Good, Thoughtful Hosts #3101: Inspiration Through Belonging with Sheri Blattel

Episode #311 Transcript | Listen on SoundCloud

Producer 00:00
Today’s special guest:

Sheri Blattel 00:03
I am Sherry Blattel. I am director of retail and an associate principal at Cushing Terrell. Outside of that formal title, though, I wear quite a few hats. I’m in a space of firm ownership, which is a lot about strategy and vision and advocacy. And then, like I mentioned, lead our retail practice, which really helps me be connected to our teams and build teams and build business and strategy. And I do spend quite a bit of time in the space of research and thought leadership. I am very, very passionate, which we’re going to talk about here a little bit my opportunity to be our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging leader and advocate here at Cushing Terrell, and then a lot of engagement in the community.

Sarah Steimer 00:45
Awesome. Well, Sheri, first of all, thank you for coming back. So welcome back to you. Always a pleasure. And so you already started to touch on it. So just more specifically, what is it that inspires you, Sheri?

Sheri Blattel 00:57
Yeah, you know it. I’ve been thinking about this conversation for a little bit of time, and it’s not one specific thing, although it is rooted in one specific thing, and it’s really people, and the interconnection between people. And you know, so we here and lot of other organizations lean into strengths finder, and one of my strengths is individualization, which is really this ability to see the unique aspects of each individual and then how they interconnect in a group.

Sarah Steimer 01:32
Hello and welcome to another episode of Good, Thoughtful Hosts. I’m Sarah Steimer, and today we’ll be talking about the step that goes beyond opening up a seat at the table to diverse voices. We’re going to be talking about the inspiration that stems from actually creating a sense of belonging. I don’t want to take up too much time here, because Sheri has lots of great points to make. She’s been actively involved in helping folks feel welcome throughout her career, and in our conversation, you’ll hear Sheri make a great analogy of how creating a sense of belonging is like designing a piazza, which is, I think, not just an inspirational way to look at this topic, But an aspirational way to consider it as well. You, so, something that really caught my eye when, you know, I initially got the email about what you wanted to discuss is, you know, like you said, it’s not just about inviting people to the table. It’s not just about saying, Okay, we’re going to include you. But it’s really, it’s so much more about once everyone has their seat at the table. You know, how do they feel like they are being represented? How do they feel like they are actually being able to speak up things like that? That was something that came up quite a bit when, you know, dei really kind of surfaced more so than ever, what, maybe five years ago, I want to say, you know, where we we saw more and more organizations really make this a cornerstone of what they’re trying to do in terms of their culture. I spoke to so many folks who kept saying, That’s great that we’re being invited. But what happens when we get there? We may not still feel like we have an opportunity to speak up, or we may not feel like we’re comfortable enough to say our piece, or, as you keep saying, feeling like we belong. So what is the difference there? You know? What is it that you can really do, that people can do, to create that so that both you and those individuals feel inspiration. You know, it’s one thing again to walk in the door. It’s an entirely other thing to feel like you should actually be there.

