Bonus Episode: High Tech High Unboxed- Improvement as a tool for our collective liberation, with Dr. Brandi Hinnant-Crawford
Unleashing Social Change
Unleashing Social Change Podcast has a featured episode for you this week! High Tech High Unboxed, hosted by Alec Patton. In this Episode, Stacey interviews Brandi. Stacey Caillier talks to Dr. Brandi Hinnant-Crawford about what Improvement Science looks like when equity and liberation are embedded in the PROCESS, not just the hoped-for result. This interview is rooted in two things, how improvement science can be a tool for our collective liberation and what we do in the meantime before that liberation comes about. Hope you enjoy this week's Bonus episode. Show...
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Unpacking Mentorship; Humility, Authenticity, and Curiosity.
Unleashing Social Change
and I met back in 2003 working on the 100,000 homes campaign. She is currently heading the executive leadership coaching offered to all MBA students at MIT Sloan School of Management. She has published two books on leadership and is the co-founder of I am honored and SO grateful that Nicki listened to the entirety of Season Four and brought her wisdom and expertise to this debrief. Nicki is unafraid to call a spade a spade, or an asshole, and for that I love her. Unapologetic in her mission to develop leaders that are able to lift and progress teams rather than exhaust them with tone...
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56: Sharon Kanis: A Profile in Interconnectedness of Communion
Unleashing Social Change
My last mentor of the season is one who has known me since before I was born, my Aunt and Godmother, Sharon Kanis of the . Taking her vows at the age of 19, Sharon has since gotten a degree in chemistry, a masters in applying Jungian theory to biblical archetypes, and a PhD in how people experience their spirituality in their bodies. When asked if I could introduce her as Doctor Sharon Kanis SSND she scoffed and said the phd was just a thing she did a while ago. Sharon is a truth teller and willing to question her own assumptions with enduring humility. She has traveled the world...
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55: Noah Winnick and Josue Barnes: A Profile in Fearless Community Activism
Unleashing Social Change
Description: A few years ago I received advice that every leader should have a mentor who is 20 years younger than them. In the reckoning of June 2020, I found mine in Noah Winnick and Josue Barnes. The duo founded Claremont Change and have been representing the voices of marginalized people in the community since the inception of the organization. They are fearless advocates who are relentless in their commitment and vision in creating an antiracist Claremont and I will follow them, quite literally in peaceful protest, to the ends of the earth. The synergy between these lifelong...
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54: Mark Lipton - A Profile in Vision, Genius, and Feeling Feelings
Unleashing Social Change
This week I sat down with Mark Lipton who I met when he was the Department Chair of my graduate program in Organizational Change Management at The New School. He has since moved on to Professor Emeritus status, which has freed him up to consult with Fortune 500 companies and write awesome books, so be sure to check out and the award-winning . I learned that Mark and I had all kinds of things in common in this episode. For example, we bonded over the fact that both of us entered higher education entirely on a whim. And I was absolutely fascinated to listen to Mark’s thoughts about what...
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53: Rosanne Haggerty: A Profile in Disruption and Active Listening
Unleashing Social Change
In this episode, you’ll meet Rosanne Haggerty, winner of the 2001 MacArthur “Genius Award.” Having worked for her for 11 years I can say with no doubt: she really is a genius, although she’d never tell you that herself. Super humble and one of the most relentless leaders I’ve ever known, Rosanne’s work speaks for itself. Last year the organization she founded, , was awarded the prestigious $100 & Change grant from the MacArthur Foundation, a global competition for a $100 million to fund a single proposal that promises “real and measurable progress in solving a critical...
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52: Holly Craig Silkman: A Profile in Candor
Unleashing Social Change
Holly Craig Silkman, aka Adele Adler, aka my college roomie, joins us from her horse ranch in Montana to talk about her experience narrating the audio version of my book, , and her experience as a leader for more than three decades. Our time as roommates at West Point was much like this episode, a hoot and a half with tons of laughter. Holly was one of the first people I ever came out to and her compassion in that moment forged a friendship that changed both of our lives for the better. Throughout this episode, Holly’s perseverance, great personality, and candor shine through. A...
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51: Howie Cohen - A Profile in Becoming a Leader's leader
Unleashing Social Change
Join me this episode as I sit down with my mentor and friend, retired Colonel Howie Cohen, to discuss leadership, community, standards, and perseverance. We reminisce on the unconventional methods Howie used to instill cohesion in every one of the dozens of organizations he led, from being one of the first officers ever to sign into the Third Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment to commanding the White House Communications Agency. Woven throughout our conversation you will notice the profound joy of cameraderie forged by the shared experience of selfless service to something bigger than...
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50: Jan Hicks: A Profile in Authenticity and Kindness
Unleashing Social Change
Today Jan Hicks is living her best life as a farmer, mother, and doting grandmother. When she retired as a two-star Major General in 2005, she was serving as the Commanding General of the United States Army Signal Corps. I had the tremendous good fortune of serving under Jan when she was the Battalion Commander of the 125th Signal Battalion in Helemano, Hawaii. Leokani Okauwila - a Hawaiian phrase that translates into Voice of Lightning - was the motto of our unit that provided tactical communications support to the 25th Infantry Division. If you’ve read the first chapter of my book,...
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49: Jane Holl Lute: A Profile in Never Moving Backwards
Unleashing Social Change
Thirty years ago I met Jane Hall Lute while she was my professor at West Point. Since our time together she has gone on to be the Assistant Secretary General for Peacebuilding Support at the United Nations, the former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for the United States, and is now the Director at SIPCA. As she mentions,” Jane Hall does not move backward”. Her illustrious career is cornerstonesd with humility,curiosity, and a commitment to learn something new from every conversation. Jane has always been able to distill the most complicated processes and ideas into comprehensible...
info_outlineMentorship is often thought of as unidirectional - flowing from the mentor to mentee. In this upcoming season, I interviewed a baker’s dozen of my mentors - people who were there to guide me through some of my biggest leadership challenges - to find out about their biggest leadership challenges.
If my military mentors taught me anything, it was this: leaders don’t ask the people to do anything they aren’t willing to do themselves. That goes for cleaning toilets, answering the phones, or disclosing your biggest leadership challenges to your podcast listeners. So we’re launching season four with my dear friend, Dr. Susan Rivers, Executive Director and Chief Scientist of iThrive, who agreed to interview me about the hardest challenges I’ve faced as a leader.
Susan invites me to go behind the scenes into some challenges I’ve shared a hundred times before and she draws out some new stories I’ve never shared before. I’m so grateful to Susan for her generous listening, her keen insights, and her ability to help me make sense of some of the hardest moments I’ve experienced.
Show Highlights:
- The pain of not being able to tell the truth about my sexual orientation while I served in the military
- Why authenticity is so important to me now
- How I worked through my fears by being humble and letting go of the need to be blameless
- Reckoning with decades of socialization as a white person in the United States and the negative impact that has on showing up fully in community
- Differentiating between impact and intent to take responsibility for my actions
- The big question: How do I take healthy responsibility for the whole web of life?
- Learning to listen to what my body is trying to tell me
Pre-order Becky’s Book Impact With Integrity: Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself