Daily Archives: December 22, 2021

Phoenix Center for the Arts CEO Lauren Henschen has resigned from her position after nearly 10 years with the organization. She will step down in February of2022 to pursue personal creative endeavors.

I have been incredibly honored to serve this organization and the Phoenix community during a time of important growth and development," Henschen said in a press release. "Im also excited to continue supporting Phoenix Center for the Arts for many, many years to come. Iknow we will continue to see that meaningful impact continue to blossom in the years ahead."

Henschen has served as the center's first Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, Deputy Director and assumed the role of CEO in July 2019. In November 2021, Henschen was recognized as an ATHENA Awards Finalist by the Greater Phoenix Chamber for her leadership.

Henschen has led the organization from a $200,000 budget with 40 arts classes to a budget of more than $2 million with more than 750 classes virtually and in person, boardchair Angela Rodela said.

"Through her leadership and vision, PCA is now able to serve a more expansive community, having a greater impact in bringing arts and culture experiences to all," Rodela said in a press release. "Laurens style of shared leadership and personal empowerment will be missed by her entire team staff, students, teaching artists, resident organizations, volunteers, and board of directors all of whom wish her every success in her future endeavors.

The Phoenix Center for the ArtsBoard of Directors will begin a nationwide search for Central Arts Alliance's new CEO in the coming months. Applicationswill be due on Jan. 17, 2022.

Reach the reporter at sofia.krusmark@gannett.com. Follow her on Instagram@sofia.krusmark

Link:

This downtown Phoenix arts organization is seeking new leadership. Here's what's we know - The Arizona Republic

If youre anything like me, you might be impulsively suspicious of claims that digital technologies such as cryptocurrency and blockchain can produce radical decentralization, personal empowerment, and assuage the wounds of capitalism.

However, the latest string of letters to emerge from the depths of the blockchain universe DAOs, or Decentralized Autonomous Organizations might have something to offer to those interested in advancing the power of labor, specifically when it comes to employee ownership.

DAOs are a little difficult to define because they are still an emergent phenomenon, but for simplicitys sake, they are organizations that are managed entirely through blockchain technology. They provide an accessible form of decentralization and transparency which, in certain ways, could scale more easily than traditional organizations.

The amount of governance innovation happening in DAO-land is not something Ive seen anywhere else, Nathan Schneider, a journalist, author, and professor of media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told Shareable. Itfeels, in some circles, like a social movement, where people feel like they are really involved in a new thing that is helping to remake the world as they understand it.

The social movement Schneider describes is a result of two distinct worlds colliding those of blockchain technologies and worker cooperatives.

Theres this flourishing of people who havent come from a cooperatives background, they havent come from this political analysis about the balance of power between labor and capital or anything like this. Most of them have come with, Hey, this is some cool technology, what can we do with it? Richard Bartlett, co-founder of Loomio, told Shareable.

The amount of governance innovation happening in DAO-landfeels, in some circles, like a social movement, where people feel like they are really involved in a new thing that is helping to remake the world as they understand it. Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder

This, Bartlett said, is producing a lot of fruitful questions: How do you actually engage people? What do you do with their attention span? What happens if you try and get 1,000 people to vote every day?

One DAO advocate, who blogs and runs a podcast as the Blockchain Socialist, and who requested anonymity due to concerns about workplace retaliation, told Shareable that these questions may be opening doors for socialist-style co-op innovation among tech communities that are traditionally seen as more libertarian and right-wing.

Ive been actually very surprised that a lot of these crypto-type people are very open to listening to me, he said. Because of this emergent synthesis of cooperatives and DAOs, these people are straight up asking: are DAOs socialist? They created DAOs, they realized it was kind of like cooperatives, and then they realized that cooperatives are kind of like socialism. So then they pause and look at each other and theyre like, are we doing socialism right now?

Can these two communities technologists and community organizers join forces and bring real democracy to decentralized, disruptive technologies?

And on the flip side, could DAOs with their secure, flexible, scalable systems of creating value and distributing ownership-authority within a co-op bring worker ownership into the mainstream?

Maybe so but its important to begin this conversation with a grain of salt.

Before we get more deeply into the potential benefits of DAOs, its important to take a step back and critically examine the track record that blockchain technologies have because its not always a very comforting one.

Cryptocurrency, for example, has been lauded as a revolutionary force in decentralizing and democratizing finance. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are similarly lauded for giving new power to individual artists and musicians working online.

However, the decentralization rhetoric coming out of the blockchain world can feel a bit bloviated when you consider a new study which just revealed that the top 10 percent of NFT traders account for 85 percent of transactions and trade 97 percent of all assets, and that 10 percent of buyerseller pairs have the same volume as the remaining 90 percent.

And the recent craze around NFTs is a compelling example of how blockchain technology is being co-opted and corrupted by the nefarious forces of capital in ways that are not only antithetical to prosperity but which only do more to increase scarcity and enclose digital commons.

Its hard not to recoil at the idea that we have anything to gain from this world in the face of headlines such as: A Metaverse mega yacht that just sold for $650,000 is the most expensive NFT sold in The Sandbox virtual world.

As with all new technology-based systems, DAOs come with a lot of hype. Its important that we keep this in mind as we attempt to see through the smoke and mirrors to explore the real benefits that DAOs could potentially impart to those interested in employee-ownership.

One of the key benefits of DAOs is the flexibility in organizational structure that they allow. Because these organizations live entirely on contracts made through blockchain systems, the same systems that power cryptocurrency, they have a lot of room for creativity.

Keeping in mind that cryptocurrency is still pretty novel, and states are still playing catchup when it comes to regulating these systems, the idea with DAOs is that you can design your organization or write your contracts with much more flexibility than traditional legal entities subject to the laws of the states that they reside in, of course.

You can get together with some friends to do something, and rather than just paying out money in dollars, you can make your own currency and try to make it valuable and set the rules for how that currency works, Schneider told Shareable. And maybe its not just a currency, maybe its also for governance maybe its just governance votes. Or maybe its just things you use to access the service that you share. You can write the rules in a pretty profoundly flexible way.

In order to understand how DAOs work, we have to understand the idea of digital tokens. It might help to think of a token as a sort of coin a unique bundle of data that represents some kind of value, and that is tracked on distributed ledgers, including blockchain.

