Kim Dabbs, Founder: To Belonging

Book: You Belong Here: The Power of Being Seen, Heard, and Valued on Your Own Terms.

Kim Dabbs is a global leader in Belonging and Purpose, whose unique life story informs her passionate advocacy for inclusion and understanding. Born in Korea and adopted by American parents, Kim's journey has taken her from feeling perpetually out of place in different cultures to becoming an influential voice in creating spaces where everyone feels they belong. 

As the Global Vice President of ESG and Social Innovation at Steelcase, she applies her extensive experience in social innovation, honed through roles like the Executive Director of the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and a residency at Stanford's d.school, to foster more inclusive and equitable environments. 

As a sought-after speaker, Kim has delivered keynotes to organizations and institutions such as Google, Microsoft, MIT, The Drucker Forum, and The Guggenheim. Her debut book You Belong Here: The Power of Being Seen, Heard and Valued on Your Own Terms, reflects her transformation from a cultural chameleon trying to fit in to a thought leader who champions the idea of belonging to oneself.

Everyone feels like an outsider at some point in their life—when we walk into a room and think to ourselves, “I don’t belong here.” To avoid these feelings of exclusion, many of us hide our authentic selves and allow others to define our identity.

You Belong Here offers a new framework that allows each of us to define how we want to be seen, heard, and valued on our own terms so we feel a sense of belonging in any situation. Further, it serves as a launchpad for organizational leaders and culture builders to create safe spaces for individuals to show up as their authentic selves.

Readers will explore our four identities:

• Our Lived Identity is made up of the aspects of our identity we inherit when we are born into the world.
• Our Learned Identity includes the parts of our identity that we’ve chosen or claimed as we make our way through the world.
• Our Lingering Identity is the identity we default to when we feel like an outsider and fall back into as a survival mechanism.
• Our Loved Identity is where we find our authentic selves and see ourselves through a lens of empowerment.

In the journey to understand our past experiences and how society has established barriers to entry, we can design our own future, rooted in our Loved Identity. We learn to rewrite the stories that aren’t serving us and embrace the ones that do. Rather than look for a seat at someone else’s table, we find the tools to build our own.

When we fully leverage this and live with authenticity and purpose, we can be seen, heard, and valued in a way that gives us a sense of belonging at home, at work, and in society. Belonging is realized when we understand everyone is an outsider and it’s the power to create space for those differences that unite us all.

Social media:

·      https://www.facebook.com/104175065145280

·      https://www.instagram.com/tobelonging

·      https://www.linkedin.com/company/tobelonging/

·      https://www.youtube.com/@tobelonging

DEI has evolved over the years, and I wanted to reach out about a new term being discussed and practiced — justice (aka DEIJ). Mary-Frances Winters, founder and CEO of The Winters Group Inc., a global DEI consultancy, focuses on this topic in her new book: Racial Justice at Work: Practical Solutions for Systemic Change. Justice is a newer concept in the corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion space, and there is a lack of understanding about what it means and how to actualize it.

Mary-Frances Winters (she/her/hers) is the best-selling author of Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit and We Can’t Talk About That at Work! How to Talk About Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics. She is the Founder and CEO of The Winters Group, Inc., a global diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice consulting firm. She came of age during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and is a passionate advocate for justice and equity. Named a top ten diversity and inclusion trailblazer by Forbes, Mary-Frances believes in opening doors and amplifying marginalized voices and their allies. She has received many awards and honors, including the ATHENA Award, Diversity Pioneer from Profiles in Diversity Journal, and The Winds of Change recognition from The Forum on Workplace Inclusion. As CEO of The Winters Group for the past thirty-nine years, Mary-Frances harnesses her extensive experience in strategic planning, change management, diversity, organization development, training and facilitation, systems thinking, and qualitative and quantitative research methods to work with senior leadership teams to drive meaningful organizational change. This is her seventh book.

