Embracing the Messy...with Dee - February 2024

I'd like to share some encouragement with you:

1. Wow, aren't we experiencing incredible polarization in our relationships, workspaces, countries, and world? The world is on fire. Brutality and dehumanization are ever-present. I see you working to navigate cohorts, conversations, and relationships cross-difference, practicing radical candor (Kim Scott), and growing Beloved Community (Dr. Martin Luther King).
2. Equity leadership is incredibly complex. I see you navigating the challenges…and experiencing JOY…of leading and working in organizations that truly care about people and want to grow spaces of flourishing and thriving. 
3. Do you also see that people are realizing and re-realizing the impact of COVID, grind culture, and working until we drop? The mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion is evident in every team and leader that I engage with. A bone-deep exhaustion is everywhere. I see you healing and caring for each other and yourselves in new ways, such as going to therapy for the first time in years, practicing forgiveness, learning to rest regularly, or simply making time to walk with a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

It’s on my heart to extend much love to each of you. I see your dedication, care, compassion, and curiosity. Especially when you feel alone and disconnected, please know that I am grateful for you and how we show up for each other. May you make, reach for, and find rest, respite, and connection. 

I'm grateful for you. Take a breath or two or fifty. Take a minute to think. Rest is liberation.

As my friend Noele says: "We need you to be healthy."

Not to churn out more work. To be joy. To be you.

I’m often asked, “Who are your clients?” Our client’s specific work is confidential to them, and we only share their organization's name with their permission. However, we can share these highlights of the amazing projects with badass and brave leaders across North America:

• Two executive coaching engagements
• Healthy staff culture assessment and implementation processes with a non-profit, a school district, and a governmental organization 
• Four multi-series equity and inclusion cohorts with philanthropic foundations and non-profit organizations
• Two theory of impact design series with leadership teams
• Two advisory team launch retreats 
• Strategic framework and annual report processes with two non-profit organizations
• A 10-month, cross-sector cohort for community change
• A change, growth, alignment, and capacity-building process with a nonprofit Board of Director
• A process in a public school district designing and implementing liberatory and anti-oppressive curriculum

To see more about how L3 Catalyst Group supports teams and leaders, visit our How Can We Help page.

Who is the “group” in L3 Catalyst Group?

At L3 Catalyst Group, we work within a framework of intersectional consulting and community. I (Deanna) have the honor of working in a network of amazing consultants. See a few of them listed here. 

We are asked to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and/or queer-owned consulting businesses to support their work with clients. LOVE THIS. 

L3 Catalyst Group is called a group because we all live, work, are held accountable, and thrive in community. We work within an intersectional consultant and client community. Catalyzing change in ourselves, our relationships, our organizations, and systems is the focus of the L3 Catalyst Group community. Truth-telling about historical and present inequities is critical.

Together, we can catalyze a brave, bold, and liberatory future.

Peace and justice,

Dee