Day: December 27, 2021

Book review: ‘Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives’ by Minal Bopaiah

‘Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives’ by Minal Bopaiah. Photo: amazon

Minal Bopaiah is the founder of Brevity & Wit, a strategy and design firm that helps organizations achieve the change they wish to see in the world through a unique approach that combines human-centered design, behavior change science, and the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. Bopaiah has written for the Stanford Social Innovation Review and TheHill.com and has been a featured guest on numerous podcasts and shows, including the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU. She has also been a keynote speaker for many conferences, inspiring thousands with her credible, authentic, and engaging talks. Her new book “Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives”  helps leaders create more inclusive organizations using human-centered design and behavior change principles. (amazon, 2021)

“Equity” begins with an Introduction that delves deep into the subject of equity. Under the section Why Equity, Not Equality, Minal Bopaiah defines Equality as “when everyone has the same thing” and equity as “when everyone has what they need to thrive and participate fully.” Figure 1. Equality versus equity illustrates this as everyone having the same size bicycle versus everyone having the right bicycle to fit their needs. By sharing her family’s immigration story, she explains systemic inequality and how the system was designed this way: “the United States has an education system tied to local property taxes.” Equity allows leaders to create organizations where employees can contribute their unique strengths and collaborate better with their peers. The book is divided into chapters: 1. The Relationship between Bias, Systems, and Equity, 2. A Design Approach to IDEA, 3. Engaged and Equitable Leadership, 4. Bridging the Gap, 5. Communicating the Change, and 6. Creating Equity through Media and Marketing. In Closing Thoughts, her hope is that she has provided readers with the tools to “start designing for more equity in the corner of the world where you have influence and power.”

It may be a business centered subject, but everyone can benefit from learning more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as well as Accessibility. “Equity” takes a complex topic and makes it clear and concise to everyday readers. Minal’s writing style is down to earth and the language is easy to understand. The Glossary at the end makes it easy to look up unfamiliar terms and Discussion Guide aimed at individuals, teams, and organizations will certainly keep the conversation going. One of the highlights is Chapter 6: Creating Equity through Media and Marketing which shows that even content creators can make a difference by making sure the content has proper representation and that everyone can access it. It may be a small book, but it speaks volumes about issues regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Far from being solely a business manual, it is also a reference guide for readers interested in creating a more equitable society. Filled with business and leadership advice, as well as interesting anecdotes and life lessons, “Equity” explains how everyone can do their part to achieve a more inclusive and diverse world and is recommended for readers interested in books about business leadership, workplace culture, and personal enrichment.

“When designing for equity, the objective is not to get everyone to think the same, have the same values, or believe the same things. The objective is to design a world where differences are valued.”

Rating: 4 out of 5.

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.

Upcoming book release: ‘Breaking the Insidious Silence’ by Raye Mitchell

Olympic gold medalist Cindy Brown teams up with Harvard lawyer Raye Mitchell to release ‘Breaking the Insidious Silence: The Cindy Brown/Bank of New York Mellon Whistleblower Report.’ Release date is March 15, 2022. Photo: amazon

Cindy Brown, the Olympic Gold Medalist and former Women’s National Basketball (WNBA) player, teams up with Harvard Lawyer Raye Mitchell to release “Breaking the Insidious Silence: The Cindy Brown / Bank of New York Mellon Whistleblower Report.” Available on Amazon for pre-order, the report chronicles Brown’s fight to be heard and seeks the truth in finding the responsible party in a S.W.A.T.-like event in which Brown was evicted from her home at gunpoint. It has a release date of March 15, 2022. (Black Château, 2021)

Raye Mitchell is a University of Southern California MBA, and Harvard Law School graduate, civil rights lawyer, investigative writer, producer, and expert on helping people be heard and tell their story publicly. She explains, “’Through Breaking the Insidious Silence’ Ms. Brown wants to find the truth about whether Bank of New York Mellon is the corporation that ordered the S.W.A.T.-like attack on her and caused her to be evicted at gun point. Cindy, like so many Americans, has had to go it alone as a self-represented litigant in the growing national crisis of the civil justice gap and the inequalities in navigating the civil justice system. We aim to break that insidious silence.” 

Almost fifteen years ago, Cindy Brown became the victim of identity theft, which lead to financial institution misconduct and the loss of her home in what is considered an unlawful foreclosure. Seeking justice, she went to court mostly as a self-represented litigant. Brown was blocked from having her day in court, and like many Americans, was forced to navigate an uncivil civil justice system alone. 

Brown says, “In November 2020, I was evicted at gun point and living in my car. No person should have to endure that experience, so I am fighting for our collective restoration of dignity.” 

Brown’s story has been captured by the media and has received over 200,000 views on YouTube. The court documents that are at the center of the March 2022 hearing are also available.

“We will not retreat. Especially in this moment – as a global pandemic has widened inequities – our collective dignity and humanity requires that people like Cindy share their stories as tools on how to help others speak up, be heard, and find justice. Brown’s quest for justice has gained oxygen, shifted conversations, and is inspiring people to take action to ensure we all have fairness and equal access to justice. ‘The Breaking the Insidious Silence: The Cindy Brown / Bank of New York Mellon Whistleblower Report’ and the mission served is about so much more than one person, one group, or one organization,” Mitchell adds.

Raye Mitchell, also known as “Boss Girl Raye Mitchell,” is an award-winning entrepreneur, investigative writer, lawyer, diversity inclusion, and dignity expert. As a lawyer, Raye remains committed to helping everyday Americans be heard and gain access to justice in the era of a crumbling civil justice system that is anything but civil. Talking about the justice gap is devoid of discussion about Americans’ dignity gap when they go to court with or without a lawyer.

Cynthia L. Brown is an author, motivational speaker, a leadership expert on dignity in the dispute resolution process, Access to Justice for In Pro Se Litigants, and an A.D.A. Dignity Expert. Ms. Brown is a devoted advocate for fairness, respect for all, dedication to living the dream of dignity and access to justice. Cynthia L. Brown is an accomplished civil justice professional and proud member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Woman’s Basketball Team. Ms. Brown has earned credentials and certifications from the United States Department of Justice, FBI.

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‘Breaking the Insidious Silence’ release date

Movie adaptation: ‘Nightmare Alley’ by William Lindsay Gresham

The movie adaptation of ‘Nightmare Alley’ is now in theaters. Photo: amazon

William Lindsay Gresham was a novelist and nonfiction writer. Gresham’s was a tortured mind and a tormented life, and he sought to banish his demons through a maze of dead-end ways, from Marxism to psychoanalysis to Christianity to Alcoholics Anonymous to Rinzai Zen Buddhism. From these demons came his novel “Nightmare Alley” (1946), one of the underground classics of American literature. It is a study of the lowest depths of showbiz and its sleazy inhabitants – the dark, shadowy world of a second rate carnival filled with hustlers, scheming grifters, and Machiavellian femme fatales. Guillermo del Toro directed the 2021 movie adaptation from a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan. It stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette and Willem Dafoe and focuses on Stan Carlisle, an ambitious carny who hooks up with corrupt psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter, who proves to be as dangerous as he is. (amazon, Wikipedia, 2021)

“Nightmare Alley” – It all begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There is no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. Since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he is going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant, then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.