Kristin Ekkens
We need to help people thrive in this world. It is incredibly diverse. It is incredibly challenging for people. But if we don't work together and use our connectional intelligence to be able to actually move the world forward, move humanity forward in a positive way. None of us will thrive.

Jeff Ma
Hello, and welcome to Love as a Business Strategy, podcast that brings humanity to the workplace. And we are here to talk about business. We want to tackle topics that most business leaders shy away from, we believe that humanity and love should be at the center of every successful business. I'm your host, Jeff Ma. And as always, I'm here to have conversations, hear stories with real people about real businesses. And my guest today is Kristin Ekkens. She is the CEO and founder of Exponential Inclusion. She's an award winning cultural strategist, Solutions Architect, high performance coach, and TEDx speaker. And so I'd like to welcome to the show, Kristin Ekken. How are you?

Kristin Ekkens
Thank you. Thank you. I'm fantastic today. Good to see you, Jeff.

Jeff Ma
Yes, thank you so much for joining us. And I, you know, there's I, I take people, I don't openly share this, but I have when I'm talking I'm using I had this note sheet up. Okay. So for you, so for you, and everyone. I don't take deep intricate notes. I just put splattering of words. And for you, I just underline the word super nodes. So we're gonna get to that later.

Kristin Ekkens
Fantastic. I can't wait. One of my Favorite Words

Jeff Ma
Before we get there, though? Tell me a little bit about, like your passion. How did you What are your passions? And how did you get to today with that passion?

Kristin Ekkens
Yes, yes. Well, my I would say my my passions have converged over the years. So they've built and layered and where I'm at today is really the focus for me. And what I've realized the red thread throughout my entire life has been around inclusion and belonging. So what makes me tick, what makes me wake up in the morning be filled with joy is being able to actually do this work with companies, with individuals with teams. And by this work, I mean, helping people figure out how to thrive as their authentic self, and to be able to come into new situations, work with new people with all diverse perspectives and figure out how do we be our best selves? How do we show up that way? And when tension rises, how do we actually figure out how to work better together? So I find so much joy? And I mean, there's so many pieces of that, but right now, it's entrepreneurship, combined with that, so being able to do this via online business and and in person working with teams from around the world. So that's, that's what it is. For me. It's inclusion and belonging. That's awesome.

Jeff Ma
Where does like your your passion for inclusion kind of center around like, what's its origin story?

Kristin Ekkens
Yes, yes. I love that question. Because it gives me an opportunity to share a little bit of my story, but at the same time, it changes every time I tell it. So for me, I've come at it from a perspective of global diversity and figuring out, you know, I grew up in an area that was people would call inner city and at that time, really difficult situation with gangs. And so here I am, and for those who aren't watching this, I'm a white female, I am straight. I am, you know, someone who shows up and the the thing that I found being in the inner city for me, I never felt like a fish out of water in the inner city. I felt like a fish out of water when I was going to, for example, the private school that I went to, and being with people who looked like me, but I felt like I wasn't connecting that I didn't belong, that I was just thinking differently. And I couldn't, I couldn't figure out what was going on behind the scenes. So fast forward, I ended up going to in college, living abroad, and living in Spain, in Mexico and Costa Rica, and thunderous applause when you're coming in. So I speak Spanish, also. And that completely shifted my worldview. So I don't want to go too long in the story, but I had one of those reverse culture shocks. And if anyone I don't know, Jeff, if you've ever experienced that, but if any of the listeners have, but this reverse culture shock is something that for me, it put me into a little bit of a depression, that I had to think about myself deeply my identity, who I was how I was showing up. I connected more with the culture in Spain than I did with my home culture here in the United States. And it was a very weird thing. I say that not lightly but weird experience for me that I had to figure out who I was again. So that led me down the path to actually study and go into my master's is in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. So study language study culture, my undergrad is in linguistics and in Spanish. And then now I'm working. I'm actually at Stanford in an executive education program, and focused on innovation. So if you ask me, the convergence now has been around inclusion, my my own story of working with people from all around the world, figuring out how language how to speak, the language that helps us communicate, find that, that common denominator between us, and then now bringing an edge around innovation and figuring out how do we actually innovate on a whole new level around inclusion. So that's how it kind of winds into where it is today.

