In the recent webinar, Leadership and Communication: Co-Creating Alignment and Awareness, NSF INCLUDES Network members shared strategies, resources, and tools related to effective leadership and communication.
This Network Spotlight highlights enduring lessons about effective leadership and communication relevant under any circumstances, but which have been particularly important during this time. Our presenters were: Mimi Lufkin, CEO Emerita, National Alliance for Partners in Equity (NAPE) and the PI for the NSF INCLUDES DDLP, IM STEM; Brianna Blaser, Ph.D., Project Coordinator for AccessINCLUDES at the University of Washington’s DO-IT Center; and Jenniffer Santos-Hernández, Researcher for Minority SURGE Capacity in Disasters.
The thing that is interesting about our communication process is that we are a virtual network and always have been. We do not meet face-to-face on any kind of a regular basis other than at our annual conference.
We have a quarterly virtual network meeting where we share best practices from the six states in an effort to scale those efforts. We have a website where everything is posted, including all the recordings from the virtual meetings and every e-newsletter. We also have a LinkedIn group and Twitter feed.
In terms of the processes, those things haven't changed in this current environment. We meet virtually all the time, so this is sort of business as usual. Besides that, all the people that we work with are now meeting from home so things like a dog barking in the background or a child sitting in someone's lap has become more standard. And those things are all great. We are all for it.
We have been putting more time in for informal discussion and networking, so folks aren't just listening to presentations during our meetings. Part of what we have been struggling with the past few months is figuring out how to make sure we are staying in touch with people without doing too much when people are feeling overwhelmed.
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Thank you to Mimi Lufkin, Brianna Blaser, and Jenniffer Santos-Hernández for sharing their experiences. Connect with Mimi, Brianna, and Jenniffer through the member directory so that as the NSF INCLUDES National Network, we can continue to learn and work together. You can access their full conversation and related resources if you “Register to Join the National Network”.