March 12, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode of Simply Feedback, we sit down with Dr. Sonia Alvarez-Robinson, Associate Vice President for Strategy and Organizational Effectiveness at Georgia Tech. With over 25 years of experience leading change across industries and teaching resilience at the university level, Sonia shares powerful insights on how leaders can use feedback to foster growth, adaptability, and resilience.
From transformative personal experiences to practical leadership strategies, Sonia discusses how to navigate adversity, develop self-awareness, and create a culture where feedback leads to real change. She introduces her FIRST model for resilience, offers guidance on receiving and utilizing feedback effectively, and shares compelling stories from her career.
If you're looking for ways to strengthen your resilience and lead with intention, this episode is packed with wisdom and actionable advice.
📌 Learn more about Sonia’s work at WhatCouldYouBe.com.
Check out the free Q&A videos that we have produced with tips to help you receive feedback graciously and act on it visibly at www.learningbridge.com/tips.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (00:00):
The title of my course is actually
Strategies for BuildingResilience Growing Through What
We're Going Through. And thisis really the essence of
resilience, which is how to useadversity challenge, and change
our acute shocks and chronicstressors as ways to really ,
uh, adapt, survive , and thrive, which, and that's where the
(00:24):
growth part comes . So one ofthe exercises I love to do on
the first day of class with mystudents is we do the
rollercoaster exercises.
Troy Blaser (00:37):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Simply
Feedback, the podcast broughtto you by Learning Bridge . I'm
your host, Troy Blazer . It'sgreat to be with you today. I'm
super excited for today'sconversation. Our guest today
is Dr. Sonia Alvarez Robinson,associate Vice President for
Strategy and OrganizationalEffectiveness at Georgia Tech.
(00:59):
With over 25 years ofexperience leading change
across industries, and as ateacher of a building
resilience course at theuniversity, she helps
organizations and individualsgrow through feedback and
resilience. Sonia, welcome toSimply Feedback. It's so great
to have you with us today.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (01:15):
Thank you so much. I'm so excited
about this conversation today,Troy.
Troy Blaser (01:19):
Well, wonderful. I wonder if you could tell us
about a time that somebody gaveyou feedback , um, maybe it had
an impact on your life, yourcareer, or personally, but is
there a story that you canshare with us about feedback?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (01:31):
Yeah, absolutely. You know , there
are moments of feedback thatyou get in your life that
really stick with you, and younever forget them because who
they came from, when they weregiven to you, and the impact,
the difference that it made.
For me, it was early in myleadership career, I was found
(01:51):
myself in a challengingorganizational dynamic
situation. And I realized I waslearning that there were
information that was travelingacross the organization that
was getting distorted, likethat game telephone.
Troy Blaser (02:07):
Mm-hmm .
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (02:08):
Right.
And as a leader, when youcommunicate something, you want
people to receive it as youintended to give it to them .
Troy Blaser (02:16):
Yes.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (02:17):
Um , that's not what was happening.
And so I , I asked my mentorfor some guidance, and what he
advised me was that he said,"Always wear a lapel pin when
you go to work and pretend thatit is a hot mic, and that
everything that you say in thecourse of your workday is being
(02:38):
piped out through the PAsystem. That way you never have
to worry about what you say towho. And you will always
measure the degree of clarityof the communication that you
are giving to your people." Andthat's always stuck with me. I
don't have a lapel pin ontoday, but I usually do.
Troy Blaser (03:00):
Well, and you have a hot mic right now, so
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:02):
. Absolutely.
Troy Blaser (03:04):
Oh, how interesting. And, and that's
like you said, there are timesI think for everybody where
you, you have that interactionwith your mentor and it's
something maybe you replay inyour mind or it comes up on
occasion where you're like, oh,yeah, that's important. That
piece of feedback affects yourcommunication in your job,
potentially even in other partsof your life as well.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:26):
Yeah.
And it also taught me that as aleader, your team members who
are looking to you forleadership and guidance,
they're , they're not yourconfidants. They're not for
commiseration. That's whatcoaches and that's what, you
know,
Troy Blaser (03:42):
Mentors yeah.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:43):
Um , other mentors and other
objective neutral third partiesare for. And I learned that ,
uh, thankfully , uh, earlyenough in my career. Um, but it
was definitely a lesson thathas stuck with me.
Troy Blaser (03:58):
I almost wondered when you would come home from
work and take off the jacket ortake off the lapel pin, was
there this physical sense ofletting down a little bit? I,
I, the hot mic is no longer onmy lapel
Sonia Alvarez-Robin (04:11):
Permission to speak freely.
Troy Blaser (04:13):
Yes. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. That's
funny. Well, here atLearningBridge, a lot of times,
well , we talk a lot aboutfeedback in a lot of different
ways, but one of the ways welike to frame the process is
just give, get, grow (04:27):
how to give feedback, how to get
feedback or receive it and, andhow to grow from feedback. And
we talk a lot about all the ,the , those three different
aspects of, of feedback. So Iwanted to kind of ask some of
our questions today around thatsame framing, that idea of
giving feedback, gettingfeedback or, or growing from
(04:50):
feedback. So with that in mindand with your background in
resilience and leadership, whatare some ways that leaders can
ensure that their feedbackhelps employees navigate
adversity rather thandiscouraging them ? You know,
when they find themselves in amoment of adversity? Are there
ways that leaders can, canencourage them and help them
navigate that rather than justgiving feedback that is
(05:11):
discouraging?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (05:12):
Yeah. I love the work of David
Cooperrider, and appreciativeinquiry and the art of using
good questions to draw out frompeople what their , their
purpose, their passion, theirinterests, but also where they
see their own opportunities forimprovement. When I do
(05:34):
performance reviews with mysubordinates, I always first
have a conversation completelydedicated to them providing
that self-reflection , uh,first. And in that conversation
I'm asking them, let's, let'sunpack that a little bit more.
Can you elaborate on that alittle bit? Uh, was there
(05:56):
anything that you learned oranything you would do
differently if you could dothat over again? Because I
think a lot of times peoplewill go into those
conversations kind of armoredup. And you want to tell the
best side of the story becausethis is your performance review
and this is gonna be part ofyour official record, and this
might even impact yourcompensation. So allowing them
(06:18):
to kind of disarm themselves tobe able to have an open
conversation and know that thatvulnerability that they take,
the risk to display in thatdiscussion is not going to be
used against them . And, youknow, trust is built over time,
(06:41):
and trust goes two ways. And Ithink when I'm trying to give a
person feedback, I like to helpthem find it, those answers
within themselves first byasking them questions that will
get elicit that generativereflection. That is such an
(07:02):
important part. I think welearn a lot more from our own
reflection than we do when wefind ourselves in a deflection
mode. There's reflection anddeflection. But I think yeah ,
sometimes when you come atsomebody with, oh, here's all
the things you're doing wrong,it's automatically the instinct
is to defend myself. Yeah.
(07:23):
Right. So not making it afrontal assault, that this is
really about helping youunderstand opportunities to get
better.
Troy Blaser (07:32):
It almost feels like a, a Socratic method of
giving feedback in that you'reasking questions that, that
help the , the individual comeup with the solutions that are
probably already there anyway.
And those kinds of questionscan help bring that out. And ,
and as you point out , thenthat individual owns the
feedback that much more becausethey were the one that that
(07:53):
spoke it aloud rather than, asyou say, it just coming, being
handed to them where they maybe defensive or wanna deflect
it.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (08:01):
Troy, honestly, as a leader, have
been doing this for a longtime. It's something that I've
had to learn and get better atover time, too. Like I, that's
not how I approached it when Iwas a , a early career
supervisor or manager. Um, butI've learned over the years
that the best way to getsomeone to grow is to help
them, is to engage them in away that they want to grow.
Troy Blaser (08:24):
Yeah. I think many leaders struggle with giving
difficult feedback for a numberof reasons. And, and maybe
there are times when it's notgoing to work because of the
situation. It's not going towork to ask the questions, to
elicit the feedback that willbe helpful. A manager might be
in a position where they just,it's a difficult situation.
They have to offer thatfeedback. Are there ways they
(08:46):
can reframe a conversation to,to inspire growth, to inspire
adaptability, rather than justgiving that difficult feedback?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (08:55):
Yeah.
It's a great question. And Ithink not everybody is in a
place where if you ask them agood question, they're going to
identify their own areas. Thereare some people who just
really, one , either lack ofself-awareness to be able to
recognize the areas that theyhave opportunities to improve,
or they're just so armored upthat they're not going to,
(09:19):
they're not gonna go there. Andso, but I always err on the
side to listen first. And evenif in my own mind I am hearing
them and feeling it'sincomplete or sometimes
inaccurate, I wanna give themthat place and that space to
(09:42):
reflect. And then I will comeback and say, okay, well, let's
talk a little bit more aboutsome of the interpersonal
dynamics. So it's myobservation that you've
struggled in your interactionswith other members of the team.
Can you talk a little bit about, uh, how that might be an
opportunity for you? Um , what,are there some things that you
(10:05):
can do differently? Andsometimes you'll get the answer
of, "No, it's all them. They'rethe problem, it's not me. And
then, you know, knowing that,okay, we're gonna , we're gonna
go all the way down this path.
And so in that instance , um,which I've had a fair number of
times to say, well, myobservation is this. I've
(10:28):
noticed that when you are in ameeting, you're completely
ignoring the contributions ofyour peers. You know, that kind
of thing. Giving specific, butthe more specific, the example,
I think the easier it is forsomeone to understand what
you're saying. Generalizationsor broad statements about areas
(10:54):
of opportunity for improvementalmost never help a person who
does not possess aself-awareness to be able to
recognize those examplesthemselves.
Troy Blaser (11:06):
Yeah. It's too easy to discount that or to
rationalize that generalfeedback away and say, well, it
doesn't apply to me, or itdoesn't apply in this
situation, or things like that.
Yeah. I like the, the idea ofthose specific examples. Here's
when I observed that thisbehavior happened ,
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (11:25):
And the other part is to align then the
feedback to what theexpectations, whether it's the
norms of the group or thespecific responsibilities of
the job, is that I'm seeing adisconnect between what you do
and what we represent in termsof how we deliver. Like, for
(11:46):
example, our group, we use amodel called the Trusted
Advisor Framework by AndreaHowell. Um, and she came and
did some work with our team,and there's a, there's a
equation for being a trustedadvisor that we all have agreed
are our operating norms. And sowhen we see each other, not
(12:09):
adhering to those norms ordeviating, which we will
because we're humans, we cancall it out with each other in
caring ways, but we have reallypainstakingly laid out the
norms for the group are theseare the way that we operate,
these are the ways that weinteract with each other , and
(12:31):
that we are expecting to be inpartnership , uh, in the way
that we serve our clients.
Troy Blaser (12:39):
I always love a good story. Is there a time
that you can think of whendelivering feedback that giving
feedback led to atransformative change for, for
an individual or for anorganization?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (12:51):
Oh, I have lots of examples, but just
one that comes to mind. We werein a conversation with a client
and we had a , our, ourdelivery, our service delivery
team or consulting group. Andwe had some early career
members of the team that werethere. And I think that , um,
(13:13):
you know, we had made someassumptions that everybody
within our group understood,like, hold your comments unless
you're asked to do that. And Ithink there's always this
balance, right? So we had ateam member who said something
out loud in the meeting thatwas not, the timing was not
good, and it really was not anappropriate comment to make at
(13:36):
that time. And so we, Irecovered the discussion, we
got back on track and, and thenthe next , uh, you know, after
we hung up , um, I reached outand immediately when we got
back together, what weconnected on the call that that
person said to me, I knowexactly what you're gonna say
(13:56):
to me. And, and I said, okay,tell me what I'm gonna say.
And, and I think it was areally great lesson for them to
have had that experience, butalso just their own
self-awareness, I think wassuch a Yeah . Important and
powerful , um, thing thathappened there.
Troy Blaser (14:14):
And I know you teach a class there at the
university as well. Do you findyou, are there differences in
giving feedback to students inclass versus other team members
or, or , uh, full-time peoplethat you work with?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (14:28):
Well, my class is a bit unique in
that it's a pass/fail. It's afive week , 10 session. It's
really more like a workshop toteach resilience to the
students through a series ofboth evidence-based research,
but also experientialactivities that I have them do.
(14:52):
And I created a model and thewhole syllabus is structured on
this model. So it's really notabout giving the students
feedback as much as it is aboutallowing them to examine and
explore the ways in which theymight be limiting their own
(15:13):
ability to be resilient. Um, sothe model is this. So it's
called the first model,something that I developed a
few years ago , um, when I wasdoing some writing for a , um,
a magazine. And, and then Ijust use that to really
structure the course. The f isfor find your locus of control,
(15:35):
because so much of what happensto us, around us is outside of
our control. And we can becomeconsumed by trying to change
things that we have no controlover. The I is about
investigate and manage yourfears. And that's really, you
know, fear is imagined , dangeris real, there are dangers, but
(15:55):
sometimes fear can drive ourbehaviors in ways that are not
productive for us. The R is toreprogram negative thinking.
One of the areas that weexamine in that is
self-compassion, because we'reoften our own worst critic,
especially when we experienceadversity, challenge and
(16:15):
change. And if it was a self ,self inflicted adversity, we'll
beat ourselves up all day long.
So, and then the S is aboutseeking healthy support is that
a lot of times people feel likethey have to go through
difficult things by themself ,or there's a stigma associated
with it or shame, and they goinward. And then the T is about
(16:38):
taking time for self-care. Um,and so the feedback I give them
is really about engaging themin these activities that help
them see where are they, wheredo they have gaps, you know,
like I have one student when wedid the piece on
self-compassion was, you know,like recognized that because
(16:59):
they were raised in anenvironment where nothing was
good enough, what that neverdid enough, gave enough that
they were always self-criticalin a very harmful way. They
were harsh. So through thatexperiential opportunity, the
(17:19):
student was able to discoverthat feedback for themself
through that interaction.
Troy Blaser (17:27):
That's, that's fantastic. I think, you know, a
lot of times people canstruggle , um, uh, around
receiving feedback. Um, youknow, you, you watch an
employee who receives somefeedback and they have a
difficult time taking that onboard . It can be a very
anxious time , if they feellike they're receiving
feedback. Are there strategiesthat you teach to help
(17:50):
individuals process and usethat feedback constructively?
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (17:56):
Absolutely.
Well, one, just going back tothe locus of control, is that
we have to recognize, okay,what is it that I can control?
I can't control if someone hasa perception of me that is
different than my perception ofmyself. What I can control is
what I decide to do with thatfeedback. Right. And so,
(18:21):
recognizing that there may bemisconceptions , um, is that
that's still a narrative. I'velearned this from Glade Holman
, and the , you know, theLearningBridge is that, that
narrative, whether you believethat it's true or not, it is
what it is .
Troy Blaser (18:38):
Right. It's the story that person's telling
themselves about you. Right?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (18:44):
That's right. And you can't do
anything about what is inanother person's head. All you
can do is manage your ownbehavior and conduct. So, you
know , I always challenge , uh,my students and my team members
is like, let's look at thefeedback. We get this a lot. We
will ask clients for feedbackon the services that we
(19:06):
provide. It might be like a daylong facilitated activity. And
in variable , you'll havepeople who didn't wanna be
there, they got other stuff todo, they didn't really find it
important. It's not personal,but it's important that we take
that feedback and we look at itand we say, is there something
that we can learn from this sothat the next time we design
(19:28):
this, we can make it meaningfulfor the largest number of
people? We will not makeeverybody happy. And if we have
to figure out what does successlook like for us? And be okay
with that.
Troy Blaser (19:42):
So you're really looking forward, you're saying,
okay, this is useful feedback.
What can we do better nexttime? Let's look forward, let's
look ahead
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (19:49):
Lessons learned,
Troy Blaser (19:51):
Thinking of the first model and your locus of
control versus , uh, yourfears. Are those, how are those
two related? It seems like Ican think about it in two ways.
One, I can, I can think, well,I recognize that's outside of
my control, and maybe thatincreases my fear of that
(20:11):
thing.
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (20:12):
Absolutely.
Troy Blaser (20:13):
Or I can recognize that it's outside of my
control, and therefore I canlet it go and not be anxious
about it because I I don't haveany control over it.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (20:21):
Well, we will be anxious about things
that are outside of ourcontrol. But I have an
activity, it's called the worrybuckets. And so we write down
everything that is worryingyou, everything that's
stressing you out, making youanxious, making you afraid. Uh,
so your fears are on that listtoo. Right. And these , those
lists are pretty long thesedays, and then so we go back
(20:45):
through and we say, okay, Iwant you to put each of those
items into one of threebuckets. Either you have no
control over it, you havepartial control over it, or you
have total control over it. AndI want you to think about, so
let's go back through and let'sdisposition. Just put 'em in
the buckets. All right. Let'slook at this bucket of these
things that we have no controlover. So how do you release
(21:08):
yourself then from trying toresolve those things? It
doesn't mean you won't worryabout them anymore. But it
means that you'll let go of theidea that you have to fix it.
And then how will you releaseit? And the example that I love
to give to my students is thatfor several years, our family
(21:28):
has had , uh, members of thefamily who suffer from the
disease of addiction. And whenyou have an addicted loved one,
it is very hard to watch theminflict harm on their self ,
especially because it'sprolonged over such a period of
time. But one of the firstthings they teach you when you
go into sort of this, the , Icall it the , the recovery for
(21:50):
the family is that you have torelease them to their higher
power and their higher power isnot you.
Troy Blaser (21:58):
Mm. Yeah.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (21:59):
Because sometimes we have a false sense
of being responsible for otherpeople's stuff.
Troy Blaser (22:05):
I have to fix it for them somehow.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (22:07):
It's the heroic. Sometimes we're
just wired that way. But Ithink even as leaders, we feel
like everything that our peopletell us is something that we
have a responsibility to fix.
And some of it is ourresponsibility, some of it
isn't. And that's where I thinkthese buckets are also
(22:28):
important for leaders, becausethere's in the no control
bucket, right. So there arethings that affect our
organization that are relatedto forces in the environment,
forces of influence around ourorganization that our people
are worried about. I have nocontrol over them, but we wanna
talk through that, right? Sopartial control. So there may
(22:52):
be some things. The examplethat I like to use is when we
got a new president to theuniversity and our team was
moved , uh, into that officeand we had a new reporting line
and a new boss and said, well,we don't have any control over
what's gonna be important tothat new person, but what we do
have control over partialcontrol is what he knows about
(23:13):
us. We can't control what hethinks about us, but we can
control what he knows about us.
So let's get our annual reporttogether. Let's make sure that
our KPIs are tight. Let's makesure that we're very clear and
explanatory about the valuethat we deliver. Like that's a
partial control thing. And thenthe total control is like, we
(23:33):
have total control as a group.
We just did this this morningover how we operate internally.
How consistent, howsynchronized we are in terms of
our, our delivery, how we showup. You know, we can't control
the land of traffic, but we canmake sure that we leave early
enough that we're not late foran important event.
Troy Blaser (23:53):
There you go.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (23:55):
Which in Atlanta, that means three
hours before you're supposed tobe there.
Troy Blaser (23:58):
Well, I'm sorry for that. Well, okay. So we've
talked a little bit aboutgiving feedback. We've talked a
little bit about gettingfeedback, receiving feedback.
