Yes. OK. Well, let's go ahead and get started. So, first of all, I just
wanted to say thank you all so much for joining us. I know it's early in
the morning for some of you, uh midday for some of us. So thanks for being
here. Um Also, I wanted to say it's been a great opportunity to work with
each of you over the course of the last year or so. Um getting to know
your work and what your interests are. Um And then kind of wrapping those
things up into your policy briefs is really a, a great exercise for me as
well. So I wanted to um kinda have a culminating event which this is today
to be able to talk to you about how best to circulate your memos. Um
Either the ones that we worked on together or ones that you may um do when
your research is further along in the future. So again, if there are any
questions that you may have, you don't have to wait till the end, you can
throw them in the chat. Alexis is monitoring the chat. So she'll kinda
stop me if I need to clarify any points or if there are questions that
come up. Um But my plan is to spend about 20 minutes kind of going through
the presentation and then having um another 20 or 25 minutes towards the
end to get into any discussion that we need to.
Ok. So the first tip for policy influence is to target your audience and
to do that, you wanna ask yourself some key questions and those are, what
level of policy do you wish to impact? And I think we've kind of talked
about this before. Um when we were thinking about who your audience is for
your policy briefs, but you can affect policy all the way from, you know,
the federal level down to, you know, anything local. So that may be a
school board, it may be um a particular program that's operating in your
local environment. It could be um a policy at a university level or within
a department or a college at a university. So the primary thing that
you'll need to do before you begin circulating or sharing your memos or
your research with anyone is to really think through where do you wanna
have the impact? And then once you figure that out, the next thing to do
is to decide how changes are made at the level. Um being able to figure
out how policy process works will really help you decide where you can
engage and uh at what point you should be engaging. So if we're talking
about uh making policy changes or trying to influence policy on a city or
state level or even a national level, um there are very specific things
that have to happen in order for you to have any influence and they're not
necessarily um related to all of your efforts. There are so many different
things that are involved with changing policy at that large of a level.
But if you're talking about working collaboratively with the department at
a college, um change may not take so long, there may not be as many steps
involved. And so the thing here is really just understanding what is the
policy process, how are changes made when do bodies that make changes meet
? Um so that you kind of have a time frame of when you might wanna engage.
And then the third thing to wanna ask yourself upfront is who is
empowered to make the changes at each level.
And this is gonna vary depending on what level of policy you're trying to
influence.
So the next thing after you decide where you wanna make an impact is to
figure out an outreach plan uh to reach the folks who have influence. The
first thing that I always say to start with is your own network. So you
wanna ask yourself, who do you know? That's the first part? But how well
do you know them? Um how well do you know them? Is really important
because if you have a, a strong relationship with someone, it's really
easy, um, to tap that network and talk about your ideas and then to be
able to, um, share information and get feedback on how well they think, um
, your idea might be received with who it is. You're trying to influence.
That can be a quick phone call, a quick chat if you know this person,
like I said, you know, really, well, it's pretty easy to have that kind of
a casual conversation and be able to gain some, you know, intel if you
don't know them well, um you know, that that approach isn't probably the
best. And so we'll get into some approaches on the next slide, but you'll
wanna start with tapping your own network. The next thing you wanna do is
ask who do these people know? And then don't be shy about asking for an
introduction. And then when you don't know anyone at all, this is a
position that I think a lot of folks find themselves in, especially if
they're kind of novices to the policy spaces. Um You're not necessarily
networked with anyone that is in position to affect change. And so when
that happens, some strategies are uh attending network events. And right
now, there are so many that are happening virtually um that you could, you
know, tap into um very easily and the way you would start with attending a
networking event is, you could start by thinking of uh a networking event
that is on a topic of interest that you have or you could think about uh a
networking event where there are folks likely to be there who have
influence in the space that you're wanting to um get into. So there's a
couple of different ways you can think about which networking events might
net the best results. Another strategy when you don't know uh anyone is to
find a connection. And basically what I mean by that is, do you know
someone um that is connected to you in a way that isn't typical. So for
example, do you know someone that goes to church with you? That's, you
know, something that um you have in common, do you know someone whose
Children plays on the same soccer league as your kids? That might be
something that you have in common that you can begin to grow a
relationship from? Um Do you have uh the same alma mater? That might be
something that you can start with as a commonality. The reason why finding
a connection helps even when you don't know anyone um is because people
are more likely to talk to you and be interested in what you have to say
when they can find some common ground or it seems as if you have shared
interest or perhaps you um you know, have had similar experiences that
level of familiarity uh Right. Or wrong is really something that helps
people kind of break the ice and begin to open up to an idea of developing
a relationship. The next thing uh if you don't know anyone is to follow
the change of uh chain of command. So cold calling is like the last
strategy that I would suggest you do. But if it is the only strategy
available to you because you don't have anyone in your network. And um you
know, you haven't been able to find an event where you could come into
contact with these folks or connection that would help you build a
relationship. Cold calling is uh you know, something that you could try
and what you would wanna do is follow the chain of command. So for example
, if you're trying to reach a university dean, you wouldn't start off by
calling the dean or by emailing the dean directly and you wouldn't do that
for any other reason if you know, the dean is probably very busy. Um He or
she may not check email regularly or be open to answering email from folks
that they don't really know. Um they may not respond in a timely manner.
