The Power of Authenticity and Collaboration in DEI with Maria Putnam and Stephanie Knight

Stephanie Knight: Me and Maria leading with an open mindset, one of abundance and one of sharing, is something that we share. It made us natural partners in this regard, because our mindsets are so similar.

Alex Cullimore: Welcome to Uncover the Human, where every conversation revolves around enhancing all the connections in our lives.

Cristina Amigoni: Whether that’s with our families, co-workers, or even ourselves.

Alex Cullimore: When we can be our authentic selves, magic happens.

Cristina Amigoni: This is Cristina Amigoni.

Alex Cullimore: And this is Alex Cullimore.

HOSTS: Let's dive in.

Authenticity means freedom.

Authenticity means going with your gut.

Authenticity is bringing a 100% of yourself. Not just the parts you think people want to see, but all of you.

Being authentic means that you have integrity to yourself.

It's the way our intuition is whispering something deep-rooted and true.

Authenticity is when you truly know yourself. You remember and connect to who you were before others told you who you should be.

It's transparency, relatability, no frills, no makeup, just being.

Alex Cullimore: Good morning, Cristina.

Cristina Amigoni: Good morning.

Alex Cullimore: I mean, I don't know what time it is when whoever's listening to this, but it's morning for us.

Maria Putnam: Yes. For at least another hour or so, it's morning.

Alex Cullimore: As we slowly take away our morning. We just had an exciting conversation with both Maria Putnam and Stephanie Knight, who come from two different DEI organizations, the Colorado Institute of, I'm sorry, the Colorado Inclusive Economy. I'm going to keep messing that one up, because the other one is the DEI Institute for Leadership, for Maria Putnam. It's very exciting to get to talk to both of them. They have a really exciting conference coming up that is showing the partnership possibilities in the DEI space, and some of the current issues facing both the DEI space and workplace in general. It's an exciting opportunity and it will be fun to have them on.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, yeah. Lots of fun. Very inspiring. Just the whole concept of collaboration, the way they approach that, which is, it's a big issue, I would say, everywhere. I mean, just collaborating for some reason, it's a big obstacle. There's a lot of scarcity mindset out there. This thought that if you actually do work together, you both rise. I think intellectually, most people know it, but then when it's time to do it, there's a lot of holding back. That's a big part of what they're demonstrating is coming together as two organizations, and partnering is not just about teaching and providing very, very good information on DEI initiatives and what it takes to bring them in their organizations, but it's also, it's okay to collaborate. Actually, it's better to collaborate. You can accomplish a lot more. It's not a finite world as much as we like it to be. It really isn't. If we can switch that mindset, it can help a lot of people.

Alex Cullimore: Yeah. I think it's really interesting that this is happening within the DEI space, too. I mean, it's a crowd that inherently understands and is pushing for things, like exclusivity and we're still subject to all the regular human mental restraints that come in the way when we start to do things like collaborate and actually practice inclusivity. It's really exciting to both see them modeling this, and their deep understanding of the fact that this is just a human problem to face and something that we all face, no matter what we do, or how we do it.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. the conference is October 11th, and all the information will be in our show notes. Enjoy the conversation.

Alex Cullimore: Enjoy.

[EPISODE]

Alex Cullimore: Welcome back to this episode of Uncover the Human. Today, we are joined with two guests. We actually have a return guest, Maria Putnam, the CEO of the DEI Leadership Institute. And we're joined with Stephanie Knight, the CEO of the Colorado Inclusive Economy. Welcome to the podcast, Stephanie and Maria.

Maria Putnam: Thank you.

Stephanie Knight: Hey, thank you. Good morning.

Cristina Amigoni: Welcome.

Alex Cullimore: Glad to have you on. Just to give people a little premise, what organizations do you guys come from and what are the missions of those organizations?

Maria Putnam: Well, I am the CEO for the DEI Leadership Institute. Our mission is to support leaders to really apply and do the DEI work out there in the world.