Mareisha N. Winters Reese (she/her/hers)  is president and chief operating officer of The Winters Group, Inc. As president and chief operating officer, Mareisha’s primary responsibility includes leading the firm’s finance, human resources, information systems, marketing and branding, and client management operations. Prior to her role as president and chief operating officer, Mareisha served as vice president of The Winters Group where her contributions to supporting The Winters Group’s growth included significant enhancements to the firm’s technology infrastructure, web presence, social media platforms, and client service offerings. Before joining The Winters Group in 2012, Mareisha worked as Program Manager of a National Science Foundation grant focusing on diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) in Charlotte, NC. Mareisha worked for 6 years at Northrop Grumman where she gained a variety of experience working in their business management, supply chain management and engineering business units. Mareisha’s experience also includes time working at a small DC based software company and the US Patent and Trademark Office.

She was named to Diversity MBA’s Top 100 Under 50 Executive and Emerging Leaders and Diversity Woman Media’s The Power 100 List. In 2023, Mareisha was named a Who’s Who in Black Charlotte and was recognized in the Charlotte Business Journal’s Power 100 and Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching. A graduate of both Spelman College and Georgia Institute of Technology, Mareisha holds undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. In 2009, she received her MBA and MS in Information Systems from University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Book: We Can’t Talk about That at Work! How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics (second edition)

Social media:

·       Mary-Frances’ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryfwinters/

·       Mareisha’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mareishawintersreese/

The Winters Group, Inc. Website: https://www.wintersgroup.com/

Regina Lawless helps high-achieving Black women find purpose beyond their paycheck in order to experience more bliss in their lives and sustainable success at work and at home. Before starting Bossy & Blissful, a community for Black women executives and business owners, Regina served as the head of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Instagram (parent company Meta).

Prior to Instagram, she served as the global director of diversity, equality, and inclusion at Micron Technology, where she led the creation of their diversity curriculum and spearheaded talent initiatives to mitigate bias in interviews and performance discussions. Lawless has more than 18 years of HR experience working for Fortune 500 companies across various industries, including Target, Safeway (Albertsons) and Intel.

Lawless spent the early part of her career as an HR business partner, working closely with business leaders to translate their goals into effective people strategies. Her DEI focus is the culmination of her varied HR experience and personal passion for social justice that was fostered at an early age. Lawless grew up in an underserved community that bordered some of the most affluent zip codes in the country. Growing up experiencing inequality firsthand fuels her determination to work toward creating equal opportunity in the workplace and the world. 

In 2021, Lawless was appointed to the Board of the World Women Foundation and serves as an Advisory Council Member for the University of San Francisco’s Engineering Program. She is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento, in Communication Studies and holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco. Lawless is a Bay Area native and currently resides there with her partner, her teenage son and their dog, Rocket. She is an avid reader and loves yoga and listening to music and podcasts.

Do You: A Journey of Success, Loss and Learning to Live a More MeaningFULL Life  is Lawless’ first book published by Greenleaf Book Group in partnership with Fast Company

Social media links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginalawless/

https://www.instagram.com/regina.lawless/

Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review. She is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and a cohost of HBR's Women at Work podcast. Her articles have been collected in dozens of books on emotional intelligence, giving and receiving feedback, time management, and leadership. As a sought-after speaker and facilitator, Gallo has helped thousands of leaders deal with conflict more effectively and navigate complicated workplace dynamics. She is a graduate of Yale University and holds a master's from Brown University

Book: You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs

HBR's Antidote to the Logan Roy School of Toxic Leadership.

For four unforgettable seasons, Succession has riveted viewers inside and outside the business world. Too absurd to be true, too real to truly be fiction, corporate patriarch Logan Roy, his feuding children, and the executives of Waystar Royco have kept us rapt. Every week the show has dominated office chatter and flooded Slack channels with expletive-laden memes, quotes, and insults.

But does the series offer any insights of real-world value to leaders or organizations? Can the psychological power dynamics, nine-figure negotiation tactics, and intricate M&A maneuvers actually teach us something about succeeding in business? Definitely: whatever the Roys do, do the exact opposite.

