I would like to first start off by saying Happy New Years to the Betterman Movement Community and also share that I have been ruminating, ideating, and creating quietly over the holidays after a successful Better Together Conference in October with my dear friend and colleague, Jennifer Brown. Big changes are afoot!
A contextual upgrade back to the origins
When I started the Better Man Conference in 2016, my primary intention was to advance “healthy masculinity” into the leadership conversation and somehow my message and intention got pushed over to DEI.
I built wonderful relationships and we had 16 amazing conferences. I learned a lot. All along the way I struggled, along with my DEI colleagues, to get the attention of male leadership to advocate for this important work and it started out promising with a handful of companies that were ready to commit. With the pandemic and the George Floyd tragedy many companies went to “reactive mode”. Last year was what I call the reversion to the mean. This wasn’t what any of us wanted nor foresaw.
What I’m Excited about
While I’m excited about 2024 and what it holds for The Better Man Movement Team and Community, I first need to address the elephant in the room…..Last year was a tough year, not just for many of my colleagues in DEI but for me as well. It wasn’t easy watching and being at the effect of the “DEI backlash”, along with many companies pulling back or eliminating their budgets all together. Many of my colleagues were in full blown retreat, not answering emails or calls and it’s ok. I understand. Just surviving and keeping one’s job is a full time job in itself.
I saw this coming and In the fall of 2022 I wrote a blog titled, DEI Burnout?Not So Fast where I brought attention to the male leaders who have the power, position, and privilege to step up and maintain responsibility for their company cultures and the safety and well being of everyone.
I encouraged male leadership to advocate, not abdicate.
This past September, I wrote a 2nd blog titled, Grieving: The Demise of DEI and the Need for True Inclusive Leadership. My plan then and NOW is to upgrade the critical importance of engaging men to a leadership imperative. This is not something I can do alone. I need your help in connecting me to those male leaders in your organization that can step up and take responsibility for bringing male leadership together to learn and lead.
Why Male Leaders? Why Now?
The few engagements I had last year had one thing in common; that it was senior leadership in these companies that drove these initiatives, not DEI. They had numerous abilities including, power, position, influence, budget, and most importantly, heart. I bet you know a few good leaders like this!
What I have now concluded, and this became apparent last year, is that I’m not in the DEI business; rather, I’m in the Inclusionary Leadership and Ally Skill Building business. I’m going to need your help in getting the word out!
What you can expect in 2024
The Better Man Movement team has made the decision with a heavy, albeit proud heart, to no longer host the Better Man Conference publicly. What are we excited about? Let me be the first to tell you!
Keynote Speaking
Organizations, including and especially men, are on their own respective journeys of allyship.My keynote presentation is interactive and engaging, and while focusing on the Ally”s Journey as detailed in my book, Showing Up: How Men Can Become Effective Allies in the Workplace, it incorporates and highlights the critical importance of engaging men as allies and inclusive leaders. This keynote is applicable for all ranks of leadership, including your overall employee base.
Better Man Experience
This is our version of the Better Man Conference at your company, for your employees, ERG’s and, most importantly, your leaders. Our team will both curate and provide thought leaders along with select leaders from your company to jumpstart, maintain and/or advance this work. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.
Male Inclusionary Leadership Skill Coaching
It’s likely that many of you don’t know that I have been running a successful coaching business for 10 plus years. In most, if not all of our Better Man Engagements, I end up coaching the primary senior leaders who have interest and a level of commitment to this work, both for themselves and their company. Many of my DEI colleagues have reached out to me to ask me if I would coach their male leaders. This is a great way to start the year!
Facilitated Learning Conversations
Conversations are where we need to start, as the art of conversation seems to have been lost or forgotten. Just ponder the polarization in our country…you pick the issue and it requires our hearts to bring us back together.
In late 2022 and most of 2023, many companies opted for shorter, albeit thought and heart provoking conversations. Some of these conversations are challenging; all of them are necessary. Whether it’s your white male leadership team or your overall leadership or your ERG’s, we can customize and facilitate healing conversations to foster inclusivity.
The Big Idea – “Me The People” Docuseries
What is driving my desire to bring this into existence is my observation and hurt heart with respect to the polarization that is in our beloved country that I have witnessed in many of our companies. Whether its gender equality, antiracism, women’s reproductive rights, gun violence, parental rights or the LGBTQ community and its associative issues, or even the political left versus the political right, many of us have forgotten how to listen…how to listen from the heart.
Rather than seek to understand, we make ourselves right and others wrong, we make it all about ME and we forget the WE. There was a time when “We the People” meant something; now , through my eyes and the eyes of many others, it’s Me the People and this must change.
How do we change it? THROUGH CONVERSATIONS. HEALING CONVERSATIONS. ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME.
We are currency in pre production and flushing out both the format and framing for the initial pilot episode. We are partnering with Human Being Media Inc.
We film the personal journeys of US citizens to reveal strong opinions to accelerate understanding of ‘others’ within the US. We help facilitate difficult conversations, teach tools and reach acceptance of differences with the intention to build empathy and bring us from ME to WE (or bring us back to an understanding of what WE THE PEOPLE truly means).
We will need your help. We are going to send out more information about this endeavor and how you can support us. We will be setting up a crowdfunding page as well.
One more thing: My Book, Showing Up: How Men Can Become Effective Allies in the Workplace, is available on Amazon and is a great resource for male leaders starting their journey of inclusionary leadership.
Here we go!
Recent Comments