Happy Lunar New Year from team data2insight
Musings of the Month
According to the traditional lunar calendar, this Year of the Tiger ended and the Year of the Rabbit began on Sunday, January 22, the first new moon of 2023. And there is more! While most Asian countries and diasporas are celebrating the rabbit, Vietnam, which observes the equivalent Tết Nguyên Đán, honored a different animal: the cat. Why? Vietnam shares 10 of the Chinese zodiac calendar’s 12 signs, with the differences being the rabbit and the ox, which are replaced in the Vietnamese calendar with the cat and the buffalo. To get more into the details about these cultural differences check out Carl Samson’s article.
My wife Natalie and I began celebrating the Lunar New Year a few years ago after becoming friends with Mark Gau and Maura Fallon, who moved to Seattle from Beijing, China. Their Lunar New Year parties are the best! As a result of our friendship with them, we added a Lunar New Year tradition at our home: purchasing gladiolus and pussy willows at Alice’s Floral Design in Seattle’s International District to welcome the new year. The pussy willow is a symbol of growth and the coming of prosperity. Also known as sword lily, red gladiolus symbolizes a particular Chinese phrase (步步高陞) which indicates a rise in career and self-development, as the flowers bloom steadily from the base to the tip.
An ending and beginning we are celebrating at data2insight is a rebranding and launch of our new website! Earlier this month we re-launched as more than a DEI, measurement, evaluation, and assessment consulting company. We are focused on creating cultures of belonging where everyone can thrive in mission-driven organizations across sectors. That is DEI+B.
As a result, data2insight’s mission has evolved to: We partner with people to make meaning of data and take collective action to create workplaces and communities where everyone can thrive.
This mission is in service of the world we envision where every person has health, wellbeing, autonomy, self-determination, and freedom.
As we look forward to and plan for a new year, may we also see the magic of every moment along the journey from one spiral to the next . . . and the next.
My best,
Veronica S. Smith
data2insight, Lead Executive & Equitable Scientist
Book Spotlight
Transitions written by William Bridges
When I am going through a significant transition in my professional or personal life, I almost always reach for the compact little book by William Bridges called, appropriately, Transitions. I was introduced to this book back in the 90s when I was working as a job developer for a career management company helping people, who had been downsized from US West and GTE, to cross-train and find new jobs and careers. Since then, this book has helped me transition through not only job and career changes (and there have been several of those), but also deaths of friends and family, marriage, health crises, turnover in my company, and moving.
Change is something we often don’t have much control over. William Bridges taught me to better understand how to transition through any change in ways that are patient, compassionate, nourishing, curious, creative and open doors to a truly new beginning. Are you transitioning through a change? If so, where are you on the data display below? What support do you want and need to move forward in your transition?
#SelfCareCorner
The ending of a year is a wonderful time for reflection that shines a light on possibilities for the new year. One of the ways I enjoy engaging in this spiraling from ending to a new beginning is to identify three words that serve as what Senior Fellow at The Center for Evaluation Innovation, Efrain Gutierrez, calls “guideposts,” that will help me to stay the course in this nonlinear journey we call life (see his Linkedin post here). This annual guidepost word game is a cross between Efrain’s approach and strategic advisor Chris Brogan’s “my three words” planning exercise.
Patience
The ability to wait for a long time without becoming annoyed or upset is a skill I want to develop more deeply. The work we do at data2insight requires facilitators to be fully present to whatever comes up in the moment and to respond with compassion and curiosity…
Curiosity
Julie Pham’s company, Curiosity Based, is founded on the importance of approaching life from a place of curiosity. When I come from this place, I am drawing on the energy of a child, a beginner, seeing everything with fresh eyes and asking powerful questions.
Trust
When I am feeling anxious (and that is often the case), my wife Natalie often says “trust and believe.” What that means to me is that everything is happening at the right time. I have everything I need to ride the next wave that is coming to its crest and back down again.
What will your three words for 2023 be?
Celebrating Tomeca L. Kellogg-Walters
Our Operation Lead Tomeca L. Kellogg-Walters completed the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Black in Business Entrepreneurial Program
During Fall 2022, one of our team leads, Tomeca, was chosen to be a member of the second cohort of the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Black in Business Entrepreneurial Program. Goldman has made a commitment to invest $10 million dollars to support black and brown women entrepreneurs. This program is the first step in meeting that commitment. Those who complete the OMBW BIB program are encouraged to continue moving forward and join the 10,000 small business program which offers business education, support services and pathways to capital for growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Our team is proud and honored that Tomeca is an alumni of this amazing program.
What's new at data2insight?
Data is love Podcast
Check out the Data Is Love podcast, hosted by Moving Beyond’s CEO and Founder, Aparna Rae, and listen to her conversation with our Lead Executive and Equitable Scientist, Veronica Smith. In this episode, they talked about how companies can increase the sense of belonging in the workplace for their LGBTQIA+ employees.