In cryptocurrency, tokens are assigned monetary value. NFTs use tokens to assign value to digital assets, such as works of digital art, and stamp them as unique.

With DAOs, the idea of a digital token is expanded to the point where it could represent basically anything, including, importantly, a vote.

This is really where things can get exciting for folks in the worker cooperative world. It opens up a whole new realm of possibility in terms of coordinating decentralized, democratic governance.

Youre able to basically make a democracy within a workplace much, much more achievable and much, much more easy to do, Joshua Davila, a blockchain solutions architect currently writing a book on blockchain cooperatives, told Shareable.

On a purely logistical level, DAOs make voting easier. In a traditional cooperative, for example, you need a quorum of over 50 percent of people to show up at the meeting, Davila said. But with DAO technology, there are fewer barriers to achieve a quorum, because you can vote from anywhere that has an internet connection. Youre able instead to facilitate a very, very reliable system for voting and for applying democratic principles over a digital space.

Remote voting by organizational boards using electronic communication, such as email or even phones, is subject to regulations that are different from state to state, and are changing rapidly, but DAOs are a powerful new tool for this process.

According to Jason Prado, chief technologist at the Drivers Cooperative, DAOs are an important development that may offer new possibilities for investment or better forms of organization.

The Drivers Cooperative is a driver-owned ride-hailing cooperative in New York City. They are currently exploring the DAO framework as a potential path to building their platform and becoming a more sustainable business.

The Drivers Cooperative currently has thousands of drivers on their platform but are hoping to grow to tens or hundreds of thousands as well as to expand beyond New York City.

Their aim is to grow their democratically owned and governed platform to the scale of an Uber or Lyft, which would make them the largest worker-owned federation in the world.

As we do that, how are we going to scale decision making? How are we going to scale these notions of ownership? Prado told Shareable. When were talking about platforms that have tens of thousands of workers on them and then hundreds of thousands or millions of customers who also maybe should be included in the concept of ownership we dont have existing structures that have scaled successfully to that level.

Opolis is an example of a member-owned digital employment cooperative currently utilizing DAO technology. Opolis helps independent workers access high quality group-rate employment benefits like healthcare insurance, (crypto) payroll, and tax compliance, among other things.

Opolis claims that they have overcome all of the challenges inherent within the DAO landscape, but according to Joshua Lapidus, the organizations executive community steward, DAOs in general need to learn how to take advantage of cooperatives to find legal footing, increase legitimacy to skeptics, and help us achieve a mass adoption.

Another downside of how traditional cryptocurrencies work is that anyone with the most coins or tokens inherently has the most power.

If you have something for sale, what can stop a malicious actor from buying it up and controlling it? Jason Prado, chief technologist at the Drivers Cooperative

As soon as you allow a token to be sold and it looks something like an investment, then you have a problem where now investors can come in, or capitalists can come in, and buy up that token and have undue voting power on the platform, Jason Prado told Shareable. Thats very frightening because youre playing with fire a little bit. I still think thats a good idea for lots of businesses because the reality is raising capital is important. But still, if you have something for sale, what can stop a malicious actor from buying it up and controlling it?

Worker cooperatives, on the other hand, operate on the principle of one member, one vote. This is possible theoretically on the blockchain, but doesnt always work well in practice because identity is much harder to keep track of in a DAO and there are ways of abusing the network.

DAO enthusiasts claim to be exploring new forms of voting that could potentially bypass these issues.

These include quadratic voting, in which the more tokens you use to vote, the less they are worth; and conviction voting, in which your time commitment increases the value of your token vote.

The scalability inherent within DAOs traditionally one of the biggest selling points lauded by advocates of blockchain technology is also full of wrinkles.

If you want to use the Ethereum main net for your cooperative and you want to have a lot of democracy you want to have people voting all the time its probably not feasible. Its too expensive, Joshua Davila said. Youre paying at least like $30 worth of Ether per transaction When you are voting, that is a form of a transaction. So thats not very conducive for democratic structures.

Many of the challenges facing DAOs are purely technological, but others are more social in nature: You cant always actually code a code of ethics.

Digital technology is not just value-neutral math its designed and applied by actual human beings who bring their own values and ideologies. Algorithms can be racist and sexist. And in this sense, theres nothing inherent within a DAO that would lead it to having the values that those within any specific organization might hope for it to hold.

Kei Kreutler, strategy lead at Gnosis, a blockchain technology company, told Shareable that while many DAOs embrace operating principles or economic relations that resemble digital cooperativism this does not mean that their software necessarily enforces this organizing form.

In other words, Kreutler said, technical decentralization does not necessarily lead to political decentralization of power.

Yet the momentum DAOs have is exciting, Kreutler told Shareable. A third, autonomous social sector, apart from the public and private sectors, emerges more clearly, she said. This is my most idealistic take that DAOs could breathe new life into existing and emerging movements related to civic governance.

While there is certainly something appealing about the decentralization inherent within DAOs, theyre no substitute for the power that comes with unions, strikes, minimum-wage campaigns, and other forms of labor organizing.

We still need to make sweeping changes to the way our entire economy functions if these technologies will ever stand a chance of contributing to our collective liberation.

As Paris Marx, tech critic and host of the Tech Wont Save Us podcast, recently tweeted:

Changing the path of tech development requires much more than building niche alternatives that few people ultimately use. It requires changing the larger structures in which technology is developed so people arent desperately trying to find hope in libertarian bullshit.

Perhaps what we really need to be asking is not what DAOs could offer to the world of employee ownership, but rather what employee ownership can bring to DAOs, by injecting democratic and cooperative values into their organizations and projects.

There already was a decentralized version of the traditional corporation that was the cooperative, the Blockchain Socialist creator told Shareable. Though co-ops lack popularity and can be difficult to establish and coordinate, with the advent of DAOs, people who would have never given a shit about cooperatives are suddenly really, really interested in this. And that is something that should be taken advantage of.

Link:

The DAO of decentralization: Can co-ops thrive on the blockchain? - Shareable

A hefty, end-of-year donation from UMB Bank will provide The Porter House KC an opportunity to dig deeper in assisting local entrepreneurs, said Daniel Smith, expressing appreciation for the $350,000 boost.