Stephanie Knight: I'm Stephanie Knight, the CEO of the Colorado Inclusive Economy. Our Colorado Inclusive Economy is a non-profit organization that serves our community statewide. What we do is we engage for-profit entities and non-profit entities around diversity, equity, inclusion, what we call learning journeys. We have the participation of the executives that attend the learning journeys, along with partners from their agencies to complete the journeys and to really adhere to some of the best practices of DEI. That's what Colorado Inclusive Economy does.

Alex Cullimore: That's great. Thank you, guys, so much. Those are both great missions. Excited to see you guys both on here together. We understand that you have a collaboration coming up with both of you.

Maria Putnam: Yes, this is very exciting to work together. Two organization coming together to bring a space for DEI practitioners and leaders to be in one space, to learn, to share, to empower themselves. Yes.

Alex Cullimore: Stephanie, what's your take on it? You guys have a conference coming up together.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. Our conference is October 11th. It's a half day of learning. It starts at 8 AM and it concludes at 12. It's at the Hyatt Regency in Aurora. Yeah, it's really unique that Maria with the DEI Leadership Institute and myself are partnering in this way. We really want to model what we want to see in the community. As you know, DEI can be a little dicey right now in our landscape, and some of the messaging around initiatives and efforts. We really want to model for the community what we hope to see. DEI is an all-hands-on deck initiative and we want all communities and all constituents engaged in this work and this education and this learning. That's how we came together. I attended her conference last year. She attended mine, so we have a good understanding of the mission and the goals we're driving and felt that we would be highly collaborative in this partnership.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, that's wonderful. As we talked about before the recording started, it's pretty rare that collaborations like these happen. There is a tendency in the world, in the business and even in the organizational world to see others as competitors, not collaborators. It's crucial to really look at the one plus one equals three. There's so much more that can be done, and so much more reach.

Maria Putnam: Yeah, absolutely. What I think is organization miss out by not collaborating. Because by collaborating, like you say, it's one plus one is three, it's everybody wins. 

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. You make an excellent point about the reach. I mean, again, the more folks we engage and involve and have participate, the wider the message gets, the more clarity around diversity, equity, inclusion, and also, the way in which folks can really think about it and perform certain actions around it. I think the unique voices of this partnership and the constituents aligned with it will really help drive that. Sometimes we are a little impeded in the community as non-profit leaders around funding obstacles that don't always encourage participation across agencies. We also hope we'll send a message to funders, some folks that are interested in supporting and sponsoring us that this is a wonderful way to proceed and maybe some more collaborative funding can actually emerge from work like this.

Alex Cullimore: That's really exciting to see, the partnership coming together. Like how you described it, Stephanie, is DEI being an all hands on deck. Everybody's got a part to play here, and we all can do this better together. You mentioned a couple that there are things like, funding might come up. I'm curious, what other obstacles you see to more partnerships like this, just in the in the realm in general and second part of that, how are you guys bringing your two organizations together? What do you think has helped overcome those?

Stephanie Knight: I think, again, we always have to, Maria and myself, or any leaders in this space always have to be mindful around the deeply, deeply entrenched mindsets and belief systems that are held around diversity, equity, inclusion, including the othering, right? Unfortunately, we're both women of color representing different constituencies, but it's not lost that everyone feels the same way about collaboration. There's a sense of othering and scarcity that can come up for folks when they look at collaborating and not just the resources around scarcity, but just feeling like, well, someone's positioned better, or somebody's voice is louder.

Hopefully, in working together, it's not without challenges. As I said, trying to push through and weigh through some of those mindsets and belief systems, but we hope to send a different narrative and certainly, model what we hope to see. Overall, we're very encouraged. Folks are very receptive about the cadence of the conference, as well as the partnership evolving, and just the opportunity for those to participate.

Maria Putnam: That's so interesting, because when Stephanie was just talking, a very clear image came to my mind is fear. When we made decision fear-based, it's such a different outcome. Removing that, getting people more comfortable doing things together, just having a mindset of collaboration and overcoming fears as humans and business owners, as leaders, we’ll do much better.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, that's an excellent point. The modeling is crucial, especially because it's not just collaboration between your two organizations and this conference, but in order to advance any inclusiveness in DEI, there has to be collaboration inside the organizations and across the organizations. It is about demonstrating it in all different ways, so that it is just the way you live, not just, oh, well, for the conference. That's okay. For this case, it's okay. But then, let's not collaborate in other ways.