"You Can't Make a Tomelette without Breaking Some Greggs": Toxic Management Lessons from Succession (and What to Do Instead) pairs advice from HBR experts and researchers with some of the most unforgettable, hilarious, and cringey moments from the show. Featuring an introduction by workplace relationship expert Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, you'll learn about:

Topics:

• Giving pep talks that inspire (no f-bombs needed)
• Holding offsites that work (tip: don't play Boar on the Floor)
• Avoiding jargon and bizspeak (when the boss asks you to just feed him metadata)
• Leading with trust (what's Kendall's "wobble"?)
• And even improving succession planning (beyond never relinquishing control)

Social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyegallo

http://instagram.com/amyegallo

Maureen Dunne is a cognitive scientist, neurodiversity expert, global keynote speaker, board director, and business leader with over two decades of experience helping organizations build thriving cultures. She has served as a Senior Advisor to some of the world's top corporate brands, Fortune 500 companies, universities, venture capital funds, and government officials, including the LEGO Foundation, Cornell University, and Members of Congress. She also recently co-created the executive education program for business leaders on "Future-Ready Leadership" at the Harvard Kennedy School.

A member of the neurodiversity community, she is a frequent media commentator and contributor on neurodiversity and the future of work. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, MIT Sloan Management Review, Chicago Tribune, DiversityQ, Salon, New York Times, People Management magazine, USA Today, Inside Higher Ed, Unleash and Newsweek. A keynote speaker at Stanford University and the National Science Foundation, she was also a featured speaker at The Atlantic Festival where Neurodiversity was included as part of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion theme for the first time in history.

A successful entrepreneur and business leader, Maureen is CEO of Nodi.ai and a member of the Young Presidents' Organization, an invite-only organization for the world's top chief executives. At LEGO, Maureen helped launch a Social Impact Accelerator Fund to support innovation and entrepreneurship in neurodiversity. The first community college graduate to be named a Rhodes Scholar, she is also an elected official helping to build the talent pipeline with community colleges, representing over 12 million students at the national level. She received a joint BA/MA from the University of Chicago, MSc from the London School of Economics, and doctorate from the University of Oxford. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. 

Website: www.maureendunne.org

Book synopsis: 1 in 5 people are estimated to be neurodivergent (have a mind that works differently), but we are often wasting their potential. I’m very excited to be representing Dr. Dunne’s forthcoming book, THE NEURODIVERSITY EDGE: The Essential Guide to Embracing Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Neurological Differences for Any Organization (Wiley, March 12, 2024). Dr. Dunne is absolutely brilliant and can discuss what it means to be neurodivergent, how society often overlooks unique skills neurodivergent individuals can bring to the table (nonlinear thinking, advanced creativity, keen observation skills, and many more) and how we can do better to change the stigma outside the neurotypical script for working and living. 

Dr. Dunne will discuss:

• Why are neurodivergent employees the most untapped talent opportunity for organizations to compete?
• What exactly does neurodiversity mean and what are the nuances?
• How should we rethink “culture fit” as it relates to considering neurodivergent employees?
• What are some of the challenges neurodivergent employees face at work?
• What benefits do neurodivergent employees bring to the workplace?
• How have your own experiences as a neurodivergent employer, entrepreneur, board member, and CEO informed your decision to write this book?
• What is the “double empathy problem” and how do we bridge the gap between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals?
• What is the largest misconception about neurodivergent employees?
• What is the best way organizations can avoid the pitfalls of the “check the box” mindset to neurodiversity and make meaningful change?
• How do neurodivergent workers compliment the growing AI focused workplace?
• Which companies are some of the best role models for tapping neurodiverse talent and what have they done to make an impact?
• What is something recruiters or HR personnel could start working on today to immediately improve workplace conditions for neurodivergent candidates and employees?

Social links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureen-n-dunne-ph-d-a2609a45

Scott Anthony is a multidisciplinary expert who is passionate about helping individuals and organizations develop the capacity to thrive in today’s world of never-ending change. He has worked at Innosight, a growth strategy consultancy cofounded by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, since 2003. As a senior partner there, he has advised leadership teams at top global companies on growth and innovation challenges. Anthony has given keynote addresses on six continents and is Harvard Business Corporate Learning’s most in-demand external subject matter expert. Anthony has been based in Singapore since 2010, where he served as a member of the Committee on the Future Economy and a board member of MediaCorp and NTUC LearningHub. Anthony has written eight books, including most recently Eat, Sleep, Innovate (2020) and Dual Transformation (2017), which describe how forward-thinking organizations can navigate disruptive change and own the future. In 2021, Thinkers50 named Anthony the world’s seventh most influential management thinker; Anthony has been nominated for the group’s innovation award three times and won the award in 2017.

