John Puff
Aboriginal Front Door, Belonging Matters Conversations Participant
“
I highly recommend these dialogues…
I highly recommend these dialogues as it brings out locked in anger and when released gives a feeling of wellness and understanding.
When problems emerge in your workplace, learn new ways to connect, collaborate and draw on collective strengths to address your priority team and organizational issues.
The success of any workplace is deeply interconnected to the health and wellness of the people and employees within that organization. In fact, research shows disengagement and unhappy workers cost the North American economy $3.5 billion a year.
Employees in all sectors may face any of the big issues such as discrimination, high pressure job demands or burnout, harassment or bullying, and substance abuse.
Employees lose about 2 hours a week of productivity when they either gossip or worry about being talked about.
In fact, many organizations and teams are struggling to adapt and redefine workplace culture in these times that we are all living in and navigating through.
Many organizations are experiencing rapid or continuous change. When redesigning or building engaged teams that can both work together and address complex issues, either in person or remotely, if you get off on the wrong foot, trust can be irreparably damaged. The costs to the organization are significant and difficult to repair.
We all know top-down solutions to an organization or team’s most complex social or workplace culture issues are no longer viable. And bottom-up approaches tend to amplify voices, but rarely achieve lasting system change or impact the team culture.
The good news is these outcomes can be avoided; we have solutions that can help.
If you’re tired of canned presentations or cookie-cutter facilitation, this won’t feel like another “off the shelf” keynote or flavour of the month speech to your team. From start to finish, this program is designed and delivered around your specific needs.
When teams are part of the process, they are more committed to the solution.
In this facilitated process with conversations about belonging and real workplace issues, employees build skills and confidence that empower them to be collaborative problem solvers together with long-term solutions.
Belonging Matters Conversations For Workplaces can be delivered live online, in-person, or a hybrid of both. Throughout the process, Jessie Sutherland shares insights from over 25 years of designing, facilitating and supporting community-led change processes locally, nationally and internationally.
Talk to Jessie to learn how you can build a supportive workplace culture within your team or organization.
Book a call with Jessie to explore how Belonging Matters Conversations For Workplaces can be customized to help address your issues, needs and goals. For organizations and leaders who move forward, Jessie will work directly with you to create and communicate the process for Belonging Matters Conversations in your workplace.
Typically, Belonging Matters Conversations involve:
Experience a fully customized, guided process
Jessie walks you and your team through the Belonging Matters Conversations process from start to finish. It is customized to your organization, structure, values and goals. There’s no guesswork or trying to figure it out on your own.
Build organization capacity
The cost of losing seasoned, high-performing staff to competitors or other organizations is high. The Belonging Matters Conversations process helps build employee and leader capacity and fosters retention and growth for employees within your organization.
Create lasting visual legacies
A visual legacy is co-created with the participants to synthesize key insights and commitments for ongoing reflection, awareness and learning. Groups choose a visual legacy medium (e.g. posters, videos, social media, etc.) based on their collective talents.
Avoid financial loss and enjoy cost savings
People issues, disconnection and team breakdowns can cause financial loss for your company and contribute to increased mental health issues among employees. Together, we will help address these issues and create a happier, healthier workplace.
Support your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts
The Belonging Matters framework lends support to your policies, procedures, team charters and the internalization of attitudes and behaviours to foster a respectful workplace environment.
Customize a reflective learning tool for your team
Working in collaboration with your team, we customize a reflective learning tool that will assist senior leadership and your team to internalize agreed upon values and practices.
Contribute to employee wellness
Workplace conversations focused on building belonging can alleviate stress, rebuild trust and restore relationships, which ultimately impact an employee’s levels of wellness and engagement.
We start with an initial planning meeting to review your customized Belonging Matters Conversations program and ensure all the supports are in place for lasting success.
During this time, we’ll discuss the program, roles, responsibilities and timelines as well as conduct an inventory of support within your organization and community that employees can access.
If you have an Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP) or other supports available internally, it is helpful to include this in the inventory. The inventory of internal and external resources and supports can become a very valuable resource not only to your employees, but also for your leaders, HR professionals, and workplace safety representatives in the future.
Session #1: Why Belonging Matters
In this session, the team explores what belonging means, shares stories and discusses their key challenges. By the end of this session, the group will have prioritized their key issues in preparation for Session #2. This first session is engaging, interactive and encourages employee involvement in identifying issues the team can work on collaboratively.
Session #2: Addressing Our Priority Challenges
We customize Session #2 based on the priority challenge identified in Session #1. Here, the group will explore their priority challenge through the sharing of stories, exploring root causes and coming up with their own tips and strategies.
Session #3: Organizational Resources & Building A Supportive Team Culture
Next, your team will learn about organizational and community resources they can access to address their priority challenge as well as build their own supportive network as individuals and a team.
Session #4: Co-Creating Our Visual Legacy
Here, your team will review and finalize a visual legacy that represents their journey, the process and the key insights they generated during the previous three sessions.
Session #5: Generating Ideas and Action Planning
In this conversation, the team generates ideas for action planning and comes to a consensus on how they will move forward together to build or strengthen a culture of belonging within their team and organization.
