Who We Are

The Challenge

The work of educating students, particularly those from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, is a unique and complex challenge. Amidst rapidly changing local and national landscapes, we are reminded that what got us here, won’t get us to the next place. Previous strategies and methods no longer yield the breakthrough results we’ve come to expect. Students and team members experience record levels of stress and issues of mental health that threaten engagement, safety, and retention. Noticing and addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) daily remain overwhelming charges for which we often feel ill-equipped, resulting in rising tension between and among team members, supervisors, students, partners, and communities. We work harder…we work smarter…yet in that quiet place inside, still feel at times that we are working against our grain.

Vision

We envision communities and organizations where each member is affirmed in who they are, are able to contribute the unique gifts they bring to the world, and deliver those gifts in a way that feels authentic to them, leading to meaningful breakthrough results and impact.

Consultant Bio

Alesha Arscott is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer for Unleashed, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to implementing strengths-based practices with individuals, teams, organizations, and students to achieve breakthrough results in life, school, and work. Prior to founding Unleashed, Alesha was the Chief Talent Officer for STRIVE Preparatory Schools, a charter management organization serving 3,700 students across 11 schools in Denver, Colorado. Alesha led STRIVE’s talent strategy and operations including hiring, onboarding, performance management, organizational development, human resources, and diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI). Alesha’s DEI work extended locally, where she co-created strategies with community to attract and retain more Education Professionals of Color (EPoC) to Denver, and facilitated monthly convenings focused on Redefining Power & Influence in Denver’s K-12 serving organizations to ensure we are creating inclusive spaces where ALL talent can thrive.

What We Do

Our Approach

We believe that the greatest potential for achieving breakthrough results lies in our individual and collective strengths unleashed towards a common goal, with aligned systems and processes to support a strengths-based approach. Unleashed engages our clients in a structured process that begins with naming and unlearning accepted norms within our dominant culture, uncovering the authentic strengths and assets that stakeholders already bring to the table; unleashing the strengths-based conditions needed for breakthrough performance, and thoughtfully defining and uniting around meaningful goals that lead to breakthrough results for students and team members. Unleashed conducts workshops, provides individual and group coaching, as well as project consulting including systems and process redesign and alignment to sustain a strengths-based approach.

Our Framework

Our framework is further illustrated in the below diagram. The bottom two layers (unlearn & uncover) reflect the personal actions we propose taking to effect change in the top two layers (unleash & unite) of organizational actions. We guide our clients through several trips up the pyramid, making incremental changes on 1-2 elements at each layer, and then create a cadence of accountability–sacred time to reflect, codify and improve our systems and processes where necessary, and build the muscles needed to sustain change–on the way down the pyramid.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

We prohibit unlawful discrimination against employees, employee applicants, partners or clients on the basis of race, nation of origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or associational preference.

We believe that at the heart of issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, is the yearning in ALL of us (regardless of our identity) to be affirmed in who we are without judgment of who we are not, to contribute the unique gifts we bring to this world without judgment that only certain gifts have value, and to deliver those gifts in a way that feels authentic to each of us without judgment that there is only one right way. These yearnings not only unite us in this work but are the life force behind our greatest potential for breakthrough (not just incremental) results. Achieving this alone for ourselves and our students with similar identities feels like an insurmountable challenge. Layer on the smog of “isms” (racism, sexism, ableism, etc…), and negative stereotypes associated with our varying social identities, and our vision deteriorates, blinding us to each other’s strengths and leaving us disconnected, isolated, and in conflict.

It is important to not just course correct these and other issues of DEI, or simply learn about all the things we shouldn’t do when engaging across lines of difference. We must also replace them with a new normal focused on naming the diversity of strengths within each person, our teams, organizations, and communities, and wielding those strengths to drive organizational results.

To course correct issues of DEI, Unleashed engages our clients in a structured process that combines both theory to shift our thinking and mindsets over time and practical tools to execute with momentum and fidelity. After rooting ourselves in our strengths by taking a strengths assessment and unpacking the results, we will:

1. Reframe the narrative around the heart of the issue → Issues of DEI reduce the individual and collective productivity needed to achieve breakthrough results. This is The New Why of DEI©.

2. Sustain ourselves in the work → This work is HARD. Growing through the stressors require different tactics for white allies & people of color:

• White allies:  Equip ourselves with tools for accountable, personal DEI journey work without the paralytic guilt and shame.
• People of color:  Equip ourselves with tools for liberating self-care that refuels our capacity for impact.

3. Unleash our individual and collective genius for breakthrough results → The difference between “meh” performance and breakthrough results is you being more of you…you being unleashed. This requires a focus on DEI in reverse:

• Inclusion:  Start with creating an inclusive mindset and environment where the diversity of who we are, what we think, and how we take action are named, valued, and leveraged, leading to synergistic teams that get things done.
• Equity:  Examine and identify the highest leverage designs of and/or incremental changes in existing systems and processes to ensure strengths-based, equitable outcomes.
• Diversity:  Evaluate the hiring process. Expand the diversity mix of succession planning and the candidate pool, armed with proof points of an inclusive environment with systems designed through a DEI lens.

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