So instead of trying to reach the dean directly, you'd wanna go through
the chain of command and figure out who is the assistant to the dean and
email that person, um that person has a better command of the dean's
calendar, uh schedule interest. Um That person can make a quick
introduction and introduce uh kind of what who you are and what you want
to do and then set up an appointment or a meeting for you. So it's
important that you, um really kind of think through what would be the best
way to reach someone and it's not always going straight to that person
when you have, uh you know, no relationship with them.
So once you figure out an outreach plan, we, we can talk about how you
communicate with the folks. First thing is always to have clear concise
communication, your communication should be very intentional. Um At this
point, you are, you know, in the process of developing a relationship, but
you're developing a relationship for a very specific pur purpose. So if
you're communicating with someone in your network, as I kinda alluded to
before a brief phone call, followed by a succinct email that gives the
details of what it is. Um Your ideas are or what your request of them is,
is probably the best way. Um, a phone call or a quick text message. This
really works. If you're familiar with someone, you have a great
relationship, um, it saves a lot of time for both of you to be able to
just say, hey, listen, I need to get in touch with um the dean of this
particular college because I have a new idea that I think would be really
beneficial. Can I send you an email with more details. That's kind of all
you would need to say if you have a really good relationship with someone
, if you have a good relationship with someone, but you haven't activated
it in a while or nurtured it in a while. The next best thing might be um
to talk over coffee or over lunch or nowadays, uh, a virtual chat would
also do. Um, and that really is an opportunity for you to kinda learn
what's been happening in their lives, um personally and professionally and
then to be able to one determine if they're still the right person for you
to uh make the ask of and then to just kind of get back on some common
ground. And so, um you know, this is also kind of another reason why you
want to always be nurturing your relationships so that when you do get
into a place where um something may be happening quickly or you find an
opportunity and the opportunity uh you need to respond to very quickly
having someone in your network that is, um you know, ha you have a good
relationship with, um will help you kind of move things along a lot faster
and you'll notice that in the policy space, sometimes depending on which
level you're trying to affect time is of the essence. And other times, you
know, these things can take months, months on months um to really make any
sustained uh progress. But other times things move quickly. So keeping
your network, um you know, healthy, I think is just a really good practice
in general. The other thing that you would be using these phone calls or
coffees or virtual meetings for is to gain some intel on the either the
area that you're trying to impact or the folks that you're trying to reach.
So use that communication as an opportunity to gain information that will
also help you strategize
if you're trying to reach someone out of network, so you don't really have
a personal relationship with them. Um The best thing to do would be to
provide a succinct email with your ideas. Um And you ask, followed by a
phone call after a reasonable amount of time if, if they haven't responded
to your email. Um The reason you would start with an email is because
nobody really likes getting put on the spot um or being asked to commit to
anything without having an opportunity to thoroughly look it over to
research who you are. Um And then to be able to think about whether or not
your as aligns with their interest. And so calling someone out of the blue
is never really a good approach. Send a, send an email, don't list all of
the details, but just enough to kind of wet their interest and um include
some information about your work and then follow up within, I would say 5
to 7 days uh if you haven't heard back, another great way to reach folks
out of your network is through social media. So if they have an active
social media account, um or they're sharing information about the
organization, it would behoove you to one follow them. Um So that you stay
aware of all of the changes and um you know, things that they've got going
on, but also to begin a relationship that way, oftentimes if you
communicate through social media, um whomever is monitoring the social
media account will engage with you. So if this is a great opportunity to
ask questions, to gain more information, um to share ideas and to have um
conversations in hopes of developing a relationship. That way,
I pause here and ask if we have any questions or if anything needs
clarifying.