Maria Putnam: Yeah, absolutely. Something actually that sometimes an organization is, they're afraid to lose. Losing what? If we have ourselves, if we have a good system in our companies, we don't want to lose anything. That's where I come from, usually. That's my mindset is like, no. We have to always believe that we have it. Leaving that in non-scarcity of, “Oh, my gosh. I'm going to lose, if I do this and share it.” Even share resources, or ideas, or thoughts, like no.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Or even ask for help. It's amazing how even something like, asking for help, it's perceived as a loss.

Maria Putnam: Yes, absolutely. It's like, no. Going back to like, no, we are humans here. Let's do things better. By doing it together, we can reach more. We can gain more.

Stephanie Knight: I think even, when you come together in partnership and collaboration and you weighed through the fear that may be around it, you actually learn and grow. As you were saying, Alex, that really helps to further inform and drive the work that we're trying to actualize, because if you're not evolving, you're not becoming more self-aware, participatory in this type of work, then you yourself are somewhat stagnant. How do you expect to drive initiatives and works like, diversity, equity, inclusion, if you can't wrap your head around the importance of collaboration and fully embracing DEI, which is what we're doing in this conference, inclusivity.

Alex Cullimore: That's really exciting to hear you guys come together and bringing this together. It's exciting to hear about this collaboration. What do you think are some of the advantages for people who have opportunities to have this collaboration? What are some advantages you see to the collaboration you've already experienced and what you'd like to, that you think can be delivered as more people embrace this?

Maria Putnam: One of them is networking. I think it's a huge advantage, because from the institute side, there is a lot of practitioners, DEI practitioners. I mean, the conference itself is attended by cross, a company from all the industries. That's one of them. From the current inclusive economy, there is a lot of decision makers and it's so good to see those. Everybody who attend the conference, just by doing it, they are doing the work. They are walking the talk. That's one of the biggest thing is the network.

Of course, the content. Oh, my gosh. They will be able to walk out of the conference with more information. Information that they can apply in their organizations and their work and their lives. I hope a sense of the responsibility that we all have with DEI.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. I definitely say, that networking will be a great opportunity bringing these two different audiences and constituencies together for sure, as well as the resource sharing, right? Again, knowing and identifying folks in the room with the conference that are practitioners, or are the DEI champions and leads in their organizations, or other for future collaboration outside of the conference. As well as being so important that they get some guidance, and some real from the subject matter experts and the sessions leaders we've planned. There's going to be a lot of depth of knowledge that they're going to have access to for just not the conference, but for future.

It really is a win, win, win proposition all the way around through the collaboration to enhance the networking and the resources and the peer-to-peer learning that's going to take place, as well as the future opportunities that can develop from being in a conference.

Alex Cullimore: That's really exciting. You guys both have a collaboration going between each other and you've set up a whole environment in which more collaborations can spring up. You’re both modeling it and providing the platform for the next steps. That’s very exciting.

Maria Putnam: I think, actually, it's a very intentional design. Yeah, that's and all the – I mean, I hope you guys can attend this year and last year. I hope you can attend this year. Yeah, you can see that. You can see that that is very intentional.

Cristina Amigoni: How did this collaboration idea come together?

Maria Putnam: Well, as Stephanie mentioned, we both attend each other's conferences. This year, we got together, and we talk about the possibility to do it. I thought that was great, so we both are doing it.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. I think, it came from our budding personal and professional relationship and knowing each other and community and, of course, attending each other's conferences. Also, having a real desire, again, to bring community together. There's, again, a lot of dissension and a lot of miscommunication that happens. That is not favorable sometimes to the outcomes that we're all trying to reach. Just me and Maria leading with an open mindset, one of abundance and one of sharing is something that we share. It made us natural partners in this regard, because our mindsets are so similar. That's part of how it came to be. Yeah. Then, again, wanting to widen the net expand, the reach, engage more folks outside of both of our communities that can really participate in this work and continue to get educated about it.

