Without experienced facilitation, conversations in organizations or within groups that center racism can derail quickly. Inexperience hurts people. Well-meaning intent aside, without careful planning and experience in guiding racially-centered conversations, participants can be harmed. Not every consultant can do this work. These kinds of unproductive meetings make bringing people to the table the next time even more difficult — if not impossible. Creating a space where participants can be present and authentic is critically important no matter how long equity work has been underway. I always recommend hiring a professional for these kinds of meetings.

I design meetings to be engaging and interactive. My approach to meeting design and onsite work utilizes components of adult education theory. A facilitation engagement with me includes agenda planning, materials preparation, virtual facilitation, and a post-meeting follow-up plan. I end the engagement with a plan for concrete action steps because I do not believe that conversations create equity. Taking concrete action steps to mitigate racism creates equity.