I have Jerry and Gautam here from Solutions IQ who would be helping us in this today's session. And I hope, I mean did anyone of you get any intimation to carry your diving suits? No? Okay. Don't worry even if you don't have, doesn't matter, we really explore a lot in this one hour. So what I would be doing in this one hour is I will make you all to really deep dive into this limitless sea of retrospectives which has been one of my interest area for a couple of years. So I am Madhvi, I am from Solutions IQ, I am from Hyderabad and I work as an agile consulting coach for SIQ. So that's about me and Jerry would you like to just introduce, so Jerry is our, no he is a coach and he is agile consultant at SIQ, he is CSC so he will be helping us in this session too. So how I have divided this one hour session is, the first 15 minutes I would be doing a retrospective surgery where we will talk about the common symptoms, the common smells that we come across while doing the retrospectives and what was my approach of tackling them and then the remaining 45 minutes you all would be doing a retrospective surgery wherein I will be giving you some real life example scenarios and you will play with it. So retrospective surgery, why am I calling it surgery? Any thoughts? Post-mortem. Okay. Okay. Any other thoughts? Why surgery? Yes. Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. So difficult. Good. Okay. So assume, no, you have a patient suffering with the diabetics and he has a tumor in the hand and he comes to a doctor. What would a doctor do? Would he directly take him to the operation theater and operate? No, right? What happens if he does that? That might be his last day, right? So what does a doctor do typically? He tries to assess, he tries to do some preliminary investigations, find out the background of that particular person, what are his ailments, get some preliminary information and then he will suggest a suitable surgical procedure that will suit him, right? So that is the same case even in software engineering. When we are working with teams, when we are trying to, you know, use some method or a technique, understanding the background and the context of the teams is very, very important. So we as crumb masters and agile coaches, when we are working with the teams, we need to really understand what is the context, what is the background, what is the situation that we are posed with and then try to use a suitable technique or a method that will actually suit the given scenario, got it? Now these are some of the common symptoms or I can say retrospective smells that I have come across while working with the teams or as in repeated issues pop up, he has an engrossing and engaging discussions are missing, teams just come, how was the tea, how was the coffee, they just, just go away, right? And teams are present virtually, just for the sake of it, they come and they sleep, then they go, okay? Routine stuff, nothing interest the teams and observably gets boring over time and I am sure all of you must have encountered similar symptoms. So do you all want to share some other symptoms which you have come across while doing retrospectives with your teams? Maybe one or two pointers or exactly the same symptoms, common symptoms, yes? So there's no focus, basically you don't come up with something solid, you don't conclude on anything, it just goes on and on like waves. Time boxing is also very important and that's an art, art of facilitation which doesn't come in one day, okay? So the intent of this workshop is to really make you all think, make you all realize that we can do something different, come up with our own ideas and techniques to make these reflections really lively. So the retro, the definition here which I have put on this slide is the actual, it is the actual key characteristics of an engaging team, right? Is it obvious? Realize where you are and where you want to be, engage the team in fruitful discussions. Teamwork to build V over I attitude and you need to really release the power of your inspect and adapt cycles, openness and transparency, which are the main two pillars of your inspect and adapt cycles. Now, yes, all of us want to change, we want to do something really innovative or creative, but how do we do that? We need to bring in that small change, do something different, break the monotonous, break the usual norms and try out something different from your end. So continuously, we need to ponder as in, what am I doing tomorrow? So that I can achieve better results than today. It's like, we are so much habituated to do the same thing over and over. It's like I have a fever and I take the same clothes in every time. So what happens over a period of time? Our body gets resistance to that, right? So after a period of time, we change the tablet. So similarly, we need to really break the usual norms and do something different when these meetings they get boring over a period of time. So these are some of the common techniques, old is always gold. So these are the crux of it, wherein on top of this we can always build. Whenever we see that we need to make a change, add a pinch of your salt to make it tasty. Add your own creative and innovative ideas to these basic techniques to change them. So now, what did I do? I will be sharing how I have used my real life examples and some interesting scenarios that I have come across while doing retrospectives with my teams. Okay, so let me start with an interesting experience. What does that picture show? Yeah, what does that picture show? We're flying a kite, right? So even I was, we all fly kites on Pungal Eve, the Eve of Pungal Festival. So even I was flying kites. And in the process of that, I have seen few tangles on the ground, which I was easily able to untangle with the help of my kids. But as a flight