Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
Summary
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
"When definitions of quality differ, it’s all about trade-offs and meeting people where they are."
Rebecca BuckMission: Keep Talent in Research Roles!
March 10, 2021
"People make decisions with limited information, especially about more distant parts of the system."
Sarah FlamionComplex Problem? Add Clarity by Combining Research and Systems Thinking
March 31, 2020
"We’re not studying products anymore; we’re studying experiences in ecosystems."
Jonathan Fairman Kevin JohnsonIntegrating generative AI into enterprise products: A case study from dscout
June 5, 2024
"Design makes the abstract tangible by transforming concepts into something with form, shape, and expression."
Christian BasonInnovating With People: Unleashing the Potential of Civic Design
December 8, 2021
"How can we take to the next level the maturity of our design ops practice to be more resilient?"
Alana WashingtonTheme 1: Introduction and Provocation
January 8, 2024
"Kate said she considers live code to be the source of truth because she can't trust the design site due to inconsistencies."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"Linear perspective created the myth that one single perspective can represent objective truth, which led to many misunderstandings."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"If you solve the problems your users are experiencing, they'll trust you and come back to you."
Saskia LiebenbergStart Small for Big Impact
May 15, 2019
"I much prefer customer connection. We are not teaching non researchers how to do research. We are enabling them to connect with customers."
Andy WarrUnder My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
March 25, 2024
