Last Week In Milwaukee...
I’ve been fortunate over the past 3+ years of startup life to have travelled to some interesting places - last year it was a week in NYC and a week in Davos for the World Economic Forum for my previous startup, Omnis Education. This year it’s Milwaukee and Portugal for clients of Mission Equality.
Last week, Sharon and I were in Milwaukee to attend the Circle of Women event for our client, YWCA Southeast Wisconsin. This is one of their two main fundraisers every year and featured a panel of interesting women…
Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the USA and I was a little apprehensive about what to expect. As a city, I was pleasantly surprised - it was quiet, spacious, not heavily populated and we had perfect weather.
We were grateful to have been hosted so generously by Tracy, CEO & President of YWCA SEW, in an amazing hotel, Saint Kate - The Arts Hotel, which was basically like staying in an art gallery! It was an interesting and challenging week…
The Highlights
Our company in lights…
Seeing this poster - showcasing our work with YWCA SEW - as I got off the plane at the airport in Milwaukee was a huge highlight. This photo was taken on my return leg, as I was trying to take a better selfie and a kind lady offered to take the photo for me 😬
José, our driver for the week...
Yes, we had our own driver. Being driven around and having someone open our doors for us who looks like secret service wasn’t quite as under the radar as I’d usually like! José was an absolute gem - Cuban, he arrived in the USA at age 16 to find his own American dream. He was a fantastic advocate for the city, clearly a huge fan of it even after all these years and one of the most genuine people we met during our trip.
Sharon, the ally, and I meeting ‘in person’ for the third time…
Sharon and I have known each other, having first met online, for around 15 years. This trip together was the third time we’ve met in person - the first being only last year. As we’ll share in coming weeks, this was a complex trip especially for me. Sharon was a fantastic ally - advocating for me a number of times while we were in Milwaukee, and she has continued to do so after the trip.
Meeting The YWCA Team…
I’ve worked remotely online for almost two decades. As a team we are all used to working in this way - together and with clients. It was a joy however to meet some of the YWCA team in person, including Tracy (CEO), Meisha (Controller), Destiny (HR) and Debbie (EA)…
The Events…
Three events were organised as part of the overall programming - they included a dance lesson with celebrity dancers who’ve worked with the likes of Beyoncé (yes, Sharon and I participated in this!), a mentoring event for young people and an evening event in which we spoke and Sharon was on the panel. While we had some thoughts about things we personally found challenging, each event undoubtedly had an impact and it was wonderful to be surrounded by some truly passionate people.
The Power Of A Pivot
The theme of this year’s Circle of Women event was “The Power Of A Pivot”. I’ll be writing more about our experience in the coming weeks; in the meantime, I’d like to leave you with the speech Sharon and I gave at the evening event…
LJF: I’m Lea Jovy-Ford.
SHH: I’m Sharon Hurley Hall. We are the co founders of Mission Equality, a small but high impact global team. We work with organisations of all kinds to create psychologically safe workplaces founded upon equality and defining what that actually looks like in practice.
LJF: We provide people with the tools and resources to design for an equal world, especially in the world of work and we’ve been delighted to work and partner with Tracy and YWCA SEW since earlier this year. Our partnership has focused on enhancing their racial justice work and looking at how they can have greater impact in alignment with the mission.
SHH: It’s a challenging journey - one of individual and collective growth and we support the vision and courage of leaders like Tracy who show up for this work. Because not many do.
LJF: I’d like to pivot back to the theme of this event and talk about the pivots needed in pursuit of the mission. The first is driving change through education - the pivot we need to make is in redefining what effective and impactful education is…
It’s not about the elitist need to consume and assimilate ever more info or resources, requiring certain levels of literacy and academic experience that not everyone is privileged to have. Especially not when it comes to racial and social justice - there are plenty of articles and resources about racism, oppression, discrimination and the harmful impacts.
We KNOW what we need to know and now it’s time to DO it. We need to pivot to using education to drive through change and action and that’s what we’re partnering with YWCA SEW to build - a racial justice program that pivots away from academic overconsumption and inaction to driving change through action.
SHH: The bigger picture pivot is moving away from the distractions of practices like DEI - diversity, equity and inclusion - and focusing people on the real end game and vision, which is equality.
We are stuck in a cycle of constantly seeking acknowledgment and validation of the problems we face (racism, discrimination based upon gender, sexuality, ability and neurotype) - this is by design because ‘they’ do not want us to think about an alternative because the current system benefits the few over the many.
LJF: So HOW do we do this? How do we pivot away from being stuck, towards something better and something different?
SHH: The absence of an alternative keeps us stuck with what is, the status quo - a system, Capitalism, with legacies of colonialism and patriarchy that have harmed so many of us and continue to harm ALL of us.
So let’s pivot away from focusing on the problems and seeking validation of these and move intentionally and with impact TOWARDS designing and building a possible solution.
LJF: And what IS a solution? What IS an alternative? Let’s think bigger, let’s think bolder…imagine if we pivoted away from capitalism which is leading us down a path where we are quite literally consuming ourselves and our ecosystem to something else…a different system based upon equality for everyone.
SHH: At Mission Equality, we have a name for it. We call it Equalism. Imagine if we pivoted away from capitalism to Equalism…Let’s have the conversations about what equality and Equalism might look like for everyone. Then let’s start building it!
LJF: Let’s pivot away from the problems and towards possible solutions. And when things don’t work as we hoped…what do we do? We pivot until they do work!
SHH: These are the foundations of the work we’ve been doing with Tracy and YWCA SEW to support them in delivering upon their mission. We are deeply committed to paving a path to equality and we hope you’ll join us!
LJF: So we’d like to end on a challenge - a call to ACTION. How could you make a pivot tonight?
For the men in the room - perhaps that looks like being quiet and listening AND elevating the women’s voices around you.
For the women in the room - perhaps it looks like speaking up even when you’re questioning whether what you say is ‘valuable’ enough.
For the non-binary, gender fluid and those of us who don’t ascribe to the gender binary - perhaps that looks like standing in your truth and power throughout this evening in what we hope is a safe space for you. And if it’s not, come and talk to us!