The Two Piers Podcast
The Two Piers Podcast
Guest Episode: Women Offshore Inclusion Summit
This week, we're sharing an episode from our friends over at the Women Offshore podcast!
Erica D'Eramo of Two Piers, and Tanya Tarr of Cultivated Insights join the Women Offshore podcast to discuss their upcoming collaborative workshop at the annual Women Offshore Inclusion Summit, which will be hosted in Houston, Texas, on September 18th, 2024.
The conversation dives into inclusive leadership strategies, the importance of self-care for managers, and the benefits of debriefing after high-stakes events. Erica and Tanya also debunk common leadership myths and offer insights on creating safer, more inclusive work environments. Tune in to learn more about the Inclusion Summit and how you can foster leadership growth in your organization.
Welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host. Erica D'Eramo. Today's episode is actually a guest episode. So rather than share a two peers podcast episode, we are sharing a recording from the women offshore podcast episode, so you can also follow their podcast. They've got tons of great content, great material on there focused on closing the gender gap in the water, and they are friends of two peers. So we'll be sharing an episode from their podcast where myself and my co facilitator Tanya Tarr, talk about the upcoming inclusion summit workshop that we'll be holding coming up this September 18. So I look forward to seeing you next episode, and from here on out, you'll be listening to the women offshore podcast episode.
Christine MacMillan:You are listening to the women offshore podcast. I'm your host, Christine MacMillan on today's podcast, I get to talk to Erica and Tanya, who are going to be our workshop host at the inclusion summit this year. The inclusion summit is being held at Shell in Houston, Texas. The date is September 18, and the time is from 10 till 3pm I hope that you can make it. Go to the womenoffshore.org website and click on Events to find out more information and to register for the inclusion summit. This event is not going to be recorded and is not going to be able to be watched virtually. And so if you want to go, you need to be there in person. This is tailored for HR professionals and C suite leaders, but everyone is welcome. So if you have the time on September 18 to be in Houston at the inclusion summit, this is our third annual event, and we are excited to welcome Tanya and Erica to the podcast today to share about what they're going to be speaking about at the inclusion summit. Good morning, ladies, and welcome to the women offshore podcast. Thank you so much for being here.
Erica D'Eramo:Yeah, thanks for having us.
Christine MacMillan:Yeah. So I'd love to just dive right in and let you introduce yourselves. And today we're going to be talking about your upcoming workshop for the inclusion summit. So I'd love for you to introduce yourselves each and then talk a little bit about how you formed this collaboration.
Erica D'Eramo:Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Erica D'Eramo. I've actually been on the women offshore podcast before. So great to rejoin you. And for anyone that's attended the annual conference, yes, you would have attend. You would have attended one of our workshops. So really excited to be back in the swing of things with the inclusion summit. My background is actually in engineering. So I started out as an engineer, working in the field, working in the energy sector, spent a lot of time on floating vessels, both as an engineer and then as operations leadership, and then found myself wanting to support the individuals that like me looked around and didn't see people that looked like them, didn't really have a map to for what a good, sustainable leadership style might look like for them. So that brought me to form two peers, which is both a coaching and consulting business, and with that, I ended up meeting Tanya through some of her workshops. So I'll hand it over to Tanya to introduce herself.
