Conscious Change: How to Navigate Everyday Relationships with People Not Like You and Create More Inclusive Systems

Every day, most of us interact with people of disparate backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences--individuals who hold different expectations than we do of the people and world around them. How does one navigate these often-turbulent waters?

In Conscious Change, nineteen authors describe how they have applied the principles of Conscious Change within multicultural, diverse environments to overcome difficult and emotionally draining challenges--and, in doing so, provide a road map to shifting one’s own story when moving through similarly demanding situations in all areas of life. These practical case studies reveal how transformational the Conscious Change tools can be, leading to a stronger sense of one’s personal capacity as a leader, better interpersonal relationships, and the beginnings of greater equity and inclusion.

Illuminating and instructive, these stories are vivid illustrations of the skills today’s leaders need in their multicultural organizations and settings, where issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are, and will increasingly be, front and center.

Jean Kantambu Latting, DrPH, LMSW-IPR, is the president of Leading Consciously and a professor emerita at the University of Houston. As a consultant, researcher, and educator, Jean helps leaders in multicultural organizations further their people skills and capacity. She is the coauthor of Reframing Change: How to Deal with Workplace Dynamics, Influence Others, and Bring People Together to Initiate Positive Change.

V. Jean Ramsey, PhD, was a professor of management at Texas Southern University, an HBCU in Houston, Texas, for nineteen years before retiring in 2009. She has published three previous books: Reframing Change (Praeger), Teaching Diversity (Jossey Bass), and Preparing Professional Women for the Future (Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Michigan).

Stephanie Foy, LMSW, is a senior partner with Leading Consciously and contributes to curriculum development and practice implementation related to the principles and skills of Conscious Change. Her master’s study and current consultation practice focus on leadership, well-being, and organizational change.

Amy Foy Hageman, MSPOD, is a junior associate with Leading Consciously. In that role, she facilitates training, creates coursework, and coaches participants through their learning goals. Amy graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2014 with a Master’s of Positive Organizational Development.