Topics for discussion:

·       What Scott learned from Clayton Christensen: the basics of disruptive innovation, how to shape and develop ideas, and why the innovator’s dilemma has proven to be so persistent

·       The challenges of leading through disruptive change

·       A culture of innovation: what it is, how do you build it, what makes it hard, and how to encourage it?

·       The definition of innovation in the workplace

·       Great innovators take an idea from one place and bring it to another. if you wander, your brain starts to see dots you can connect. 

·       The role of failure in innovation and how successful companies have rituals around accepting failure

·       A tool called BEAN (behavior enabler, artifact and nudge) – what is it and how does it encourage innovation

·       The importance of using stories to change CEO’s minds instead of facts and figures

Social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdanthony/

From the cornfields of Iowa, Jane Boulware defied expectations to lead billion-dollar businesses and rise as a top Microsoft executive. By 52, she'd launched three major ventures, navigated the US's largest merger, and left a trail of influential leaders behind her. Passionate about empowering others to recognize their worth, Jane now dedicates herself to mentoring, board service, and cherishing outdoor moments with her family. All proceeds from her book Worthy are committed to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Youth of the Year scholarships. She lives in Bellevue, WA. www.Janeboulware.com

In her honest and engaging debut memoir, Worthy: From Cornfields to Corner Office of Microsoft (January 23, 2024; paperback), former Microsoft executive, Jane Boulware, shares her story of growing up poor in the corn fields of rural Iowa where life was predictable and expectations were low...except for Jane. She knew that in order to change her circumstances and a life of government cheese and butter, it was going to take hard work and a determined spirit!

But Worthy is more than just a tale of personal triumph and achieving millionaire status by the age of 40.  Blending humor, introspection, and grit, Jane confronts societal norms and the demands of corporate America once arriving at that level. Diving deep, she shares not only her successes but also her personal struggles and a season of life where she battled with bulimia. Jane also challenges the conventional belief of success as an end goal, proposing its true essence lies in how many we empower and uplift along the way.

Beyond sharing her unconventional path from poverty to success, Jane has a loftier goal. All proceeds from Worthy will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of America's Youth of the Year scholarships!

Social media:

·       https://www.janeboulware.com/

·       https://www.linkedin.com/company/janeboulware/

·       https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554463565081

·       https://www.instagram.com/janeboulware4/

Malissa Clark is an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of Georgia, where she leads the Healthy Work Lab. She is one of the world's leading scholars on workaholism, overwork, burnout, and employee well-being. In addition to serving as an expert consultant to many organizations on these issues, Clark and her work have been featured in outlets including the New York Times, the BBC, Time, Glamour, The Atlantic, HuffPost, and others. She is the author of the new book, Never Not Working, available now wherever you buy books. 

Book: NEVER NOT WORKING: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business–and How to Fix It

University of Georgia professor and self-proclaimed recovering workaholic Malissa Clark presents a startling exploration of the phenomenon of workaholism. Supported by rigorous research and real recovery stories of Workaholics Anonymous members, readers will become empowered to face and fix their own issues with overwork. Clark, one of the world’s leading scholars on workaholism, gets to the root of the issue, encourages the first steps of recovery, and urges company leaders to mitigate the issue within their own organizations.  

Workaholism Myths and Realities: Clark builds the foundation with the facts – work hours are surprisingly not a strong predictor of workaholism. And it turns out workaholics are not the ideal workers and aren’t necessarily more productive. Workaholism isn’t the same thing as work engagement, and contrary to popular belief, there are no “good” types of workaholics. She ends this section with a look at the negative effects of the phenomenon on health, relationships, and work.  

Kicking the Habit: Full of assessments and exercises, Clark provides a roadmap every workaholic needs to begin to put an end to their workaholic tendencies. With matrixes built to redefine to-do lists and urgent matters, workaholics will feel able to approach the days ahead with more mental clarity.  

Are You an Enabler? This section serves as an eye-opening look at the outside forces that drive workaholism. Clark argues that if an organization is not actively discouraging the issue, they may be enabling it. She encourages a concerted effort to look at — and address — an organization’s cultural DNA to begin to undo damage and create sustainable change.  

Workaholics exist in every industry — they could be us, our friends, family, or direct reports.