flew high and high in the sky, it got stuck between the high-tension electric wires. So I cannot go really and remove it from there because the life current is flowing through them. So I had to take help of sticks and take help of my neighbors to actually remove the kite. So I visualized, I just realized that this situation is very much similar to some of the scenarios that I was actually seeing with my teams. We come across various impediments. Some of them are like the team level impediments that we can resolve by ourselves. Some of the impediments we really need to escalate it to the next level for resolution. So we'd had a retrospective after one week of the Pungal Festival. So what I did was I just drew a kite picture on the board and I said, now look, this kite is a good work that we have been doing. Identify what are the impediments that we have, what we can resolve by ourselves, and what we really need to escalate it to the next level for resolution. So somehow teams like this method a lot and they were able to draw a clear line of distinction between the different levels of impediments in an organization. So this was one of the very interesting experience I had and it really worked out well with my teams. Yes, the next one. Any guesses, what is that real launch? Good, Mangalyan, right? So this is the picture of a Mangalyan. It was launched, I think last September or sometime. And it was all set to hit the mass orbiter. And immediately the next day actually we had a retrospective with our team. And the coincidence was, Mangalyan had one year to hit the mass orbiter. Whereas our team, we just had one sprint to finish that quarter release. So somehow I tried to correlate these two. I just went ahead, drew this picture on the board, the rocket picture and I said, it was an affiliate team. So I said, this is our Afyan. And I said, as Mangalyan is important to India, our Afyan is very important to our organization. And the correlation is we have just one week to complete our sprint. Mangalyan has one year. So quickly identify what are the impediments that you have and what are the driving forces that are helping you to meet your sprint goal. So the teams were really happy with this metaphor, with this comparison. And they really could come up with good data points. So the message here is that whenever you hear or see something live, you can take it back to your teams because they can really correlate to them because they have seen that happening. Got my point? Okay, so I'll quickly go over the techniques so that we can actually practice them. Yes, this is one, focus word creates real focus. Now whenever I wanted my teams to really focus on some aspect, a simple example, I was seeing a lot of repeated issues, bugs coming up, technical data items coming up. So I really wanted the team to focus on quality in one of the retrospectives. So what I did is I just went ahead and added a specific focus quadrant to the normal retrospective technique. So that really helped the team to think about that particular specific accept. So it is like you can customize your existing retrospective, add a specific focus quadrant that really needs the team to focus on. So you can say focus on quality, focus on the schedule ratio, focus on velocity, whatever you want the team to retrospect on. So this also helped a lot. Yes, what is this? Team journey, any guesses? Sorry, team journey, any guesses? Release planning, okay? Any other guess team journey? As a team, we have to win. So basically the team journey is like we can use this technique or I use this technique whenever the team actually has traveled together, maybe for four or five sprints. It's like a combined retrospective of four or five sprints. So the scenario what actually was that I was encountered was, I was working with the organizational scrum master and a lot of structural changes were happening. So suddenly I was moved to a new team, made a scrum master of that team. And that particular team had already completed four sprints. They were entering into the fifth sprint. And I saw mixed emotions in the team members. One was very happy, one was not very happy. The other one was he doesn't speak at all. So I just wanted to understand what is the current as a state. So then I just drew a train picture on the board and I said, no, this is our team train. We have traveled together for four sprints. Now we are entering into the fifth sprint. So let us retrospect on how our four sprints went. So the concept here is that whenever we use the term journey, the teams can really visualize on how they have actually traveled together. No, it doesn't mean that every time you have to draw a train. If your team likes to fly in a plane, you have high budget team. You can draw a plane also. So whatever vehicle your team likes, you can just put it there. So team journey is like a concept that can be used whenever the teams have completed four or five sprints and you want to retrospect on how that particular journey was. And this is one of my favorites. I'll say this is in a mountain trekking. So imagine this person is climbing the mountain and the goal is to reach the top of the mountain. So when he's climbing, we have some slippery slopes here which will bring him down. Some elements like having a helmet, wearing a shoes and ropes will help him reach the mountain goal. And that is the most important. The unique thing in this particular metaphor is the risk part in the form of thunder and rain. So I use this metaphor saying that whenever the team is working on some critical aspect, say you're doing changing the underlying architecture, which has a lot of impact, a lot of risk can be there because you're changing the underlying architecture and many components could be affected. So this technique can be used wherein you really want the team to retrospect, think of the upcoming risks, so that they can mitigate them well while trying to come up with the action items. So this aspect really worked very well for us. Any questions? This is self-explanatory. This is like in a highway drive. The team is going on a highway drive. And these are like the sign boards that will help the team move ahead. And these are like the impediments, the pitches on the road.  