These resources will be used to continue our current work and implement another program that will assist small businesses with direct support, creating additional inroads to success, said Smith, co-founder and principal of The Porter House KC.

Charon Thompson and Dan Smith, The Porter House KC

Click here to read more about what drives Smith and co-founder Charon Thompson, who were recognized for their work at The Porter House KC as two of Startland News 2021 Kansas City Community Builders to Watch.

The donation from Kansas City-based UMB Bank is part of a $1.25 million gift to three organizations supporting underserved communities housing needs, small business efforts, and education and emerging talent in Kansas City. KC Scholars is expected to receive $500,000, while CHES, Inc. is set for $400,000. (The Porter House KC is itself a program of CHES, Inc., but is receiving an individual donation.)

For more than a century, UMB has actively supported each community we serve, said Mariner Kemper, chairman, president and CEO of UMB Financial Corporation. Weve had a strong year, and we want to share this success by giving much needed funding to key organizations within our communities. Were thrilled to support these outstanding community partners and the tremendous work theyre already doing. We hope to see the impact of these dollars for years to come.

What is CHES, Inc?

CHES, Inc. is a HUD approved housing counseling and financial empowerment organization dedicated to helping clients maintain the knowledge and skills needed for long-term credit, financial and homeownership success. The UMB Bank donation will support CHES, Inc. programs including CHES Financial Empowerment and Kansas City Bank On.

The Porter House KC is an inner city based co-working community that provides entrepreneurship access and resources to underserved populations in the Kansas City Metro area. The organization resolves to assist in the representation of entrepreneurs of color by providing an affordable business space that can be used to grow an idea to a full-fledged business.

Click here to learn more about The Porter House KC.

Two additional donations of $375,000 from UMB Bank have been made to Denver organizations NEWSED and Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute, bringing the total for the five year-end donations to $2 million, and UMBs 2021 giving to more than $6 million.

UMB offers commercial, personal, and institutional banking services with branches throughout Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas, and serves business and institutional clients nationwide.

This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

For more information, visit http://www.kauffman.org and connect at http://www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdnandwww.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn

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UMB Bank deposits $350K supporting The Porter House KC; $1.25M in year-end KC donations - Startland News

CHICAGO, Dec. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over the past two years, the global pandemic accelerated consumer acceptance of digitization throughout the policy lifecycle, and that momentum will likely carry over into 2022. TransUnions 2022 Insurance Trends and Outlook Report considers multiple implications of increasingly digital and accelerated business practices for insurance carriers throughout the industry.

To equip insurers with a deeper understanding of these key trends, TransUnion conducted a survey of 2,761 U.S. consumers with active auto, homeowners, renters and/or life insurance policies during November 2021. The findings highlight consumer attitudes towards online insurance shopping, auto and property telematicswhich involve devices that monitor and report on driving behaviors or property hazard conditionsand more.

Our analysis of the past years trends as well as findings from the consumer survey suggest the insurance industry has a couple key challenges to address, said Mark McElroy, executive vice president and head of TransUnions insurance business. On one hand the insurance industry will need to meet the increased demands for digital processes. On the other, it must educate the public and ease concerns over the use of credit-based insurance scores and externally-sourced data, which are helping to drive that demand.

Consumers increasingly seek a digital experienceThe largest group of survey respondents comprised life insurance and personal lines property and auto insurance consumers. One of the most important findings from that group was that they prefer digital channels, like email and mobile apps, for requesting a quote, asking a question, or discussing a policy.

The combined averages of those who prefer email (29%) and those who prefer an insurers mobile app or website (23%) show that more than half (52%) prefer a digital channel. Whats more, the average percent of consumers who indicated an insurers mobile app or website portal as their preferred communication channel represented a 28% increase from last years survey.

Increased use of online channels will have several implications across the industry. For example, insurers will be expected to create seamless and secure digital experiences for consumers at every stage of the policy lifecycle. Many carriers will also need to reevaluate their channel mix and decide whether to adjust their sales strategy to better utilize direct-to-consumer sales websites and apps that help bridge the gap between consumers and agents.

Compared to the rate of consumer adoption of these technologies, commercial insurances digital transformation lags. However, this sector appears to be in the early stages of climbing the same steep curve.

An opportunity for digitization in commercial lines is to leverage the underutilized third-party data that can autofill much of the information about corporate real estate or vehicle assets that customers are expected to enter manually on an application, said McElroy. The current manual process also places the burden of verifying this information on insurers, making automation a win for both parties.

Continued digitization dependent on demonstrating fairnessThe continued shift to digitized, accelerated underwriting is driven largely by access to credit-based insurance scores (CBIS) and other third-party data. However, in more recent years, the use of CBIS in the insurance underwriting process has come under scrutiny by certain consumer advocacy groups and regulators. Providing evidence that the practice has expanded the availability of insurance in many cases and often works to the advantage of consumers across all risk segments will be necessary to demonstrating that CBIS is a critical element in the overall insurance underwriting process.

For example, the report explains that expanded use of accelerated and data-driven underwriting has often reduced prices for customers with good risk scores who may have otherwise been unfairly disadvantaged due to being renters instead of home owners.

In the commercial housing insurance sector, aggregated credit-based scoring of tenants can lower the insurance rates paid by landlords, who might otherwise have their policy priced solely on a buildings location and age. This savings, in turn, can allow landlords to lower rent, potentially creating more affordable housing for consumers.

Telematics are proving popular with auto insurance consumers This years consumer survey also found 32% of respondents said they had been presented with a telematics option for their auto insurance policy. Such programs can use connected devices, mobile phones or auto manufacturer car apps to monitor and report detailed driving behavior, and 49% said they opted in to the program.

Insurance rates decreased for nearly half (48%) of those enrolled in a telematics program, while staying the same for 30%. Overall, nearly two-thirds of consumers (64%) were very satisfied or extremely satisfied with their telematics experience, and 26% were neutral. In line with satisfaction rates, 64% said they are still using their telematics program.

Similarly, commercial insurance presents a significant opportunity for telematics as many business owners may be more open to installing such tools in corporate vehicles in order to encourage employees to drive more safely.

However, homeowners appeared less open to using connected devices to monitor their house or condo for warning of fires, flooding and other hazard risks. When asked whether they would allow an insurer to install and monitor such a device in their home, only 33% of respondents said they would, while 26% were undecided.