Jeff Ma
Thank you for sharing that story. I love that I appreciate that vulnerability. When it comes to the word inclusion, I feel like over the last, you know, if you, if you brought it up like three years ago, let's say it wasn't it was kind of like, Oh, what do you mean? Like it wasn't even very common, it seems like over the last two years. It's basically over used and assess. And so I always like to ask these types of questions where like, when something grows this fast, or something becomes mainstream this fast? Yes. People tend to it tends to evolve very quickly in different ways. And people also misunderstand it. So my question for you is, from your perspective, what do people have wrong about D&I like, what are they not? What are they getting wrong?

Kristin Ekkens
Yes, yes. Oh, that's such a good question. Because what I'm seeing and it's, it's polarizing right now. So when you say the words diversity, you say equity, you say inclusion, all three of those words, will give strong reactions, typically, or people that just shrug it off and say whatever. It's, it's those can be those ways. But when you find something that you have such strong reactions on what people are getting wrong, is really thinking about diversity. And when they think about inclusion, they think about it as representation. They think about it as, okay, and sometimes they go into the quota mindset for if I'm in an organization, and they'll say, oh, so my manager wants inclusion, or my manager wants to have more diverse people. And I do air quotes on that, because they're talking about when they say that racially diverse and they're also going to a place of, you know, saying like, Well, why would they choose them over me, it's because of color of skin, or it's this whole story we make up and say we because there's so many stories that every single person makes up because we're human. So we have bias. So we jump into it in a lens from our perspective that we can really get it wrong and start thinking about, about inclusion as just straight diversity, which is a very different thing. And diversity we get wrong sometimes when we think about it just as racial or ethnic differences, when it can be so many things about who we are socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, education, sexual orientation, gender expression, I mean, I can keep going on for a long time, diverse perspectives and how we actually operate, how our minds operate. Those are all things that bring diversity into it. And we have to figure out how to actually work together. And that's where the inclusion comes in, is how do we bring these voices to the table and not just say, oh, yeah, well, we have representation. Now we have diversity, but then not go to that next level of actually figuring out how do you include people, how do you bring their voices to the table and not just listen, but take action on it, listen to the perspectives that might be different from our own, and actually incorporate those perspectives and give credit where credit's due. Hopefully, I didn't go on too long about that.

Jeff Ma
This is your this is your episode, you can go on as long as you want. You know, one thing we say around here quite often, an example we often give when we talk about inclusion is that you could have a row, you're gonna have a room full of straight white males, and there will still be issues of inclusion, they could all have gotten, they could all have gone to the same college, they could all have really every other socioeconomic and every other change. And then yet there's still elements of behavior and elements of you know, the way they perceive power or the way they deal with time, the way that the way they make decisions the way and yes, there could be one person who is more creative and everybody else is more technical. And yes, they will be you know, marginalized. Essentially in that sense, right,

Kristin Ekkens
and how we prefer to be led, that's a huge one that shows up or take risk, you know that some of us are more comfortable with risk than others. And we all might take risks, but it's how we do it. Are we super planned? Do we have if we have plan A, B, and C, then we'll take that risk? Or is it more of a function of know that we have to be flexible, let's not have all these plans just go with it. And neither are right or wrong. It's just different ways of operating. And when we view leadership, as you know, from top down, hierarchical, we think of that often. Many, many people will talk about that as being bad, it's not a bad way of operating, it's just one way of preferring to be led or leaving. And the other side is a flat organization. Now, it has its implications when you have people in an organization, which you always will, that we'll think, on one end of the continuum and the other, and then trying to work better together. That's where the challenge comes in. So I guess on that note, one of the things that I've been focused on in my career is cultural intelligence. And that's really talking about how do we work and relate effectively across cultures, we have to better understand the perspectives where they're coming from our cultural values, but then also understand, not just understand, but be able to do differently. So it's, I think this is the other place, if I were to say, where people get it wrong, when they start talking about inclusion, they get in this world of learning, and they stay in the knowledge state. And they just maybe, and it's not a bad thing to be learning, right. It's, I am a proponent of continuous learning, and continually building our understanding and stretching our minds. And at the same time, if we just stop at having a mindset shift, learning more, and then not actually doing differently, and changing our behavior, that's where we get it wrong also. So I think that's a place where it's hard, really hard to do in this space of inclusion, because it flies up against what we feel comfortable with. And it stretches us sometimes beyond where we want to be stretched, and creating new habits and ways of doing. So this is why I actually incorporate high performance and coaching people in that space is because of we have to we have to think and see and do differently in order to change. And our goal, my goal is with Exponential Inclusion is move humanity forward. And if we're doing this and moving humanity forward and doing it in a way that's effective, we're actually each one of us, and then collectively changing how we're operating.

Jeff Ma
Talk a little bit about Exponential Inclusion. What is that all about?