If we think about growing fromfeedback, you know, and if you
think about professionals whowant to advance their careers,
what are some ways that theycan proactively use feedback,
(24:21):
whether it's from managers, butmaybe also from peers or other
teams or even setbacks? Whatare some ways that they can use
that feedback to acceleratetheir leadership growth?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (24:31):
Yeah. I love this and I love the grow
part of your model, because thetitle of my course is actually
"Strategies for BuildingResilience: Growing Through
What We're Going Through."
Troy Blaser (24:42):
Oh, I love it!
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (24:44):
And this is really the essence of
resilience, which is how to useadversity challenge and change
our acute shocks and chronicstressors as ways to really ,
uh, adapt, survive, and thrive.
Which, and that's where thegrowth part comes. So one of
the exercises I love to do onthe first day of class with my
(25:05):
students is we do therollercoaster exercise. It's
actually one that I learnedwhen I started my doctoral
program during new studentorientation is that you take a
look back at your life and youmap it out on two axis. Along
the horizontal axis is time.
And the vertical axis is thequality of the experience. And
you just take a moment toreflect. And you can go back
(25:28):
five years, 10 years, beginningof your career, the beginning
of your life, if you want to goback that far, and you just
say, okay, what are themilestones, the major events
that have happened in my lifethat have shaped my outlook the
most, the highs and the lows?
(25:49):
And then you map 'em out, high,low , high, low . Where are
they? You can do the same thingwith feedback. Right. And you
can say, let , let me look atthe things, because life is
feedback. Feedback doesn't justhappen verbally. It happens
through our lived experience.
And so, as these parts of ourlived experience are either
(26:10):
high or low , or in the middle,I have 'em actually map it. So
when you get done looking atit, they all go like this, most
of them. Mine is like this,this, this, you know , it's
just really, really high highsand super, super low lows. Then
we go, okay, let's go back andsay what, what gave me the
(26:31):
energy to power back up again?
And what did I learn from thosepoints , uh, on that map? And
how does it shape the way thatI see myself? Uh, invariably we
are much stronger than we everthink we could be until we go
(26:53):
through something reallydifficult. And then it's like,
wow. Like I, if you told mebefore that happened--you know
, my husband died when he was47, and I was 44. My son was
10. If you would've told me amonth before he died that that
was gonna happen, I would'vetold you my life would be over.
(27:15):
I could never have gottenthrough that. And it was, you
know, in reflection, it wasactually one of the catalysts
that has gotten me to where Iam right now. I wouldn't be
having this conversation withyou, Troy, right now if that
had not have happened. Becauseof what I learned through that,
which was my purpose is muchdifferent than what I thought
(27:38):
it was.
Troy Blaser (27:40):
Well, first of all, thank you for sharing
about your husband's passingand how it helped you realize
how strong you are. I , onething I like about that
rollercoaster exercise is thatidea of looking back even
farther back into the past tosee what kind of lessons might
be there. I think it's a usefulthing to stop and, and take
(28:01):
stock of where did I come fromall the way back to the
beginning of my career or my,you know, education or whatever
it might be. And saying from myperspective today, are there
lessons to be learned from thatexperience that maybe happened
to me 10 or 15 or 20 years ago?
Um, that maybe I, I didn't seethose lessons at the time, but
(28:24):
because I'm, I've changed overtime, I can look back and say,
oh, there's a lesson for me fortoday from that experience from
so long ago.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (28:32):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Troy Blaser (28:33):
It's a worthwhile thing to do. You know,
obviously you don't wanna livein the past, but every once in
a while to kind of take stockand say , "Where did I come
from and, and what lessons arethere for me to use going
forward?"
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (28:44):
Well, that's the, you made me think
of the Sankofa bird, you know,which is a African symbol of a
bird where it's head isactually , um, facing
backwards, but it's goingforwards. And, you know, it is
that power and importance ofreflection while continuing to
(29:05):
move forward. One of the thingsI've been working on , uh,
writing is, is about life inthe rear view mirror. Things
are much closer than theyappear.
Troy Blaser (29:14):
. Okay.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:16):
And you know, you can't drive down the
highway looking through yourrear view mirror the whole
time.
Troy Blaser (29:21):
Right.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:23):
But you have to glance at it
periodically to know what'sbehind you.
Troy Blaser (29:29):
That's true. Yeah, to know where you came from and
what else might be lurking backthere.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:34):
Live through the windshield, glance
at the rear view.
Troy Blaser (29:38):
Okay. That , yes.
I have a daughter who's 15,will be 16 in a few months, so
we're working on her driver'slicense, and I'll pass that
particular tip onto her,
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:50):
Don't linger there too long .
Troy Blaser (29:51):
Not a metaphor.
Literally, here's how youshould drive .
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:57):
Don't linger in the rear view mirror
too long .
Troy Blaser (29:59):
Um , Sonia is there, is there a project or is
there something you're workingon right now that you're
especially passionate aboutthat you would share with us?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (30:08):
Well, I have , uh, a book that I'm just
finishing up. It's calledLessons in Resilience. And ,
uh, hopefully , uh, it'll bedone in the next few months. So
, um, taking a lot, you know,it's like every time I have a
cohort of students that I'mworking with, it's like, oh, I
need to add that, because asyou teach, you learn. So it's
(30:31):
been one of those projects thatI can't end because there's so
much new, new really insightsthat I've been gaining , um,
through this experience. Butthe, the cohort itself is
actually going to be ending insix weeks, and we're actually
converting that course to a ,uh, full semester three credit
(30:55):
course in the School ofPsychology in the fall. So I
think that's my breaking pointto say we've closed this
chapter, finish that up.
Troy Blaser (31:06):
Version 1.0 of , of the book is ready to roll
out now. Maybe there's anotherversion down the road, but for
now, these are the lessons.
Tell me the name again.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:17):
Lessons in Resilience. There's a
subtitle that I'm still workingout.
Troy Blaser (31:22):
And is this your first book or have you been
through this process before?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:26):
I've written a lot, but this will be
the first book.
Troy Blaser (31:29):
Well, congratulations. I, I know that
it's not an easy thing to do topublish a book, so I admire
that.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:36):
Thank You.
Troy Blaser (31:37):
Wonderful. Sonia, if people have been intrigued
by our conversation today, ifthey want to know more or if
they want to connect with you ,um, is that something that you
would be open to and, and whatshould they do?
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (31:48):
Absolutely.
Um, so I have a , a website formy resilience work called
whatcouldyoube.com.
