Cara, Alex, Jenny, and Steve
 Dr. Dave Cornelius
Welcome to KnolShare with Dr. Dave.  This is your host Dr. Dave.
KnolShare with Dr. Dave is Streamed on Grokshare.com and broadcasted on iTunes and Google Play.
This is a special episode on Diversity and Inclusion in the agile community that was kick started at the AgileTonight event during the Agile Alliance Agile2018 conference in San Diego, CA.  At the AgileTonight event on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, four Agile Alliance members shared stories about the direct effect of Diversity and Inclusion on their lives with a room full of other members.  It was a first and I am very appreciative to be a part of that experience. It was a beginning of a conversation that was long overdue. Thank you Agile Alliance members for demonstrating courage to create space for this conversation to take place.
I was one of the members sharing stories about inclusion.  Many people came up to me and said thank you for being courageous for sharing your story, putting yourself out there meant a lot to me.  Others felt the conversation was too light and did not go far enough, because they wanted a deeper dive into the Diversity and Inclusion topic.   A few, who were transparent enough said, it was too sad and heavy. I will assume positive intent for those who felt the subject was too heavy.
Four brave people decided to join me for this podcast at the Agile2018 conference in San Diego, CA.  They were Alex Harms, Jenny Tarwater, Cara Turner, and Steve Holyer.  They requested that we use the title “Looking Forward: What we can do”.
We used Lean Coffee to create topics for the Diversity and Inclusion discussion.  Lean Coffee was created by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith. Learn more about Lean Coffee by visiting www.leancoffee.org.
The topics included in priority order follows:

Why are we so fearful?
Can I combine inclusivity and accessibility into one Agile Alliance initiative?
Examples of things that help – learning from experiences that people already have
What don’t I know?
Why is this topic personally important to me?
Are we using the Agile Alliance code of conduct to shut down conversations or open them up?
White Women’s’ tears
Transparency
Code of conduct training

 
I will pass the Mic for individual introductions.  Alex, Jenny, Cara, and Steve please share a little about who you are with the audience.
The diversity and inclusion conversation is relevant in our workplaces, community, and homes.  As agile coaches, we are responsible for making work humane, we owe it to teams and organization to create safety for diverse teams with diverse identities.  The identities include age, gender, race / ethnicity, religion / spirituality, socio-economic status, accessibility, and sexual orientation.

If you would like to keep this conversation going, visit www.knolshare.org and click on the “KnolShare with Dr. Dave” link to blog about your experiences.

Thank you Agile Alliance for demonstrating courage to create space for this conversation to take place.
Let me finish by sharing the story that I shared at AgileTonight during the Agile2018 conference in San Diego, CA.
Listen on Spotify
You may connect with my guest on twitter: Cara Turner (@cara_faye), Steve Holyer (@zurcherart), Jenny Tarwater (@jennyKCMO), and Alex harms (@onealexharms).

We would like to thank our sponsor KnolShare for the continued support for this podcast.