How to Talk About Difficult Topics for Leaders
Date: October 22, 2024
Time:
2-5pm, Dinner 5-7pm
Location: Conscious Revolution (in person, location TBD)
Cost: $300 (sliding scale available, see below)
Program Description: Just in time for election day and the holidays with relatives that you avoid talking to because they think differently than you, boost your confidence and skills in talking about any difficult topic, including the so-called taboo topics of race, politics, and religion. Learn how to connect with others across differences, expand out of silos and echo chambers, and appreciate and learn from one another. We’ll apply a mix of proven methods for shared understanding and finding common ground, such as nonviolent communication, difficult discussion frameworks and discussion models. You’ll practice having meaningful and impactful conversations about difficult topics in a way that creates connection, demonstrates empathy, and can lead to solving challenges collaboratively in a way you never imagined before.
Payment agreement and scholarships
Conscious Revolution is a Benefit Corporation and a Certified B Corp. Your financial support is making an impact.
Most programs have a set fee. In the case of sliding scale programs, we ask you to consider: What is the right amount for you? What are your financial means? Can you offer more so another person can join offerings in the Conscious Leadership Community? The majority of the program fee goes to paying facilitators to compensate for their contributions. Excess funds, if any, support making our future programs and events accessible to all those who would like to attend regardless of their ability to pay.
We do not want anyone to be turned away due to lack of resources and we intend for our offerings to be accessible to all leaders. We are also committed to fostering a community that is diverse and balanced. Need-based scholarships are typically reserved for BIPOC, LGBTQ+ folks and applicants from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
We do our best to find agreeable solutions for all, and though we cannot accommodate every request, we will always do our best, so please let us know what you may need.
Facilitators
Tara Jenkins (she/her)
Principal Consultant & Founder Conscious Revolution
I’ve got a couple of things I’m doing that I’d call my life’s joy (formerly called life’s work). Being a mom to my two kids gives me a chance to directly influence two people that will do great things in this beautiful, chaotic, wild world. Yes!
My life’s joy is also helping leaders build inspiring organizations that they love. There’s no better way to spend precious life time! The unique organizations we create together impact so many people for the better.
I have been told I’m a catalyst for transformation. To do this work I have a commitment to be awake in every aspect of my life, a commitment to equity and abundance, and a vow to be content in being both polished and a messy work in progress.
Witty things make me laugh. Kindred spirits fill me up. I love the sky, trees and water. Ask me to travel, sing, dance, hike, or see live music and I’m immediately in. Skiing and camping are a blast once you’ve started but the prep almost makes me not want to go. Someday I’ll be deeply settled in my body and soul and helping others to do the same.
And yeah, I have all those credentials one typically needs to be declared legit. Twenty-five plus wisdom-building years grinding it out as a global HR leader; Undergrad in Human Resources, Masters in Organizational Development & Leadership, Certifications galore. In 2019, I became one of the world’s first Certified Conscious Capitalism Consultants*.
Our work together will fill everyone, including us, with joy and inspiration. Yes, we can do that! Yes, that’s what we are doing! Join us!
Margot Fine (she/her)
Conscious Revolution Partner Consultant & Conscious Leadership Community Lead
My name is Margot - I love walking by the ocean with my husband, learning new things alongside my 3 kids, the smell of a campfire, getting my hands dirty in the garden, creating art, and making soup without recipes. I am a 3rd generation New Yorker, and have been building community for over 20 years in what is now called Portland, Maine. I have a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern Maine and am licensed as a clinical social worker, with my practice rooted in radical social change strategies for structural transformation and community justice.
For fifteen years, I was the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director at Maine Inside Out (MIO), an innovative transformative justice organization. Over the years and previous to work at MIO, I have been part of community based movements for social change from grassroots farming collectives focused on food sovereignty to large scale political campaigns intended to shift outdated systems. I’ve worked as a leader and coalition builder at various non profits and in school based settings. I’ve been an advocate and thought partner inside government systems focused on systemic changes that are truly inclusive and responsive to all. I’ve been a member of countless local committees and coalitions as well as nominated to sit on government advisory groups. In all environments - grassroots to government - and in all relationships - I hold steady on a path that is driven by a desire to build a more interconnected and equitable world. As a leader and collaborator, I bring a strong racial justice movement orientation to all of my work and strive to create cultures of integrity and trust across diverse teams of people, where all can feel confident to build meaningful relationships, be autonomous and collaborative, make mistakes, and learn and grow personally and collectively.
At Conscious Revolution, I am answering a call to co-create and support the Conscious Leadership Community - with the aim to creatively engage leaders and changemakers across sectors to accelerate progress toward personal healing, organizational change, and systemic and cultural transformation. I have personally been on a twenty five year journey that recognizes the inextricable link between inner work and its outer personal, professional and systemic manifestations, and look forward to being in community with others at all points of their journeys who share this recognition and commitment. I also work with non profit partners on higher purpose, values, and organizational design, and to support those that I am fortunate to work with to find the greatest alignment of their organizational purpose and values and to build practices and structures that create, nourish, and uphold the culture, community and world desired to live and work in.
Kati Tshikalu-John (she/her)
Consultant, Conscious Revolution
I have an affinity for seeing the joy in people when they make connections in whatever they’re seeking answers to. I look very serious, but I have a goofy side, and at least my oldest daughter can appreciate it. (not my youngest daughter so much) I appreciate a good sense of humor and speak sarcasm fluently. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is my birth home. New York City raised me, and now, as a military family traveling all over the USA, Colorado is where we are building our new community. I am Congolese-American, a term I learned as an adult that I can't identify with. I am struggling to write about myself because I find it so daunting. However, I do understand why it is essential for others to understand why I am in this space. I have two incredible daughters who teach me daily what freedom and free spirits look like. Through their world, I am constantly evolving and learning. I am married to a cool guy who loves cooking and fishing, and I love everything else but fishing, especially for our travel plans.
As a Congolese-American immigrant, my lived experience in the United States has fueled my passion for developing safe spaces and facilitating conversations about equity and belonging. In my past life, I worked in various positions in human resources in for-profit, non-profit, and government spaces. I stepped away from the workspace to be a stay-at-home mom, and now I am back on the journey of creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, and have a sense of belonging. I hold a bachelor's in management and soon a master's in organizational leadership. I greatly appreciate creating spaces of belonging and difficult conversations with diverse perspectives. The goal is not to get it right; it is to make mistakes and adjust; that is the process of humanness. I am a student of cultural understanding, its intersections with our identities, and how that can help us build community. On this journey, I found Conscious Revolution, a space where I can bring my values and vision to fruition among like-minded souls.