The hesitance from consumers to adopt auto and home connected devices was an interesting finding, said McElroy. I suspect this was driven by concerns over privacy, which means insurers will need to convince consumers that telematics is about monitoring driving behaviors and the condition of home appliances, like water heaters and furnaces, to ensure peoples safetynot gathering their personal information.

Pleaseclick hereto download a full version of the TransUnion 2022 Insurance Trends and Outlook Report.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionablepicture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

Read more from the original source:

TransUnion Shares Three Trends for Life, Personal and Commercial Insurance in 2022 - GlobeNewswire

In the first ever episode of Sex and the City, aired in 1998, the Manhattanite columnist, socialite and supposed everywoman Carrie Bradshaw resolves to stop looking for Mr Perfect and start enjoying herself. In that effort, she hooks up with an ex-boyfriend, a self-centred, withholding creep to whom she no longer feels any emotional attachment.

She drops round at his place mid-afternoon, enjoys his offer of oral sex and then leaves before hes had the chance to orgasm himself. Ignoring her disgruntled ex, Carrie tells us of her delight:After I began to get dressed, I realised that Id done it. Id just had sex like a man. I left feeling powerful, potent and incredibly alive. I felt like I owned this city. Nothing and no one could get in my way.

Sex and the City has returned to our screens with a new series titled And Just Like That. The protagonists are now in their mid-50s not their mid-30s, but the sexual politics of this latest iteration of the franchise are still in keeping with the first episode: having sex like a man remains the aspiration.

The politics of the show are now being scrutinised, with the creators scrambling to diversify a cast that was originally almost exclusively white (hardly surprising, given that the show is about rich New Yorkers). And the new series includes some excruciating scenes in which the leading ladies are reprimanded for their lack of political sensitivity.

It seems that the creators are aware that, in some ways, Sex and the City has not aged well. Watching the early episodes will induce regular teeth sucking in many viewers, since there are plenty of lines that would never be permitted on screen now (after all, theyre men, says one character, Samantha, explaining her ability to charm a group of trans women who have congregated outside her building).

But few of the present day critics of Sex and the City seem to have a problem with the shows central feature: its particular conception of female sexuality. In fact, according to one article about the new series, this is the feature that stands up best today: If theres one thing the show got right for evermore, it was its portrayal of sexual desire.

To be clear, I do actually like Sex and the City. Ive watched every episode and have even (for my sins) seen the films, which were almost unanimously panned by critics. The franchise is rightly loved by fans for its humour and its often touching portrayal of female friendship.

[see also:Sex and the City might seem dated now but for a Nineties teen, it was radical]

But its depiction of sexual desire is a far from right, as the article put it. In Sex and the City, the female characters regularly demonstrate their sexual agency by having loveless, brusque sex with men they dont like. They show no regard for their partners intimate lives, treating them as means not ends in the pursuit of personal pleasure. So it seems that what the phrase having sex like a man really means is having sex like a selfish arsehole.

But then, the whole show is a celebration of women behaving like selfish arseholes. The American writer Katherine Dee has suggested that Sex and the City ought really to be read as satire:To a New Yorker watching Sex and the City, especially a New York woman of a particular age and class, the joke is understood. Its saying, Yes, we are materialistic, we are shallow, we settle down too late, and it hurts us.

The problem is that the satirical edge is lost on anyone outside of this social niche. Theres a scene in the second series of the British comedy Peep Show that pokes fun at the disconnect between the shows glamorous setting and the less-than-glamorous lives of many of its fans.

One of the Peep Show characters, Sophie (Olivia Colman), does a dull office job, lives in Croydon, has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and dates some extremely lacklustre men. Nevertheless, her email password is (misnamed) sex in the city her favourite TV show.

Like the Sex and the City characters, Sophie sleeps with some dodgy men and delays having children until later in life; unlike these characters, this leads her to make some hasty and unwise decisions. By the end of the series, shes an alcoholic single mother (Peep Show is very funny, but its not exactly uplifting). Intentionally or not, Sophies character arc highlights the problems with imitating the Sex and the City lifestyle if youre not fabulously wealthy and able to cushion bad decision-making with money.

Occasionally, even the richest Sex and the City characters are punished by the shows writers. In the second movie, for instance the one widely decried by critics as Islamophobic 52-year-old Samantha boasts of the potency of her cocktail of hormonal supplements: Ive tricked my body into thinking its younger! But when her pills are confiscated on arrival in Abu Dhabi airport and shes forced to suffer a very sudden return of menopause symptoms, including a loss of libido, shes driven mad. Without the libido of a much younger woman, she loses her sense of self.

Its all played for laughs, of course. But cut out the jokes and the fancy clothes, and Sex and the City is more like a Michel Houellebecq novel than a cheerful sitcom all materialism, desacralisation, urban anomie and grotty sex scenes. In Houellebecqs novels, middle-aged Frenchmen try to fill the emotional void with empty sex and empty consumption. In Sex and the City, middle-aged American women do the same thing, and then discuss their exploits over brunch.

[see also: The new Sex and the City series is surprisingly sad and surprisingly good]

In the first ever episode of Sex and the City, aired in 1998, the Manhattanite columnist, socialite and supposed everywoman Carrie Bradshaw resolves to stop looking for Mr Perfect and start enjoying herself. In that effort, she hooks up with an ex-boyfriend, a self-centred, withholding creep to whom she no longer feels any emotional attachment.

She drops round at his place mid-afternoon, enjoys his offer of oral sex and then leaves before hes had the chance to orgasm himself. Ignoring her disgruntled ex, Carrie tells us of her delight:After I began to get dressed, I realised that Id done it. Id just had sex like a man. I left feeling powerful, potent and incredibly alive. I felt like I owned this city. Nothing and no one could get in my way.

Sex and the City has returned to our screens with a new series titled And Just Like That. The protagonists are now in their mid-50s not their mid-30s, but the sexual politics of this latest iteration of the franchise are still in keeping with the first episode: having sex like a man remains the aspiration.

The politics of the show are now being scrutinised, with the creators scrambling to diversify a cast that was originally almost exclusively white (hardly surprising, given that the show is about rich New Yorkers). And the new series includes some excruciating scenes in which the leading ladies are reprimanded for their lack of political sensitivity.