Sheri Blattel 04:12
Yeah, that’s I really appreciate you asking that question, because that’s extremely important, and we talk about that a lot. It’s one thing to be invited to the table, but if you’re just sitting at the table and you’re not seen, you’re not heard, but, but, but it’s really, it’s once you have that amplified voice that it’s you have the opportunity for that voice to be your own voice and not influenced by someone else, and then it’s the influence that your voice has, and then the action it creates. And so what we want to see in a group is a representation of unique perspectives and unique points of view, and that’s where that question or that answer of diversity comes in. Diversity is not one single individual. Diversity is representation in a group. It’s the mix of individuals that are at the table, or maybe not at the table, and so it’s that influence that happens once that voice is heard. It and activated. And I think that is the piece that gets muddied and gets missed. You know, it’s a little bit, I guess, controversial to talk about, but a lot of the is, I think, rooted in uncertainty and maybe fear of not understanding what all this means. And then this idea, it’s actually called, it has a name. It’s called replacement theory, and it’s this idea that you’re going to invite other people to the table, which means somebody gets kicked out of the table. And that’s not it at all. We’re just making the table a little bit bigger, creating more opportunity and allowing more voices to come to the table, so that we broaden that aperture how we’re looking at things. Instead of being narrow, it’s much larger. And then when you see more things, then more things are possible, right? And I had a colleague, it’s been a couple of years ago in this exact space. We were very close colleagues. We worked on a lot of projects together, very respective of one another. But ask me, in this space of why this meant so much to me, and from a very early age, I’ve always looked around and thought anything’s possible. You know, I started out as a female in my career architecture, when there were not so many females in the space, and I just never accepted the fact that it’s not possible. In fact, given my character, if you tell me something’s not possible, I’ll make sure you understand that it definitely is possible, but I just felt like there was just more we, I think, get lost in the fact that we are just a little.on the globe, and there’s so many things happening around the globe, and so many influences, and the places we travel and the foods we eat, all of these things that you experience day to day have this influence. They become this collection of things that are internal to you, that become, then you’re part of yourself, and then you’re able to express that in all of your engagements. I think that was something that we do that is really, I think, significant, is that this idea of representation, inclusivity, we apply that, I think, to all of our practice, but really the place where I see this show up that is most meaningful for me right now. And in fact, I’m engaged in a couple of projects that are that are doing this right now. It’s in the space of our urban planning group and our planners, and really how they are doing quite a bit of stakeholder engagement, community engagement, and that’s where this, this type of thing I’m talking about is really happening. You’re inviting diverse perspective to the room to talk about the things they care about, about their own community, and then, in turn, after that happens, you have leaders, either in the public realm or the private realm. They’re influencing development that hear that and they make it actionable in the development of a community. And I think that’s where the all of this is the most impactful. So a couple of folks within our organization, I know Nora Bland has been a guest on your podcast previously. Nora is spectacular. She leads our planning group, but her group is really, really that’s what they’re activating every single day in all of the communities that they’re involved in. We’re doing some really, really great projects that I’m excited about. We recently helped the City of Belgrade with this remarkable process that really helped them create their overall land use plan into the future. And it integrated transportation Master Plan and the water and wastewater Master Plan and the parks and the parks and district master plan, and it was really this comprehensive look at the entire community, which I think is important for the future, where we’re headed. I’ve always said that it is important to provide for a community the thing that they need, not the thing that you think that they need or that you want to have there. And it’s that, it’s answering that question of, what does the community need? Does it need health care services? Does it need retail services? Does it need a community center, or does it need all those things put together in such a way that you’re creating a micro community where everyone coexist and has regard for one another?

Sarah Steimer 08:56
I’m so glad that you brought up Nora, because before you even said her name. I started thinking about a project she and I just recently worked on, you know, just a thought leadership piece that we were working on together. And I was really floored by the ways in which her team is so mindful about, well, you can’t just say that there’s going to be a meeting and expect every element from a community to show up, because that’s not how you reach everyone. There’s diversity in how you communicate with people as well, to bring them in, to involve them in a process. So I wanted to jump back to something that you said that I think is really important. You know, unfortunately, this can be diversity, equity, inclusion can be controversial, as you put it, and I’m curious to know if there’s something about explaining the inspiring aspect, aspects of inclusion, of belonging, that you would be able. To, you know, provide to folks who find it controversial, to folks who find it maybe a little spooky, or are concerned that they lose their place at the table. You know, what? What about the, what can you explain about the inspiration that can come from this that you think could help to, you know, put some of those fears aside.