Alex Cullimore: Absolutely makes sense. It sounds like, some of that focus on that big picture goal where everybody has a part to play in this and there's something to be done here and everybody should be collaborating, because there's too much work to be done, not to be doing it this way for one. Having that mindset, having that abundance, having a clear, shared, larger vision than any one organization has helped jump into this. Any other tips you would give people to help get into that abundance mindset and want to do this collaboration?

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. I just think you do have to put down some of your unfavorable belief systems, or maybe some of the past experiences if you've had in partnership and collaboration. Again, allow each collaboration, or partnership to stand on its own, define good ground rules, have excellent communication between partners and collaborators. That's key, so that things don't go in the misunderstanding box, or allow people to go down a rabbit hole with their thinking. I think, again we just have to be very clear and transparent within the partnership and collaboration. Don't carry over anything that was negative from a prior exchange, and just really proceed with an open heart, mind about, and let the objective be the north star the whole time. Because we can get, I can get into my feelings of Stephanie, Maria can get into her feelings as Maria, but if we keep our north star, the objective and the goal of what we're trying to enact, it really does help minimize a lot of that.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, it's wonderful.

Alex Cullimore: It’s human-centric leadership.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes.

Maria Putnam: I think also, it’s allow ourselves to give that opportunity, like Stephanie said. Even if you had, somehow, a bad experience, is just, no. Give yourself the opportunity to build something. I always say that while we are alive, we can do things better. Why don't we feel things this time better. Let's learn, perhaps, from mistakes that we made in the past. We are human. We learn all the time. We grow all the time. Give yourself the opportunity to do it again.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. You both mentioned the importance of growth in collaborating and how much growth can happen through collaboration. What have you learned about each other, your organizations and your missions by working together on this?

Maria Putnam: Well, I have learned the importance of communication and perhaps, rethinking things and going back and adjust. That is so important, because reflection allow us to grow. Being honest, and that is something that I really appreciate about Stephanie. We see each other – we are so transparent. Okay, this doesn't work for me. It does work for me. There's no holding anything. I don't like to hold things. She doesn't like to hold things. It's so good, because of like, no, we can enter out what I'm looking for after this conference. I look for having a really good relationship with Stephanie and with the community. Like, no, we need to do this right. It's a relationship.

Cristina Amigoni: It is.

Stephanie Knight: I would say, when working through the partnership, just really kind to move through assumptions. Assumptions that we all hold, that's growth for me, is because I've been in a lot of spaces, a lot of circles with a lot of leaders, with a lot of agendas. I'll just say that. It's really easy to default back to assumptions, again, because of where you've been and what you walk through. It's really important as you grow and evolve and become more self-aware as an individual and as a leader in particular, that you start to really couch some of those assumptions and really allow the facts to move forward. Some of the data and other things that really, really better inform why decisions are being made and not live in assumptions. That's a huge growth opportunity whenever I partner. Also, in particular with this organization and working with Maria, it's just, let's not rest on assumptions in this particular area.

Maria Putnam: Which actually, does interesting, because it goes back to DEI, when we have bias, we have pre-information, record information in our subconscious minds, that is there. We approach sometimes a new partnership, a new relationship, a new business with so many thoughts and ideas that we don't even realize. We sometimes made decisions based on those.

Stephanie Knight: I think, any conversation can be had, as long as it's open, honest, and peppered with love, I always say, because these are tough things we have to discuss. The work itself is challenging and the subject matter is tough to tackle, as well as the mechanics around bringing two communities together and making it a success and staying goal-aligned. You really do have to get outside of your head a lot of the times and really open yourself up. 

Again, I think, a thing that is well stated in love can be shared and will be received, even if it's difficult to say.

