Summary:

Kelly Diels led a workshop called "Power Moves for CultureMakers" that introduced the TRUE^x formula as a self-coaching tool to empower participants to shift from self-doubt and toxic power dynamics.

The workshop aimed to help participants deliberately craft their lives and choose different responses than the ones conditioned into us, so that we can interrupt toxic power dynamics in our personal lives, careers and our wider culture.

Kelly introduced the TRUE^x formula, a self-coaching tool designed to help individuals instantly dissolve shame and self-doubt and make deliberate decisions to exert power in their lives, careers, and culture.

Diels encouraged individuals to shift their perspective through toggling, enabling them to see the bigger picture and gain new insights. She also discussed the concept of power with and power to, emphasizing the potential for individuals to influence outcomes and make power moves in their personal spheres and in partnership with others.

Kelly Diels facilitated a conversation on recognizing patterns and choosing different responses, with participants sharing their experiences and struggles.

The group delved into the TRUE^x model, discussing its potential for immediate application once internalized. They emphasized the importance of not doing everything alone in the "get exponential" phase. Kelly also emphasized the significance of collective action and community rituals for productivity, drawing from her experiences in Trinidad and her standing dates with friends.

The discussion also touched on economic justice and collective responsibility in business. Kelly stressed the importance of creating a work culture where team members are flourishing and paid a living wage, and introduced the concept of conscious contracting as a way to co-create working relationships and ensure a non-exploitative environment. She also offered to provide access to a bonus workshop on conscious contracting, so that participants could have a practical tool for building a culture of economic justice into their businesses and workplaces.

Chapters & Topics:

The TRUE^x Self-Coaching Tool

Tthe TRUE^x formula is a self-coaching tool aimed at empowering individuals to overcome shame and self-doubt and make deliberate decisions rather than triggered, conditioned ones.

Understanding and Harnessing Power

Kelly Diels emphasizes the importance of understanding power and its different forms, highlighting that power can be used in healthy, creative, and skilled ways beyond just abuse and coercion.

* The under-use of your power is a misuse of power (Cedar Barstow)

*Thing you've been shamed for are often covering up sources of power
* Everything that's been used against you can be a source of power

* When you understand how structural power is shaping your personal experiences, you stop being ashamed and thinking you're broken. Instead you realized that the circumstances are broken, and can consciously decide to take different action. In other words: you get out of shame and into power

Reclaiming Time and Overcoming Shame

Kelly also introduces the concept of toggling, the first step in the TRUE formula. Toggling shifts your perspective to see the bigger picture and gain new insights.

Kelly recounts her challenges with time management during maternity leave and the shame she felt for not being able to find time to write her book. She explains how her perspective changed when she realized that women's time has historically been undervalued and conditioned to belong to others, leading to a collective issue rather than a personal failing. (Time is a Feminist Issue -- Brigid Schulte).

Diels emphasizes the importance of toggling out of personal experiences to see the bigger structural and collective picture, which can dissolve feelings of shame and reveal new information.

Toggling Requires Building Your Analysis

Kelly introduces the concept of toggling, encouraging the audience to shift their perspective back-and-forth between the personal and the collective and systemic lenses to reveal the real power dynamics at play.

To do this, you need to build your analysis -- as mapped out in Dr. Barbara J. Love's four-step model, to liberate oneself from shame and disempowerment and make informed, liberatory choices.

Remember Your Lineage

Kelly discusses the pivotal role of marginalized communities in shaping technology, culture, and civil rights, citing examples such as Ada Lovelace, Black Americans, indigenous people, and immigrant chefs. She emphasizes the profound impact and influence of these communities, challenging the traditional narratives that often overlook their contributions.

In other words: the people least recognized as culture makers are in fact authoring the best of our culture. This is your lineage. Remember it. Remember your power.

Remember Who You Are, Personally

Kelly prompts the participants to reflect on the challenges they have overcome and the resourceful actions they have taken in their lives. She highlights the significance of tapping into one's power source by remembering their resilience and triumphs

Unlearning and Expressing (Choosing a Different Response)

Kelly  leads a discussion on unlearning automatic, conditioned responses and patterns and how to choose a different response, instead. She illustrates this concept with examples such as recognizing and pausing before automatically saying yes, and discusses the importance of surfacing and challenging conditioned responses to create change in personal and societal contexts.

Get eXponential

Kelly Diels shares examples of collective rituals for productivity, such as sharing a washing machine with her sister-in-law and having standing dates with friends for support and strategizing. She highlights the impact of group chats, networking meetings, and organizing events with others as ways to achieve exponential growth and power moves. The group is encouraged to brainstorm and implement similar collective actions in their own lives, because this is how you truly amplify the power you're cultivating.

Special Offer and Q&A for We Are The Culture Makers Program

Kelly  shares a special offer for the We Are The Culture Makers program, offering a discount code for workshop participants and explaining the program's focus on systemic analysis and unlearning toxic conditioning.

The group then moves on to the Q+A/group coaching part of the workshop, covering things like:

• Giving yourself permission to like what you like...while also making strategic and sometimes temporary decisions about when to conform/diverge
• How to stop underpricing even when it comes from a place of social responsibility and a deep desire to be accessible...and how toggling out to the business lens can help you design a different business model (not the usual 1:1 service or course structure) that allows you to be compensated even if the end-user isn't paying for services
• Economic Justice and Collective Responsibility and getting to a more sustainable dynamic where everyone is both a contributor and recipient of economic justice
• How to get out of guilt about being an employer but creating feminist business practices that foster an internal labour culture in which team members are flourishing and paid a thriving wage
• Conscious contracting as a way to co-create working relationships and ensure a non-exploitative work culture.

Key Questions

* How can we shift power dynamics and interrupt toxic power dynamics?
* What are the sources of power that are hidden from us?
* How can we tap into our power and influence outcomes in our personal and collective spheres?
* What are the daily practices or beliefs that support the status quo and how can we choose a different response?
* What patterns do we need to shift and what are the creative alternatives to our usual reactions?
* How can I unlearn toxic conditioning and choose different responses?
* What business model and pricing strategies can I use to support my work AND serve under-resourced communities?