Sheri Blattel 10:23
Yeah, I recently saw a YouTube video, super simple. It’s titled “Inclusivity Starts with I” and it’s looking around. It’s really quick, 90-second video. I encourage anyone listening to go find it. But it’s a video that just shows this, this array of different individuals, people that might have some neuro diverse situation in their lives. They may have an ability issue in their lives. They you know it. They may be a woman that has had some challenges in a very male dominated situation. But there’s, there’s flash cards come up that’s explain, explain each of the individual situation. But at the end of it, it’s a little bit of an aha moment. I think for a lot of people know, like, oh, that’s what it is. It’s not all this other thing that has been created around these three letters by folks that have misinterpreted or by the media, or whatever it might be. It’s about people. It’s about people and their individual aspects, and allowing that to be the way they show up and are represented, and that it’s a space for everybody. And for me, it’s it seems really simple, but it’s a hard concept to grasp, and so I think that you have to approach it in a way as such. This video does is just look at it differently. Just represent all the varieties of people that are out there that should have a voice in anything that we’re doing. You know. So interestingly enough, I pay attention to brands that are paying attention to this, and you and I have talked about this before in a previous podcast. Certainly in retail, it’s this body inclusivity and and representation across you know, different sizes and different shapes and different colors and different features. You even see this in in retail spaces, in the mannequins and the displays are expressing these kinds of things, and so it’s that idea of looking at just about everything that we do in that way, is that you just allow this representation to show up.

Sarah Steimer 12:33
I want to also pause on that idea is allowing representation to show up. Because it’s funny to me, how often not making sure everyone feels like they belong is actually just deeply exclusionary. It’s really, it’s it’s funny how much it’s like, well, we lose our seat at the table, or we we, we lose out on something. It’s like, oh no, no, no. What’s happening is actually the opposite of how the real world works. You know, everyone does exist in this world in some form or another. So opening that up and maybe, like you said, making the table a little bit bigger, or making the room a little bit bigger, you know, it kind of creates that opportunity there. I wanted to hear from you about a specific time, a specific example, where you were, you know, you mentioned you’ve talked or you’ve thought about brands. You notice when brands do this, but a time that you took note of, maybe a brand, an organization, your own community, you know, whatever it may be, where you have really seen this amazing sense of belonging and just great things happen from that. And maybe it happened with yourself. Maybe you were invited to something, and the way you inspired others, or you felt inspired by that.

Sheri Blattel 13:59
Where I see it happening right now is actually a place where we are doing independently, on our own, internally. We’re doing some research in this space on neuro diversity. You’re going to hear a lot of folks start to talk about that, but it’s, it’s these minute ways in which individuals engage in spaces and so really paying attention, we’re doing a lot of that work in commercial interiors, in education and in health care. It’s really spatially understanding, how we create space so that if every individual can experience it in such a way that meets them where they are in their needs or their perception of space. And so I don’t have a specific example of that. I just know it’s something that we’re doing quite a bit. You know? I think that I give you an example of something that’s not so that you can see example of what is. And so this is rooted in research. Research and reality, and it just recently happened in the city of Austin, which is where I live. It was a Uli event, and it was a conversation about what was happening with the black community in Austin, and we were investing a lot in creating opportunities, and we still had individuals in that community actually leaving Austin, and it wasn’t because Austin was too expensive to live in. They had accepted jobs, they had made the decision to come there, but from a community perspective, there was not the space of belonging where that community could gather and be represented and share their lived experiences. Now, conversely to that, there are other cities that do that really well, whether it’s the black community or the Hispanic community or any other community. I think Houston is a place that has some concentration of doing that really well. There are other cities that are that are making efforts to do that in our own work, in education, I think, is one of the places where we are activating this, I think, in the best and highest ways, is creating environment, environments for education and learning that invite everyone to be there and and have access to the things that help them be successful in their learning trajectory. If you go back to the very beginning of history, the piazza, or the plaza or the center of the town, was the place that everyone came together. And I, and I’ve said this before, I said this in our last podcast, it’s the root of almost everything we do, because that center of the community, well, we’ll call it community for generic term, because it, you know, whatever culture you’re in, it has a name, right? But it is the place that people gathered. Humans came together to exchange ideas, to trade goods, to learn, to do everything that they’re that they need to do, to support their life and their experiences we have, we are doing a lot of work now to come back to that and how we have created communities and cities and towns and developments. And I, like I said, our planning team is engaged in a lot of that, that work. There’s a lot of firms out there that are very committed to that kind of work, you know. And so that that goes hand in hand with resiliency and sustainability. You know, it’s all of the stuff of how we fit on our planet and how we coexist together. I would say that we are more connected than divided, but there is this overarching polarization that’s kind of like sparkly light, so we get attached to it. But if we take a minute and think about ourselves as humans and how we regard one another and how we respect and value one another, and come back to that idea that we are all connected, then I think hopefully that can change, not necessarily a point of view, because that’s not what I’m talking about here, but change your level of awareness and acceptance of others and also how they accept you. You know, we at our firm, 86 years old, this year, we practice on what we call the golden rule, but we restructured that, and we changed that to the platinum rule, and as opposed to treating others the way you want to be treated, we want to treat others the way they the way that they need and want to be treated, and how that that supports this idea of how you show up as your authentic selves, and that is the root of everything we’re talking about. Just let people be who they are.