Tanya Tarr:Hi. I'm Tanya Sujong Tarr. I have no experience in offshore drilling whatsoever. I'm a huge fan of everything that you all do. I think it's really important, obviously, for our infrastructure and everything else. I do have a lot of experience in being in spaces where I don't look like anyone else in the room for 20 years. So I'm trained as a behavioral scientist, and spent some time working with military families and families of deployed soldiers. And then a bulk of my career actually was working in electoral politics and legislative advocacy, most of that time with labor unions, public sector labor unions, so the American Federation of State, County Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers. I left that in 2017 and started my own learning and development company. I also kind of as an aside, but very much kind of related to what Erica and I both do. I suffered from very severe burnout, workplace burnout, as I was trying to understand educator burnout, and we had some really good breakthroughs there. But it was very like, okay, seeing this on all angles. So, you know, as I was I beat type two diabetes, and as a result, I actually got certified as a health coach in 2015 and then kind of had that on ice for a little while, but cultivated Insights is my is my training company, and I just sat for the national board exam for health and well being coaches. And so now I'm in addition to teaching folks about strategic communication, negotiation. And also good, positive, sustainable workplace practices. I'm also an executive health coach, and so that's kind of where Erica and I came together in thinking about, how do we talk about well being and wellness in a way that's robust, that, frankly, is a little bit muscular. It's not about green smoothies. It's about leadership, and, you know, not for nothing in my personal life, I I've been practicing Muay Thai, traditional kickboxing for the last nine years. I am now a certified referee and judging official. So when I talk about wellness and well being, it's through the lens of martial arts, okay, which is kind of a new or a different kind of perspective. But we're excited about this workshop at the summit. We think that it's going to deliver some really good tools for folks. Yeah,
Christine MacMillan:this is like such an amazing intersection of your two skill sets to come together and present for the inclusion summit leaders who are going to be there. So the audience is typically our HR managers and the potentially the C suite people are going to be in the room. And so what are the topics and themes that you're going to be presenting to them so that they can see what is important for health and wellness, and, you know, just mental stability and communication and all these topics that you just covered. Tanya, how are you going to get it through to them? And like, an hour and a half workshop
Tanya Tarr:or talk really, really fast,
Erica D'Eramo:thankfully, it'll be a three hour workshop. Oh, okay, okay. There will be breaks. But actually, when, when I first reached out to Tanya to talk about this idea, we started collaborating on a day long workshop, because there is really just so much material here, especially when you're looking at people in in the offshore industry, so people who work in remote environments, who are isolated from their families, from their support networks, sure, they have their secondary family offshore, but that was the that was kind of the original seed that was planted and and so it has evolved for this event to really focus on inclusive leadership styles for folks who are either in the office or offshore. So the people who are the support for offshore, the HR managers, the executives and and not just through a gender lens, right, like through this is applicable for for anyone. And the way we'll be doing it is definitely through some interactive activities and and keeping people, people engaged,
Tanya Tarr:yeah. And I think, you know, if you look at the my portfolio of clients and who I serve. It's really it's really diverse. I work with global corporations. I work with small businesses. I help coach people I one of my clients is a stay at home mom who's dealing with chronic illness. I think the through line of all of this is understanding that if you manage other people's time, that a couple of things, one is you've got to take care of yourself. You've got to put that oxygen mask on yourself first. And secondly, that when you do that, not only does that communicate positive behaviors to anyone that looks up to you or that you manage, but it creates a healthier ecosystem. And the benefit of that, you know, to be very direct, and this is absolutely something I say to every CEO that I work with, this is not about just a feel good moment. This isn't about mood elevation. This is about creating the strongest organization where people feel protected and safe. Because ultimately, what we're trying to do is create a safer work environment, because we know in high stakes situations like offshore drilling, a mistake can cause a fatality, can cause loss of millions of dollars per minute, yes, per minute. So this is really sort of, as they sometimes refer to it, a triple bottom line situation, ultimately having the management I mean, yeah, individuals and individual contributors, we want them to be safe and healthy, but having helping managers and executives understand what are the signs to look for, right? And how do we manage critical risk points like transitions, right? So a lot of what I'm sharing in this workshop with Erica is stuff that I learned with military families and on political campaigns. You have to pay attention to transition points. Those are the biggest risk, risk points, and also to understand that let's under let's look at leadership and the mechanics of leadership in ways where we are protective, right, but we're not over bearing, and that we kind of just disprove some of the myths that are out there. And I think to not only do we want to create more inclusive spaces, and obviously the the CEO and C suite folks, you know, they are the biggest pacesetters for that, right? But that every leader can create an inclusive space, a tiny little ecosystem where people feel seen and heard, and that by being seen and heard, we're going to reduce those errors or injuries that create larger problems.
Christine MacMillan:Yeah, there is like a great trickle down effect, so you're going to be able to get in at the higher level and share this message that of the importance of creating these environments, and then hopefully the message will trickle down. And so can you just mention that there's some myths that need to be debunked? Can you share a couple of those with us?