Throughout NEVER NOT WORKING, readers will learn that the “work-above-all” mindset is not just a mindset but a serious affliction that can no longer be ignored. Clark’s blend of scholarly and personal research illustrates how the negative effects of workaholic behaviors will always negate any temporary positive results. It’s time to break free from the clutches of work obsession.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

LinkedIn -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/malissa-clark-0387991a/

Twitter -- https://twitter.com/clarkmalissa

Elaine Lin Hering is a facilitator, speaker, and writer. She works with organizations and individuals to build skills in communication, collaboration, and conflict management. In her career, Elaine has worked on six continents and with a wide range of corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. She has trained mental health professionals, political officials, religious communities, and leaders at companies including American Express, Capital One, Google, Nike, Novartis, Shell, Pixar, and the Red Cross. Elaine is a former Managing Partner of Triad Consulting Group and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, specializing in dispute resolution, mediation, and negotiation.

Book: UNLEARNING SILENCE: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully

Throughout life, we’re often encouraged to just speak up! But it’s never that easy. Race, gender, sexuality, identity, and power are instrumental factors that decide who feels comfortable sharing their thoughts— and as many of us know, having a seat at the table doesn’t mean that your voice is actually welcome. Why speak up if you know that it won’t be received well, and in fact, often makes things worse?

This groundbreaking handbook tackles questions including:

•       What does silence look like? Silence is not always literal. Sometimes we feel pressured to conform to dominant ideas, or we hedge and sugarcoat our needs until no one can hear them.

•       Why do we self-censor? Whether our livelihoods are at stake, we don’t want to upset our loved ones, or we’ve absorbed unconscious beliefs, there are valid reasons we feel the need to be silent.

•       How do we find our own voice? Maybe we’ve played by others’ rules for so long that we don’t remember our values and strengths. Hering offers tips to rediscover your voice and use it well.

•       How can we support others? Even the most well-meaning of us unintentionally silence others, but there are practices we can implement to foster equity and collaboration.

Social media:

https://elainelinhering.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainelinhering/

https://www.instagram.com/elainelinhering/

Website: www.FireUpInnovation.com

Helene Cahen, MS, is an innovation strategist, trainer, facilitator, and speaker with over 20 years of experience helping companies navigate innovation challenges. She is the founder and principal consultant at Fire Up Innovation Consulting (previously Strategic Insights), where she guides Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and non-profits to understand innovation, create innovative new products/services, build effective teams, and support a user-centered culture.

Cahen has been a facilitator and lecturer for the University of California Haas School of Business and is now coaching in their Executive Program. She was also the vice president of innovation for a startup and worked in and for package goods corporations in the beginning of her career. She is in demand as a speaker on the topic of design thinking and creativity, and recently did a TEDx talk on high-performance collaboration for teams.

Trained in creative problem solving and design thinking, Cahen received an MS in Creativity and Change Leadership from the Center for Applied Imagination at the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo. She also has a business degree from Sciences Po Paris, a prestigious French business school. Born and raised in Paris, Cahen lives in Berkeley, California, with her family.

SPARK AND SUSTAIN HIGH-PERFORMING INNOVATION TEAMS

Innovation Is Iterative, Messy, And Nonlinear, Says Leading Innovation Strategist

Today’s challenges – whether individual, business-focused, or collective world problems – are complex. Solving them requires diverse skills and thinking, but also a common understanding of thinking processes. To create change, to adapt, and to innovate in organizations requires teamwork. Typically, teams are brought together because of their experiences, functional expertise, and background. Yet, they often don’t have a formal understanding and knowledge of how to work together as a team, particularly in high-stakes situations like innovation.

In FIRE UP INNOVATION: Sparking And Sustaining Innovation Teams, innovation consultant and strategist Helene Cahen provides a roadmap to support a journey of learning and a practice of new thinking and risk-taking. The book, with its multi-color energizing design, contains the keys to a self-guided journey to understanding one’s own creativity and developing innovation techniques, language, and tools to collaborate and innovate with others more easily and successfully.

Based on Cahen’s extensive experience working with organizations large and small, FIRE UP INNOVATION:

·       Outlines practical ways to support and sustain high-performing innovation teams

·       Stresses the importance of diversity in driving innovation

·       Explores AI’s role in the innovation process

·       Features actionable practices, including a five-week challenge

Cahen, whose expertise is in developing innovation teams, has seen firsthand how teams often lack a common process, tools, and language to be able to work together effectively. This often starts with teams not being aware of their diversity of thinking, particularly the different ways people solve problems, which can create friction and frustration.