Senior leadership support of desired outcomes is critical.
In this final part of the program, Jessie will work with you to bring together your senior leadership and the team to collaboratively move the solutions forward, leveraging all your organizational strengths for lasting change.
6-Month Check-In (Booster Session)
We will facilitate a 6-month check-in with you and your team to see how implementing agreements is going. Think of this like a booster session. This opportunity reconnects your team and leadership to the lessons learned, solutions created and the action plan agreed upon by leadership and team.The booster session check-in supports solutions moving forward.
Culture of Belonging Reflective Learning Instrument
You will access a complimentary culture of belonging reflective learning instrument to help you focus your efforts for greatest impact.
Complimentary Copy of Jessie's Book
Your team will receive a copy of Jessie’s bestselling book, Worldview Skills: Transforming Conflict From The Inside Out for your corporate library.
Jessie Sutherland's book synthesizes cutting-edge scholarly research from around the world on the most promising practices for transforming deep-rooted conflict into peaceful co-existence.
An international speaker, trainer, and consultant, Jessie Sutherland works with organizations and communities to engage diversity, build belonging and ignite intercultural collaboration.
Recipient of BC Community Achievement Award (2023), her approach creates sustainable community change that effectively addresses complex social problems.
Benefit from skill development that equips employees with transportable and transferable skills and tools they can use when other issues arise in their workplace. Team members will learn more about one another in the process of these conversations, leading to increased trust and empathy while also building bridges for collaboration.
Know where to focus your efforts for greatest impact on your team and organization.
Increase workplace respect and mutual understanding.
Generate innovative ideas and solutions.
Get clarity around team values.
Strengthen internal mechanisms for problem-solving.
Close the communication and understanding gap between employees and senior leadership.
Implement employee-led awareness campaigns.
Transform “people problems” into collaboration.
Build a supportive culture in your team and organization.
Don Walden
Police Recruitment Training, JIBC Police Academy
“
She turned one of the most challenging topics in our police training program into one of our most effective.
Jessie Sutherland was the lead Diversity instructor in our Police Recruit Training Program. Jessie was able to draw on her unique experience building inclusive communities to develop and deliver an innovative four-stage values-based approach to Diversity. She turned one of the most challenging topics in our police training program into one of our most effective.
Eliana Jimeno
International Peacebuilding Specialist
“
...it is a highly adaptable and responsive framework...
The Belonging Matters framework creates a process in which the indicators for belonging truly emerge from the needs and expectations of the group of people or individuals that work with the framework. In this sense, it is a highly adaptable and responsive framework that does not apply a "one size fits all" approach but walks people though the process of inquiring and finding its own parameters for belonging and its own pace for advancing in the process.
Val MacDonald
Director, Seniors Services Society of BC
“
...open the inner voice to better understand what promotes quality of life.
What Belonging Matters Conversations do so remarkably is to open the inner voice to better understand what promotes quality of life.
I was touched by how simple, yet how profound responses were to topics such as isolation and safety.
She turned one of the most challenging topics in our police training program into one of our most effective.
Jessie Sutherland was the lead Diversity instructor in our Police Recruit Training Program. Jessie was able to draw on her unique experience building inclusive communities to develop and deliver an innovative four-stage values-based approach to Diversity. She turned one of the most challenging topics in our police training program into one of our most effective.
...it is a highly adaptable and responsive framework...
The Belonging Matters framework creates a process in which the indicators for belonging truly emerge from the needs and expectations of the group of people or individuals that work with the framework. In this sense, it is a highly adaptable and responsive framework that does not apply a "one size fits all" approach but walks people though the process of inquiring and finding its own parameters for belonging and its own pace for advancing in the process.
...open the inner voice to better understand what promotes quality of life.
What Belonging Matters Conversations do so remarkably is to open the inner voice to better understand what promotes quality of life.
I was touched by how simple, yet how profound responses were to topics such as isolation and safety.
There is not much the team will need to do to prepare. The process will be explained and facilitated by Jessie, and she will provide any information that is needed ahead of time and/or between sessions. There are no pre-reading or pre-session assignments.
The process sets people up for success. Having Jessie (a highly skilled facilitator who is external to your team and organization) allows the opportunity for her to engage participants. We’ll work together so that your team has an introduction to Jessie and the process before it begins. Trust in the process and facilitator helps teams build trust within.
Diverse viewpoints are encouraged and explored. In doing so, teams will have a greater understanding and compassion for each other. Oftentimes, when stories are shared, views soften and shift to build greater unity.
Teams can use visual reminders as an awareness and educational tool for the organization on issues important to them. Many teams find they provide a great summary and reminder of key insights.
This program is the result of more than 25 years of research and working with individuals and teams around the globe delivering training, facilitating processes and building cultures of belonging in groups. I continue to be inspired by the solutions that people create together when stories are shared, understanding is built and solutions are co-created.
It would be an honour to work with you and your team. I look forward to our call to learn more about your organization and where Belonging Matters Conversations For Workplaces could help support the work you are doing to create healthy, respectful workplaces.
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