Erica D'Eramo:Yeah, I think I'm gonna pick up on one of the comments that Tanya made about this. This being, you know, seen sometimes as a soft issue when reality, a lot of the research that's been done around safety in some of these high stakes environments shows that, you know, unsurprisingly, there is a high correlation between operational discipline and process safety, right? So that makes sense. We all kind of know that inherently following process and procedure, and having your ducks in a row leads to less process safety outcomes. But the really interesting thing is that personal safety, so injuries, health issues, that is tied to trust in leadership, so that is really the predictor of of how your performance will be in terms of whether people get injured, you know, going about their day to day work in some of these high stakes environments. So that translates, I mean, if we look at kind of the pyramid that we all that we all know from the safety world, that translates into the office as well. So how people go about day to day, really, and what their well being looks like in their work environment there are there's a high correlation there with trust in leadership. And so this conversation around inclusive work environments, it's not just a soft thing, like it literally ties to the metrics and can be measured in a variety of ways. So I think that that's one of the myths that I would love to debunk, that this is kind of a feelings issue when, yeah, there's, there's underlying science behind this. The
Tanya Tarr:other big myth is that Erica and I have talked a lot about, is, you know, the myth of the lone wolf as a leadership style, oh, highly authoritarian or isolated, rugged individual as the one leading the ship. And there are so many examples, first of all, especially in the military world, where that's not an effective leadership strategy, not to mention this whole concept of the the lone wolf is actually garbage science. Oh, wow, yeah, totally garbage science. Wolves act aggressively when they are in captivity, okay? When they are out in the wild, they actually hunt and move as a team. And it's usually a husband and wife Wolf, right? So they pair the pair. Yeah, they're mated pairs. And so I think a better model that we're going to present is the concept of the adaptive alpha, which is someone who is able to be responsive and have very deep situational awareness. I this weekend, in fact, I watched a video about the psychology of dogs. I promise this is relevant and one of the evolutionary psychologists in the video was talking about how it's actually survival of the friendliest, not survival of the fiercest, or, you know, the fittest, fittest, right? Yeah, that actually in in ecosystems that are successful in evolving over time and surviving, are the ones that actually share resources, and I think that that's very true in high stakes situations as well. And like friendliness can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. One big risk point that we'll be talking about is actually the demobilization part. We tend to be very good on readiness for an event, but where things kind of fall down and where maladaptive behaviors start to emerge, in other words, like substance abuse or binge drinking or stuff like that, that happens on the demobilization part. So that's after the handshake when they go back shore right, that sometimes there isn't an attention being spent to the demobilization cycle. And so when managers are able to to sort of be more aware of those things, and in some sense, be friendlier to their staff, right to them, sort of be prepared to go offshore onshore that that it actually isn't just about positive emotional feelings, but it's actually about a stronger team and smoother operations. So, and I
Erica D'Eramo:think that to build on Tanya's point about getting you know this, this operational readiness piece for for folks that work on the water, they'll know about doing a wash up or an after action, or kind of do, doing a reflection after an event happens. And I think that that starts to understand the importance of that emotional D. Mobilization, taking the learnings, it really helps the team bond. It helps create that trust, and it helps create a learning environment rather than punishment. Yeah, exactly, a punishment environment. And so we'll be looking during this workshop to build those muscles in for for for folks onshore as well, right? That's just as applicable after a high intensity period, for folks in HR, for folks in leadership. And usually it's like, Okay, it's done now we all go relax. But how we're recognizing what's happening in the team in our bodies really affects how we then decompress and demobilize, and whether we do that in healthy ways, or, like Tanya mentions, perhaps maladaptive ways, which are unfortunately, much more common in work environments where people are rotating so where they they have a, you know, a 28 day hitch or a 14 day hitch, yeah, and yet We still see it in the office environment as
Christine MacMillan:well, for sure. So I think that this is, like, a great example of, I experienced this out at sea, you know, I went worked on ships, and we had an incident. We had a fire. And after this really intense, you know, it was like a very short period, but then afterwards, there was no, like, coming together, and let's learn and and make sure that everyone's on the same page and feels good about this. It was like, almost the aftermath was more scary than the actual fire, because I felt like we had no sense of togetherness or ability to communicate about it or learn from it. It was like, Oh, you didn't happen. You know, everyone was, like, too nervous to talk about it. And so I think that if we could get the leaders in the room to understand that the evolution of the friendliest survive and those that share information the best are going to thrive in situations, I think that we can see a lot more success for everyone, and there's not going to be that sense of fear or lack of trust, is that, am I on the right track?