If so you can drop it in the chat.
Go ahead ra roti if you wanna take yourself off mute. Yeah, I had a
question and you may be coming to it later. Um Monica, this is Rati, my
question is that sometimes, you know, each of us have done very point
projects, right? Very narrow specific point research on something that
itself is not a strong enough value proposition to change a policy or
impact it. However, that coupled with other people's research or knowledge
from research or other things together can make a contribution to changing
a policy, but we may not be fully each aware of all of the work that can
be leveraged to make our policy request stronger. So my question is you
are in a unique position, Monica to have seen all of the projects. So you
may have some insight on how we can leverage the larger collective work.
And also we may want to leverage work that is outside. I strongly feel
that this is the first cohort of women of color research, probably ever,
ever, you know, done. And so it has a huge impact if we want to together
create four or five policy focused things. And we may need a little extra
research done or a little extra work done to actually get ourselves over
the hurdle of making a huge impact. So my question is that you're in that
unique position. Each of us also heard uh at the summit, the presentations
and my takeaway was this is strong stuff, but each of us have not just
policy, we want to impact, we have our own projects to take to the next
level. And so we may not get around to doing huge policy impact work. So I
wanted to get your perspective on how we can leverage the collective. Yeah.
Can I jump in here? This is Kim um Cause I'm gonna have to log off. Um I
, I haven't Alison and I haven't had an opportunity to uh inform all of
you of two things that are on the horizon. One is excuse my dog. One is
that um we've asked Monica and she has gracefully agreed to synthesize all
of the policy, all the memos into an executive summary with really
specific policy implications. Um And we're going to, we meaning
particularly key for given the transition of the new government um are
going to make sure that there's a press release around this memo. Um that
does the synthesis. The other thing that uh we're doing is Alison and some
of, you know, this Alison and I are work are on a National Academies of
Science Engineering and Medicines Committee. Um That's looking at women of
color in tech from various perspectives. And we are co-author in the
report, but we're also making sure that your findings are uh included
where it makes sense in that report because, you know, not for nothing,
the anything that's kind of going to come out from the National Academies
is going to be read for policy purposes. So we're also doing that and then
I guess there's a third leg to the stool is um you'll soon be getting
something like within the next couple the next couple of days, hopefully
about the conference. So we are going to have a virtual women of color um
uh conference, you know, so it's um a retake on what was supposed to
happen in March 2020. It will be March 2021 and your participation will be
critical uh for that conference, not only to disseminate your findings but
also to help shape the conversation as to where do we go from here, Monica.
I know I cut you off, but I wanted to make sure that I interjected this
so I'll put myself back on mute and then say goodbye to everyone and let
you take over Kimberly, Kimberly before you go. May I ask just a follow up
question,
Kimberly? Um There are aspects that I've noticed that I'd like to bring to
your attention, working with organizations that are focused on black uh
issues of racial uh institutionalist. You know, like Robert Smith, I had a
call with Robert Smith. You might know, uh you know, the richest black man
in America and a huge philanthropist, right? They are. So they're working
on black things. I talked to his chief of staff and everyone, they are not
focusing on women of color. There's not a single program in their
multifaceted set of programs that focuses on women of color. They focus on
black in general, which I tried to convince them means that, I mean, you
know, you're not focus, you're focusing on black men, not on black women.
And it seemed like uh a light bulb was going on because they had never
thought of that. So there are entire strong philanthropic and other organ
organizations that don't even have this light buzz. So this is beyond what
you just, you know, I I just wanted to bring these things up because I'm
so fired up by having short conversations with impressive people. It's not
policy necessarily, but it's taking a collective wisdom and bringing it to
the attention of important people in order to, to siphon more focus around
women of color. Is that, is that an additional item? Is th are those kinds
of things? Because I really think that the body of work of our 14 or
however many projects gives us a unique perspective of saying we know
what's going on, listen to us. Yeah. So you said a good thing and I put it
into the chat. So I won't um um you know, take too much of Monica's time.
