How can you have hard conversations in the best possible way?

In the two decades of communication experience at Rhudy & Co., we’ve consulted companies, leaders and managers through some really tough times that required hard conversations. What we’ve learned is that you can have a good hard conversation.

History may tell tales of 2020 as the year humanity broke. Yet, that would not be the full story. As painful as some of it has been – in fact, acutely painful for many – it has also been a year of healing.

Like most decent people living inside the system of white privilege, recent years have shown me the truth of racism, and it has broken my heart. I thought I knew at least a few things about systemic racism yet had to face the fact that I actually knew nothing at all. This awareness was shameful and painful and raw. I wanted to hide from it. And then, as God tends to do for me, He sent me a teacher, this time in Dr. Hollee Freeman.

Hollee, a fellow Richmonder, and I were randomly paired for a social media experiment called Mic Share RVA, imagined by Amanda Moore of Humans for Good. For this experiment, Black women posted on their white teammates’ social media accounts for a week to build awareness of their choosing to the white teammates’ audience. Here’s a little of what I learned.