Jennifer Polk, PhD

🎯 Accountability Matters: Building My Portfolio with Your Support One of the biggest challenges in any creative journey is staying consistent and accountable. As I work on growing my [writing and creative] portfolio, I’ve decided to lean on two amazing tools—LinkedIn and Patreon—to help me stay on track and share my progress. ✨ Why Accountability? Accountability turns goals into actionable steps. By publicly committing to regular updates and sharing my work-in-progress, I’m not just building my portfolio—I’m building a habit of consistency and improvement. ✨ Why LinkedIn and Patreon? LinkedIn: A professional space where I can connect with peers, receive feedback, and document my journey in a way that aligns with my career goals. Patreon: A platform to share behind-the-scenes insights, exclusive updates, and deeper connections with those supporting my creative work. ✨ What’s Next? I’ll be posting updates, sharing completed projects, and discussing lessons learned along the way. Whether you’re here to offer advice, encouragement, or just follow along, your presence means a lot. This is me holding myself accountable, one step at a time. If you’re interested in following my journey more closely or supporting my work on Patreon, feel free to reach out or stay tuned for more details! 📢 How do you stay accountable to your goals? I’d love to hear your strategies and tips! #Accountability #PortfolioBuilding #CreativeJourney #Patreon #LinkedIn

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As an undiagnosed #Neurodivergent individual I struggled as an undergraduate student and, at times, as a graduate student and I didn't know why. So when Jennifer Fane, PhD reached out and asked me to be a member of The Conference Board of Canada Research Advisory Board for its study it is undertaking on behalf of the Future Skills Centre - Centre des Compétences futures on #NeuroInclusive Practices and Policies in post-secondary education in Canada, my response was an immediate yes. I am honoured to collaborate with other members: Ameera Azam @Andrea Hoff, Dr. @Megan Ames, Dr @Carly McMorris, & Radha MacCulloch as part of this large scale mixed methods research study. Recently Dr. Fane shared the preliminary findings of the first national survey of neurodivergent students in post-secondary education at the High Incidence Disabilities 2024 conference hosted by Queen's University. (Photo of presentation cover slide shared below.) I agree with her reflection on that experience: This (comprehensive data capture) is a step in creating widespread change in #EducationalInclusion and this work is an important leap! And the #InclusionRevolution #NeuroInclusionRevolution advance yet again! #IDEA #UniversalDesign #InclusivePostSecondary #AccessibleEducation #InclusiveLeadership #ResearchMatters Alt Text: Blue powerpoint slide displayed on a screen with The Conference Board of Canada in the upper left and presentation title "Neuroinclusive Practices and Policies in post-secondary education" with Dr. Jennifer Fane's name and title below

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New blog! This one goes out to all the amazing neurospicy people I have worked with. Some of the quickest, funniest, most capable and empathetic people I know. https://lnkd.in/g_cYHTrQ

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Why should you provide your employees with regulation support? At ND Perspective we believe in sharing why support is needed for working neurodivergent people, because we know that it is the "why" that fosters a deeper understanding of workplace neuro-inclusion. Example from page: "People with an under responsive proprioceptive system which signals and coordinates movement, may struggle to regulate their sensory input and stay on task without physical feedback to stimulate the mind and body connection. Providing opportunities for deep pressure activities throughout the day can help these neurodivergent employees remain focused and productive at work." Check out our new services and office essentials that share ideas on the types of adjustments that can be implemented at work and why - https://lnkd.in/eWBiJ_rq To sign up to our Neurodiversity webinar to learn more about neurodiversity in work and promoting neuro-inclusion: https://lnkd.in/evEgqWwj Join our free online community here - https://lnkd.in/dfreEp96 Supporting and Celebrating our Neurodivergent Community, Jess x x