Kristin Ekkens
Yeah, so So I founded this company, and this is my second business. This one is focused, really on how do we move humanity forward and do it in a way that's through, you know, inclusion, it's through using innovation techniques and tools. So human centered design, design thinking, it's about bringing people together, collaborating in different ways. And the goal is, and if I say, humanity, like moving humanity forward, that's such a broad, broad stroke. The thing is, if we're able to come together, and this is where the super nodes come in the term that we talked about earlier, briefly, super nodes, to me are finding those people in the world who are making a positive global impact. And that's for Exponential Inclusion, they believe that that they can move inclusion practices forward also through some of the things that they're doing. So it's finding the super nodes in the world, bringing them together to supercharge, and I call them, Inclusion Innovators. So I have a membership that I'm launching shortly around Inclusion Innovators, that it's people who may be in the field of innovation, maybe in the field of inclusion, maybe neither of those fields, and they're just very passionate about this work. And we come together to figure out and solve some of the biggest challenges and move humanity forward together. So impact projects and that type of thing. We do fun things together.

Jeff Ma
So super nodes are people

Kristin Ekkens
Super Nodes are people. Yes. All right. You know, though, it's interesting, because within an organization, so if you think about exponential, so I'm really getting out and some people say What do you mean, how are you putting a mathematical term with inclusion? Well, I'm talking about finding where are those areas, those things, maybe it's people, maybe it's practices, maybe it's ways of operating that we find these things that will help us make more an exponential 10x The way we're doing things 10x collaboration 10x The inclusion work 10x how we operate. This is something that exponential we're finding and often it's the super nodes. So you're creating these networks of people that can come together. And they have these incredible ways and superpowers, right incredible ways of operating and seeing things differently. When you bring us together, that is when we can actually change how people view the world change how we are operating change how, how we can move inclusion for it in for individuals, teams and organizations.

Jeff Ma
So let's, let's talk practical for a moment. So we mentioned that a big problem right now is if you go into an organization, and you say, let's talk diversity, let's talk inclusion. You know, the guards go up, you know, it's a polarizing conversation. They're like, What do you mean, I'm not racist? Like, I mean, that's like, just right where they go? Yes. So how do you like, practically address or approach this in the world right now,

Kristin Ekkens
as absolutely, so one organization I'm working with, it's a healthcare organization. And for them, they needed to start at disrupting bias. And you know, that some will say, Oh, you can have all these trainings and whatnot, and you can't change the way people do things. No, I can't change how someone else operates or thinks or does. But they can change themselves. What I'm there to do is create, create opportunities for them to see the world differently, create collaborations, so they have the opportunity to work with someone from a very different perspective and see that haunt, there's another way to do this. So with this one organization, for example, starting with the board, then the executives, then their leadership team, all the way to their entire staff, I come through and I do some learning experiences, right? Help them see differently. And this is all about behavior change as well, right? They're seeing they're learning, they're becoming more aware of what's out there. And then through online courses, jump in with the staff, have them be able to take some bite sized learning some stories that I might share. And then they actually are meeting with champions. So I've certified champions, and this is where it becomes more exponential, that it's not about. And I think this is where I'm going to this might be a little bit rubbed. This is where when consultants, there's so many of us DE&I consultants all call us, many of us out there, many of us doing incredible work. There are some new people also in this space that are incredible. And there's some also people in the space that will go in. And when they say I can provide the full solution. And they do this work. And it's it's actually it may not be doing the work, it may just be activity and not impact driven. So the goal is to actually create networks within organizations of people who've now understood not just seeing and becoming more aware, but are able to help change not only their own behavior, but share with others the experiences they have. So back to that story about in the company, I'm working with creative champions, certified them in cultural intelligence certified them and the tools to use to disrupt bias. And so that after they watch a online module, then one of the champions will come together with a group of 25 people and have a discussion, or maybe even just five people, in some case, have a discussion and really start digging in. Now, how do we apply this here in our organization. So that's really the first phase and then you start digging into practices and policies, you start digging in further into talent management, and how we look at our ecosystem. So that's more of a practical example. It's more of a larger approach when they're trying to transform culture. But that is a lot of the work that we do an exponential inclusion is transforming that culture and often starts from the top so that they can role model behavior that they want to see as well.

Jeff Ma
You're speaking my language, I think that that's the same exact experience I've seen in working with businesses and business leaders, specifically also, you, you It's so interesting, working in a space where intent matters. And the mindset has to be there before a lot of companies try to approach it from a process first or tool, personal training, first kind of concept and don't always grasp the necessity of kind of coming from the right place as a person first, from a lens of wanting to do it for the right reasons as well.