And this is again a very useful thing. It's like, where is the block in the flow? This can be typically used with Kanban teams wherein you have so many problems, you really want to understand where the problem is in which stage. So what I did was I just drew this diagram and I named the stages that were applicable to the teams. And then we tried to identify the cloud tunnel held points in each of the stages. And so in whichever stage we have more held points, that was a problematic stage. So it was very evident rather than doing a general retrospective. And this is the most famous that we use at SIQ, Pain and Pleasure, where we try to identify the pain points and the pleasure points and then talk about that. Now let's talk about few techniques. What else can we do to make these meetings lively? We should never forget to appreciate the team members for the good work that they do. Because whenever you give away some smiley badges and thank them, appreciate them in front of everybody, it will have an everlasting impact on the teams. And they will be motivated to do good work. And you can change the style. Instead of having the retrospective in the same room, same office, you can once in a while go out, do a retrospective over coffee talk, over lunch. But in all these cases, your scrum master should keep his radars on, note on few important points so that he can take it forward. Innovationgames.com, it's coming up. So these pictures that you have seen here, now all these are the actual retrospective pictures that we have done with the teams. And these games are actually online, liveoninnovationgames.com. So you can log into this and you can use these. So these are again the live, the actual pictures that we have tried out with the teams. So go to innovationgames.com, you have N number of retrospective techniques there. So suppose your team two members are in Bangalore, two members are in Hyderabad, one is in Pune, it's very easy and it is very effective. It's on just one click of a button, you can consolidate all the retrospective data in an Excel sheet. So action plan, which is very important, at the end of retrospective, you really need to come up with the action plan as to how you will work on whatever you have discussed. You can always save the action plan in Excel sheet or have a visual indicator or radiator like this in your team space. Now, which technique to use? Any guesses? How will you, which technique to use? Understand your team, understand the context, understand the background, look at the situation and then use your appropriate technique. Device your own technique that will really make the teams talk and think. There's no one liner or you know, it's like this technique only has to be used. There's no single rule like that. So these are some of the pictures and you can find the same pictures there. We have put up there, so you can just look at them and the same games are live on innovationgames.com. You can log on to innovationgames.com and use these games, play these games for distributed teams, yes. So there's one technique there, good to great. Your teams say good, but what do you really need to become great? See where you are, what is that you're doing? Maybe you're doing good at TDD, but are you really good at the integration part of it across all the features? You need to understand, just discuss with the team. We are good, I agree, but what is that, what can we do to become great? It's again about discussion. So now let's get our hands dirty. Let's do the retrospectives. So how we will be doing the retrospectives is each table, now we will make five groups, form five groups, each one of you will get real life scenarios and at this toolkit of retrospective techniques. So pick one scenario out of them and find out which technique is relevant to that particular scenario and do a retrospective. You get 10 minutes to do the retrospective, then you need to debrief for three minutes. What was the scenario? Why did you choose this particular technique to do retrospective for that scenario? So I'll give you postage scenarios and all these. So once you tell which scenario and which tool, which technique you have picked, I'll give you a chart for this. It's not, these are actual games on innovationgames.com. These are online games. These are very quick, I mean, I can give you an example last retrospective, I've just finished in 20 minutes because it's like online, everyone will type from different locations and on just one click of an Excel button, see here you have an Excel click, right? So on one click of an Excel button, you get all the data correlated. So it's, yes. In a room normal, not more than an R. Okay, so Jerry, I think we need to distribute this. Shall we make five teams? So one table here, second, third, fourth and fifth. Five teams, let's do a sketch. So this is one table over here. Second, where's the second table? Maybe you can just join. It's not at least one action item. So let us know which technique you're picking so that we will give you, and please raise your hands when you're ready with the scenario and techniques so that we can give you the appropriate charts. They will choose one corner, they'll stick a chart and they will do it. Just pick one, and there's some keywords which will help you do it. So just have 10 minutes because then we'll end with a game. Let's do it fast. Everything is for a team. So which technique did you pick up and when you're in a room? Fast? You don't have time. What is the movie one? Which movie are you in? Okay? So that they really need to focus on after nominations, focus. Sergio, we are at your door. So all the teams have started their retrospectives. Do you just have five more minutes to complete your retrospectives? So all the teams have started their retrospectives. Do you just have five more minutes to complete your retrospectives? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're in the wrong picture. You're in the wrong picture. No, but it's the same thing. Even what you're saying is the same thing, just how you're pace, please. Whatever you're drawing, sorry. You're in the wrong picture. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing. It's very, very, very hard. How can you do it all at once? Just take the outside. How much do you want? No, I'll give you the picture. No. I don't know how much more I want it, but your retrospectives. Think of what the scenario is and think... I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So, please come over here, we will have two teams debrief and then we will end with an interesting game, ok. We will start your journey of retrospectives with your, with an interesting game. So, come forward, we will first hear this team debrief and then this team. So, all of you please come forward, come this side, we will have this team debrief. So, all of you can listen. Come, yeah. Come forward. So, you want a debrief first? So, please use the mic. Explain what scenario, why you have picked up this technique and one action item, top most action item that you have come out. So, we have chosen why Hindi movies do not generally get nominated and that line. So, we felt that trekking was the right criteria because it had risks, it had blockers and it had enablers. So, we felt that this would suit our criteria in helping why Hindi movies should get nominated for Oscars. So, you want to pick all of them, talk about all of them. Yeah, I can just quickly give an overview of what you have.  Same for less enablers, we have not experimental, good music, real world stories, latest technologies, have the Hindi movie in English as well, so a lot of people would love it. Ok, acquired taste, so we feel that people who like Hindi movies have an acquired taste, not every English person can like Hindi movie, so promote more and more of Hindi movie. Sprint goal, audience taste, underworld involvement and black money, losing on revenue. Ok, risks. So, I think that's from our team. So, how do you feel using such techniques? So, I think… Were you able to relate the scenario with this technique? Was it helpful? It was useful but if I had to connect this scenario to my real work scenario, I have always feel that in retrospective, we come out with solid and awesome points. From my three years experience, I can tell you that we've never gone back. So, this week retrospective, we've had action items but we've never bothered checking whether those action items were completed or not. So, a very important point to note down is whenever we are starting a retrospective for the current sprint, revisit the previous sprint action items to check whether we have really acted upon them or not. If not, consider whether you really need to again reconsider them in this sprint or not. Yeah. I'm having a suggestion about this. What we are doing is… Correct. Improve it. And you can also… Yes, that also we can do. Thank you. Put some radiation down. Yes. So, thank you. Thanks a lot. Yes. So, thank you. Next team, you want to like to debrief? Yes. So, you have to explain what was the scenario and why did you pick this technique? How did it help you? Yes. Our team members… Yeah, maybe the entire team can be here. We have chosen the case study number one. India has come to semi-finals in the World Cup. Okay. For that, we have selected this good-to-great technique. It will not get applied. As a team, as a team we selected… We felt that this is the best technique which will be adopted… So, the team is really good, but you wanted to, you know, become great by winning the World Cup. Exactly. So, we came up… Like, currently why it's good? We came up with some of the points. Like, it's good because of the team effort and team coordination and good teamwork by all the team members and currently it's in good form. And Bowlers did a fantastic job and took in almost all the matches. They took all complete ten wickets. These are the reasons for the current good situation. And how it can be… It can be a great team. It's like Bowlers should be consistent in getting more wickets. All the Bowlers, when I say. And team-wise we have to make some more smart team strategy. And consistent play. And it requires some reorg within the team. Refactoring. Refactoring. And again, like, there are some inconsistency in batting order that has to be taken care. If these things are taken care, then India will become a great team. Good. Thank you. You all know, yesterday we have seen that. Yes. Thank you. Now, the note is he has forgot one point. This exercise we have done day before yesterday. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Good. Yeah, so one more team will get a chance to debrief. Then we'll move on because we need to, you know, do an important game. Yes. Maybe you want to debrief. So make it quick. Two minutes debrief because we'll give two minutes and two minutes will wind up. Because we have a good game to play. We'll end the session with the game. So it is the same tricking thing which we have taken up. And the scenario what we have taken is the Oscar award. Why the Indian movies are not selected for the award. So we have the goal. Give a quick overview. Don't go each post it. So we have categorized the blockers, enablers and risk and what is the goal. So among the blockers, what we have, we have notified is the lack of marketing and the subject line and the budget. Budget is not that enough to go for the Indian movies to that rate. And so we have, for as an enablers, we need some of the, we felt that the international recognized musicians or any players, so which are international recognized people are needed and more of a collaboration between the production houses or any of kind. So that will be an enabler for us. And the story, no copycats. So that is what, that is the main thing and the talent grooming. So talent grooming is one of the enablers which will help us to grow. And international, international stats. Yeah, international recognized, recognized productions, across for all production, music, everything. So that will help us to move. So how did you find this technique? Was it useful? I mean, did you see any difference in the way you are doing retrospectives till now and the way you have done now? We like this technique very much because best part was the risk part because as soon as we saw that, it automatically triggers to us. And blockers and enablers, those were the two direct strategy what we got from here. So it doesn't take much time for us to realize, like think what we can do, what we can't. So we have a straightforward thing and we can easily think upon. So awesome technique, I would say that. So the intent of this workshop is also to let you all know that these five are not prescriptive techniques. You can just go and you know, just look at the situation, look at the scenario that you are posed with. Come up with your own technique that you can relate to it. That will help a lot. Just one more point is I tried with one another technique called the one word play, one word game. So just not to bore the team. So we tried with one word where for the last sprint, how would you express that sprint to be in a one word? That was really fun because we were not able to think it in one word. One word of what? Yeah, one word of how you think. So that is just for fun. Thank you. Thanks for sharing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So this last team. Hi folks. My name is Arun Kumar. We have chosen what is currently visible in Indian market where you know, you have the online stores which are killing into the physical stores. Yeah. That is what we are taking. So we try to, you know, get the enablers, blockers risk and all being sorted out. So the key blockers which we could find is one is, you know, you have this instant buying experience from your mobile. And we had a recent example of my friend who bought instantly because he got an offer over his mobile phone as an, you know, as an app, right? And then you have, you know, prices are very competitive from an online perspective because they don't have a physical store. So some of those things are there. And the neighbors which we try to do to, you know, increase the footfall. One of them is most important is quality of service. If somebody is visiting the store, he should feel a good experience of, you know, he has got the product out.  You have a family experience. So, you know, when somebody is going, like, you know, on all the big malls, you have an experience for your children, for your wife, son, kids, everybody. So there's, it's become the journey rather than, you know, just a buying experience.  So you have both online offers on the competitors' website, as well as, you know, you have the offline offers in physical stores. The risk is, you know, that you might have to maintain big inventories, thinking that, you know, based on this whole business case, you might have to put in a lot of, you know, goods into place, which cannot, may not be, you know, in a good use.  And so you can have a reduction in margins going over and over again. So those are a couple of things which we try to focus on. How did you find this new technique? Did you find it useful? What is the difference that you found? Yeah, I think... Does this trigger, trigger, trigger, you know, some kind of thought process in you? Yeah, I think it gives you a clarity of thinking on different lines, because otherwise, you know, you keep jumbling and you have to keep some track. Here it is giving you a track easily. You can, you know... So you're building a storyline? Yeah, you are building a storyline and you can, as you put something in one side, you can always look at how the other side can be, you know, working around, right? The whole problem as a journey. Yes. Yes. So exactly the intent of this workshop is also the same thing. You need to build, come up with your own storyline depending upon the situation you are in. That will help you a lot to retrospect. Okay. Thank you. Okay.  So what is this? With Titanic, right? What is happening to that? It is sinking, right? So now, what is this picture? We, you know, the game is, Sink the Titanic. Okay. Think about one pointer, one point that you can actually do. You would like to do so that you actually sink the Titanic. Maybe all of you can just come up with one point. We are playing the game. This game is called, Sink the Titanic. Okay. All of you need to give me at least one point that will make this sinking Titanic sink instantaneously, even more faster. Throw a notion over it. Yes. Put a grenade. Put a grenade. Good. Bomb. Bomb. Bomb. Any other thoughts? Quick. Tidal wave. Tidal wave. Good. Tsunami. Any other thoughts? What was, yes, you are still telling something. Okay. Now let us look at what happened here. Look at this pic. So it's, you know, really cool. You have given me such thoughts that the entire boat has just, you know, sunk in minutes. Ideally it would have taken maybe one hour, but with your thoughts, powerful thoughts, it was really, you know, pretty quick. So great job. Appreciate. Okay. Don't take it back. No, no, no. Okay.  