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Have you ever seen DEI or anti-oppression work do more harm than good? Why does that happen? As someone who is passionate about helping organizations dismantle patterns of systemic oppression within their culture and performance, there are a few things I would like organizations considering this work to know before they reach out to consultants. FIRST Not all people working in the field of DEI have the same approach. We didn’t all go to the same school or something. In fact, DEI trainers and facilitators often have wildly different approaches to the work - not to mention different skill sets and areas of focus. Some of us are data-driven systems analysts. Some of us excel in leadership coaching. Some of us are industry experts. Some of us are more like trauma workers. Some of us focus on shifting culture. And some of us teach the shit out of our intellectual analysis. MORE IMPORTANTLY Depending on the quality of the consultant as well as the quality of the match between them and your organization... - Some of the work can be outright harmful. - Some of it is a cash grab (the monetization of guilt). - Some of it is primarily about helping you with public relations. - And some of it is deeply transformative work. If you’re thinking about hiring someone for this kind of work, I suggest you do your homework first. Survey your culture internally. Decide what kind of consultants might be helpful. When you reach out to a consultant or firm, be as clear with them as you can about what you need. And if you don’t know, be clear that the work you’re hiring them for first is diagnostic. SECONDLY Most organizations looking for DEI work need more than they think. The people who are leading the charge for the work often need just as much support as the people for whom DEI work isn’t even on their radar. Be prepared to hear some hard things. If the person you hired doesn’t tell you hard things, ask them if they’re holding anything back. LASTLY In my opinion, addressing systemic injustice directly is rarely a good first move with an organization seeking DEI work. Often, more fundamental skills like giving feedback, learning about power, and developing positive culture are needed before there’s a strong enough container to talk openly about things like racism. Sometimes, if we dive into certain kinds of work too quickly, it can blow up in our face and end up being even more harmful to everyone. Let me be clear. Undoing systems of oppression in our organizations and our society at large is urgent and absolutely crucial. Frankly, our survival as species depends on it. But it takes serious skill and expertise. I don’t recommend jumping into it either too lightly or with too much zeal. WHAT’S MY FOCUS? My skills are in the realm of individual coaching and culture shifting. Learn more about my analysis in my free course on Understanding the Essential Nature of Systems of Oppression: https://lnkd.in/gB7PWcDr

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If you are in charge of bringing in facilitators or trainers for your Indigenous organization or community; 1) Ask for references. Actually phone them. You would be surprised how many people use someone as a reference who has no idea that they were used as a reference and have never worked directly with that person before. Someone who dislikes me very much used me as a reference because they thought it would look good on their resume - I was very honest with that prospective employer and they definitely did not get the job. 2) Check with the aunty network. The aunties know everything. Everything! In particular, who the creeps are. A facilitator is there to pass on information - not to make time with your participants. You would be surprised how many think it’s an actual perk of the job. 3) If they claim to be Indigenous, ask them how. Are you a status Indian? Recognized member of the Red River Métis? Inuit? Is there someone I can call from your family’s home community to verify this? Who are your parents? Grandparents? What community claims you? 4) If they are rematriating to the culture (like, adoptees) ask them how long they have been practicing the traditions, where they got their teachings from and who their Elders are. Contact these Elders as a reference. This is not to say that an adoptee or someone raised outside of the culture can never do the work but if you’ve only been on the Red Road for a year or two, I don’t think you are in a position to be doing cultural workshops and healing work. 5) If the facilitator or team belongs to an organization or program that has an Indigenous name, ask them if the owner of the company is Indigenous. Are the other team members? What language is that company or program name? What protocols were followed to receive that name? If it’s non-Indigenous folks, ask them if they think what they are doing is cultural appropriation. Do not be the ones responsible for bringing in pretendians, frauds, predators or vastly unqualified people into your organization and community. These folks are getting away with it because people are letting them.

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I'm starting a Substack on all things neurodiversity. You can read about it here: https://lnkd.in/gmUjuJgV Substack #ADHD #autism #neurodiversity #AuDHD #writing

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"Sometimes I'll say to an author, 'You need a book proposal.' And they'll say, 'Oh, OK, I'll give it to you over the weekend.'" —Regina Brooks If you're a #nonfiction #author seeking to be traditionally published, you need a book proposal. As this helpful webinar from Regina Brooks, Aaron Shulman, and Dan Gerstein points out, a proposal is a significant document that should take much longer than a weekend to create. In fact, crafting a proposal could take a month or many months. As Regina says, your proposal is "a business plan that helps agents and publishing professionals have a better understanding of the commercial viability of a project." The goal is to put your best words forward and to prove to a publisher why they should risk investing in you and your book. If you're unfamiliar with the parts of a proposal, I encourage you to watch this webinar. You might also pick up Michael Larsen's helpful guide, "How to Write a Book Proposal." You can certainly craft your own proposal, but it helps to have someone in your corner who's done it before. For nonfiction authors, I offer proposal feedback as well as proposal creation from the ground up. Message me if you may be seeking that kind of help. Either way, watch this and learn: https://lnkd.in/gMfd3tHG