Innovation is a learning journey. There’s no way to predict what can or will happen while moving through the process, and what we learn informs what we need to do next. Thinking about innovation as nonlinear helps adopt a mindset of being open to whatever may happen.

Here are the characteristics of an effective innovation process:

·       Start by understanding the environment and the challenges at hand.

·       Coming up with ideas (which is the easiest part of the process). The before (defining the right problem) and after (developing and implementing the ideas) are more challenging.

·       Integrate users throughout.

·       Be flexible, since the challenge itself may evolve and the solutions may not work, forcing the need to backtrack.

Exploring the unique ways of thinking and solving problems, addressing how teams operate, and providing practical frameworks and tools that can enhance teamwork, FIRE UP INNOVATION will instill greater awareness of how individuals and teams think, create, and innovate, and in the process make work easier, more effective, more collaborative, and, ultimately, more fulfilling.

Social media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/strategicinsights/

Website: https://herminiaibarra.com/

Thinkers50 profile: https://thinkers50.com/biographies/herminia-ibarra/

Herminia Ibarra is an authority on leadership and career transitions. She is the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School and is ranked among the top management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50. She is a member of the World Economic Forum's Expert Network, a judge for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, and a fellow of the British Academy. She is the author of the bestselling book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, and she writes regularly in leading publications, including Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

Book: WORKING IDENTITY: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career

Popular advice cautions against making a career move before we know exactly what we want to do next. However, since its initial publication almost two decades ago, London Business School professor Herminia Ibarra’s WORKING IDENTITY has helped tens of thousands find the clarity they need to reinvent their careers by offering counterintuitive advice that flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Based on Ibarra’s research of hundreds of successful job changers, she argues that career transformation is not an event; it’s a transition process that takes time and is built from small changes.

Now Ibarra is poised to help a new generation of workers emboldened by the pandemic and the Great Resignation to find a new career paths by testing their assumptions. In the book, she writes, “We learn who we are—in practice, not in theory—by testing reality, not by looking inside. We discover the true possibilities by doing—trying out new activities, reaching out to new groups, finding new role models, and reworking our story as we tell it to those around us. What we want clarifies with experience and validation from others along the way…. To launch ourselves anew, we need to get out of our heads. We need flesh-and-blood examples, concrete experiments. We need to act.”

According to Ibarra, in looking to make a career move, she discovered people no matter their age, will find themselves progressing through three stages:

Possible Selves - Although most of us would prefer to begin with a firm answer to the question, “Who do I really want to become?” for Ibarra, the best way to start questioning old working identities is by asking, “How can I widen the set of possibilities that I might explore?”

Between Identities - The transition period when we start testing new possibilities is the “messy middle.” During this time, our sense of identity lingers in a limbo-like state, Ibarra explains, because we are not yet ready to give up our old roles and networks and are still trying out various options.

Deep Change - The milestone that will show you that you have arrived, Ibarra argues, is not moving into a new career, but achieving greater alignment between who you are and what you do. The key to this process is small wins, which reduce fear, clarify direction, and encourage further action.

Ibarra then discusses the concrete things we can do to propel through the three transition phases:

Crafting Experiments - Testing the future means transforming abstract possibilities into tangible projects we can evaluate. Whether taking courses or agreeing to do a side project, these critical efforts allow us to gain knowledge, skills, resources, and relationships. Even better if we can take on several things at once, Ibarra adds, in order to compare and contrast.

Shifting Connections – Finding kindred spirits, mentors, role models, and new professional communities help us figure out what we want to do next. Sometimes, these people who provide psychological support or encouragement can matter more than contacts that produce actual leads for new roles, Ibarra reveals.

Making Sense –Arranging our life into a coherent story is one of the subtle yet demanding challenges of career reinvention, Ibarra declares. We all need to process what we learn and rewriting our story is essential to help us think through new activities and relationships against the backdrop of our life.

Social media:

·       https://twitter.com/herminiaibarra

·       https://www.linkedin.com/in/herminia-ibarra-4455411a/