Automation & Indigenous Engagement

Hello again. Now, in case you're new to my channel or you're not familiar with my work, my name is Andy Boucher and I make a living as an Indigenous Canadian Reconciliation guide. So I help Indigenous and non Indigenous work well together. And a lot of the work I now do is with non Indigenous entities, whether it's school boards or universities or hospitals and clinics, whatever, even governments, whether it's municipal, federal or provincial, if they're interested, I'm there to help. But as I do that work, I think a large part of it is pointing out the areas of concern, the areas that may cause a problem when it comes to engagement and sustainable, respectful engagement. Now, one of my favorite quotes of all time is from Pam Palmer and she said, if it's convenient, it's not reconciliation. That's kind of what we're touching on today, convenience in the form of automation. Let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 territory, territory in Northern Ontario. And as I said today, we need to talk about automation because I get it, we're all incredibly busy. We have workloads that are ridiculous. We have to do lists longer than our bloodline, our family tree, and we're trying to get it done. So if we can do something quickly, if it's convenient, doing it the same way we've always done, and even more if we can automate it, well, then a lot of people are going to lean towards doing that problem. When it comes to Indigenous engagement, the number one guiding principle, the number one rule is build a relationship. What do I mean by that? You've met a new friend before, you've met a new colleague. How did you build that relationship? You didn't rush in, you didn't tell them what to do. You didn't do a lot of things that are happening in Indigenous Canadian engagement. So that's handy. Dandy index card. So that's what I wanted to talk about today. Because when it comes to successful Indigenous engagement for non Indigenous Canadians, it is not about how many Indigenous people you have on your email list. It's not about how many likes you have on your social media posts or on your articles on LinkedIn. And it's not even about the number of emails you send out. It's about engagement. Are you building a relationship? Are they responding? Do you know each other better now than you did six months ago? If it's still superficial, then you have not advanced and you won't be able to do that work you want to do. So this is definitely in your best interest. So it's kind of the same way as think of your friends on social media. Are they really friends or are they contacts? We want real relationships because that's the kind of stuff you can build bridges on. By the way, it's worth the effort because once you build the relationship, that goes on forever. Well, unless you do something crazy to burn the bridge. So what am I talking about? I want to give you four practical cases where automation and convenience has the power to negatively impact your indigenous engagement. So sending now. And all of these have happened to me like in the last month, which is why I'm doing a video, of course. So the first one, sending me, sending anyone, sending that new indigenous person a meeting invite without a conversation or an email first. I just get a random meeting invite. It's like, okay, I know you want to talk to me. I don't know about what. I don't know how to prepare for it. I don't even know if I want to have this conversation. So let's reach out, even by email. Tell me who you are, Tell me what your organization is. Tell me what you're trying to accomplish. Ask me if I'd be open to having a meeting and then send the meeting invite. All of this is really simple knowledge if you're being respectful. But when it comes to indigenous engagement, that is still not the norm. Think about it. You may have just been quick and I know the response I'm going to hear. I didn't mean anything by it. Intent is not required to cause harm. Intent is not required to cause harm. Remember that. Another one. This might happen to you and I don't know if it bothers you. I'd be willing to bet it does. But let me know in the comments. Someone now, this is probably a LinkedIn thing. Even though it's definitely happened by email. Someone wants me to give them a referral. Except I don't know them. I know them as a contact on my social media. I have never been to their business or office. I have never used their products. I've never even had a conversation with them and they want me to give a referral. So I don't know about you. I'm pretty old school. Coming up on my 60th birthday here, my referral wouldn't be worth the time it took to type it if I just throw them out there now. Do not get me wrong. If I meet an organization that is doing great Work and asking amazing questions and trying to learn. I have no problem giving a referral. That or a recommendation, whatever. Like, easily. If I go into a business and I'm treated awesome, if I receive amazing customer service, even online, no issue. No issue at all. Of course I'm going to recommend and refer people to that entity. But if I don't know you, why do you think I would? Or just because we know of each other or even socially? I still don't know about your business. And no, I am not. I just want to be crystal clear on this one because this one definitely comes up. I am not giving you a referral or recommendation just because you're indigenous or just because it's an indigenous business. No hard pass again, my word wouldn't be worth anything as far as I'm concerned. That's racist, right? If I hate you because you're indigenous, it's no better than loving you just because you're indigenous. Is it a good business? Is it good service? Then yeah, absolutely, I will. So that's number two. Number three. Oh, my God. Maybe this happens in the academic world. I don't know. But when I meet someone, I don't come at them with this hardcore professional academic conversation. I'm going to say, hi, my name is Sandy. Who are you? Right, so go for conversational English, that first email. And I'm one of those people, like, I am a busy business owner. Do not send me an email that's this flip it or worse, this flipping long. Hi, who are you? Give me some links. That would be awesome if you want me to look at your website or find out about your business and let me know what you'd like to talk about and. And do it in a friendly way. You're coming at me cold. And I know why people do it. Because mainstream, you don't do emotion. You stay professional. You say cold, you stay distance. I don't want to work with anyone that's cold or distance. We're going to build a relationship. I need to know who you are. The fact that you're not comfy with your emotions is something you need to work on on your side of the feather. Welcome to bridge building, so do not use we're going conversational English. Keep it simple. All right. And last but not least. And this one, just sometimes I shake my head. I'll admit it. No conversation. Just send me a survey monkey quiz to get my opinion on something. What? And yes, it has happened more than once. Which. It's like if we are colleagues and we talk all the time and we've had a working relationship, then I would probably appreciate that. It's quick, it's easy. You needed an answ, fine. But that's because we had the relationship first. No relationship, no survey monkey. No to the monkey. Bottom line. And this is the little checks or balance you can do. If your focus is either saving time or getting your to do list done. You're thinking of the wrong person. It's you centered. And that's not how you build a relationship. But if you're thinking of building a relationship, then you're not going to do any of these things because you realize, this person doesn't even know me. Why would they appreciate this? So just take a second to think how it's going to be received. Right. Like get out of focusing on you. Yeah. And I know you're stressed, you're overworked, I get that. But you're not making your job easier by doing these things. You're actually making it worse. So I hope that made sense. What did you think? Comment below. Let me know. Has any of this happened to you or have you done it? I'm not going to crucify you if you did. I mean, we learn, right? We make mistakes and we learn. That's how this process works. But can we all agree. Stop that. Give me a heck yeah in the comments. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.