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I’ve just scrolled briefly down my LinkedIn timeline and the majority of posts have videos or images but no alt text for people with sight issues. Please LinkedIn community, please consider your audience and your accessibility! #visualimpairment #ableism #disabilityawareness

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📢 ✨ Changemaker Program is now open for registration [closing Oct 22nd @ 12 p.m. ET]: 🚼📊For parents who want to design a life that works for them and their family, create an impact and advocate for others along the way. 👀 What's in it for you? Access parent-friendly workflows, training, resources and community to support you with mindset and how-to-do flexible and remote work (with kids), alongside creating a social impact: ✅️ Define new ways of being in business spaces ✅️ Design your own product or service offerings ✅ Book meetings and pitch to key decision makers (alongside your kids as you wish) ✅ Apply for and deliver speaking engagements ✅ Source funding grants to amplify your work ✅️ Templates for advocacy and activism, if you wish to proceed with making more of an impact in your own community 👋 I teach through storytelling, anecdotes and share what I've learned from freelancing and doing contract roles since 2005, working remote-first since 2014, and redesigning my life and work since becoming a parent in 2016. 📣 The Changemaker Program has a limited number of spaces for up to 25 individuals who are parents, to participate in this introductory live round in 2024. ✨️ For this initial round I have created a coupon code and have offered a FREE scholarship* program. 🚼📊 I’m looking for a small group of parents who are self-led and will take action AND I know early on as a new parent, I didn't want to have to choose between my family's needs and my own personal and professional development. ✨️ I've been fortunate to spend time with many leaders, advisers and program developers alongside all three of my kids over the years – this is my way of paying it forward. ⏳ Important details: • Register by Tuesday October 22nd at 12 p.m. (ET) • For primary caregivers and parents of kids under age 16 • Async content and 4x live Q&A calls for real-time connection • Pop-up private community hosted in 2024 and reopening for future participants • Lifetime access – jump in early, access content on demand and join us again for future live rounds #remotework #flexiblework #parenthood #professionaldevelopment #changemaker #socialimpact #inclusion #belonging #activism

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Enjoy this blog where I interview Regina, a main character from my first book, The RH Factor, about being in my next book.

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🚀🥳 It's with much excitement tonight that I share the launch of The neuroIMPACT Network, an inclusive, purpose-driven community, capable of supporting the unique opportunities and challenges experienced within neurodiversity leadership. As neurodivergent leaders, we know we’re built differently. Where others see problems, we see possibilities. I like to think of us as 'the different kind of difference makers'. Yet, so many of us aren't accessing specialised support that ensures we thrive. Instead, we live with heaviness surrounding our inner knowing of the huge gap we perceive (and sometimes experience) between our potential and actual performance. We spend our days masking instead of asking, afraid to step up and stand out for fear that our placing a spotlight on our ‘otherness’ will risk a wrong turn, a bad decision, or worse yet - a fractured relationship or unrealised dream. 🙇🏼‍♀️ Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Studies show : 1️⃣ Over three-quarters of founders have hidden their neurodiversity in business 2️⃣ Nearly half say they regularly experience discrimination in workplace settings, and 3️⃣ Only 16% of leaders, including founders themselves, say they're equipped with the knowledge, resources, and skills to create a work-life design that ensures they thrive  Our different kind of world needs our different kind of solutions. And to realise those solutions into existence, our different kinds of brains need a safe, creative, inclusive and thought-provoking space to bring our challenges, fears, hopes and wins to. A space to connect, to learn, to keep ourselves and each other accountable. I'm buzzing about this space. And I can't wait for you to join me. Details available through link below. Questions, feedback and thoughts welcome. A huge thanks to my own Impact squad - the humans who have encouraged me to step unashamedly into this space, sometimes before I imagined I was ready. I'm not sure we ever really feel like we are. That's the beauty of building solutions in community though, isn't it? 💛💛 Michael O'Connell Jennifer O'Connell Jenna O'Connell Kylie Burrett (Lawrence) Alison Shamir Claire Jones (on Guringai Land) Lena Vestad Hansen Christina Gerakiteys GAICD Will Wheeler Anna S. Sue McLachlan Barry Murphy Jett J. Mark Power your support means the world. Let's do this!! #Neurodiversityleadership #diversityequityinclusion #diversityintech #adhdcoaching #neurodiversity #autism

