Mona Patel

Welcome to a TED talk about lies. Well, it’s not really a TED talk. That part is a lie. Wait. So what. Why does lying matter? Is lying bad? Always? Is not telling the truth a lie? What about exaggerating? Exaggerating is not lying. Or is that a lie…

In this hilarious, mind-bending and incredibly innovative use of 18 minutes, Mona surprises the audience with a play about lies, with the goal being to convince them that it’s sometimes better to lie than tell the truth.  This talk challenges the audience to think about what makes a good leader, and the role the truth, specifically my truth versus your truth, plays (pun intended)  in gaining trust and respect in work and life.

Would you believe the answer to a critical life question if you got that answer in a dream? 

What about meditation or a psychedelic journey?

Psychedelics are having a major moment and are expected to continue to skyrocket  in popularity. Why? What do people gain by using psychedelics to alter their mental states? 

What actually happens in a psychedelic journey? This experience explores Mona’s real-life journey, which was both exciting and terrifying, through “‘One-Woman’ Show.” What did she hear, why did she listen, and how did it change her life? 

This experience is not designed to sell people on psychedelic usage. It’s actually a deep dive into the topics of risk, trust and the stories we believe when we decide what is truth and what is a story. What unanswered questions do your leaders have stuck in their heads, and what would it take for them to take more risk? To have more faith in their intuition and release any limiting stories so they could have those questions answered? 

This experience inspires the audience to think more about how their own minds work, and what their highest knowing would advise for questions where they feel stuck.

How do words work once heard? A person says X, and you feel adrenaline rising and anger. A person says Y, and serotonin rises and you feel connected and in love. Why do other people’s words have this much power over our emotions? And what can we do feel less controlled by them?. This talk focuses on the interaction between external messages and our mind, and offers three modes of listening that can be used to feel more centered and less reactive in workplace conversations.

What makes a great question? One that leads the recipient to reflect, reframe and respond more thoughtfully? The better the question, the better the insight. As a researcher with 20+ years of experience and having conducted thousands of one-on-one interviews, there are some tricks to Honest Questions – this goes beyond using open-ended questions and staying neutral into the questions that get people’s eyes to light up, eyebrows to go up, and hearts open up so that deeper connections are more available to the leaders who use them.

Would you ever share a journal entry? What if doing so helped you reframe a problem?

Typically, journals house our most intimate thoughts, fears and rants about all the things to blame for you hitting the same obstacles in your life time and time again. But what if journaling could provide a focused, psychology-based way to rewire your neurocircuitry and reframe how you see those obstacles?

This powerful 60 minute talk takes you through actionable journaling techniques, with each small group writing and sharing an entry using one. This session may make people feel uncomfortable. Or vulnerable. Or feel like they are not the only ones going through something they are going through. This session may leave your teams more empathetic.  Isn’t that what we want our leaders to be?

This talk covers the secrets of writing a powerful journal entry, pros and cons of journaling, and 11 strategies that small groups within your audience can use live in the session. The strategies range from tried-and-true strategies to very innovative and fresh use of the ten minutes of journaling each day. Strategic journaling is the key to reflection, and reflection leads to deeper learning and clarity, the gift needed to reframe your perspective on things that are not working for you and design a more intentional life. 

The 11 strategies that will be reviewed: 

1. Morning Pages
2. Gratitude
3. Self trivia
4. Bullet Journaling (by Kate)
5. Scripting
6. Daily Love Letter
7. Accountability Gridding
8. Refaming Failure when Wintering
9. Hide And Seek Excuse Personas
10. Emotion Wheel Roulette
11. Visualization Nature Tour 

This an immersive experience.  It’s a play where up to 30 of  your audience members will join 4 actors and Mona “on stage.” The setting is a breathwork meditation workshop. The actors are female leaders in the organization.* 

The actors share their realizations about feminine leadership after each round of breathwork.  The actors’ shares encourage the audience’s shares about their challenges, doubts and opportunities. The inclusive format is highly interactive and can be designed between 60-120 minutes in length. If used at a conference, this is the “workshop talk”  that will have your attendees talking for years to come.

*This play can be customized with real stories for extra fees.

Our signature format –  focus group theater. We present a scene on Zoom and ask the audience to vote on what they think is happening and why. We then present the results of the vote in a  live discussion to review the results and learn how our views and beliefs compare to others within the organization. (This is usually followed with some sort of leadership training and development content to bring the point of the vignettes home, such as inclusive leadership or how to reduce bias.)

Topics have included why women don’t report harassment to what it’s like to be Black at a large tech company to how to handle uncomfortable conversations with customers. Each experience is customized for clients based on the topic they want to explore.

What would it take to reinvigorate the interactions in your team? To bring the spark back? To feel all the excitement and energy you could absolutely feel with these people… if only the actual session was run better? Exploration begins with a 15-30 min call with each member to learn why they might leave, what they think the issues are, and what prevents them from sharing more deeply. The results are presented to the forum in the form of vignettes, with a “what if? workshop to follow to ideate solutions and resolve whatever can be resolved with a plan for the rest.

This talk is designed specifically for small groups of 10 or under who rely on each other for honesty, guidance and support (such as ERG groups, EO/YPO forums and small teams.)