Alex Cullimore: Those are all great tips. Definitely centering on some of that relationship and keeping that relationship. It's exciting and I'm sure challenging on the inside for you guys to run through, basically, this meta-analogy, where you're both doing the de-biasing work, while engaging in collaboration to go help people do the de-biasing work to go collaborate. There's just two levels of helping people here, and it's exciting to see you guys both model it, go through it and how much. That is a great analogy for the DEI work that you do outside of the conference and outside of the collaborations.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. It's interesting that you should say that, because again, Maria and I are good examples that we're not exempt from a particular line of thinking. We’re driving the work, and so we always have to do gut checks and really test on ourselves to say, “Hey, am I now being party of a process that I don't appreciate?” I think every leader needs to ask themselves that question.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah, it's an excellent point, especially because that the modeling is so crucial. It's not just about telling everybody else what they need to do. That's the easy part. But doesn't actually do anything. Google, ChatGPT, we can figure out what to do from anywhere, except for other humans. That doesn't drive change. What drives change is actually, the behavior itself and seeing it first. Seeing somebody that embodies that behavior in everything they do. That inspires others to try and do the same.

Maria Putnam: Yeah, absolutely. It's really a symbol in DEI is being human, is check ourselves. It's reflecting. It's doing our own work, because DEI start with ourselves. Good DEI, the DEI start with everyone of us. The fact that Stephanie and I are leading these organizations and putting this conference together and bringing people who's doing this work and these people who can – actually is investing in DEI, put us in a very good place for us to see what we are working on, so on.

Cristina Amigoni: Well, it's a spotlight for you, also in the sense of people are going to want to see the demonstration from the two of you, which they are through this collaboration. Again, it's easier to say, “You go do this. We're perfect in the way we are today.” By seeing it actually come together in real life, in 3D, then it inspires other to be able to do the same.

Maria Putnam: I hope so. I really hope people take from what we’re doing together and work more together. I would love to attend a conference by two other organizations doing what we’re doing with Stephanie. I would love to see that.

Stephanie Knight: We definitely hope it spreads like wildfire. We hope that people really start to embrace it, at least an attempt. Again, you don't know, unless you try. Even a first attempt, or a pilot and doing something like that moving forward will show growth to the community that these efforts are taking place. Again, no process is perfect. It has to be iterative. Again, just really putting yourself out there and saying, “We're committed to doing it this year and doing it differently, and we're going to engage a partner along the way.” That's what we both have agreed to do.

Alex Cullimore: That's really exciting. It's something that comes across that you guys have done the work, are doing the partnership. It's exciting to see a conference come together like this. This is obviously an opportunity other people can jump in on and maybe create other conferences. What other kind of partnership opportunities do you see in this space in general?

Stephanie Knight: Well, at CIE, we host something called quarterly convenings, which really, we launched this year. It's an opportunity to address our community, 180 companies that have gone through CIE. Just address the community as a one body and to really share something informative across community. We've engaged subject matter experts in the quarterly convenings around what we call a lesson in DEI. Making sure that DEI is not something that continues to live in a shell for a manual, but is actually something that is part of our larger and smaller world, larger being national context, but also, smaller world being statewide context, and talk about these things with folks that are knowing.

We hosted one that had to do first with the Claudine Gay incident, or Harvard University and the displacement of an African-American female in that role. Then we did one, hosted one with someone from Denver, the director of the newcomers activities in the city and county of Denver to talk about, again, the inclusivity around the micro-community that's come to the state. Then we just are going to announce our third one in September, which will be around housing scarcity and disparities in housing.

Crafting things like this quarterly, having different community members speak from a place of knowledge is another way we continue to widen that net and the understanding for folks in the community. That's one way that we try to do it. Also, author special sessions within our curriculum. There's opportunity, again, for other community members and partners to participate in part of the curriculum with CIE. Those are two examples I can think of.

Maria Putnam: Yeah. From the institute side, we have actually been working with UK and Africa. We have a representation in those two parts of the world. Combining UK Africa and USA, the students, who actually are DEI practitioners together, to share their experiences and collaborate together. That is something that we are doing in the institute. Hope next year to have some gathering for everybody. That will be exciting, and like, oh, my gosh. I mean, right now, the way that we do it is through Zoom meetings. They have all finished the DEI certification program that we offer through the DEI Leadership Institute. They all have done their project for change. They are doing the work, so it's so interesting when they get together and share experiences. They have questions and they share resources. Because the way that we do and implement DEI here in the HR is different in UK, or in Africa. It's very good for everybody.