But um we, I've been meeting with a group of CEO S of foundations. Uh No
, uh you know, community foundations and philanthropists um on this very
topic. And so I put into the chat, not just for you roti but for everyone
, if you know of philanthropist that you think could benefit from, not
only your research, but the information that we have in general, I would
be greatly appreciative if you could do an introduction because there are
a series of uh workshops that we my center is hosting um which is tapping
into the uh philanthropic arm. Um and not only educating them on these
topics that you've so beautifully analyzed, but also getting their
participation. So you can just send me an email, just do an introduction
and that would be fantastic, Monica. Thank you. I think uh rai you make a
good point too. Um It is important to bring thi this type of information
or, or blind spots to their awareness. I think when we think about policy
oftentimes we're thinking of, you know, big level uh world changing policy
, but I wanna also make sure that we're focusing on um smaller policies
that have big impact. So for example, if we are noticing that um there are
philanthropic groups who haven't even thought about including women of
color um as a, you know, potential uh arm of their giving. Um And we are
able to bring research and we're able to bring, you know, ideas to the
fore that would help them see why this would be something to focus on
after that relationship is developed. Uh One strategy would be to say, OK
, well, let's take a look at how issues become relevant in your
organization. Um And if there's a way to embed looking at issues of women
of color in your policy, or for example, um your folks that, you know, sit
on review panels, how many of them are women of color um in this, you know
, stem environment. And if you're trying to impact change um in this area
, then it would probably be best to have women of color who work in this
area included on the policy panels or on the giving panels um to analyze
grants that are coming in. So there are things like that, that I think
would be next steps as you develop relationships as you, you know, provide
some service and as you're able to, um, candidly talk about blind spots,
uh, there's opportunity to not just say, ok, let's maybe help you shift
your focus, but let's make sure that, that focus that you're shifting is
then codified in some type of, uh, way in your organization so that these
blind spots don't continue to happen. Or you're waiting for someone like
us to come in and show you where you could be making a bigger impact.
Instead, let's think of ways you can make that big impact upfront by
making sure you're paying attention to these things. So that's, I wanted
to add that. I think uh Kim already touched on uh me kind of pulling
together all of the various memos that you've created and finding
commonalities, maybe uh sharing with you all too where there may be some
synergies and you could think about working together as you move your
research forward. Um But those things are gonna come out um fairly soon in
the two page executive summary. So that will help you, Roy, I think,
understand um how maybe you can uh work together collaboratively with
others who are working on similar issues from this collaborative. Thank
you. Yeah. OK. So the next thing we'll talk about is how to position
yourself and your research. So for, for you, you wanna establish your
credibility I think one easy way to do this is that when you're
communicating uh via email with anyone um of influence or the policymaker
directly, you wanna include a one page, abbreviated CV or accomplishment
document. Um That kind of details the successes that you've had relevant
to the research or the policy brief that you're gonna be circulating with
them. That way they don't have to kind of go through your entire CV or,
you know, look you up and try to figure out what you've been working on
all these years um that should establish their credibility, your
credibility. Instead, you wanna kinda give them a highlight reel. Um And
you can include that in your email. The next thing you wanna do as you're
developing relationships, uh having more phone calls um is to talk about
your positionality. So what I mean by that is communicate why the issue is
important to you, um how you came to work on this issue and why
the other thing you wanna do is share your interest. So when you talk
about your line of research, are there other interests that are similar to
um this particular line of research that you can share? Um And if so are
there current projects that you're working on? And if so, what are the
goals of that project, any findings that you may have so far um and
outcomes of those particular projects? And then I think it's always
important to clearly articulate what your end game is. Um You wanna make
sure that you keep that at the forefront of all of your efforts and
interactions. Um So if there is something very clear that you want this
organization to do, say if you're working with a tech company, um and you
want them to uh you know, change the way they evaluate resumes coming in,
make sure that you communicate that upfront and that your conversations
always come back to the thing that you're trying to do and why and then
you also wanna position your research and so let them know what stage of
your research is in. And if there are any other phases that are planned
for the future, um wanna communicate who your funders are. So having big
name funders will often lend credibility to your work in the eyes of
policymakers and having smaller name funders can also lend a l another
level of credibility, which is it kind of shows that there is a solid
grassroots investment in your work or that your work is meaningful um to
practitioners or your work is meaningful uh to a particular community. And
so it, it doesn't much matter whether or not you have large funders or
small funders, um credibility can be established through the lens of each
of those, but you wanna communicate, who is funding your research next.