Kristin Ekkens
That's right and understanding their why and what's in it for me. I mean, in terms of learning and development. That's critical. You know, people if they don't understand or if they can't see themselves in it either. And that's a piece where often we'll get it wrong if we'll approach it as a Us - Them, if we create an Us - Them, that's the opposite of what we're trying to do when we're creating inclusion, right? We're trying to say, we have differences. And we acknowledge those differences. And they actually can sharpen how we work better together, if we understand them, recognize them, and then understand how to use those as a positive way to work together rather than divisive way.

Jeff Ma
Absolutely. Yes. Preach on. What's a? What's a buzzword that makes you cringe right now?

Kristin Ekkens
Oh, let's see. That's a really good question. I would say. It's probably ones I've used as well, but it also makes me cringe. Right?

Jeff Ma
We have to we have to use them for sure.

Kristin Ekkens
Well, so one that I don't think fully makes me cringe yet, I might think of another that makes me cringe. But you know, like, words like, like superpowers. This is one I also used, and you heard me use it earlier. But at the same time, it's trying to understand like, well, what, what do we mean by that the superpowers that we have, like, it's just diving in deeper to understand what, because power, that word in and of itself is a dangerous word, in some ways. And understanding, you know, the strengths that we have, so we get what superpowers mean. But at the same time, it can be so overused, that just becomes watered down. And this is the challenge for me in the space that I'm in, you know, when I talk about innovation and using innovation practices. To do this, it's like it becomes okay, we're innovative company, well, it becomes watered down as we use it so much high performance, it's another one I use, because I'm certified in it, but it becomes watered down or we don't fully understand what it actually means. And the way that I'm I use it and I was certified by the High Performance Institute. And how we approach it is you're not looking at peak performance. Because that's how I've actually burned out twice in my career. So far, you aren't going through peak performance and just pushing, pushing, pushing and thinking I'm at the top of my game. But on the other side of that was a steep cliff. Right. So the thing and especially an inclusion, it's such an emotional work that leaders in the inclusion and diversity space, and anyone leaders who are dealing with a lot of challenges related to this, if we don't take care of ourselves and think about high performance as sustained success, over the long term, well being and that we have keeping our relationships at the same time, then we just start going for performance and remove some of our relationships, our personal side of life. This is where people experience burnout. So that's actually where some of the focus that I have an exponential inclusion is around supporting those super nodes, who often will experience if they're if they're working on a peak performance mindset, they'll experience the burnout, and they won't be able to be the super nodes that they are. So it's supporting them through some high performance group coaching and one on one coaching so that they can be lifted up and do that great work that they they know they can do.

Jeff Ma
I think I've experienced what you're talking about. I think we we just generalize it as consistency in the sense of like, how do you achieve consistency in what you're trying to do? Do you have any tips, advice, stories, or anything around? Consistency, because I think it's a challenge for everyone, no matter what you're working on, especially with the mindset, especially with trying to get here. And to all these great things you're talking about consistency is really hard.

Kristin Ekkens
It is and I'll share more of a personal story around this. So for me, I was always one that I still am this way and I'm this is where I have had to train and get to know why consistency is so important. I'm not one that loves consistency. I am I am the the creative. The entrepreneur, though the one that is saying, Oh, give me something new to try today. Let me see what this is the big idea person. And what I realized was after going after these flashy ideas, and too many of them and that everything looks good, and I see the world as abundance. And so sometimes when you see the world as abundance, and you have my mindset of like, oh yes, that sounds like so much fun. Let me try that I'll find joy in that. And I don't realize how it all connects to the big picture or going towards the goal. How is it focused on the goal or the mission that I have? Then I can easily get burnt out. This is where consistency comes in. That finding those things that are the red threads are the habits that you're building that make things consistent. stent Yeah, also experiment at the same time. So I'm finding this balance, and I still am every day is a balancing experiment for myself, but of finding what are those consistent things that I can show up for. And one of the things is, you know, even a morning routine. And before before one of my burnouts, I did not have a morning routine, or I didn't think I did, right I did. I did some of the same things every time when I woke up, but it was not a routine. Well, one of the things that high performers do is they have a morning routine, it can be a five minute one, it can be a 10 minute one, but the things that they do are setting their mindset and their intention for the day. And that's where we can find I for myself, when I've done this, I find Okay, the consistency of that routine, it sets me on the right track, when I'm setting my intentions. And I'm figuring out how do I actually focus for this day to be at my best and so that I can thrive? That makes it so that I can help other people thrive, and I can accomplish my missions. So for me, it's like I found this newfound joy and being more consistent, even though I thought that was not something that I would enjoy it. All right, there are moments that consistency, I throw it out the window, but I'm like, I'm gonna be creative and put my sticky notes all over the place and do all of that. And there, there's things that, you know, I may show up in different ways, but that's experimentation. Can I can be consistent in my experimentation?

