A 2014 MIT study found that women-only Business Partnerships achieve a higher-level of cooperation, happiness, and overall job satisfaction than their male counterparts. Yet, women-only business partnerships do not always yield higher productivity. This presentation will help women understand the advantages they have in the workplace and how they can establish better work-related expectations.
After years of working with mostly female victims of domestic and sexual violence, Michelle began working in a program designed to offer a change process to abusive men (mostly). This powerful paradigm shift helped her to explore the harmful societal constructs we use to raise boys (“boys don’t cry”, “be a real man”, “show no weakness”) which can cause harm to boys/men and ultimately to girls/women.
These societal constructs have created a version of masculinity that is extreme. Author Jackson Katz calls this “toxic masculinity”. These hyper-masculine standards of what creates a “real man” cheat men from many healthy emotional experiences. Often, they are taught that emotions are feminine and that feminine is weak. If we teach these boys/men that the worst thing they could be in the world is female, how will they learn to value girls/women? If we are to ever prevent and end issues of violence against women, it will be because we changed the way we raise boys and treat men.
For most of us, there is something that seems to happen during the middle school years that starts to separate us from taking care of ourselves. We subjugate our true feelings so much that we can become detached from ourselves. We no longer acknowledge what we need to feel calm, relaxed, and content. The societal push to strive, seek, and reach puts aside our true need for connection with nature, ourselves, and each other.
A growing body of research supports the theory that connecting with nature, self, and others is a potential remedy for this problem. We can address depression, anxiety, self concept, feelings of isolation, and stress by simply Going Outside! It isn’t selfish to practice self care – it’s imperative to our health and well being.
Go outside – relax – notice what is around you – breathe – play – adventure!
An alternative viewpoint on selfies and how they can be used to bolster self-confidence.
Stephanie Mott shares her journey through isolation and self-hatred to the realization that being transgender is not an issue of morality or character, and the life-changing discovery that all people are worthy by the virtue of their existence. Transgender people are among the most oppressed people in America as well as the least understood. Yet, the vast majority of transgender education taking place today fails to correctly describe the journey of being transgender, even adds to the misunderstandings. This is a presentation on words that work.
In the age of Selfie, large egos, pride and a concern about who gets the credit stifles collaboration and effective leadership. In this discussion, Dr. David W. Carter, the Farley Visiting Professor of Ethics and Leadership at Washburn University, introduces a new concept into 21st century leadership titled The Lesser Seat, a critical analysis of how the best leaders throughout history were not only humble and unpretentious, but also collaborative—selfless instead of self-seeking. Dr. Carter explains the science behind why effective leadership requires both humility and collaboration, rare traits becoming all the more rare in businesses, boardrooms, and, to be sure, across college campuses. This insightful TEDx Topeka talk will inspire the audience—and future leaders—to evoke the words of Helen Keller as they consider their leadership styles: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”
It’s a commonly known fact that women tend to apologize more than men. Being taught from a young age that they should aim to please, often times women find themselves using the “s word” for anything that is displeasing- even when it has nothing to do with them. Girls are rewarded for good behavior and boys are expected to be…boys. Do we make it harder for females to be leaders as adults because we’re too focused on teaching them to color in the lines as children? Beth Lenherr and Macy Tanking will use humor, stories, and research to show how we’re all doing young girls a huge disservice by applauding their perfection. They’ll dive into how Neuro-Linguistic Programming, self-communication that shifts subjectivities in the brain to alter behavior or performance, can help empower girls to take more risks, be more bold and take leadership positions as adults. They will also show how they’ve taken the concept of imperfection and turned it into celebrating individual uniqueness through a program they’ve rolled out intentionally called GRIT: Girls Realizing Impact Together.
Agriculture is coming to a crossroads with demands outweighing the production. How will the world learn to produce more with the same resources? One way we’ve found is through technology. Planting smarter and conserving resources will help out. Technology can’t do it alone though—what can do you?
Taxation is something that everyone has an opinion about, but very few people actually understand. This talk is aimed at exploring the underpinnings of the income tax, and how society needs it to be a fundamentally fair tax. Tax law is, arguably, one of the most reflective of social values, since tax legislation is used not just to raise revenue, but also as a tool to further social and economic policy. One of the most watched “experiments” in taxation has unfolded in Kansas over the last couple of years, and Kansas state taxation policy is an excellent tool for exploring ideas like fairness in building a fiscal system.
The current highway system is largely funded by fuel tax, a tax collected on the sale of gasoline on a per-gallon basis. The fuel tax had its place, but it’s quickly becoming obsolete.
Gasoline powered vehicles are becoming more efficient, and hybrid powered vehicles are becoming more widespread. The auto industry is also seeing an emerging market of vehicles powered entirely without gasoline, such as all-electric powered vehicles and compressed natural gas powered vehicles. The combination of all of the above is creating a growing hole in the tax revenue collected for roads, as fewer gallons of gasoline are being purchased.
This is currently a minor problem, and luckily it can be fixed before it gets out of hand, but it requires a proactive approach. Americans have always had a clear vision of the future and the fortitude to make that vision a reality, from John F. Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon, to Steve Jobs’ and Bill Gates’ race to put a personal computer in the American home. This nation has made history by looking to the future, and it will continue to do so in the 21st Century with further advancement of an array of technology such as weaning off of fossil fuels; building electronic data infrastructure that provides infinite storage & transfer speed; and oh yeah, Holograms!
The fuel tax is a real problem with a real solution. Fixing it will require leaders to look to the future, like Americans always have and always will. In the process, maybe those visionaries will find something more inside of each of them that will change the World.