You wanna talk about any findings that you have, if they're preliminary,
if you're in the process of refining findings um and communicate what the
implications are of those findings. Another thing is to talk about the
limitations of your work. Um We'll get into this quickly in another slide
, but oftentimes policymakers are looking for silver bullets, they have a
lot of stakeholders that they are responsible for making happy. Um And so
if there are issues that come up, they're looking for quick fix solutions.
And as we know, as social science researchers, um there are no silver
bullets, a lot of the inequities that we talk about, um you know, have
happened over many, many years or generations and they're complex and
they're compounded by many things. And so we wanna make sure that we're
always talking about structural changes. Um and not just something that's
a quick fix because the reason why we've come into the issues that we have
with inequities is because of structural issues. And so, you know, there
is a tension that you'll have to navigate um between silver bullet and
advocating for structural change. And then the final thing for positioning
your research is to talk about whether or not any of your findings have
been implemented elsewhere. And if so, what were the results?
So in order to have intentional interactions, you wanna set your
expectations and then create some benchmarks.
Um Whenever you're having conversations, like I said before, always keep
in mind what your goals are, uh what your short term, immediate and your
long term goals are. And if they are mutually beneficial, then you have a
better chance of actually enacting them. So, think about, you know, you'll
need to know what the interests are of the organization of the department
of the college, um, of the local community. You'll need to know what their
interests are and what their goals are. And if you can figure out a way to
make your goals align with theirs that creates the best um environment for
change to actually happen next, you'll need to be clear about what you ask
is. So what specifically are you asking a policy maker and or influencer
to do that's in their purview? Um And also you wanna ask, um if there's
something that you need, that would be a, a benefit to them. So for
example, if there is a particular policy that you'd like to work on within
uh a corporation, like, for example, you would want to um work through the
ways that they're recruiting women of color from different colleges, you
might need to request their data because while you may have some
information about how recruitment is done and the pitfalls of recruitment
as it is, and um you know, that may help to explain why they are not
receiving women of color candidates at a rate that they should be or that
they could be if you're able to tailor that body of research to their
specific um organization, it gives it more credibility. And so you may
need to ask if you can um have their data to be able to do this analysis
that would help you tailor recommendations specifically towards uh their
needs. And if you do need to request something, you wanna make sure you
explain how you're gonna use it. And then finally, you'll want to offer
something. So, you know, a lot of times companies are looking for
solutions. If you have solutions that are, you know, ready, they're
willing to listen. Um Can you provide other resources? Can you do data
analysis that would help them uh make better sense of what their problem
is and then have some recommend recommendations that go along with that.
So again, you're building a relationship and relationships have give and
take and so you, you wanna keep in mind what it is that you're asking them
to do, but also what you can offer um the organization as well and then
some benchmarks for success, you know, what counts as success. Again,
policy change can be a very long process. And so you want to be able to um
think about what the successes are that you're having along the way that
will help you sustain your interactions. Um So developing relationships,
that's definitely a success. If an organization or policy maker influencer
agrees to circulate your research with others of influence, you should
count that as a success. If any of your recommendations have been adopted
, that's you know, also great if policies have actually been changed, that
that's your whole point um measuring outcome shifts. So this is something
that um would happen after an adoption of your recommendation or policy
change. But if you can look back and see that um the thing that you were
trying to impact has had measurable change over, you know, a certain
amount of time that definitely counts as a success and then also
developing new partnerships. Um is I think uh success.
