great job to make things practical which I really appreciate. Over the last 7 years I have read many books that are very theoretical when it comes to EDI & having practical examples that I can use in my workplace the next day is really great.

Have you read this book yet? If so, let me know your thoughts.