At your next event – Entertain…Deliver your message…Give away autographed books…Reduce resistance to change…Increase audience approval and satisfaction.
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| CASE STUDY: BREAKING THROUGH STAFF APATHY |
A community college had concerns about engaging a potentially resistant audience of maintenance and tech staff. Would they consider diversity training irrelevant since they had less contact with the students than other staff? Was it even possible to break through the ill feelings about a mandatory training session? This potential ‘problem’ audience responded so enthusiastically to Sue’s talk with comments such as “Now I see how I contribute to a positive school climate” and “I feel tied in now to the college’s mission to create a culture of respect” that Sue was brought back to speak to the entire college staff at the President’s Opening Address that fall.
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| CASE STUDY: FOCUSING A RAMBUNCTIOUS TEEN AUDIENCE |
A youth leadership conference wanted a speaker who could prepare the students for a global marketplace and inspire them to consider the ways they could make the world a better place. The overly enthusiastic group of teens had interacted a bit too much with two previous speakers to the point of bordering on rudeness. The speakers left the stage with that deer in the headlights look. But when Sue got on stage to speak she was able to draw the audience in with personally and socially relevant stories. The teens were hushed and attentive. Afterwards, they leapt to their feet with a standing ovation and rushed the stage to speak with Sue. Curfew was extended to give the students more time to ask Sue questions and share stories from their own lives.
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| CASE STUDY: DIFFUSING FEARS OF NEEDING TO BE AN ‘EXPERT’ IN EVERY CULTURE |
Teachers couldn’t figure out how to be the classroom ‘expert’ on cultures with which they had little to no experience – sometimes twenty to thirty new cultures represented in one classroom – Iranian, Saudi, Cambodian, Czech, Afghani, Brazilian, Somalian and more. How could they be respectful and accurate with almost no time to learn anything about those cultures let alone teach about them?
Sue taught the teachers to include the children’s own voices in the curriculum through encouraging the students to share family and community stories. The teachers were able to build community, empathy and scholarship in their classrooms as the students felt their cultural backgrounds included in the classroom instruction. Students didn’t have to be one person at home and another at school. One teacher said, “I learned more in 90 minutes with Sue than I did in years of diversity training.”
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| CASE STUDY: INCREASING EFFECTIVENESS BY REDUCING UNCONSCIOUS STEREOTYPING |
An association of legal professionals knew that their members did pro bono work in poor communities and communities of color, yet didn’t always have the cultural knowledge or sensitivity to appreciate their client’s circumstances. To many who have been traditionally on the outside of our society’s institutions, the legal establishment represents one of the main ways they have faced obstacles and discrimination. Imagine being frightened, confused and in trouble with the law, then reaching out for help only to be met (once again) with misunderstanding, unintentional yet demeaning comments and daunting barriers? The association asked Sue to give a crash course in unconscious stereotypes that might be affecting their members’ effectiveness. The lawyers and legal aids left feeling they had been “honored while developing greater cultural competency.”
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| CASE STUDY: BATTLING BURNOUT AND REIGNITING PASSION |
A hospice group felt its Directors were suffering from “compassion fatigue” and so at their national meeting, instead of the usual agenda of professional development, they called on Sue to deliver a program that would re-ignite people’s passion for the service they provide and make them feel deeply appreciated and valued. Using the framework provided by her Woman Who books, Sue delivered a program that brought the Directors back to the heart of why they chose hospice work and helped them give voice to the richness of their experiences. The participants left feeling “refreshed”, “appreciating each other” and “reinvigorated and grateful to do work that makes such a positive difference in people’s lives.”