It seems that the creators are aware that, in some ways, Sex and the City has not aged well. Watching the early episodes will induce regular teeth sucking in many viewers, since there are plenty of lines that would never be permitted on screen now (after all, theyre men, says one character, Samantha, explaining her ability to charm a group of trans women who have congregated outside her building).

But few of the present day critics of Sex and the City seem to have a problem with the shows central feature: its particular conception of female sexuality. In fact, according to one article about the new series, this is the feature that stands up best today: If theres one thing the show got right for evermore, it was its portrayal of sexual desire.

To be clear, I do actually like Sex and the City. Ive watched every episode and have even (for my sins) seen the films, which were almost unanimously panned by critics. The franchise is rightly loved by fans for its humour and its often touching portrayal of female friendship.

[see also:Sex and the City might seem dated now but for a Nineties teen, it was radical]

But its depiction of sexual desire is a far from right, as the article put it. In Sex and the City, the female characters regularly demonstrate their sexual agency by having loveless, brusque sex with men they dont like. They show no regard for their partners intimate lives, treating them as means not ends in the pursuit of personal pleasure. So it seems that what the phrase having sex like a man really means is having sex like a selfish arsehole.

But then, the whole show is a celebration of women behaving like selfish arseholes. The American writer Katherine Dee has suggested that Sex and the City ought really to be read as satire:To a New Yorker watching Sex and the City, especially a New York woman of a particular age and class, the joke is understood. Its saying, Yes, we are materialistic, we are shallow, we settle down too late, and it hurts us.

The problem is that the satirical edge is lost on anyone outside of this social niche. Theres a scene in the second series of the British comedy Peep Show that pokes fun at the disconnect between the shows glamorous setting and the less-than-glamorous lives of many of its fans.

One of the Peep Show characters, Sophie (Olivia Colman), does a dull office job, lives in Croydon, has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and dates some extremely lacklustre men. Nevertheless, her email password is (misnamed) sex in the city her favourite TV show.

Like the Sex and the City characters, Sophie sleeps with some dodgy men and delays having children until later in life; unlike these characters, this leads her to make some hasty and unwise decisions. By the end of the series, shes an alcoholic single mother (Peep Show is very funny, but its not exactly uplifting). Intentionally or not, Sophies character arc highlights the problems with imitating the Sex and the City lifestyle if youre not fabulously wealthy and able to cushion bad decision-making with money.

Occasionally, even the richest Sex and the City characters are punished by the shows writers. In the second movie, for instance the one widely decried by critics as Islamophobic 52-year-old Samantha boasts of the potency of her cocktail of hormonal supplements: Ive tricked my body into thinking its younger! But when her pills are confiscated on arrival in Abu Dhabi airport and shes forced to suffer a very sudden return of menopause symptoms, including a loss of libido, shes driven mad. Without the libido of a much younger woman, she loses her sense of self.

Its all played for laughs, of course. But cut out the jokes and the fancy clothes, and Sex and the City is more like a Michel Houellebecq novel than a cheerful sitcom all materialism, desacralisation, urban anomie and sex scenes. In Houellebecqs novels, middle-aged Frenchmen try to fill the emotional void with empty sex and empty consumption. In Sex and the City, middle-aged American women do the same thing, and then discuss their exploits over brunch.

[see also: The new Sex and the City series is surprisingly sad and surprisingly good]

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See the article here:

Female empowerment? Sex and the City is just empty sex and consumption - The New Statesman

Darren Lund.Courtesy of the Family

In 1987, Darren Lund was in his first year as a high-school English teacher in Red Deer, Alta., when Central Alberta was being rocked by the trial and conviction of Holocaust denier James (Jim) Keegstra, and the Aryan Nations white-supremacist group had begun operating a training camp near Caroline, Alta.

The educator, who died last month at age 60, helped his racially-diverse students launch the schools Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice (STOP) group, which inspired the creation of several similar organizations around the province.

For his efforts, he earned the first Alberta Human Rights Award and nine accolades in all, including the National Award of Distinction from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and Bnai Brith Canadas national student human-rights award.

In 2000, two students asked him to set up a gay-straight alliance to help kids who were getting bullied because they were openly gay or perceived to be homosexual. Today, most Alberta schools have GSAs, which are student-led clubs that promote equality while seeking to curb homophobia. In 2008, he was invited to serve as grand marshal of Calgarys Pride Parade.

STOP and the GSA were just two of Dr. Lunds many accomplishments during a three-decade-plus career dedicated to promoting social justice, diversity and inclusion in school settings and beyond. After 16 years as a high school teacher in Red Deer, during which he also completed his doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, he became a locally, nationally and internationally recognized University of Calgary education professor. He also earned numerous plaudits for helping to reduce racism and sexual discrimination around the world through teacher education, youth engagement, and community involvement.

After 16 years as a high school teacher in Red Deer, during which Dr. Lund also completed his doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, he became a locally, nationally and internationally recognized University of Calgary education professor.Courtesy University of Calgary

Dr. Lund continued his efforts in spite of receiving death threats from opponents of GSAs and the STOP program (which has ceased to operate), said Dianne Gereluk, dean of the University of Calgarys Werklund School of Education.

Darren walked the talk, Dr. Gereluk said. Throughout his entire life, he continued to stand up against hate and intolerance. He advocated and served the diverse needs of youth in schools and communities who had less privileged ability to do so. And most importantly, he encouraged youth to find their voice, fostering their agency and empowerment.

And if there is a lesson for all of us, its in the values, in the actions, and in his commitment to continue to do that despite the adversity and the resistance that he faced throughout his life.

Darren Ernie Lund was born Aug. 31, 1961, in Calgary. He was the younger of two children of Ernie (Moose) Walter Lykke Lund and Rita (ne Jensen) Lund. Moose Lund served for three decades as a Calgary police officer, rising to become an auto-theft detective. Rita Lund was primarily a homemaker and, in different decades, held secretarial positions with a bank and a Lutheran church that she and her husband helped launch.

Darren Lund adopted a worldly view while growing up and partaking in many charitable activities with his parents in their working-class neighbourhood of Forest Lawn, which is home to many immigrants, and backpacking in Southeast Asia in the summer after high-school graduation, his sister, Laurette Lund, said.