Troy Blaser (31:56):
Okay.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:57):
Uh , you can certainly , uh, reach
out to me there. That's mostlythe work that I do outside of
my role at Georgia Tech around, uh, helping people navigate ,
uh, life transitions. Or ifyou're interested in the work
that we're doing here atGeorgia Tech, it's
consulting.gatech .edu .
Troy Blaser (32:13):
Cool. Fantastic.
Thank you so much for yourtime. I've really enjoyed our
conversation and the ideas thatwe've been able to explore
together. Thanks again forjoining us.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (32:22):
Thank you so much. It's been a
pleasure.
The title of my course is actually
Strategies for BuildingResilience Growing Through What
We're Going Through. And thisis really the essence of
resilience, which is how to useadversity challenge, and change
our acute shocks and chronicstressors as ways to really ,
uh, adapt, survive , and thrive, which, and that's where the
(00:24):
growth part comes . So one ofthe exercises I love to do on
the first day of class with mystudents is we do the
rollercoaster exercises.
Troy Blaser (00:37):
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Simply
Feedback, the podcast broughtto you by Learning Bridge . I'm
your host, Troy Blazer . It'sgreat to be with you today. I'm
super excited for today'sconversation. Our guest today
is Dr. Sonia Alvarez Robinson,associate Vice President for
Strategy and OrganizationalEffectiveness at Georgia Tech.
(00:59):
With over 25 years ofexperience leading change
across industries, and as ateacher of a building
resilience course at theuniversity, she helps
organizations and individualsgrow through feedback and
resilience. Sonia, welcome toSimply Feedback. It's so great
to have you with us today.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (01:15):
Thank you so much. I'm so excited
about this conversation today,Troy.
Troy Blaser (01:19):
Well, wonderful. I wonder if you could tell us
about a time that somebody gaveyou feedback , um, maybe it had
an impact on your life, yourcareer, or personally, but is
there a story that you canshare with us about feedback?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (01:31):
Yeah, absolutely. You know , there
are moments of feedback thatyou get in your life that
really stick with you, and younever forget them because who
they came from, when they weregiven to you, and the impact,
the difference that it made.
For me, it was early in myleadership career, I was found
(01:51):
myself in a challengingorganizational dynamic
situation. And I realized I waslearning that there were
information that was travelingacross the organization that
was getting distorted, likethat game telephone.
Troy Blaser (02:07):
Mm-hmm
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (02:08):
Right.
And as a leader, when youcommunicate something, you want
people to receive it as youintended to give it to them .
Troy Blaser (02:16):
Yes.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (02:17):
Um , that's not what was happening.
And so I , I asked my mentorfor some guidance, and what he
advised me was that he said,"Always wear a lapel pin when
you go to work and pretend thatit is a hot mic, and that
everything that you say in thecourse of your workday is being
(02:38):
piped out through the PAsystem. That way you never have
to worry about what you say towho. And you will always
measure the degree of clarityof the communication that you
are giving to your people." Andthat's always stuck with me. I
don't have a lapel pin ontoday, but I usually do.
Troy Blaser (03:00):
Well, and you have a hot mic right now, so
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:02):
Troy Blaser (03:04):
Oh, how interesting. And, and that's
like you said, there are timesI think for everybody where
you, you have that interactionwith your mentor and it's
something maybe you replay inyour mind or it comes up on
occasion where you're like, oh,yeah, that's important. That
piece of feedback affects yourcommunication in your job,
potentially even in other partsof your life as well.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:26):
Yeah.
And it also taught me that as aleader, your team members who
are looking to you forleadership and guidance,
they're , they're not yourconfidants. They're not for
commiseration. That's whatcoaches and that's what, you
know,
Troy Blaser (03:42):
Mentors yeah.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (03:43):
Um , other mentors and other
objective neutral third partiesare for. And I learned that ,
uh, thankfully , uh, earlyenough in my career. Um, but it
was definitely a lesson thathas stuck with me.
Troy Blaser (03:58):
I almost wondered when you would come home from
work and take off the jacket ortake off the lapel pin, was
there this physical sense ofletting down a little bit? I,
I, the hot mic is no longer onmy lapel
Sonia Alvarez-Robin (04:11):
Permission to speak freely.
Troy Blaser (04:13):
Yes. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. That's
funny. Well, here atLearningBridge, a lot of times,
well , we talk a lot aboutfeedback in a lot of different
ways, but one of the ways welike to frame the process is
just give, get, grow (04:27):
how to give feedback, how to get
feedback or receive it and, andhow to grow from feedback. And
we talk a lot about all the ,the , those three different
aspects of, of feedback. So Iwanted to kind of ask some of
our questions today around thatsame framing, that idea of
giving feedback, gettingfeedback or, or growing from
(04:50):
feedback. So with that in mindand with your background in
resilience and leadership, whatare some ways that leaders can
ensure that their feedbackhelps employees navigate
adversity rather thandiscouraging them ? You know,
when they find themselves in amoment of adversity? Are there
ways that leaders can, canencourage them and help them
navigate that rather than justgiving feedback that is
(05:11):
discouraging?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (05:12):
Yeah. I love the work of David
Cooperrider, and appreciativeinquiry and the art of using
good questions to draw out frompeople what their , their
purpose, their passion, theirinterests, but also where they
see their own opportunities forimprovement. When I do
(05:34):
performance reviews with mysubordinates, I always first
have a conversation completelydedicated to them providing
that self-reflection , uh,first. And in that conversation
I'm asking them, let's, let'sunpack that a little bit more.
Can you elaborate on that alittle bit? Uh, was there
(05:56):
anything that you learned oranything you would do
differently if you could dothat over again? Because I
think a lot of times peoplewill go into those
conversations kind of armoredup. And you want to tell the
best side of the story becausethis is your performance review
and this is gonna be part ofyour official record, and this
might even impact yourcompensation. So allowing them
(06:18):
to kind of disarm themselves tobe able to have an open
conversation and know that thatvulnerability that they take,
the risk to display in thatdiscussion is not going to be
used against them . And, youknow, trust is built over time,
(06:41):
and trust goes two ways. And Ithink when I'm trying to give a
person feedback, I like to helpthem find it, those answers
within themselves first byasking them questions that will
get elicit that generativereflection. That is such an
(07:02):
important part. I think welearn a lot more from our own
reflection than we do when wefind ourselves in a deflection
mode. There's reflection anddeflection. But I think yeah ,
sometimes when you come atsomebody with, oh, here's all
the things you're doing wrong,it's automatically the instinct
is to defend myself. Yeah.
(07:23):
Right. So not making it afrontal assault, that this is
really about helping youunderstand opportunities to get
better.