The next thing is tracking your communication, the status of your
communication and outcomes. Um This is gonna be really important to, to
set up before you begin. Um your process of trying to enact change within
a given policy space. The reason is because you, you know, there are a lot
of moving parts and this is not gonna be the only thing you're working on
at a given time and so things can begin to become jumble and you want to
make sure that you're very clear about who you've talked to when you've
talked to them. Um You know, what the conversation evolved around and, you
know, we can kinda go through here. Here's how I track whenever I'm uh
doing outreach and communicating with policymakers or influencers, I
always list their name, their title affiliation um of who I've contacted
the date and the method of contact was this a phone call? Was this an
email? Was this through social media? The date and subsequent of any
follow up or communication. So, the distinction here is that the first
item is when you've sent out a uh a communication, it doesn't necessarily
mean when they've communicated with you. The third point is when you've
received communication back, um going down, what was the outcome of that
communication and what were your impressions? So you'll need to, um, you
know, kind of use your intuition here about the impressions you had of the
overall communication. Did the person seem open to what it is you were
explaining or expressing? Um Is there a willingness there to further this
conversation? Um Do they get back in touch with you promptly? So all of
these are kind of impressions about whether or not there's an opportunity
here to grow a relationship and to use your data to effect some kind of
change. The next thing is to track any action items or next steps that
they've agreed to or that you've agreed to. Um You also wanna talk about
and track any agreed upon goals or expectations, the outcomes of your
efforts and also any challenges that you've experienced.
And then once you start doing this, um you know, you don't have to be as
detailed in, you know, kind of tracking these things. But when you're
first starting, I think it's really important to have very detailed notes
and to keep them organized. And as you're doing this over time with
multiple organizations or multiple policy players. Um you'll wanna be able
to have, you know, this kind of a tracking spreadsheet for each one of
those entities. Um And you may start to find some commonalities
um that will help you kind of reshape your, your either your focus or your
strategy moving forward.
And the last thing I wanna talk about is caution uh when you're working
with policymakers or influencers. So the biggest thing for scholars,
academics practitioners um who are kind of new to this space is to avoid
being used. And sometimes, um you know, you'll end, you may end up in a
position unintentionally that the policymaker may not necessarily, you
know, have tried to put you in, but you'll find yourself in this position
if you're not careful from the outset. So the first thing or tip I have to
avoid being used is to assess openness to the data and change. So you may
ask uh yourself or you may um try to find out beforehand. Is this
organization open to using data? Do they use data to inform their
decisions already? And are they open to using data that maybe they have
not encountered before or that runs counter to um you know what, what
their current behavior is, you can kinda assess this. Um sometimes through
documents they put out or through their social media feeds. Um You can
sometimes assess this by conversations, initial conversations that you're
having with folks, but this is definitely something you wanna assess and
be willing to be wrong. You know, your initial impression may not always
be right, but you'll wanna make sure you capture what that initial
impression is and um kinda go from there. The next thing you wanna do is
identify any vast philosophical differences. So there's a couple ways to,
you know, approach this. So if there are vast philosophical differences in
the ways that you see the world or the problem, um and the way that this
organization or specific policymaker sees the problem, the first thing you
wanna ask yourself are these differences attributed to ignorance or
asymmetrical information. And if so, um what sharing, you know, resources
or information with one another and learning from one another help to kind
of close the divide. If so that's great, you can still move forward. If
not, you really have two things that you can do. The first would be to
find some common ground and only work on an issue where you can agree upon.
And so that may mean you have to scale back what your ultimate goal may
have been. Um But it doesn't mean that you can't find some interest on
some particular issue to move the needle on. The second thing you can do
is just abandon ship all together and find another organization or another
policy maker whose uh ideas around um the issues are more aligned with
yours. And in that way, there's more momentum and more willingness, um to
kind of work together. And the process may be easier in terms of actually
uh working together, gaining traction and making change. Um Just because
you have vast philosophical differences, doesn't mean that you shouldn't
work together, but it will mean that you may not agree upon some very
fundamental aspects of how you're defining a problem or what you see as
solutions. And so you'll need to just prepare yourself for that. And if
you're willing and able to engage, um it's important to find commonality
and really stick to that common ground and move the needle as much as you
can on that specific area. Um The third thing is to not, you know, being
used is to explain the limits of your research and to avoid overreach this
again, kinda goes back to the silver bullet analogy that I gave. Um it's
your responsibility once you kind of step into this policy space to
navigate the tension between finding a silver bullet and taking a, you
know, a more systemic approach to change, um you wanna focus on what your
research shows and its implications. So, uh there may be questions that
you can't answer. Um So make sure you're oriented conversation around what
your research does allow you to answer and any implications that it may
have for the particular organization or department um or community. And um
you wanna make sure that you're very clear about that because the other
thing you don't want to do is to allow your research to be used in ways
that you didn't intend. It's really hard for you to kinda reshape a
narrative once that narrative has moved beyond your control, um don't
promise more than you can deliver. So,
you know, companies, organizations, departments, they're really quick to,
you know, get free qualified um help. And each one of you are more than
qualified to assist organizations or departments or communities to think
through these issues and to move the needle, it's a very important um
policy uh levers. And so make sure that your goals are at the forefront of
your communication and that you are able to uh come through on the things
that you say you're able to deliver. Because if you don't, you risk
ruining a relationship, you risk ruining your opportunity to really
advance change. Um And if you do, you definitely don't want them to
continue to ask you for more and more and more without being compensated
because that can, you know, uh move your relationship into a space where
now you're feeling resentful. Um And like I said, it may not even be
deliberate on the policy makers um part, but it can still happen like that.