It was just his approachability and his humour that made him able to tackle all these serious issues, she said.

Dr. Lund at the United Nations, Feb. 13, 2017.Handout

He got his bachelor of education degree at the University of Calgary and a masters degree at the University of Victoria before he started teaching in Red Deer.

His Red Deer classrooms walls and ceiling were plastered with music and movie posters, his sister recalled, while also featuring psychedelic couches and coffee makers. Desks were lumped together instead of being aligned in typical rows, but students were highly engaged in their school work.

In 2002, he objected to a letter to the editor published in The Red Deer Advocate, in which local pastor Stephen Boissoin urged people to take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness of the homosexual machine. Two weeks after the letter was published, a 17-year-old local man who was gay suffered a severe beating.

Dr. Lund filed a complaint against the pastor with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, contending that the letter exposed people to hatred. The case dragged on for years as the high-school teacher assumed his professorship. The commission ruled in Dr. Lunds favour in 2007, ordering the pastor to pay him $5,000. But an Alberta Court of Queens Bench judge overturned the decision, ruling that the letter was not a hate crime and there was no proof that it had prompted the beating. In 2012, the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the lower courts ruling.

It was very personal [to Dr. Lund], Ms. Lund said of the legal saga, noting he was subjected to vitriolic attacks from the pastors supporters. It was personal financially. It was personal emotionally to his family. He had to worry about his wife, his kids.

Dr. Lund outside Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School.Courtesy of the Family

In a 2008 Globe and Mail op-ed piece supporting human rights commissions, Dr. Lund revealed that he received hate mail and e-mails calling him an evil sodomite, while his then-wife and two children regularly discovered offensive material about him on the internet.

[The death threats] never stopped, Dr. Gereluk said. He knew the risk that he was taking and, yet, ensured that he wouldnt let [young people] down.

In 2017, Dr. Lund was invited to work with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, where he stressed the importance of educations role in curbing corruption, crime and violence, and he served for many years on a UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) digital network. He also co-founded the U of Cs Service-Learning Program for Diversity, in which student-teachers work with community groups. As a result, he received a five-year federal grant to share the programs findings with other teacher-education programs across Canada.

In February, Dr. Lund was among 15 appointees from 215 applicants to the Calgary Police Services first anti-racism action committee.

That meant everything to Darren, Ms. Lund said. It was coming full circle with our familys long history with the CPS our dad, Ernie Lund, and our Uncle Norman Lunds long service and now he was contributing meaningfully to it through his lifes work.

Dr. Lund as a young child.Courtesy of the Family

When Dr. Lund was not working, he was a doting father, partook in poker games, enjoyed baking, attended concerts, watched movies, cheered on his beloved Calgary Flames, and celebrated his familys Danish heritage. A lifelong runner, he also exercised regularly and enjoyed many recreational activities in the nearby Rocky Mountains.

He was the most vibrant, youthful, and seemingly healthy 59-year-old you would have ever met, even when he was diagnosed with metastasized prostate cancer, said his spouse Nina Howorun.

The diagnosis came in March, after he began to experience recurring rib pain early in the year. He kept quiet about his health and its quick decline.

I had a few conversations in the last few months with him and he [said], I dont want people focusing on my health. I want people focusing on the work that still needs to be done in this world, Dr. Gereluk said.

Ms. Lund said her brother continued to work until the final week of his life, handling his ordeal unfreakingbelievably.

He maintained his wonderful spirit and his clever and sophisticated humour to the very end, Ms. Howorun added.

Dr. Lund, who died of prostate cancer in a Calgary hospice on Nov. 10, leaves his children, Stefan and Tatiana, as well as Ms. Howorun and Ms. Lund.

The University of Calgary has established an annual memorial scholarship in Dr. Lunds name for graduate-level education students.

If all educators provided an attentive way to create safe and welcoming spaces for all children in our communities, the world would be a better place, Dr. Gereluk said. Darren showed us the way of how to do it and we cant forget that.

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Alberta teacher Darren Lund fought hate through empowerment - The Globe and Mail

The government tabling a bill to increase the minimum legal age for marriage for girls to 21 years (based on the recommendations of a taskforce led by former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly) seems like a bit of sunshine amid the dark clouds of a culture otherwise premised on patriarchy. The bill has since been sent to a parliamentary committee for examination. If passed into law, it will have far-reaching consequences that will even require working towards modifying and reorienting personal laws of several religions as marriage is key to other socio-economic factors like faith and inheritance.

The present minimum legal age of marriage for girls is 18 years while that for men is 21. The move to raise the former to 21 is path-breaking and important because it changes the perception that girls do not deserve the same educational and career-building opportunities that can be accessed by men. When the minimum age for marriage is 18, it becomes a denial of the right to pursue education after school or the opportunity to become independent financially up to the age of 21 years, a right secured so far only for the male population.

The increase in the minimum age for marriage for women will result in amendments in several laws and legal procedures, such as the 1955 Hindu Marriage Act, 1972 Christian Marriage Act, 1936 Parsi Marriage Act, the Divorce Act, etc. The changed law will also impact age-old customs related to inheritance, divorce, maintenance. Once passed in Parliament, the law will mean that Indian women too will have the opportunity to educate themselves and engage in livelihood and will get 21 years to do that, just like the male population.

While the proposed bill may be a move in the right direction and significant for womens empowerment though, it is important to highlight that the move has failed to delve into the socio-cultural and economic factors that make child marriages common in the social fabric.

While we cannot emphasise enough that women/men must not be forced into early marriage, there should be a focus on generating awareness, education among them such that they refuse early marriage. It is also important that there are widespread campaigns and awareness programmes on the increase in the marriage age and people must be encouraged to abide by the new legislation.

There is also a need to focus on some urgent deliverables, without which the law wouldnt mean much, like increase in enrolment rates of girls at both school/higher education levels, especially from the remote/disadvantaged communities; building new institutions for skill training/enterprise building at subsided rates such that women from humble backgrounds may be able to access these, etc.

Unless these deliverables are given priority, it will be impossible to attain the measure of gender justice as intended by the programme.

Another significant requirement would be to increase healthcare facilities for women, focus on issues like maternal wellbeing, childcare, nutrition etc.