Troy Blaser (07:32):
It almost feels like a, a Socratic method of
giving feedback in that you'reasking questions that, that
help the , the individual comeup with the solutions that are
probably already there anyway.
And those kinds of questionscan help bring that out. And ,
and as you point out , thenthat individual owns the
feedback that much more becausethey were the one that that
(07:53):
spoke it aloud rather than, asyou say, it just coming, being
handed to them where they maybe defensive or wanna deflect
it.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (08:01):
Troy, honestly, as a leader, have
been doing this for a longtime. It's something that I've
had to learn and get better atover time, too. Like I, that's
not how I approached it when Iwas a , a early career
supervisor or manager. Um, butI've learned over the years
that the best way to getsomeone to grow is to help
them, is to engage them in away that they want to grow.
Troy Blaser (08:24):
Yeah. I think many leaders struggle with giving
difficult feedback for a numberof reasons. And, and maybe
there are times when it's notgoing to work because of the
situation. It's not going towork to ask the questions, to
elicit the feedback that willbe helpful. A manager might be
in a position where they just,it's a difficult situation.
They have to offer thatfeedback. Are there ways they
(08:46):
can reframe a conversation to,to inspire growth, to inspire
adaptability, rather than justgiving that difficult feedback?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (08:55):
Yeah.
It's a great question. And Ithink not everybody is in a
place where if you ask them agood question, they're going to
identify their own areas. Thereare some people who just
really, one , either lack ofself-awareness to be able to
recognize the areas that theyhave opportunities to improve,
or they're just so armored upthat they're not going to,
(09:19):
they're not gonna go there. Andso, but I always err on the
side to listen first. And evenif in my own mind I am hearing
them and feeling it'sincomplete or sometimes
inaccurate, I wanna give themthat place and that space to
(09:42):
reflect. And then I will comeback and say, okay, well, let's
talk a little bit more aboutsome of the interpersonal
dynamics. So it's myobservation that you've
struggled in your interactionswith other members of the team.
Can you talk a little bit about, uh, how that might be an
opportunity for you? Um , what,are there some things that you
(10:05):
can do differently? Andsometimes you'll get the answer
of, "No, it's all them. They'rethe problem, it's not me. And
then, you know, knowing that,okay, we're gonna , we're gonna
go all the way down this path.
And so in that instance , um,which I've had a fair number of
times to say, well, myobservation is this. I've
(10:28):
noticed that when you are in ameeting, you're completely
ignoring the contributions ofyour peers. You know, that kind
of thing. Giving specific, butthe more specific, the example,
I think the easier it is forsomeone to understand what
you're saying. Generalizationsor broad statements about areas
(10:54):
of opportunity for improvementalmost never help a person who
does not possess aself-awareness to be able to
recognize those examplesthemselves.
Troy Blaser (11:06):
Yeah. It's too easy to discount that or to
rationalize that generalfeedback away and say, well, it
doesn't apply to me, or itdoesn't apply in this
situation, or things like that.
Yeah. I like the, the idea ofthose specific examples. Here's
when I observed that thisbehavior happened ,
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (11:25):
And the other part is to align then the
feedback to what theexpectations, whether it's the
norms of the group or thespecific responsibilities of
the job, is that I'm seeing adisconnect between what you do
and what we represent in termsof how we deliver. Like, for
(11:46):
example, our group, we use amodel called the Trusted
Advisor Framework by AndreaHowell. Um, and she came and
did some work with our team,and there's a, there's a
equation for being a trustedadvisor that we all have agreed
are our operating norms. And sowhen we see each other, not
(12:09):
adhering to those norms ordeviating, which we will
because we're humans, we cancall it out with each other in
caring ways, but we have reallypainstakingly laid out the
norms for the group are theseare the way that we operate,
these are the ways that weinteract with each other , and
(12:31):
that we are expecting to be inpartnership , uh, in the way
that we serve our clients.
Troy Blaser (12:39):
I always love a good story. Is there a time
that you can think of whendelivering feedback that giving
feedback led to atransformative change for, for
an individual or for anorganization?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (12:51):
Oh, I have lots of examples, but just
one that comes to mind. We werein a conversation with a client
and we had a , our, ourdelivery, our service delivery
team or consulting group. Andwe had some early career
members of the team that werethere. And I think that , um,
(13:13):
you know, we had made someassumptions that everybody
within our group understood,like, hold your comments unless
you're asked to do that. And Ithink there's always this
balance, right? So we had ateam member who said something
out loud in the meeting thatwas not, the timing was not
good, and it really was not anappropriate comment to make at
(13:36):
that time. And so we, Irecovered the discussion, we
got back on track and, and thenthe next , uh, you know, after
we hung up , um, I reached outand immediately when we got
back together, what weconnected on the call that that
person said to me, I knowexactly what you're gonna say
(13:56):
to me. And, and I said, okay,tell me what I'm gonna say.
And, and I think it was areally great lesson for them to
have had that experience, butalso just their own
self-awareness, I think wassuch a Yeah . Important and
powerful , um, thing thathappened there.
Troy Blaser (14:14):
And I know you teach a class there at the
university as well. Do you findyou, are there differences in
giving feedback to students inclass versus other team members
or, or , uh, full-time peoplethat you work with?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (14:28):
Well, my class is a bit unique in
that it's a pass/fail. It's afive week , 10 session. It's
really more like a workshop toteach resilience to the
students through a series ofboth evidence-based research,
but also experientialactivities that I have them do.
(14:52):
And I created a model and thewhole syllabus is structured on
this model. So it's really notabout giving the students
feedback as much as it is aboutallowing them to examine and
explore the ways in which theymight be limiting their own
(15:13):
ability to be resilient. Um, sothe model is this. So it's
called the first model,something that I developed a
few years ago , um, when I wasdoing some writing for a , um,
a magazine. And, and then Ijust use that to really
structure the course. The f isfor find your locus of control,
(15:35):
because so much of what happensto us, around us is outside of
our control. And we can becomeconsumed by trying to change
things that we have no controlover. The I is about
investigate and manage yourfears. And that's really, you
know, fear is imagined , dangeris real, there are dangers, but
(15:55):
sometimes fear can drive ourbehaviors in ways that are not
productive for us. The R is toreprogram negative thinking.
One of the areas that weexamine in that is
self-compassion, because we'reoften our own worst critic,
especially when we experienceadversity, challenge and
(16:15):
change. And if it was a self ,self inflicted adversity, we'll
beat ourselves up all day long.