Cristina Amigoni: That's wonderful. It would be great to see them all together. You mentioned spreading just the collaboration concept like fire and networking and all the benefits of being at the conference. What do you hope to see happen after the half day conference with the people that attend?

Stephanie Knight: That's such a great question. We definitely hope that they'll have deeper understanding in these particular, through attending the sessions aligned with these tracks that they'll have deeper understanding, for example, in our health equity track, or AI and diversity sessions, that they'll know more. I mean, we have talked a lot about that particular session, AI and diversity and about really tapping down a lot of the noise around AI, the displacement of workforce. Again, a lot of the fear, back to fear again, that people are really feeling about as this will scale, and what's going to happen to their current opportunities and their future opportunities. We really want to have a wonderful discussion with a lot of resources and expert advice around that.

The other session that's, again, that's really rich is going to be our legal professional that's going to talk about some of the challenges in continuing to stay the course as a company with diversity, equity, inclusion. Because as you know, a lot of companies have dialed back some of their efforts are really gone more underground about their efforts, because they're worried about getting sued, and that's a realistic concern around the country. Again, represent a lot of for-profit entities and leadership and the C-suite and that's a concern they hold.

Having someone address that concern gives them thoughtful guidance and resources around staying the course and staying out of legal trouble is something we hope that our companies will really, really appreciate for takeaways. Yeah, just, I think, just a lot of rich understanding and learnings and again, some tools and takeaways that they can apply to what they're going through specifically right now in the DEI space.

Maria Putnam: Yup, absolutely. We also have one in health care in DEI, and that's another one that we all go to the doctor. That is really good. We're going to have a wonderful physician, who actually will be sharing his knowledge and expertise on health care and equity. Yeah. The AI is the legal part, that is so important. There’s the health care, and also, the wage and equity.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. It's a session around pay equity, really, again, and how that is really every employer's responsibility to take a look at. We certainly know that the Millennials and certainly, Gen Z, they all are looking at compensation differently than I think when – I got my first, or second, or third job. They want to know that they work for an equitable employer, that there's plenty of opportunity, that there's essential pathways within the organization, and that those are going to be monetarily rewarded. Talking to employers about pay equity and getting serious and committed about that as a retention and a recruitment strategy is very important.

Alex Cullimore: Hey, health care law, AI, I think you got all the big four there.

Cristina Amigoni: You need a month. Not a half day.

Stephanie Knight: That's a good point, Cristina. We definitely do. Yeah.

Cristina Amigoni: So much learning to be done. So much learning.

Maria Putnam: Yes. Oh, yes. It’s going to be a morning of information and reflection, we actually, we’re going to have one section where we come together to debrief –

Alex Cullimore: Excellent.

Maria Putnam: - about the conference, which is the best.

Cristina Amigoni: That is the best.

Maria Putnam: And get content. If you don't debrief, that is information that maybe clicks is when you do the debrief part.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. That's so crucial, because we see it a lot in leadership. The leadership experiences and working with leaders across organizations is the fact that there's so much running and doing and learning and running and doing and learning, that there's – that taking the time to just think, it's almost like a bad word. As like, “We need time to think. We can’t constantly just be making decisions and running, making decisions and running.” If you don't think, you're not – the chances that you're making the right decisions are very little.

Alex Cullimore: Just no time to think. I'm putting out fires from the times I didn't think. Hold on.

Cristina Amigoni: Exactly. That's the thing. It’s like, all the fires are because we didn't think before we acted. Now, we're still not taking the time to think, because that's a bad thing to take time to think.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. Or, we are just responding and going and moving and then we're going to be thinking in response and reaction, versus from proactive thinking.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Exactly.

Stephanie Knight: We want to really tap down all that crisis thinking that we do when we don't take the time on the front end.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes. Taking the content and then reflect. What does it mean? How are you going to apply it? What's stopping you from applying it? Why is it important? What's your role in it? What's everybody else’s is rolling it? Where can you find help? There's all these things that need to be part of the learning. Not just, here's a bunch of content.

Maria Putnam: Yeah. Because for example, right now what happened with technology, we have more access, less retention. If we don't stop and reflect and think and actually take pieces of the information and see how we can apply, we don't leave with anything.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. We might as well not have the content, because –

Maria Putnam: Exactly.