A 2017 report by the United Nations showed that over 27% of Indian women are forced into early marriages, before they even turn 18. Apart from ensuring implementation of the law, we should ensure that young women have access to free/subsidised education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, etc., which they seem to be missing today.

Child marriage is blatantly against childrens rights and makes them vulnerable to exploitation, violence and abuse, and while it also impacts boys, its impact on women is disproportionate as it denies them the right to self-determination, education, health and well-being. A girl married early is more likely to enter pregnancy at a young age and face childbirth-related complications and even the possibility of death.

It is well-known that India has the largest number of child brides, and at present nearly 16% of Indian girls are married off between the ages of 15 and 19 years. While child marriages are a result of complex socio-cultural factors and pressing economic concerns, there is gender inequality and a belief that the human rights of girls do not matter. Further, this leads to inter-generational poverty and illiteracy, impacting millions of families.

Thus, while the decision to increase the minimum legal age for marriage for girls to 21 years is a step in the right direction, the fact is that the responsibility of joint and collaborative efforts by the central and state governments, the civil society, media, individuals and the larger socio-cultural fabric is much greater now. We must work towards a nation that celebrates its women and prioritises their human rights, not out of charity or pity but because thats the right thing to do, with firm resolve and commitment.

(The writer is Associate Editor, The New Leam)

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From 18 to 21: A step in the right direction - Deccan Herald

Editors note: Have something on your mind? Community Voices is the place to let Milwaukee hear what you have to say. To be considered, we need your name, email address and phone number for verification. Please email your submissions toinfo@milwaukeenns.org.

Probably something spurred from being an only child up North while my cousins down South were country strong, which always showed whenever we visited.

Ive always been aware of the need to be healthy and active for the sake of ones quality of life. Ive also known from an early age that this has little to do with financial or social status anyone can be fit and healthy if they choose.

It stuck out to me that people make different choices, and I didnt understand why until later on. Why dont some people enjoy pushing themselves? Feeling that theyre moving toward being their best? Dont they know you cant be a helper if you arent strong enough?

While I learned about the value of service growing up in church, conversations around self-esteem came in high school. At Riverside University High School, I learned about Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and the idea of self-actualization. This concept helped me string together these thoughts.

I began to study, on my own, how fitness and self-esteem can be a reciprocal system that teaches you more about who you are, what you can do and how you can engage.

I actually began offering my classmates fitness training as well as personal development in high school. I brought roast beast sammiches for the girls who I learned suffered from eating disorders. Wed skip class, sit in the hallways, eat and talk. I didnt get how upper middle class white girls felt bad about themselves. From my perspective as a Black boy, they were the most celebrated and sought-after humans. Right up there with Asian babies.

I joined the U.S. Army during high school and went to basic training the summer between my junior and senior year. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. I was able to study behavioral health in an organization that has trained thousands and thousands of people! I also learned more about my particular strengths, motivations and how I might best serve society. I became very interested in peoples ability to heal and develop their own resilience.

After the military, I went to massage therapy school, furthering my studies in healing through holistic health. I began to see the clear disparity in how African Americans were treated in health care and the lack of connection to natural healing. And so I founded Beans and Cornbread, an organization committed to wellness for African Americans. While the organization was short-lived because I was new to nonprofit work, I continued to make wellness work a part of everything I got into.

Over the past 25 years, Ive continued to learn, working with various local arts organizations from African dance to therapeutic arts. While working with various groups, it seemed most of my performances connected to nature from global warming to migration of the Monarch butterfly to water conservation to Native American folk tales, to list just a few. All of these shows were backed by science and research, which continued to grow my learning.

Nearby Nature MKE came into my life just as I was thinking about what to do with myself. It is a perfect fit. I have spent most of my working life in areas where what I brought to the table was a hard sell to a community that has historically been left out and kept away from any and all advantages.

Nearby Nature MKE is an organization whose mission is to reconnect Black folk back to nature, offering nature education classes in schools, churches and neighborhood centers. We hike, plant trees, kayak, engage in land stewardship and restoration, build trails, teach nature education, bird watch, track animals, identify plants and trees and share about blue and green careers.

I recognize the very real need to reconnect African Americans to the healing power of nature.

We are focusing on the Lincoln Creek Greenway neighborhoods and the north end of the 30th Street Corridor. While we have maps going back to 1820 showing this watershed, most Milwaukeeans Ive encountered dont know where this is. We have a lot of fun, take an exploratory pace, add some art and have good conversations.

We bring healing and cultivate empowerment by building pathways to nature, and thereby, to ones self.

Steven Hunter is a proud Milwaukee Public Schools graduate, veteran, founder of Beans & Cornbread Wellness for African Americans and has worked in creative youth development for 25 years. He is the program director at Nearby Nature MKE.

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OPINION: Why I share my love of nature with other Black Milwaukeeans - Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

There are many things we associate with Christmas time. Swapping gifts, seeing old friends, spending quality time with family and food.

Despite the rise of the concept of body positivity to public consciousness, we are often bombarded by messages of caution about putting on weight at this time of year, and how to "improve" our bodies through weight loss in the new year.

While losing weight and improving fitness can be a positive experience for many, the guilt around over-indulging at Christmas time is a negative feeling most people can relate to.

Mental health advocate and body positivity influencer Lucy Fitz has long been open about her struggles and triumphs with her own sense of self-image.

The 21-year old influencer, who got her start on social media while still in secondary school by sharing her makeup looks, is a promoter of positive self talk when it comes to body image.

Lucy has established a strong community online of over 80,000 followers, who appreciate her candid words about mental health and her penchant for sharing her unedited body in an empowering way.

Speaking with RSVP Live , the Barcelona-based Limerick native shared that Christmas is undoubtably a daunting time for anyone who has a dissatisfaction with their image.

"I think that Christmas time is, for a lot of people that suffer with their body image either trying to gain or lose weight, it's a scary time because of the indulging, the Christmas dinner, the nights out," she told RSVP Live.

"It saddens me how that people feel that way towards Christmas because it's supposed to be a happy time - it's not meant to be a time of stressing about what food you're consuming and what the consequences are going to be in January because you're having a good time during Christmas."

