Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
Summary
Details to come.
Key Insights
-
•
Starting meetings or classes with a simple warm-up increases attentiveness and presence.
-
•
Remote teaching often results in students keeping cameras off, impacting engagement, but this can be navigated with inclusive strategies.
-
•
Peloton taught the speaker practical leadership lessons including compassion, collaboration, and community support.
-
•
Consistency is critical in leadership and personal growth, exemplified by the speaker's 73-week exercise streak.
-
•
Inclusive leadership requires acknowledging where people are physically and emotionally, offering alternatives accordingly.
-
•
Organizations must consistently provide education and enforce policies addressing discrimination, considering intersectional identities.
-
•
Leadership must listen actively and avoid placing the burden of diversity work solely on marginalized groups.
-
•
Recognizing external stressors such as global events is essential to empathetic leadership and inclusive workplaces.
-
•
Language matters; everyday expressions can unintentionally exclude or offend marginalized communities.
-
•
Inclusion and accessibility should be embedded into every designer's responsibilities, not isolated to specialists.
Notable Quotes
"I had you all do a warm-up before we started to help everyone be present and calm."
"Sometimes working with a bunch of boxes and letters on Zoom was the reality of remote classes."
"Be compassionate with yourself and others. Not everyone likes high fives, and that's okay."
"Collaboration is key. I'm never alone in a Peloton class, even at 4:30 in the morning."
"Consistency is key. I'm on a 73-week streak right now, and that's pretty badass."
"Identity is not monolithic; policies should address layered experiences."
"It is not the responsibility of marginalized groups to do all the educating about their experiences."
"Listen is a skill that is not emphasized enough in leadership."
"Watch your language; terms like 'that's so lame' can be exclusionary or offensive."
"Inclusion and accessibility need to be part of every designer's role, even if today it is one person's job."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The user identity is a digital construct that commodifies humans for their data."
Tricia WangFrom Users to Shapers of AI: The Future of Research
March 25, 2024
"Maturity is not linear; the tanker company had a lot to learn from the speedboat, and vice versa."
John CutlerOxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
December 3, 2024
"Artifacts didn’t happen if they’re not documented; they’re decision-making points in the product process."
Erika Kincaid Brenna Heaps Jessica TsukimuraConnecting the Dots: How to Foster Collaboration and Build a Strong Design Review Culture
June 8, 2022
"There’s a huge gap between theory and practice when it comes to prioritization in complex dynamic environments."
John Cutler Harry MaxPrioritization for designers and product managers (1st of 3 seminars)
June 13, 2024
"On lower layers, research spaces are limited and focused, while at higher layers, problem spaces are ambiguous and require holistic approaches."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"The story of the immunotherapy patient and his daughters became a riff that executives remember to understand complex life impacts."
Christian MadsbjergInfluencing Strategy
March 31, 2020
"We need more co-conspirators who actively use their privilege to interrupt microaggressions and bias."
Lisanne NormanWhy I Left Research
March 27, 2023
"Trying to be perfect is exhausting. We don’t have to live this way."
Kat VellosOpener: The Other L Word
January 8, 2024
"A pattern library is not a design system. Relying on documentation alone leads to inconsistency and erosion over time."
Nathan Curtis Nalini P. Kotamraju Jack Moffett Dawn ResselDiscussion
June 9, 2016
