Dissonance Disrupted Empowering Leaders to navigate from discomfort to dialogue

Dissonance Disrupted
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In a world where DEI seems lost and inclusion is becoming a bad word, we are having real conversations about leadership through the lenses of generational and neurodiversity. We are forging a path toward personal empowerment, conscious leadership, and organizational success. By leveraging evidence-based practices, rooted in neuroscience we can nurture a flourishing workplace culture wherever diversity thrives. Dissonance Disrupted is hosted by Sherri Dockree & Nicki Straza.

Episodes

  1. 2d ago

    "Why are you whispering the word black?" with Jacquie Daniel

    Hosts Nikki Straza and Sherri Dockree welcome guest Jackie Daniel to discuss how leadership and workplaces have shifted from expecting employees to bring only professionalism to encouraging people to bring their whole selves, while noting the common gap between DEI statements and daily behavior. Jackie describes fear and lack of understanding as key barriers to inclusion and explains how leaders can reduce harm by leading with vulnerability, creating “Brave Spaces,” and fostering psychological safety and a learning mindset. Drawing on experiences as the only Black woman in leadership settings, she emphasizes seeing the human first, avoiding tokenization, and inviting diverse voices to the table before implementing decisions. The conversation also highlights self-awareness, reflection, and self-value as foundations for valuing others, plus modeling boundaries to make leadership sustainable and support a flourishing workplace rooted in curiosity, safety, and growth.

  2. Oct 12

    Ep.10 Leadership Development

    Episode 10 — Developing Leaders The way we build leaders isn't working — and the numbers make that hard to argue with. 92% of Gen Z are uninterested in leadership roles. 85% of current leaders are struggling with burnout. Those two facts are not a coincidence. In this episode, Sherri and Nicki dig into why the traditional leadership pipeline keeps producing the same result: we take the person who works the hardest, give them more responsibility, and call it development. We promote the best carpenter into management and then wonder why all the apprentices leave. Being exceptional at a skill and being equipped to lead people are two completely different things — and most organizations have never stopped to notice the difference. The conversation gets honest about what's actually happening to middle managers right now — squeezed between task demands that haven't shrunk and people expectations that have grown, with no bandwidth, no model, and no one taking anything off their plate to make room for the human side of the job. Sherri brings the neurodiversity lens to leadership development in a way that rarely gets named: many of the most driven, high-performing leaders are neurodivergent, and they got to the top by masking, people-pleasing, and problem-solving at a rate that looked like strength and worked like a slow drain. If you want them to stay in leadership — and you want the next generation to want it at all — the role itself has to be redesigned. The bottom line from this conversation: organizations need to stop promoting their best doers and start investing in their developers — the people who build capacity in others, who pass on skills, who help culture take root. That's the pipeline. Everything else is just adding more to someone's plate and calling it growth. If this one hit close to home, you might also want to go back and listen to Episode 9 — Offensive Recognition — where Sherri and Nicki get into what we get wrong about recognizing and rewarding the people we're supposed to be developing.

  3. Sep 9

    Ep. 9 Feedback isn't just feedback

    Feedbackis one of the most critical drivers of high-performing teams, yet it remainsone of the most misunderstood and dreaded workplace interactions. In thisepisode, co-hosts Nicki Straza and Sherri Dockree dive into theuncomfortable realities of workplace feedback, unpacking why our gut reactionis almost universally to anticipate criticism and personal attack. They examinehow the stories we tell ourselves—often shaped by a perfectionist mindset—cantransform constructive input into feelings of inadequacy and shame rather thanopportunities for iterative growth. Theconversation centers on the dissonance between leaders striving to createpsychological safety and the mistaken belief that safety means eliminatingdiscomfort. Nicki and Sherri reveal how this tension is exacerbated acrossgenerational divides—where older, command-and-control norms collide withyounger expectations for collaborative validation—and through neurodiverseexperiences, where rejection sensitivity and emotional masking can amplifyperceived threats to status and belonging. Ultimately, the hosts explore the fine line betweenempathy and accountability, illustrating how weaponized emotions, unclearstandards, and blurred boundaries can derail performance. By advocating forradical candor, transparent expectations, and curiosity over correction, thisepisode provides a roadmap for transforming feedback from an adversarial ordealinto a shared, empowering dialogue.