And so you just wanna avoid being exploited, the relationship, being
exploited because you do have so much to share or you do have so many
resources to bring um to looking at these issues and offering solutions.
Um You wanna ask good questions um that can help you understand the
organizational culture, um ask good questions that can help you um think
through the recommendations that you would provide for a particular
organization and how they should, you know, change um a particular
practices or policies. Uh And then finally, um make sure you're
maintaining your independence. You don't work for a policy maker, you
don't work for a particular company. And while you may have shared
interests and shared goals, it's important not to take on their problems
as your own. So be very careful with the language that you have uh or that
you communicate, you know, either verbally or written, you know, you don't
say our organization or our company that you're not a part of it, make
sure you are always maintaining that very clear line of independence, make
sure that you always retain um the rights to your research and that your
voice is clear. Um And that you're not, you know, afraid to use it when
you need to kind of push back or be um you know, more clear about the
direction that you want your work to be moved into.
So those are kind of the quick overarching um tips I think I wanna share
with you on how to interact with policymakers, how to develop
relationships, um how to position yourself in your research, how to um
think through what your ultimate goals are. Um how to align your interest
with those who have the ability to enact change. And then the companion
guy that I have kind of goes into more detail on each one of these parts.
So Alexis, do you wanna open the line for anyone to ask questions or for
me to clarify any points or if you have specific questions about your own
policy briefs right now, I'd be happy to answer those.
Perfect, everybody has the ability to unmute themselves. Um So if you do
have a question, go ahead.
Um So at Turk, we have a communications department. Mhm So
um
I was thinking that sharing with them the policy brief would be the first
step. Sure. Um
uh What I, what I'm wondering, I guess is um if there are things that we
can ask them to do that would be particularly
helpful with this because what they do is, you know, like the, what a
regular communications department does. Mhm Yeah. So I think it would be
wise to use the resources that you have. Um you, I think you mentioned,
you know, first starting sharing your policy brief with them so that
they're clear about um your work and then you could ask them to start um
you know, reaching out to some of these policymakers on your behalf. So
for example, we talked about who do you have in your network or do you
need an out of network strategy? This is something you could talk about
with your communications team and it'd be fine if they were to send, you
know, emails out on your behalf so that you're not having to do that work.
Um, it'd be fine for them to, you know, intercept phone calls and set up
appointments for you. Uh, but ultimately, when, when you are kind of doing
this work, people of influence or in the space to actually, um, take your
research and move into a place where it has traction with folks who can um
begin to change some things. They wanna talk to the actual researcher or
to the authors of the policy brief, they don't wanna, you know,
necessarily collaborate with folks who aren't um on the same level of
being able to kind of talk through the research or talk through how your
work may further, you know, their um agenda. So you wanna make sure that,
you know, kind of the meat and potatoes of the interaction that you, you
and your team are having. Um the communications support that you have can
, you know, work with you to kind of take some things off your plate in
terms of like the tracking sheet. For example, they may be the, you know,
owners of the tracking sheet. They may, may be the ones who initially
circulate the brief widely or can develop a um uh
uh oh gosh, my mind just went blank. I um uh media, a media post for you.
Um Something like that, uh your communications team would be really
helpful there. But when it comes down to actually working together, you
wanna be the one building, the relationships with the influencers.