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Reasonably Practicable. I love this phrase for when talking about #ChronicIllness & #Disability management. Because it's not about some technically possible perfection - which is almost always impossible in practice and carries crushingly high demands and guilt. Instead, it's about realistic, practical options. It's weighing up what is sustainable. So I don't 'do everything I possibly can' - because that would kinda have to involve pushing myself beyond my safe limits and trashing my health. Instead I can 'do everything reasonably practicable' - what is manageable, reasonable, sustainable. (I learned it during the legal lectures on my Environmental health degree. It's often legally unsound to demand someone does 'everything possible' to resolve as issue - instead you have to ask for 'reasonably practicable'. So I have chosen to extend that same logic and courtesy to myself) Here's to doing what is reasonably practicable for me today!

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If there's one neuro-accessibility practice I'm on a soapbox about, it's giving guidelines, and ideally examples, when you ask event participants to respond to an open-ended prompt or question. Prompts like "share a word you're feeling", or "what's something good from your week? It can be anything!" make my poor little neurodivergent brain short circuit every time. It's such a small thing on the scale of all the stuff that makes life hideously inaccessible for, well, lots of people, but it comes up all the time. What happens for me is my mind either goes blank, or it goes: "ok, you're *saying* that I can say anything, but I know that's not true. There's a million little shared expectations about tone, topic, how emotionally light vs heavy to be, all kinds of stuff, and they're not transparent to me, at all. "What if I screamed 'Chiasma! Chiasma! Immerse your soul in love!'? I bet you would be super weirded out. "That means you are LYING! And if you're lying about this, what else are you lying about!?" And from there it goes into a super unhelpful spiral looking for hidden rules everywhere. No fun at all. Zero stars. Do not recommend. What's happening here is that neurotpyical people (on average) are better able to unconsciously deduce expectations about tone, content, etc from context, and use that to brainstorm appropriate answers. People like me need a bit more explicit structure to do that same kind of creative thinking. A lot of facilitators are hesitant to do that because they don't want to over-constrain people or come off as authoritarian, but for me it's a bit like putting me in a blank white room and then telling me I'm 'free' to describe any patterns I see on the walls. That structure doesn't have to be super intrusive. It could be as simple as giving 2-3 examples of answers, e.g. "something good from your week, like seeing something pretty or a rough period at work coming to an end", as a way to make some of your implicit expectations explicit. It helps, I swear, and if there's anyone in the room who thinks like me they'll love you forever.

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Studies show that it’s not self-control, but unpacking desire itself that is the best way to achieve goals. "Psychologist Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto has long been fascinated by how we keep ourselves in check — or don’t — whether you call that willpower, self-control, or something else. "He is also intrigued by our complicated relationship with effort. On the one hand, there is plenty of evidence that we aim to avoid effort at all costs. On the other, we often find meaning and purpose in it. "Using a variety of experiments and approaches, Inzlicht investigates when people in his lab or outside of it avoid or expend effort, consider things meaningful or irrelevant, control their impulses or indulge them, empathize or don’t — and what happens when they get bored out of their wits." https://lnkd.in/epBnhtSQ

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Therapist friends: I built this space 👇🏾 for *you*. When I started Sanity 3.5 years ago, I could not find a single space that contained sustained + critical + fun + in-depth conversations on therapy culture, combining the rigour of research and the soul of lived experience. Shockingly, there was hardly any space in the mainstream where therapists found their voice as intrepid entrepreneurs + agile innovators + vulnerable (and lonely) professionals grappling with m-a-s-s-i-v-e upheavals in their job. So, I built it. Today, Sanity is home to #therapy stories you won't find anywhere else. That's not marketing spiel (okay, maybe just a little bit, but do have a look): https://lnkd.in/gXnim6b9 *** Here comes my pitch: I'm told by friends in the profession that my stories circulate on their WhatsApp groups. I take it as a big compliment. But hey, why don't you just sign up to receive these stories directly in your inbox every week? You can subscribe for free. And there's even a special therapist discount if you feel my work is valuable for the field we love so much - and deserves to live on. Subscription link in comment.

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