Sarah Steimer 18:38
And I what I like about the analogy that you used with the plaza, with this public space, you know, you mentioned that it’s a place where people could come to, you know, exchange ideas, or sell goods, or this or that. I think what kind of fits in beautifully with what you just said there, too, is this idea that everyone’s going to come with something different. Not everyone’s going to come to exchange ideas. Some people might want to be selling a product. Some people might want to just be relaxing. Some people might want to be doing art in the plaza, like it’s not just about everyone doing the same thing, but in this one space, but people really kind of living up to their best abilities, their gifts, etc, within that space, if I’m understanding this correctly, like that does feel, yeah.

Sheri Blattel 19:26
Yeah. So it is the differences that make the difference. If everyone is doing the exact same thing in the exact same way, that’s not near as interesting as a variety of different individuals doing a multitude of different things, bringing different perspectives and different ideas. That just sounds much more interesting to me.

Sarah Steimer 19:51
Sounds a lot more interesting to me too. Well, Sheri, we are. We are just about out of time here. But before we close, I just wanted to get an idea from you. You know, I already asked you to, you know, give us your recommendation for how folks can be more open to diversity if maybe they already have a seat at the table. But is there anything else you would say that you would suggest for people to really see the inspiration from belonging?

Sheri Blattel 20:16
I think that it’s just take a moment and think about, what is it I can learn from that individual that I don’t already know,

Sarah Steimer 20:29
That’s so simple, but that’s so profound. Sorry. Go on. Go on.

Sheri Blattel 20:32
Yeah, so. And what I would say about this, you know, is I’ve talked about a lot of things here, and I talk about a lot of things off, and everyone that knows me knows I just, I like to, I like to say things and but what I will say very clearly, and I will state it here, I am a learner, and I am still learning. I don’t know everything, not everything. I just said to you, may or may not be what somebody else believes in. But I want everyone to be really clear that that I am in a constant state of curiosity and learning. Curiosity is one of these things that causes me to ask a lot of questions, which sometimes, for individuals, they’re like, why are you asking so many questions? Um, including my own family. But I have this sense of curiosity. And so also, I think it’s this, this idea I’ll close out, was just saying that in everything I’ve talked about here, you have to show up with empathy and vulnerability, or it doesn’t work.

Sarah Steimer 21:28
Well put. Well, Sheri, as always, thank you so much for joining us. This was really a pleasure, because I think it is something that you know, it really takes a massive step forward from that first conversation that so many people had years ago, of well, let’s invite people in. It’s really about, okay, what happens next? And that’s that’s such an important step, and you’ve really showed why that matters in so many different regards. So again, thank you so much. I so appreciate it.

Sheri Blattel 21:58
Absolutely. It’s always a pleasure to be with you, Sarah.

Producer 22:07

Music for Good, Thoughtful Hosts was written, produced, and performed by Sam Clapp. Our moderator is Sarah Steimer. Editing by Travis Estvold. And a special thanks to our content development team, Amanda Herzberg and Marni Moore. For more information about the podcast, visit thoughtfulhosts.com. Thanks for listening!

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