"People need to remember that unless your body weight is causing you health problems then there's nothing to worry about, and I know it's easier said than done because social media has painted a picture of what we're supposed to look like."

"But in reality everyone's body shape is completely different and there is no right or wrong."

Lucy's advice to people who's confidence takes a knock at this time of year is to try to practice positive self talk - if you wouldn't let someone speak to your best friend or sister the way you speak to yourself, that's a good indicator that it's time to change your internal narrative.

"I believe that the way you speak to yourself is so important," she said.

"I spent years putting myself down, constantly criticising my body to myself when I was alone. That really can impact the way that you look at your body, and also it's disrespectful towards yourself! You need to show yourself love and positivity otherwise your mindset just isn't going to change."

While changing that inner narrative can be difficult, taking some small steps towards personal empowerment every day can make a big difference.

"The way you speak to yourself every day, even if it's just you in the mirror saying 'I look good,' is really important for establishing good body image."

"Also when you get these thoughts like 'oh, if I just eat healthy or work out for a couple of weeks I'm going to lose this' - you need to push down that thought and replace it with a positive thought, like actually my body does everything for me and it's gotten me where I am today' - it needs to be honoured and not bashed."

Lucy will be returning to Ireland this year on Christmas Eve, and like many Irish natives who now reside abroad, she is focused on the excitement of seeing and spending time with her family.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing my family, I think when you're living away from your family and it's going to be my first time coming home for Christmas, I'm just really looking forward to being in my home house with them because when you're away from that it really puts it into perspective that that's all that matters."

You can join Lucy on her journey with body positivity and mental health awareness by following her on Instagram here.

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Body positivity influencer Lucy Fitz shares her advice on how to avoid guilt over Christmas weight gain - RSVP Live

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

We are all aware that navigating the last couple of years has had a devastating impact on our organizations and teams, but then for a few brief months it seemed like we could see the light at the end of what has been a very dark pandemictunnel. And then came the discovery of the Omicron variant.

All the hope for a return to some kind of sustained normal in the near future appears to have been dashed, with some regions of the world reporting cases of Omicron doubling every two-to-three days and returning to work-from-home recommendations.

Many leaders are concerned about what this will mean for their organizations, and want to know what they can do to minimize further impact onemployee mental health and engagement, while avoiding another wave of the Great Resignation.

The reality is that the pandemic has negatively affected the needs of our employees and in some cases exacerbated and highlighted the places where their working environment and experience were already detrimental. Many employees are now no longer prepared to work in roles where they are sacrificing, and expected to sacrifice, so much personallyfor their jobs.

The good news is that you don't need to fix the unfixable; you can't neutralize the pandemic or reverse the specific ways in which it is affecting your employees.Instead, to support your team through what lies ahead, it is important to identify which needs are being affected under the surface by this latest chapter in the pandemic saga,and to look for new and different ways that you can meet those same needs in order to help your teams cope until we finally get to the other side of this next wave.

Related:7 Ways to Build a Company Culture That Motivates Teams and Promotes Growth

There are fourmain universal needs that have been most severely impacted for employees since the pandemic began, and unsurprisingly these are the same four needs likely to be affected by the surge of the Omicron variant. Here are four ways that you as a leader can support and underpin these needs for your teams in the coming weeks and months:

Foundation/Function Needs.These are the needs that relate to our physical wellbeing. The pandemic has affected peoples' foundation/function needs in a plethora of ways, from supply chain issues and panic buyingto stressaffecting sleep patterns and school closures disruptinghome environments.Adding to this, many companies are expecting employees to work more hours, with less breaks, and asking for higher work output, especially amidthe current labor crisis.A lot of companies are losing employees because they are simply burning out and cannot see a way of staying within their role without it compromising their physical wellbeing both in and outside of work. It is vitally important that employers are supporting their teams in maintaining a healthy work/life balance and getting enough breaks.One simple way that leaders can help with this is to support staff in prioritization giving tasks and projects status on amust/should/could continuum,so that they can focus on the essentials without burning out.

Security.This is the need that relates to our physical, mental and emotional security. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the level of uncertainty and insecurity about what lies ahead has meant that this need has been impacted more than most. Employees are seeking a sense of security and reassurance that their future is at leastsafe in a work context. One of the things that negatively affects this sense of security is a lack of communication with teams, which can lead to employees conjuring worst-case scenarios to fill the knowledge vacuum. So, as a leader, the more you can communicate proactively with your teams and provide reassurance both about the future of your organization and their position in it, the more secure your employees will feel.

Connection.This is the need that relates to our sense of community and belonging. Throughout the pandemic, with the focus on social distancing and reducing interactions with others in order to prevent the spread of the virus, social connections havebeen seriously eroded. When you add to this that many organizations have added some element of remote working, your employees' need for connection is likely to have been negatively affected. That's why leaders need to find more opportunities and ways to connect with their teams and to encourage them to connect with each other, including using technology as a facilitator.These connections must still have as much of ahumanelement as possible; a focus purely business matters, combined with the absence of face-to-face contact, can feel sterile and alienating. When you connect with your employees over the coming weeks and months, be sure to include some element of personal connection alongside your organizational objectives in order cultivate more trust. And where possible, put in place initiatives for your employees to connect with each other on a more personal and social level, as well as a professional one.

Personal Power Need.This is the need that relates to our feeling of empowerment. It has also been the most severely compromised over the last couple of years. While leaders cannot do anything to change the control that their team members have over the pandemic itself and the ripple effect on their day-to-day lives, what they can do is help them to feel more empowered in their working roles. Leaders wanting to address this need can support their employees in having greater autonomy within their current roles, and also speak to them about what their career goals and desires are, helping them to see the ways that they are able to facilitate their movement along that path with clear milestones, objectives and ways to manage their own progress.

Related:How to Keep Your Employees Focused and Motivated in 2022

While putting initiatives in place to support these four employee needs won't prevent the Omicron variant affecting your team, they will underpin your employees' needs during the worst of what is still to come and help them to navigate and cope with the path ahead.

By doing this, leaders will cultivate more trust, connection and loyalty from and with their teams, enhancing and developing employee engagement, which we know creates a direct positive impact to an organizations bottom-line.

See more here:

4 Ways to Lead Your Organization Through the Omicron Surge - Entrepreneur