Rework Work

Layoffs are revealing things organizations did not intend to expose.

Employees are watching executives receive retention bonuses while teams absorb double the workload. They are watching organizations praise resilience while quietly eliminating benefits, shrinking teams, and expecting fewer people to carry the same output.

People are noticing the gap between what companies say they value and what actually happens when pressure hits.

That gap matters.

Because inclusion is not tested when business is easy. It is tested when resources shrink, decisions get harder, and leadership has to decide whose stability matters most.

This is one of the reasons trust erodes so quickly after layoffs, even in organizations with strong branding and polished internal messaging.

People are not only evaluating the decision itself. They are evaluating how leadership behaved while making it.

Who was informed honestly?
Who had time to prepare?
Who was protected?
Who absorbed the consequences?

Those are leadership decisions. Not unfortunate side effects.

In Unbias: Addressing Unconscious Bias at Work, I write about how systems, policies, communication, and accountability shape employee trust far more than intention ever will.

This is not just about surviving difficult business cycles. It is about whether leadership is willing to examine what their decisions communicate to the people still left inside the organization.

That work takes strategy, alignment, and leadership accountability.

If your organization is trying to navigate this moment without losing employee trust, leadership credibility, or alignment between values and action, this work cannot stay theoretical. Unbias: Addressing Unconscious Bias at Work was written to help leaders move from intention to implementation.

For organizations ready to go deeper, this is the same work I help leadership teams strengthen through advising, strategy, and leadership development. DM me to start the conversation.

To purchase your copy of Unbias, tap the link in the bio.

ICYMI: My latest Lead With Inclusion newsletter looks at the collapse of Spirit Airlines and the leadership questions underneath it.

This is not only a story about layoffs or bankruptcy. It is a story about accountability, communication, executive protections, and what employees learn about organizational values when things fall apart.

I unpack:
-Why pay gaps are also leadership signals
-How crises expose workplace design choices
-And what employees pay attention to long before trust fully breaks down

Because people are not only evaluating what leaders decide. They are evaluating who gets protected when things get hard.

🔗 Read the full newsletter by tapping the link in bio.

DEI was never about compromising merit.

It was about ending the systems that compromised it in the first place.

I said this on Minnesota Public Radio and I'll say it here: the reason the acronym became a target is the same reason affirmative action became a target in the 70s and 80s. The discourse gets so charged that we stop talking about the actual work and start debating words.

Meanwhile, the work itself is straightforward. Standardized hiring processes. Bias-free performance reviews. Benefits that actually work for people. Promotion systems that don't quietly reward proximity over performance.

That work hasn't stopped. It just needs leaders willing to do it without waiting for permission from a headline.

If your organization is navigating this moment and needs a clear, legally sound strategy that goes beyond language and actually moves the needle, that is the work I do.