  4. Aug 11

    Episode 8 Thanks for Nothing

    Reward and recognition used to be simple: show up, get your paycheck, and maybe a watch after 25 years of service. But that model is broken, and it might be actively insulting the people it's meant to honor. In this episode, Sherri and Nicki dig into why generic rewards land as hollow, especially for neurodivergent employees who often bring far more than "just a job" to their work. They talk about the shift from achievement-based recognition to recognition that actually sees potential and development, why appreciation now has to flow from employer to employee to retain talent in a market full of choice, and why a gift card will never substitute for someone actually knowing what you value. The conversation moves through generational differences in how recognition lands, the impossible math of trying to personalize appreciation across a large team, and why descriptive, specific appreciation, actually naming what someone did and why it mattered, beats a generic "good job" every time. They close with a simple question worth asking your own team: what does meaningful appreciation actually look like to the people you work with?

  5. Jul 14

    E7 - Is it safe in here?

    Hosts Nicki Straza and Sherri Dockree introduce the Dissonance Disrupted Podcast and begin a conversation on wellbeing at work through psychological safety, emphasizing it is often misunderstood as a box-checking, task-oriented, or purely cognitive initiative. They address employer fears of being fully responsible for employees’ psychological health, reframing it as creating environments, guardrails, and shared accountability where leaders and team members are each responsible for their actions and reactions. The hosts argue psychological safety is fundamentally physiological and rooted in neurobiology: when people perceive threat, they shift from prefrontal executive functioning to amygdala-driven fight/flight/fawn/freeze responses, making logic-based persuasion ineffective until regulation occurs. They explore how neurodiversity (including ADHD and rejection sensitivity) can intensify emotional threat responses and how ambiguity, lack of clarity, and insufficient autonomy can undermine safety and performance. They also highlight generational differences—Boomer and Gen X stigma around emotions versus Gen Z’s non-negotiable expectation of emotional consideration—and the need to honor humanity and dignity while maintaining boundaries and clarity. Practical strategies include using story-sharing to build curiosity and connection (e.g., structured lunches that prevent eating alone), focusing on “people before task” to build capacity, and encouraging leaders to start with self-safety, self-kindness, and awareness of their own stress responses, while acknowledging limitations in access to support and the real leadership challenge of retention versus cutting losses.

  6. Jun 9

    Episode 6 - Why Trauma Informed Matters with Kathleen Foldvari

    In this episode Sherri and Nicki welcome theirfirst ever guest, Kathleen Foldvari — social worker, psychotherapist, and founder of A Minute for Mental Health. Kathleen works with healthcare professionals, educators, first responders and leaders to prevent burnout before it becomes a crisis. The conversation unpacks what trauma informed leadership actually looks like in practice — not as a clinical concept, but as a daily leadership skill. From the trauma hierarchy we create in our own minds,to the way unprocessed trauma quietly shows up as micromanagement, reactivity,and disconnection from teams, this episode challenges leaders to stop assumingthey are fine and start leading from a place of genuine self awareness. Sherri shares her own experience of witnessing atraumatic accident and not recognizing its impact until someone else named it.Nicki connects the generational lens — exploring how older generations wereconditioned to suppress while younger generations are pushing for authenticity,and why we actually need both. The conversation closes with Kathleen's practical challenge to leaders: shift from trauma-informed to trauma-assumed. Assume everyone has been through something. Lead from there.

  7. May 12

    Episode 5 - Trust

    Yes, trust matters, and in the workplace, we know it often gets overlooked. sing to talk about why that trust matters and how it may be at the root of workplace challenges, while also considering how this impacts different generations and neurodiversities.