So, and then the S is aboutseeking healthy support is that
a lot of times people feel likethey have to go through
difficult things by themself ,or there's a stigma associated
with it or shame, and they goinward. And then the T is about
(16:38):
taking time for self-care. Um,and so the feedback I give them
is really about engaging themin these activities that help
them see where are they, wheredo they have gaps, you know,
like I have one student when wedid the piece on
self-compassion was, you know,like recognized that because
(16:59):
they were raised in anenvironment where nothing was
good enough, what that neverdid enough, gave enough that
they were always self-criticalin a very harmful way. They
were harsh. So through thatexperiential opportunity, the
(17:19):
student was able to discoverthat feedback for themself
through that interaction.
Troy Blaser (17:27):
That's, that's fantastic. I think, you know, a
lot of times people canstruggle , um, uh, around
receiving feedback. Um, youknow, you, you watch an
employee who receives somefeedback and they have a
difficult time taking that onboard . It can be a very
anxious time , if they feellike they're receiving
feedback. Are there strategiesthat you teach to help
(17:50):
individuals process and usethat feedback constructively?
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (17:56):
Absolutely.
Well, one, just going back tothe locus of control, is that
we have to recognize, okay,what is it that I can control?
I can't control if someone hasa perception of me that is
different than my perception ofmyself. What I can control is
what I decide to do with thatfeedback. Right. And so,
(18:21):
recognizing that there may bemisconceptions , um, is that
that's still a narrative. I'velearned this from Glade Holman
, and the , you know, theLearningBridge is that, that
narrative, whether you believethat it's true or not, it is
what it is .
Troy Blaser (18:38):
Right. It's the story that person's telling
themselves about you. Right?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (18:44):
That's right. And you can't do
anything about what is inanother person's head. All you
can do is manage your ownbehavior and conduct. So, you
know , I always challenge , uh,my students and my team members
is like, let's look at thefeedback. We get this a lot. We
will ask clients for feedbackon the services that we
(19:06):
provide. It might be like a daylong facilitated activity. And
in variable , you'll havepeople who didn't wanna be
there, they got other stuff todo, they didn't really find it
important. It's not personal,but it's important that we take
that feedback and we look at itand we say, is there something
that we can learn from this sothat the next time we design
(19:28):
this, we can make it meaningfulfor the largest number of
people? We will not makeeverybody happy. And if we have
to figure out what does successlook like for us? And be okay
with that.
Troy Blaser (19:42):
So you're really looking forward, you're saying,
okay, this is useful feedback.
What can we do better nexttime? Let's look forward, let's
look ahead
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (19:49):
Lessons learned,
Troy Blaser (19:51):
Thinking of the first model and your locus of
control versus , uh, yourfears. Are those, how are those
two related? It seems like Ican think about it in two ways.
One, I can, I can think, well,I recognize that's outside of
my control, and maybe thatincreases my fear of that
(20:11):
thing.
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (20:12):
Absolutely.
Troy Blaser (20:13):
Or I can recognize that it's outside of my
control, and therefore I canlet it go and not be anxious
about it because I I don't haveany control over it.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (20:21):
Well, we will be anxious about things
that are outside of ourcontrol. But I have an
activity, it's called the worrybuckets. And so we write down
everything that is worryingyou, everything that's
stressing you out, making youanxious, making you afraid. Uh,
so your fears are on that listtoo. Right. And these , those
lists are pretty long thesedays, and then so we go back
(20:45):
through and we say, okay, Iwant you to put each of those
items into one of threebuckets. Either you have no
control over it, you havepartial control over it, or you
have total control over it. AndI want you to think about, so
let's go back through and let'sdisposition. Just put 'em in
the buckets. All right. Let'slook at this bucket of these
things that we have no controlover. So how do you release
(21:08):
yourself then from trying toresolve those things? It
doesn't mean you won't worryabout them anymore. But it
means that you'll let go of theidea that you have to fix it.
And then how will you releaseit? And the example that I love
to give to my students is thatfor several years, our family
(21:28):
has had , uh, members of thefamily who suffer from the
disease of addiction. And whenyou have an addicted loved one,
it is very hard to watch theminflict harm on their self ,
especially because it'sprolonged over such a period of
time. But one of the firstthings they teach you when you
go into sort of this, the , Icall it the , the recovery for
(21:50):
the family is that you have torelease them to their higher
power and their higher power isnot you.
Troy Blaser (21:58):
Mm. Yeah.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (21:59):
Because sometimes we have a false sense
of being responsible for otherpeople's stuff.
Troy Blaser (22:05):
I have to fix it for them somehow.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (22:07):
It's the heroic. Sometimes we're
just wired that way. But Ithink even as leaders, we feel
like everything that our peopletell us is something that we
have a responsibility to fix.
And some of it is ourresponsibility, some of it
isn't. And that's where I thinkthese buckets are also
(22:28):
important for leaders, becausethere's in the no control
bucket, right. So there arethings that affect our
organization that are relatedto forces in the environment,
forces of influence around ourorganization that our people
are worried about. I have nocontrol over them, but we wanna
talk through that, right? Sopartial control. So there may
(22:52):
be some things. The examplethat I like to use is when we
got a new president to theuniversity and our team was
moved , uh, into that officeand we had a new reporting line
and a new boss and said, well,we don't have any control over
what's gonna be important tothat new person, but what we do
have control over partialcontrol is what he knows about
(23:13):
us. We can't control what hethinks about us, but we can
control what he knows about us.
So let's get our annual reporttogether. Let's make sure that
our KPIs are tight. Let's makesure that we're very clear and
explanatory about the valuethat we deliver. Like that's a
partial control thing. And thenthe total control is like, we
(23:33):
have total control as a group.
We just did this this morningover how we operate internally.
How consistent, howsynchronized we are in terms of
our, our delivery, how we showup. You know, we can't control
the land of traffic, but we canmake sure that we leave early
enough that we're not late foran important event.
Troy Blaser (23:53):
There you go.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (23:55):
Which in Atlanta, that means three
hours before you're supposed tobe there.
Troy Blaser (23:58):
Well, I'm sorry for that. Well, okay. So we've
talked a little bit aboutgiving feedback. We've talked a
little bit about gettingfeedback, receiving feedback.
If we think about growing fromfeedback, you know, and if you
think about professionals whowant to advance their careers,
what are some ways that theycan proactively use feedback,
(24:21):
whether it's from managers, butmaybe also from peers or other
teams or even setbacks? Whatare some ways that they can use
that feedback to acceleratetheir leadership growth?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (24:31):
Yeah. I love this and I love the grow
part of your model, because thetitle of my course is actually
"Strategies for BuildingResilience: Growing Through
What We're Going Through."
Troy Blaser (24:42):
Oh, I love it!
