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Hi. 
This is Mark Raven. 

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Welcome to episode 308 of lean 
blog audio. 

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This is a post that was 
published on August 7th 2020. 

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And it's titled why I'm handing 
over my blog for the week to 

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hashtag root-cause racism. 
You might have heard of what's 

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called a social media takeover, 
where a brand with a large 

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following gives control of their
social media feed to somebody 

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who's promoting a cause or a 
social message. 

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So, as many Americans are doing,
I've been thinking about and 

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reflecting. 
And I'm trying to learn about 

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racism and the effects on people
of color for what it's worth. 

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I've read the book, White 
fragility, and I've participated

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in discussions about it with 
colleagues at both Valley, 

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capture and Connexus. 
As we figure out how to improve 

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our organizations, my wife and I
have watched and talked about 

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films including 13th, and let it
fall about that last film being 

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about some of the history and 
Los Angeles. 

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They're both available on 
Netflix and the film 13th. 

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Is available for free viewing on
YouTube. 

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You can find a link to that. 
And everything I mentioned here 

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at lean blog dot org, slash 
audio 308. 

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So on the subject of history and
my own curiosity about, how did 

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things get to be this way? 
I've been reading the book. 

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Stamped from the beginning, the 
definitive history of racist 

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ideas in America. 
That's the book that Ibrahim X 

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Kennedy. 
Wrote before the wildly popular 

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book, how to be an anti-racist, 
which I started reading, but I 

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put on hold to read stamped from
the beginning first. 

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You know, in recent months. 
I saw a video that was published

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by General, Charles Q brown jr. 
He's now the chief of staff of 

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the United States, Air Force, 
and that video is particularly 

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powerful when I watched it back 
in June and the video is 

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embedded in the blog post. 
So, you know, watching that 

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video, you know, I think about 
how unlike General Brown Nobody 

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looks at me and asks, does he 
belong? 

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Do I belong because of the color
of my skin, it saddens me that 

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somebody like, General Brown has
faced such discrimination. 

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So I've shared some of my other 
Reflections in a blog post. 

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And I've hosted a conversation 
on the subject of lean and 

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diversity, equity and inclusion 
in Mylene blog interviews, 

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podcast series. 
It's episode 378 if you want to 

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go listen to that. 
Now, look, I'm not an expert on 

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any of this, so, I'm just as 
flawed as anybody else, but I'm 

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trying to learn and grow. 
The one person I followed on. 

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LinkedIn is G Andhra Wardell. 
She is a lean practitioner like 

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me. 
She's a black woman. 

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Unlike me Diandra was brave, 
enough to post some thoughts and

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personal Reflections on her 
feelings and experiences. 

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In the aftermath of the killings
of the murders of George. 

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Floyd Brianna Taylor, and a 
Aubrey among others. 

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I was disappointed in 
embarrassed really by some of 

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the utterly dismissive comments 
that were made by white men in 

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reply. 
They're on LinkedIn. 

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I mean, that didn't seem right. 
It's, it's one thing to have a 

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different point of view. 
It's another, it's bad to try to

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invalidate the experiences and 
feelings of others. 

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I think, as lean practitioners, 
we should humbly aim to respect 

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all people. 
This means listening and 

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understanding their perspectives
and realities. 

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The idea of go and see doesn't 
mean going and imposing our 

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views. 
That means going and listening 

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is Toyota's Fuji Ocho and 
probably others. 

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Their say go and see ask why? 
And show respect When people are

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hurting, I think we should go 
see, ask why, and show respect, 

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I don't know what the answers 
are and that's okay for now, I'm

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trying to understand the 
problem, the current state and 

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causes, if not root causes and, 
you know, I made an edit to the 

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blog post, not taking anything 
out but, you know, I added this 

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thought that I've been 
reflecting on saying that's 

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okay. 
For now that I don't know what 

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the answers are and that's okay 
for now, well, maybe the lack of

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Answers is okay for me as a 
white person. 

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But I can understand the sense 
of urgency that people of color,

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would have to find Solutions 
yesterday. 

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So if an employee says something
that something is unsafe and 

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workplace and an executive 
shouldn't reply by saying, well 

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no it isn't. 
When somebody says they're being

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treated differently or being 
discriminated against, we 

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shouldn't say no, you aren't So 
thinking back to the idea of a 

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quote-unquote, social media take
over, I was inspired by DeAndre 

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so I asked her to accept a Blog 
hand over as I'm calling it. 

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She's not taking anything. 
I'm offering it. 

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My initial thought was to give a
platform for her to write and 

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talk about anything she wanted. 
That's what happens in the 

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Takeover / hand over. 
I want to give more exposure to 

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her voice. 
So we had some email exchanges 

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and wonderful Zoom conversation 
to get. 

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And to brainstorm and DeAndre 
really ran with this idea. 

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She recruited a number of black 
women and white. 

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Women to write blog posts on 
themes of lean, diversity, 

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equity, and inclusion, she's 
calling. 

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It hashtag root cause racism and
some of the blog posts don't 

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come from a lien or continuous 
Improvement perspective and I 

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think that's fine. 
I think that's refreshing. 

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But if you go to the blog post 
lean blog dot org, slash audio 

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308. 
You'll see the participants in 

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the plan for the series that's 
going to run through Friday. 

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August 14th. 
Will sometimes have two or three

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posts a day. 
So I invite you to go to the 

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blog actually. 
Well now here on Saturday the 

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eighth, when Diandra wrote a 
post that gives her introduction

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to the series from her 
perspective and laying out the 

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plan in the vision for the week 
and And Beyond. 

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So we're going to have blog post
coming from people, from 

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professional perspectives, and 
thinking about Community, 

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involvement business and 
corporate responsibility, 

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education Healthcare government,
and the Arts. 

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And so on that, on that last 
day, Friday the 14th. 

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I'm going to be moderating a 
panel discussion with Diandra 

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and eight other. 
Women kind Nexus has been kind 

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enough to allow us to use their 
Zoom webinar account for this So

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there's a registration Link in 
the blog post or you can go to 

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Connexus.com slash webinars. 
We're calling this webinar 

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sharing our visions and voices 
to hashtag root cause racism and

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again that's being held August 
14th, 1:00 Eastern. 

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So again I'm going to be staying
doing my best to stay out of the

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way on the blog this week. 
This is really about letting 

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other voices have their say and 
let them shine. 

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I am going to be publishing one 
podcast on the lean blog 

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interviews series during the 
week. 

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I'm going to publish this on 
Tuesday that touches on these 

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themes with two very special 
guests. 

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I'm going to be joined by dr. 
Randall. 

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Pinkett, among other things, he 
was the first and only black 

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winner of The Apprentice and dr.
Jeffrey Robinson. 

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A professor at Rutgers business 
school, will be talking about 

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the book they Co authored called
Black Faces and white places and

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their upcoming book, Black Faces
in high places among Hmong, 

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we're going to talk about what's
going on in society and some 

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things that organizations can 
do. 

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So, I hope you'll accept the 
invitation to read and listen to

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these perspectives over the 
coming week, you can find all of

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these blog posts again through 
August 14th, at lean blog, dot 

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org, or you can go specifically 
to lean blog dot org slash root 

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cause racism. 
Or if you want to type less, you

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can go to lean blog dot org 
slash RCR. 

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And again I invite you to go to 
lean blog dot org. 

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Slash audio 3084 links and more.
Thank you.