  8. Apr 14

    Episode 4 - Well-Being at Work Part 2

    In part two of Dissonance Disrupted’s wellbeing-at-work discussion, hosts Sherri Dockree and Nicki Straza explore how neurodiversity inclusion benefits everyone by creating clarity, accessibility, and innovative diverse thinking, likening it to clearing a ramp so all can thrive. They argue workplace wellbeing and culture require continual attention, feedback loops, and a “way of being” rather than performative box-checking, since individual needs shift day to day. The conversation emphasizes trust and psychological safety as layered and uneven across organizations, and highlights the importance of relationship repair through acknowledgement, accountability, and “circle back” conversations—especially for neurodivergent employees where unresolved conflict can lead to rumination, personalization, and relationship breakdown. They connect generational differences to vulnerability and conflict skills, noting younger generations may model stronger emotional intelligence, while older habits were shaped by higher perceived risk. They also address boundaries and policies when wellbeing efforts don’t resonate with some individuals, stressing leaders must own their own thriving, manage ego, and invest time and pace to build respectful, human-centered workplaces that support both people and business.

  9. Mar 10

    Episode 3 - Well-being At Work Part 1

    Welcome to Part 1 of a special two-part episode of the Dissonance Disrupted podcast!. Today, hosts Sherri Dockree and Nicki Straza tackle a massive and incredibly timely topic: well-being in the workplace. But rather than offering a one-size-fits-all approach, they peel back the layers to examine how neurodiversity and generational differences fundamentally alter what it means to thrive at work, and how the definition of "thriving" changes from person to person. The hosts dive deeply into the inherent tension—or "dissonance"—that arises when the well-being of the individual conflicts with the demands and urgency of the organization. From Boomers defining respect through the lens of authority and title, to younger generations seeking mutuality and authenticity, and the unique communication needs of neurodivergent individuals, this episode explores the complex, messy, and necessary work of creating truly supportive company cultures. Ultimately, this first half of the conversation challenges leaders and team members alike to move beyond performative actions and "pizza parties". It is a powerful call to embrace empathy, emotional intelligence, and continuous investment in the human side of business in order to build trust—the foundational element that allows both people and organizations to flourish.

  10. Feb 10

    Episode 2 - Meet Sherri

    In the debut episode of the Dissonance Disrupted Podcast, hosts Nicki Straza, a certified flourishing facilitator, and Sherri Dockree, an ICF certified coach, explore themes of leadership, diversity, and inclusion. This episode emphasizes the importance of neurodiversity and psychological safety in the workplace. Sherri shares her personal experiences in executive leadership, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of leading a diverse team. The hosts discuss strategies for building trust, encouraging curiosity, and fostering a supportive workplace culture. They advocate for disregarding the negative connotations of "woke culture" and lean towards a human-centered approach to leadership, prioritizing connections and learning from failures. The podcast aims to challenge traditional leadership mindsets, urging leaders to embrace vulnerability and continuous growth to create thriving organizational environments.

  11. Jan 13

    Episode 1 - Interview with Nicki Straza

    Episode 1 Description: Meet Nicki In the opening episode of Dissonance Disrupted, co-host Nicki Straza is interviewed by Sherri Dockree to set the foundation for honest conversations about leadership, wellbeing, and workplace culture. Drawing from lived leadership experience and neuroscience-informed insight, Nicki explores what healthy culture actually feels like, how burnout quietly takes root, and why emotional intelligence and psychological safety are no longer optional. This episode invites leaders to reflect on the unseen ways culture impacts people’s lives, families, and sense of purpose, and challenges the belief that performance and humanity must be in tension.

  12. Season 1, Episode 1 Trailer

    Dissonance Disrupted PreLaunch Introduction

    Dissonance Disrupted a podcast empowering leaders to navigate from discomfort to dialogue

  • 1 Trailer
    11 Episodes

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About

In a world where DEI seems lost and inclusion is becoming a bad word, we are having real conversations about leadership through the lenses of generational and neurodiversity. We are forging a path toward personal empowerment, conscious leadership, and organizational success. By leveraging evidence-based practices, rooted in neuroscience we can nurture a flourishing workplace culture wherever diversity thrives. Dissonance Disrupted is hosted by Sherri Dockree & Nicki Straza.

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