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (24:44):
And this is really the essence of
resilience, which is how to useadversity challenge and change
our acute shocks and chronicstressors as ways to really ,
uh, adapt, survive, and thrive.
Which, and that's where thegrowth part comes. So one of
the exercises I love to do onthe first day of class with my
(25:05):
students is we do therollercoaster exercise. It's
actually one that I learnedwhen I started my doctoral
program during new studentorientation is that you take a
look back at your life and youmap it out on two axis. Along
the horizontal axis is time.
And the vertical axis is thequality of the experience. And
you just take a moment toreflect. And you can go back
(25:28):
five years, 10 years, beginningof your career, the beginning
of your life, if you want to goback that far, and you just
say, okay, what are themilestones, the major events
that have happened in my lifethat have shaped my outlook the
most, the highs and the lows?
(25:49):
And then you map 'em out, high,low , high, low . Where are
they? You can do the same thingwith feedback. Right. And you
can say, let , let me look atthe things, because life is
feedback. Feedback doesn't justhappen verbally. It happens
through our lived experience.
And so, as these parts of ourlived experience are either
(26:10):
high or low , or in the middle,I have 'em actually map it. So
when you get done looking atit, they all go like this, most
of them. Mine is like this,this, this, you know , it's
just really, really high highsand super, super low lows. Then
we go, okay, let's go back andsay what, what gave me the
(26:31):
energy to power back up again?
And what did I learn from thosepoints , uh, on that map? And
how does it shape the way thatI see myself? Uh, invariably we
are much stronger than we everthink we could be until we go
(26:53):
through something reallydifficult. And then it's like,
wow. Like I, if you told mebefore that happened--you know
, my husband died when he was47, and I was 44. My son was
10. If you would've told me amonth before he died that that
was gonna happen, I would'vetold you my life would be over.
(27:15):
I could never have gottenthrough that. And it was, you
know, in reflection, it wasactually one of the catalysts
that has gotten me to where Iam right now. I wouldn't be
having this conversation withyou, Troy, right now if that
had not have happened. Becauseof what I learned through that,
which was my purpose is muchdifferent than what I thought
(27:38):
it was.
Troy Blaser (27:40):
Well, first of all, thank you for sharing
about your husband's passingand how it helped you realize
how strong you are. I , onething I like about that
rollercoaster exercise is thatidea of looking back even
farther back into the past tosee what kind of lessons might
be there. I think it's a usefulthing to stop and, and take
(28:01):
stock of where did I come fromall the way back to the
beginning of my career or my,you know, education or whatever
it might be. And saying from myperspective today, are there
lessons to be learned from thatexperience that maybe happened
to me 10 or 15 or 20 years ago?
Um, that maybe I, I didn't seethose lessons at the time, but
(28:24):
because I'm, I've changed overtime, I can look back and say,
oh, there's a lesson for me fortoday from that experience from
so long ago.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (28:32):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Troy Blaser (28:33):
It's a worthwhile thing to do. You know,
obviously you don't wanna livein the past, but every once in
a while to kind of take stockand say , "Where did I come
from and, and what lessons arethere for me to use going
forward?"
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (28:44):
Well, that's the, you made me think
of the Sankofa bird, you know,which is a African symbol of a
bird where it's head isactually , um, facing
backwards, but it's goingforwards. And, you know, it is
that power and importance ofreflection while continuing to
(29:05):
move forward. One of the thingsI've been working on , uh,
writing is, is about life inthe rear view mirror. Things
are much closer than theyappear.
Troy Blaser (29:14):
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:16):
And you know, you can't drive down the
highway looking through yourrear view mirror the whole
time.
Troy Blaser (29:21):
Right.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:23):
But you have to glance at it
periodically to know what'sbehind you.
Troy Blaser (29:29):
That's true. Yeah, to know where you came from and
what else might be lurking backthere.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:34):
Live through the windshield, glance
at the rear view.
Troy Blaser (29:38):
Okay. That , yes.
I have a daughter who's 15,will be 16 in a few months, so
we're working on her driver'slicense, and I'll pass that
particular tip onto her
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:50):
Don't linger there too long .
Troy Blaser (29:51):
Not a metaphor.
Literally, here's how youshould drive
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (29:57):
Don't linger in the rear view mirror
too long .
Troy Blaser (29:59):
Um , Sonia is there, is there a project or is
there something you're workingon right now that you're
especially passionate aboutthat you would share with us?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (30:08):
Well, I have , uh, a book that I'm just
finishing up. It's calledLessons in Resilience. And ,
uh, hopefully , uh, it'll bedone in the next few months. So
, um, taking a lot, you know,it's like every time I have a
cohort of students that I'mworking with, it's like, oh, I
need to add that, because asyou teach, you learn. So it's
(30:31):
been one of those projects thatI can't end because there's so
much new, new really insightsthat I've been gaining , um,
through this experience. Butthe, the cohort itself is
actually going to be ending insix weeks, and we're actually
converting that course to a ,uh, full semester three credit
(30:55):
course in the School ofPsychology in the fall. So I
think that's my breaking pointto say we've closed this
chapter, finish that up.
Troy Blaser (31:06):
Version 1.0 of , of the book is ready to roll
out now. Maybe there's anotherversion down the road, but for
now, these are the lessons.
Tell me the name again.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:17):
Lessons in Resilience. There's a
subtitle that I'm still workingout.
Troy Blaser (31:22):
And is this your first book or have you been
through this process before?
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:26):
I've written a lot, but this will be
the first book.
Troy Blaser (31:29):
Well, congratulations. I, I know that
it's not an easy thing to do topublish a book, so I admire
that.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:36):
Thank You.
Troy Blaser (31:37):
Wonderful. Sonia, if people have been intrigued
by our conversation today, ifthey want to know more or if
they want to connect with you ,um, is that something that you
would be open to and, and whatshould they do?
Sonia Alvarez-Robi (31:48):
Absolutely.
Um, so I have a , a website formy resilience work called
whatcouldyoube.com.
Troy Blaser (31:56):
Okay.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (31:57):
Uh , you can certainly , uh, reach
out to me there. That's mostlythe work that I do outside of
my role at Georgia Tech around, uh, helping people navigate ,
uh, life transitions. Or ifyou're interested in the work
that we're doing here atGeorgia Tech, it's
consulting.gatech .edu .
Troy Blaser (32:13):
Cool. Fantastic.
Thank you so much for yourtime. I've really enjoyed our
conversation and the ideas thatwe've been able to explore
together. Thanks again forjoining us.
Sonia Alvarez-Robinson (32:22):
Thank you so much. It's been a
pleasure.
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