Cristina Amigoni: It's useless. It's just noise.

Stephanie Knight: Very true. Yeah.

Alex Cullimore: To your point earlier, Stephanie, it's great way to not just leave it on the shelf. Now you know it. You have a chance to reflect on it. Deep breathe. Think about how you're going to integrate this into your next work. Not just like, “Oh, that was an interesting idea. Now, let me go back to the default things I was doing before. Here's this interesting thing I learned on a shelf still.”

Stephanie Knight: The more we can do to make these things thoughtful and I say, sticky to the individuals and to the organizations, that's where the real growth trajectories are going to happen. That's where the work is going to move. Again, if you're looking for just a shot in the arm, or one single solution, that's just not going to be how DEI I is going to benefit you. Again, we've read a lot about really the under – the people not understanding the level of time and commitment it is going to take to make these changes. They come out of the backdrop of years and years and decades of systemic inequities, and they're not going to be resolved in a three to five-year strategic plan. They're going to have to be well funded, well-resourced and you're going to have to stay the course, just like any other business function, or marketing efforts, or finance efforts. Again, all of that takes time to develop and cultivate and DEI is no different. If you're going in with a mindset of rushing through, finding the quickest thing to remedy, then it's not going to be a successful process.

Maria Putnam: Now they check the box does not work. No. That's one of the beautiful things about this conference is that those who are really serious and know the importance of DEI, by attending this conference, they are doing the work. They are getting the information. They are reflecting. Hopefully, they leave with something. Takes time. It does take time to DEI work and when you do it right.

Cristina Amigoni: Very true. What's your measure of success for the conference? What’s going to make you feel like, “Yes, we did it”?

Stephanie Knight: Well, I always, you're on no technical challenges. That's a big – That's an anxiety that’s transfer for me. Yeah. Mike's not working. Powerpoint's not advancing. That keeps me up at night. Let's have none of that. On top of it, we do a good job, both organizations, of doing post-attendee surveys. Really wanting to hear what they found of value, what they really enjoyed, what could have been done a little bit better. Then also, just creating a great experience for those people coming in our doors and spending time with us that there's good energy from the subject matter experts, that there's a collaborative spirit that me and real lead from the podium at the beginning. Again, there's high learning. A couple good snacks, that never hurts. Funny, what people remember from conferences, those are all measures of success.

Maria Putnam: Yeah, absolutely. I really envision to see the 350 people attending engage in the conference.

Alex Cullimore: Well, it's all very exciting. Thank you guys so much for jumping on and sharing this with us. This again is October 11th at the Hyatt Regency in Denver. Conference is 8 to 12 in the morning. An exciting time to get in on this. What is the title of the conference?

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. It's called The Summit. Then again, with the Colorado Inclusive Economy and the DEI Leadership Institute in partnership. We're both branded on all the materials. You can see both organizations prominently displayed. And again, it's just our summit, which we've done now. Well, this will be our fourth. Then Maria, this is her second year. Yeah.

Cristina Amigoni: That's wonderful. Besides everybody, who would you like to see attending most at the conference?

Stephanie Knight: I think we're widening the net in my opinion, because we've opened it up to, again, members, non-members, affiliates of the institute. Newcomers. That'll be a good indication of some successful marketing and outreach and interest. I would like to see a good percentage of some new folks attend the conference that are not already aligned with either organization. That would be certainly something to tell. Yeah.

Maria Putnam: Yeah. Also, I mean, the conference is going to be in Aurora. A lot of people from Denver is going to go. Good people from Aurora, but I would like to see more people from Waldorf, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs. I mean, last year we have people who come from everywhere. I want to see more people. I want to see new faces. That would be great. We have a representation, only members from the Colorado Inclusive Economy, or students from the DEI Leadership Institute, but new people.