Tanya Tarr:Oh, absolutely, yeah. The other thing too, that's fascinating to me is I'm always trying to understand the neurobiology of behaviors, because it's not just reacting to, say, anxiety or stress, but like, what are the things we can actually do? To quote Erica, because I put this on my wall, what increases the probability of a resilient positive outcome, and there are behaviors that will trigger the production of really positive brain chemistry. So Christine, in your example, if there was a debrief conversation where folks were able to talk about what happened and specifically talk about, what could we do better next time, not only does that produce a very strategic positive benefit to the learning of the team. But neurobiologically, what's going to happen is we're trusted individuals having that conversation. We're creating something called mirror neurons, which is a very specific neuron that we we experience the emotion of safety when we create those bonds with each other. It also is producing oxytocin. Conversation between trusted people produces oxytocin, which is a connection hormone, and that literally, and I'm like a broken record, I find these little factoids, and then I can't shut up about them. Oxytocin production actually helps strengthen the physical tone of our hearts. It literally helps us guard against heart disease. So it's not just again about emotional connection, but it's actually about a stronger team and then a stronger physical body as a result of that conversation. So as much as maybe leaders or managers don't want to spend the time on that conversation because just a bunch of conversations seems like wasted time, operationally speaking, it is a huge positive investment on multiple levels. And so we hope, through the inclusion summit that we're helping arm arm people with this information, but also convince managers and C suite that like, yeah, actually it takes, it means a lot, to take the 15 or 20 minutes after an event to debrief and to demobilize. And I know it's true too with some of my clients, I work with 911 dispatchers, and that is like a really important thing for them to do as they leave their shift to talk about what happened. I mean, these folks, every day, they're talking to someone who's having the worst day of their life, you know, and being able to chat that out with other dispatchers actually reduces the likelihood of secondhand trauma. So if we're thinking about another positive benefit, it's is if a team, you know, on an installation, experiences something very traumatic, being able to have a conversation about that reduces that likelihood of secondhand trauma, and again, goes to the strength of the team, which ultimately goes to the strength of the operation and increased profitability. Wow.
Erica D'Eramo:I think the other piece that's coming through here too is this element of like integration. So as you process it, you're integrating that into your real life, and not kind of compartmentalizing it. And so this is when we see folks that have a rough hitch or a rough day. The Office, right? And they go home and they're like, Oh, I just need to crack open a six pack, right? Because that'll help wash that away. That's because it's not like we aren't sitting with that. We're not kind of coming to terms with it. We're not integrating it into who we are, our identity, our past, experiences, all of that, and how we operate as a team. So when I hear you talk about this event that happened, and there was a fire, and then there was kind of nothing I'm hearing like a lack of integration, right? It's not getting built into the learnings and how the team now operates. And so, yeah, that'll that's kind of, that's a thread that we see throughout this.
Christine MacMillan:So this has been great. I know we don't want to give away all of your secrets before the art workshop, and you're going to go in a much deeper dive for those that are in attendance at the inclusion summit. And I am fascinated by this. I feel like 2024, has become the year of communication for me and strengthening my own communication skills within myself, within my team, within my family. And so I think that I want to show up for this in a big way and hear what you have to say. And so for those that can't be at the inclusion summit, but they want to learn more from you and about you, can you share your contact information, or at least your websites where people can come and learn more about you?
Erica D'Eramo:Yeah, absolutely. So the best place to find twopiers is probably our website. So it's twopiersconsulting com, t, w, o, p, i, e, r, s, and we're on the social media things as well. So Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Okay,
Tanya Tarr:great, yeah. Oh, and my company's cultivated insights.com and I think the best place to reach me is on Instagram. So I'm at Tanya tar T, a n, y, a T, A R, R, and every couple of days I post anxiety relief and stress management tips based off of science. So I'll watch a phenomenon, and then I like to break down the science of why stuff works.
Christine MacMillan:That is really cool. So is there any last pieces of advice that you'd like to share with the women offshore community today before we wrap this up?
Erica D'Eramo:I think our advice would just be to give yourself some space. Really, there's a lot going out on and out there in the world, and everybody's handling a lot more than we think we are. So that's my one word of Yeah,
Tanya Tarr:you're a badass. Whoever you are listening to this, you're you are a badass. You show up every day and do really difficult work and and come to the summit and do some fun stuff with us and show up for yourself too. You deserve Yeah.
Christine MacMillan:Thank you so much, ladies. I hope you have a great day as
Tanya Tarr:well. Thanks for having us. Thanks. You.
