Zess Tyres and Tube’s Post

The Right Connection Might Be Closer Than You Think - Part 3 Yesterday was International Men’s Day, and it got me reflecting deeply. I noticed how little attention the day often receives, and I began asking myself: Is it that men don’t do things worth celebrating, or have we simply grown accustomed to overlooking them? As I sat back and thought about the people I’ve helped in one way or another, I realized something startling, not even 1% of them reached out yesterday to say a simple Happy International Men’s Day. This isn’t about blame, it’s a reality check. How often do we forget those who have played vital roles in our lives? People who stood by us, supported us, and helped us get through tough phases. It’s all too easy to move on from those moments and unintentionally let their impact fade from memory, especially when it comes to the men in our lives. Think about it, men are often incredibly intentional about celebrating others, particularly women on special days like International Women’s Day. But the same energy doesn’t seem to return on days meant to honor men. While mothers are often celebrated for the sacrifices they made to bring us into the world (as they absolutely should be!), let’s not forget the fathers who made choices and sacrifices of their own to give us the best opportunities. Beyond our fathers, there are countless men who have contributed in meaningful ways to our journeys. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the men who have been instrumental in our lives. It’s not just about saying “thank you” when you need something or placing value on people only during moments of convenience. True honor lies in consistent appreciation by valuing people even when they aren’t actively helping you. This also extends to our professional networks. When you see someone doing great work on LinkedIn, don’t just scroll past. Like, comment, share. Support goes a long way, and you never know—the connection you need might actually be closer than you think. Today, I encourage you to take a thoughtful action: celebrate the men God has used in your life’s journey. Whether or not you’re currently on good terms with them, it’s a moment to reflect, honor, and say, “Happy International Men’s Day.” Let’s make celebrating others a lifestyle, it’s an act of honor, and it makes all the difference.

Happy H2 to all who celebrate. Prepare yourself for many posts about getting prepped for the second half of the year; meeting, setting, and revising goals; how the beginning of Q3 has a bunch of headwinds, etc. (For a delightful subversion of this genre, see Lenor Marquis’s post yesterday, which cut right to my quick.) I’m not big on these markers, even though I run a version of EOS, have quarterly rocks, 1, 3,and 10 year goals, and all the rest. It’s important to keep your numbers top of mind, yes, but these arbitrary time increments don’t match up well with how we make progress. Our creative process isn’t linear, nor is our collective progress toward a goal. We work in fits and starts. Some of the most impactful work I’ve ever done took me less than 48 hours. Often, getting simple projects across the line takes me weeks or months. All of this to say, if H1 wasn’t quite what you hoped, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to nail H2. You can’t do H2 today, you can only do today. What is a good “today” project? Keep stacking those todays and H2 will take care of itself. Besides, as we’ve discussed before, time likely doesn’t really exist as we experience it. So why become a slave to this epiphenomenon of our limited cognition? The weight of today is enough.

Word of the Day: Celebration Celebration is the act of recognizing and honoring a special event, achievement, or milestone with joy and festivity. It is a moment of reflection and appreciation, where we pause to acknowledge success, effort, and progress. Companies should take the time to acknowledge the success of employees through planned celebration events. It plays a crucial role serving as a public recognition of hard work and dedication, boosting morale and motivation. When employees see their achievements celebrated, they feel valued, appreciated, and inspired to maintain or exceed their performance levels. Celebrating success fosters a positive work environment, strengthens team bonds, and encourages a culture of excellence. So I say congratulations once again to Edgechem's 30, 20, 15 and 10 year milestone awardees who were feted in true style, along with their guests, this weekend. I also celebrate the vision of our company's founders, who took the risk and the sacrifice to conceptualize and create an iconic Jamaican company that has contributed its part to "the welfare of the whole human race". It is also good to remember that celebrating personal achievements is equally important. It helps reinforce self-worth and accomplishment. By taking the time to recognize our own milestones, we build confidence, maintain motivation, and reflect on how far we have come. Individual celebrations are crucial for mental and emotional well-being, reminding us that our efforts matter and that we deserve to honor our progress.

Our latest issue of The Gen Z Guide features insights from Chi, a Pollen community member who we helped get a role in Cubitts. Her experience with a company that shares her values reaffirmed that Gen Z employees place huge importance on working in environments that align with their values. Interested in learning more? Find the link to the most recent post in the comments below!

Ahhhh, what a disappointment the internet can be... Today, the first working day of Pride Month, we should all be celebrating diverity and inclusion and questioning ourselves, our work cultures and our biases. To ensure we are all doing our best to progress with diversity and inclusion. To give voice to those who have been silenced for so long in so many ways. To ask how we can be active allies and create the change the world needs. And yet today, I've already seen comments on LinkedIn posts of people joking about "misgendering". Context [not exact]: "You sir, win the internet today - can I call you Sir or will I be cancelled for misgendering?" We are all adults. We know (for the most part) when something is appropriate and when it isn't. These are the same people that claim Linkedin is for work and shouldn't include dialogue around minority rights. And yet, they're happy to publicly ridicule issues that many people face every single day. Let's use this month positively and productively. Choose your words carefully. Have empathy for issues others face that you yourself will never have to face. Don't belittle others because you won't take the time to understand their struggles. We should all want peace and harmony. So, to commenters such as the one alluded to above, if you have nothing nice or productive to say, please "Sir", shut the f*** up. #PrideMonth