Jeff Ma
Absolutely. 100%. Agree. I'm, I'm curious how if if someone's listening right now. And they go, I think I'm a super node. What are they? What do they do? What do you want them to do?

Kristin Ekkens
Yes, yes. Thanks for asking. Well, first of all, I'd love for them to reach out. So actually, if if they want to go to my website, it's www.exi.global/ . So for exponential inclusion, they can go to my website, and they'll see a button there that they can click on to learn more media contact me and I personally will reach back out to them if they're super node and really interested in figuring out and learning more and seeing if there's something there for them. That would be a fantastic way. Another way is really, you know, I show up on LinkedIn, if they want to follow me on LinkedIn, and I'm sharing more stories about this, they can start learning more, I do LinkedIn lives as well, trying to be this is a consistent moment trying to be consistent with weekly show ups. Not quite there yet with the consistency but working on that. But I'd love for them to follow me as well and be able to learn more and see if it's something for them.

Jeff Ma
Absolutely. Kind of last brain pick here. If you had 30 seconds to have the ear of every business leader in the world, let's say go just like it. What is what, what would you say to them today?

Kristin Ekkens
I say we need to help people thrive in this world. It is incredibly diverse. It is incredibly challenging for people. But if we don't work together and use our connectional intelligence to be able to actually move the world forward, move humanity forward in a positive way. None of us will thrive. So coming together to make sure that we're helping our employees thrive, our teams thrive and be their authentic selves is one of the most critical pieces of your job, and critical pieces of the work that we can do together.

Jeff Ma
I love it. Sorry to put you on the spot.

Kristin Ekkens
I love it. I'm gonna have to rethink that one a few times. Now I'm sure I'll find a few more 30 second notes that I'll use.

Jeff Ma
Yeah, I mean, you know, our mission, I think is the same Kristen and I think so much of what you said resonated with me here. And so, you know, I think wanting to bring this element of humanity back to the workplace. Here on this show. I use the word back to the workplace very intentionally, not to imply that nobody has it. But I think as a whole we have lost touch with that element of it. And I think we're on an amazing journey. I think we are turning the corner in a lot of ways. But it's always great to connect on these things and kind of share our wisdom and learning and stories because that's the that's the way we we get better. That's the way we act squarely our perspective. Right?

Kristin Ekkens
Absolutely. And the collaborations you know, for me, I mentioned connectional intelligence and to me it's we we can connect on an incredible levels. The people that I've met over the last year and a half after starting my business from around the world doing innovation work doing global impacts of sustainable development goals. is focused on uns goals and the things that they're doing in their organizations are out of this world. They're incredible. And those are people I want to lift up, you know, in a podcast that I'll launch soon, you know, lift them up, show the work that they're doing, and at the same time, be able to connect people so that we can do this work together and show the positivity that's there. I think that's the last thing I'll mention is that there's, there's also so much negativity and skepticism right now. And people are feeling exhausted or unsure of themselves. And we're seeing the show up so much with even high performers that I work with, that they're questioning themselves. And we're in this transition period, again, coming out of COVID. But not really, if people are wondering, are we out? Are we not out and as I came back from Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, working with a client, it's, they were they were feeling like, oh, there's it no one had to wear masks. But the last time I was there, you know, everyone masks here in Michigan, where I live, you know, it's people are wandering people are questioning everything. So I think if we can come together and help people feel that positivity, and that they can thrive and that there's joy in the world, that to me if I can be a light that is I will I will feel like I can die happy.

Jeff Ma
Kristin, thank you so much for bringing that light to us today and having this conversation me I really appreciate all the candor and the time you spent with us today.

Kristin Ekkens
Truly, my pleasure. Thank you, Jeff.

Absolutely. And thank you to our listeners as always, please be on the lookout for all the great things Kristin is doing. She mentioned a podcast I'm excited about that. But for us make sure you keep listening to our show. Check out our book if you haven't — Love as a Business Strategy still selling on Amazon, other retailers. So subscribe, rate, tell a friend all those good things. We'll see you next week in the next episodes.