Cristina Amigoni: Yeah. Let's hope there's many new people for sure.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. To Maria's point, that we spend a little bit more across the state in terms of outreach. That's something our organizations really trying to expand upon. It's difficult, because we lead curriculum and now we're committed to half of our sessions being in person, so it does present some challenges sometimes for individuals. But we're also seeking partners, which could be an evolution of this conference to host some of our sessions in their specific footprint in partnership with Colorado Inclusive Economy, like Fort Collins, like Pueblo, a lot of locations, either college universities, or other settings, even chambers, where we could host their folks and be right in the footprint for easy access and probability and all those things as we continue to span across the state.

Cristina Amigoni: Excellent. Well, a couple of last questions for both of you. One is, what does authenticity mean to you?

Maria Putnam: Authenticity means to me, yourselves. Yeah, that's it. Just being ourselves. I think that's the beautify for what I see, without authenticity, this beautiful sunflower that we become, if we work consciously in ourselves.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah. I would say the same. I say, authenticity really is about being real and showing up as you are. I know some of our young people have used this as a part of their vernacular that rolls off the tongue, but it really is true. I think they're guiding us in a lot of ways. It's really important to show up in your full self and have space and opportunity to be authentic. It's one thing to really govern yourself to be authentic and I want to be honest and real, but also, you have to have receptive spaces to be in to truly be authentic. That’s an important part.

Also, you have to show yourself to be vulnerable, which doesn't come to us easily, some of us, more than others. But also, you spend more days and years on this earth and you're in difficult spaces. A lot of that can really, you can put up a lot of walls and become very guarded. I think, vulnerability is a key part of authenticity.

Maria Putnam: It goes back to, we have nothing to lose. Nothing to lose. Yeah, that's it. If you think that you are surrounded by people that you think that by being yourself, you have something to lose, either you are in the wrong environment, or you are not doing the work right.

Cristina Amigoni: Very true. A lot of times, we are in the wrong environment. It takes being our full selves and showing up and pushing those walls apart to realize that I'm like, “Yeah. No. The space is not allowing me to be me, so I'm going to remove myself.” Rather than putting up the walls.

Maria Putnam: That's an authentic question, Cristina.

Stephanie Knight: It’s good.

Cristina Amigoni: My last question is, we talked about the conference, October 11th at the Hyatt Regency. How can people find you, both of you and also, the conference information?

Maria Putnam: Both our websites, Colorado Inclusive Economy and the DEI leadership Institute, we both have all the information on our website. They can register there. Also, we have been promoting the conference and some social media. Just click and register and go from there.

Cristina Amigoni: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time.

Alex Cullimore: We hope to see lots of people there.

Cristina Amigoni: Yes, we definitely hope to see lots of people there.

Maria Putnam: Yes.

Cristina Amigoni: We know we know it's going to be very valuable and worth it.

Stephanie Knight: Really excited. Yup. Tickets are going fast, but we definitely still have some room. I encourage everybody to go on our websites and register. As well as Maria said, they're in our social media links, the ones we're sharing to promote the conference. It's really accessible and go ahead and just click on there and register and offer your payment. Yeah, we hope to see, we want a sold-out event, a lot of eager minds and hearts to participate. We're so excited.

Cristina Amigoni: Excellent. Yeah, we look forward to talking to you after the conference to see what you thought about it.

Stephanie Knight: Yeah, that would be great.

Maria Putnam: That would be fantastic. Thank you so much for allowing us to have this space to talk about our partnership, to talk about the conference. We look forward to see you both of you there and thank you for promoting this event.

Stephanie Knight: Thank you so much.

Cristina Amigoni: Thank you.

Alex Cullimore: Thanks, everyone, for listening.

[OUTRO]

Cristina Amigoni: Thank you for listening to Uncover the Human, a Siamo Podcast.

Alex Cullimore: Special thanks to our podcast operations wizard, Jake Laura, and our score creator, Rachel Sherwood.

Cristina Amigoni: If you have enjoyed this episode, please share, review and subscribe. You can find our episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Alex Cullimore: We would love to hear from you with feedback, topic ideas, or questions. You can reach us at podcast@wearesiamo.com, or on our website, wearesiamo.com, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. WeAreSiamo is spelled W-E-A-R-E-S-I-A-M-O.

Cristina Amigoni: Until next time, listen to yourself, listen to others and always uncover the human.

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