As we celebrate Children’s Day today, I’m reminded of something that often gets lost as we grow older—our inner child. Children are naturally curious, spontaneous, and fearless in expressing themselves. They aren’t afraid to dream big and think outside the box, and it’s these very qualities that often lead to the most innovative ideas and creations. I believe that the spirit of playfulness, transparency, and innocence can inspire the most unique and forward-thinking spaces. The best designs don’t just come from experience or logic—they come from a willingness to embrace creativity without limitations, just as a child does. So, let’s all take a moment today to reconnect with that inner child. Because sometimes, it’s the childlike qualities in us that push us to build spaces that are truly set apart and reflect the inventions of tomorrow. Happy Children's Day!

🧠 How does a company start working on neurodiversity? What's the first step? What's the 6 month action plan? You often see companies that have been working on neurodiversity for years in global teams and bigger budgets. You as a solo DEI practitioner see a big mountain ahead of you and wonder how to even get started. In this blog post, I share my reflections on how we started our neuroinclusion journey as a 500+ person organization with a small(er) budget! There's no one-size-fits-all solution for every organization, but hopefully you find some useful tips 😊 

Why are you so much concerned about people's failures? You leave them to fail they are not your brothers neither are they your sisters. You know what you want and what you can manage to control. similarly they know what they want and what they can control. When I see someone getting bothered much about my inconsistency automatically I put a question mark? why? This is business where a few are benefiting from the data we load, they don't mind about what you will give your people at home as long as you keep buying their data. There are businesses where we show consistency, most especially my private businesses which can generate money because I will need money to feed my people at home, I will need money to educate my children, generally I have to show physical presence at my health facility, even if it requires me staying around with out going back home and I work night duties, I believe no one can charge me wrongly for doing so because it's my personal business. it's true we are in job hunting process but remember we are not yet confirmed on those jobs we are struggling to get. any thing can happen along the way. We may face rejections but at my health facility I can not give my self a rejection. Imagine it's remaining only four months for me to make two years while on LinkedIn and we have been showing too much consistency there, because if it was not our consistency, I believe you would not be able see all those numbers of followers. imagine between the month of march and July this year, I have managed to get a total of 1702 followers which is indicative of someone with consistency. I personally I happened to join LinkedIn following a job application which I wrote after landing on a job advertisement which I found on Google. before you become so much bothered about my consistency, what happened to that job application which brought me to LinkedIn? Because I'm seeing a number of job opportunities where by some come as notifications, where as others come by email? and they are telling me to apply for those job opportunities. Should we say that those job opportunities LinkedIn is sending on my email are genuine? Then who organized the first job advertisement which attracted me to write my application where I was not considered? People that is why I told you Frankly that for me I got lost on LinkedIn. I'm now a person who can not tell you the real job I'm searching on LinkedIn because the job application which I sent to company was not considered? LinkedIn diverted me to some thing new, I'm now receiving new job advertisements but still I can not get excited for those job advertisements because it mean again entering new job searches for more years.

Nice to read about Rovio's journey towards becoming a more neuroinclusive workplace with practical tips and things that are easy for any employer to implement. 🌱 Perhaps the next step will be about looking into the intersections of other DEI aspects like neurodiversity + mental health/gender/race?

As I settle down from attending Race Forward’s Facing Race 2024 conference last week, I’ve been deep in thought about what it will take for us to re-humanize our interactions with one another, both in our personal lives as well as in our professionalized spaces. This is something that I’ve contemplated and had discussions about with many friends and colleagues over the years. Engaging our positionalities has largely been framed as a self-reflection exercise that encourages us to interrogate our identities and life experiences, and how these identities influence every aspect of our engagement with others (originally in research and other positions/spaces where power differentials lean in our favor). This much needed practice can help us draw direct correlations between how our social orientations both positively and adversely impact how we navigate our relationships, our workplaces, and even “the work” itself. And yet, relatively few of the formalized institutions many of us have been educated under have adequately conditioned us to turn our own critical eyes inward, to become life-long learners of ourselves. What would it mean to become disciplined in our commitment to really seeing ourselves and others? To becoming acutely attuned to seeing ourselves IN others? And how can we further expand our understanding of positionality not just as a personal practice, but as a political one? What would it look like to frame positionality practice as a societal exercise in mutual care? To experience it as a measure of love? An indicator of our humanity? A prerequisite to liberation? Rarely is positionality practice a grand gesture; if anything it offers us small moments to be accountable, to imbue meaning and intention into our actions, thought processes, and decisions. When practiced genuinely and humbly, we can learn so many lessons about what it means to truly be in right relationship with ourselves, others and our natural environment. Of course - like anything involving people - this will require a cultural shift and a million small disruptions to the business-as-usual model. All that said, these thoughts are way outside the bounds of this blog post. I’ve offered a few evaluator-specific ways we can begin to center positionality practice, however, I hope others find seeds that you can take back and plant in your own fields. In the words of sci-fi Seer Octavia Butler: "All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you."