Memorable Quotes:
“I get to help create and cultivate these containers and design these spaces where we are developing ourselves as leaders in service of this concept of cultivating belonging in our organization. And it’s cultivating belonging for ourselves and coming back to ourselves. And in doing so, we start to see people. We start to see whole people. And I think my assertion here is that is what leads to belonging.” – Nicole Ortiz
“We get so many stories about the parts of humanity that we might call ugly or problematic. And I continue to turn my gaze towards the beauty and dare I say practice loving all of humanity because the way I’ve chosen to do this work in my journey and emotional maturity is to approach it through love and compassion always.” – Nicole Ortiz
“I think we’re being invited into thinking about, the ‘what’ we do might change in certain ways, but ‘how’ we do it is the core that we get to continue to come back to. So how do I show up in spaces? How do I as an individual choose to show up in every moment because every moment matters in this work.” – Nicole Ortiz
“You [Jerry] talk about the strong back and the open heart. That’s what we’re really called into right now. Strong back. Who am I in this world? Open heart. How will I receive others in this work? So that’s my approach to this.” – Nicole Ortiz
“We are developing a program with this idea of developing leaders as coaches and being coach-like, and that this is an approach that we’re taking here at Denver Zoo is that we want all of our leaders to be able to be coach-like for ourselves and for others. And in this coaching program, the first component is I need to know myself. I need to know who I am, exploring my identity. I need to know how my mind works in that what are my go-to thoughts? What are the biases and the heuristics that I move through the world with? What are the stories I tell about myself? And what are the stories I tell about?” – Nicole Ortiz
“I think sometimes we think I need to focus externally first and figure out belonging over there. When really if I get to know myself first and foremost, then I can transcend that ego or that self and realize how deeply connected I am to everything.” – Nicole Ortiz
“Welcome the stranger to the conversation. Check yourself when denial and defensiveness are coming up and get curious about the denial and defensiveness.” – Nicole Ortiz
“Living life and observing life is a beautiful teacher of what it means to be human. And when we can take a step back from our experiences and say, what was in this experience for me? How did I learn, evolve, and grow? What did I learn from this thing that was hard or uncomfortable? And what does that teach me or show me about my core values or what’s important to me?” – Nicole Ortiz
“How do we start to cultivate communities and supports around us that can help us become the kind of the kind of people we want to become, which again is coming back to myself. Who is the person I want to be?” – Nicole Ortiz
