Response Teams
Unfortunately, companies often find themselves in the Intensive Care Unit - scrambling for ways to respond to the weight of a moment and provide triage for leaders, employees, and the public in exactly the right way. There is never a quick fix and we believe all hands on deck are required. Getting human work right takes time and lots of nuanced work. 3:08 is committed to getting us through critical moments, and helping develop and deploy fully-inclusive longer-term strategies that are informed by our responsive engagements.
We are steadfast in our belief that all professionals must have the awareness and understanding of our individual and collective similarities and differences for any of this work to truly matter and have lasting impact. As Stacey Abrams says poignantly in her book, The Power of Now, “...we must reject the false choice of “identity” versus “universality.”
Black Lives Response Team
Left to right: Chanda Gibson, John Simpkins, Tommy Walker, Ken Ebie, Lauren Gillian, Taurean Gordon, Tamyra Gordon, Eric J. Henderson, Rachel N. Laryea, Sharon Macklin, J. Todd Phillips, and Basil Smikle
With the stark and brutal realities of Covid-19’s disparate impact on our Black community already weighing heavy on our hearts and shoulders, we learned of Breonna and Ahmaud and George. Black people couldn’t carry any more weight and the world couldn’t look away any longer.
3:08 immediately set to work and devised the part we think we can best play in being part of the solution. Then, we sent out our Bat signal to the Black professionals in our Collective and within 8 hours we had our expert Response Team mobilized and ready to serve.
Our all-Black Response Team is equipped with the professional training, corporate sector experience, and relevant lived experiences that are a prerequisite to facilitate the sensitive conversations companies need to be having with their Black professionals and beyond to co-create a more empathetic, actionable path forward.
We span 3 generations and time zones, and a range of sectors. We hail from all parts of the U.S - from the Bronx, NY to Columbia, SC to Dallas, TX, to Chicago, IL to San Diego, CA. Some of us are first-generation Americans with roots in Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Ghana. Our diverse origins, lived experiences, and perspectives are a reminder that Black people are not a monolith and should not be treated as such.
All members of our Response Team have professional experience in the corporate sector and know first-hand the delicacy of this work. It is not an engagement that we enter into lightly, but we are confident we can strike the right balance that enables us all to be part of creating compelling and customized action plans.