Thank you. Yeah.
Any other questions so far?
All right. Well, again, thank you all for joining us today. Um For those
whose policy briefs are finalized, we'll make sure that you get the final
version of them and you can begin to circulate them. Um Look forward to
the executive summary that I'll be constructing that kinda ties all the
policy memos together. Um If you still need to provide feedback or
additional items to complete your policy brief or your policy memo, please
give that to me as soon as possible. Um I'll be turning off of this
project, um you know, at probably by the end of December and starting
maternity leave in January. So I wanna make sure that, um you know, I have
completed the work, uh you know, before us. So the sooner you can do that
, the better it would be.
Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I've got uh one baby boy turning one at the end of this month and another
baby boy coming in January. Oh, yeah, a lot to look forward to Monica and
thank you for all the work you're doing for us. Oh, you're welcome. It's
been a joy. Really. It has, it's been really good. R I think you made a
great point earlier. Just to see so many women of color um coming together
working collaboratively. Um And then, you know, from here us figuring out
how to make sure that we can um get some synergy around all the great
things that are going on. Yeah, I'm going to write a note to Kim Scott
about this. I'll copy you. But my sense is that we are not aware, all of
us who are working on our projects have tremendous insights, tremendous
insights that are not really related exactly to the results that we are
producing, but are much broader. And the formats that we had to share. The
policy thing is very focused on policy. And then we had the 10 minute
presentations which were also very focused on the project and what you
know, we could do in 10 minutes in the summit. So there has been no place
to, to share our deep beliefs and insights which could be useful to us all.
But it could also be useful to Nason, useful to Kim, useful to Alison.
But we've not had that opportunity because there was, you know, maybe
because of the pandemic and we never had a chance to get together and
wallow in our collective insights a year and a half of this work. And I
believe I've worked in tech companies for 39 years and I can tell you that
this level of deep insight is missing in the industry. It's missing, it's
missing it may not be research that's proven by one of our projects, but
it's deep insights that could be useful to the industry and useful to
educational institutions. And it's not policy necessarily and it's not a
research finding, you know, it's, it's different, but it's equally useful
and that is not being leveraged. So your executive summary memo will only
be an executive summary of the policy aspects, not of all the other stuff
that we have learned, right? So how is King going to get that insight? And
so that I, I'm still left with an open question in my mind. I think that
uh rai I think that it's going to be part of the way the collaborative
continues to work together and that there's a shared space for everyone to
come together um virtually, but also through the conference happening in
March. So that's, that's late, that's in 2021. I mean, this stuff is
needed. Now these companies, I mean, I'm in touch with them, they are
setting up racial equality um Organizations, fellows, action plans,
they're moving and if you're not in at the ground floor, you're not in,
you know, because they don't have a woman of color focus and they don't
have other focuses that we could tell them through our collective insights.
So I'm, I'm a little bit impatient with that. Uh with the, with the speed
is what I'm saying because we are very researchy, you know. So yeah, but
the work is done, the projects are done. So the insights are in the air,
they are just not being brought to the right people at the right time. I'm
impatient is what I'm saying. That's not a criticism of what's going on.
It's more an opportunity that I feel we can be leveraging more. So, so I
will, I will maybe write to Kim and I will also, you know, in include a
few of the folks who are on the have done the projects in similar spaces
because I do believe that the I could show an existence proof of how three
of us talked and we came up with an insight that never would have emerged
through the current process essentially. You know what I mean? Yeah, I
think that's a great idea, but I really, I really um thank you for
humoring me, but I really do believe in what I'm saying. Oh, I know. I, I
,
yeah, good. OK. Anyone else I think we've got about two minutes left on
this line. I know Alex has had to go. If not, um this recording is gonna
be available, we'll send out um the completed policy memos as well as this
powerpoint, the companion guy uh in the previous powerpoint, I had about
crafting a policy memo. Um so that everyone has access to all of these
resources
and if there's nothing else, then just stay tuned via email for um
announcements from Kim and Allison about next steps and opportunities. Um
and also about um some of the uh planning for the conference that will be
happening in March. Thank you so much Monica and good luck with everything.
Thank you guys, talk to you virtually soon. I'm sure. Thank you. Bye bye
bye.