It's like you're inverting the game that we just played. So, yes. As a team. Iceberg. Iceberg. Okay. So, I mean, good. So the main intent behind this game is, now this actually, this is actually called as Earth Triss. It's one of the popular retrospective game that is used at Solutions IQ. It is called Triss. So what we are doing here is, we are first trying to express all our negative thoughts. So once all our negative thoughts are out, now we know what we should not do in order to make your project to suck. So we have recently, we very often use this technique with our customers. So recently we had a problem wherein, you know, there were a lot of problems around the product backlog. The product owner had so many problems. User stories had so many problems. We were trying to use different techniques. Nothing worked. Then we used Triss. Using Triss first, what did the team do? They killed the product backlog.  Right? So now to invert it, it just took seconds for them to, you know, come up with thoughts. So this is a very powerful technique which Solutions IQ uses most commonly with all its customers. Just try it around. It's very good. So that's all. To summarize, it's like, you know, don't try to experiment too many things. First, understand your team. Get the context. Understand the background. Try the plain vanilla first. Use the good old techniques first. Then when you see, you know, that it has become habitual, the teams are losing interest, you add your own flavor to it. As a team, how do you want to do your retrospectives?  Your kids get bored. They say, okay, let us go to some other new hotel. So try that new hotel. You like it.  Then you hear that something else is good. Then you go there. So take a buy-in from the team. Which technique do we use? What to do? Then, you know, retrospect. So in short, there's no one-line answer, you know, to say that, okay, this is the best technique or this is the best way to make your retrospectives effective. It's all about inspecting and adapting, talking to your teams and coming to a collective path. Young teams start with a good old basics. Yesterday we booked. Okay. And then once you understand the intent of the retrospective, then you know, try to add your own flavor, tweak it a little bit to make it more interesting. Try different things.  It becomes even more complicated. So I hope this session was useful. So again, the intent is not to say that, no, these, those six techniques, what I've put there, they are the prescriptive techniques. No. Look at your scenario. Look at the situation that you are in. Build a storyline around that sort. You can really think and act. So we have three more minutes for Q&A. If you have any questions, you know, we can always discuss. And you have a copy of the retrospectives, retrospectives book. You can, you know, take it with you. Okay. There's a copy of the book on each and every table. So you can just take it if you're interested. So you have any questions? You're open. Thank you.


The first thing is that during the Enoch period, when the earth was created, when the earth was destroyed, it turned into a mountain. The second thing is that during the Enoch period, it was a very beautiful place to live, it turned into a mountain. It was a very beautiful city. In the last century, the earth was very beautiful, and the earth was very cold, but in the past it was very beautiful, but I am a teacher, they say.  So I could only see now that I am a Bahrainian, they call me Hogatla, but I don't see. But I don't know I don't know who I'm talking to. But I don't know who I'm talking to, but I don't see. I don't know who I'm talking to. But I don't know who I'm talking to. I don't know who I'm talking to, but I don't see. I feel like someone is talking to me, that you would only know and receive a gift coming from Heaven. I don't know who I'm talking to, but I don't see. I feel like I'm talking to you, When I was a child, I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do and I didn't know what to do. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm an Indigenous education student. I have been studying Indigenous language for two years. I know I'm not the right day. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm 18 years old. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm learning to speak to the people around me. I'm getting to learn Indigenous language. I can speak to them and get more information plus than just a few days. And I think it's important to have a direct understanding of what is happening and what is going to happen in the future. It's important to have a direct understanding of what is happening and what is going to happen in the future. It is important to have a direct understanding of what is going to happen. I think it's important to have a direct understanding of what is going to happen in the future. It was difficult to find a way to learn. I think that's why I started learning. I was always taught in school, I learned a lot, I learned a lot. When I went to school I found that I was learning a lot, a lot. I learned a lot and I think it's a great skill. I also learned a lot from my dad. I'd like to thank all of you for your support and for the support you've given me. Thank you very much for your support. I wish you all the best in the future. I wish you all the best in the future, and I wish you all the best in your Indigenous education.


So as a young airman, I didn't understand military education or the importance of military education. I just felt as if it was something you had to do to proceed forward to the next level or what happened. So I think we're failing at that job of stressing that importance to supervisors to place that value on the military education. So I think AU is now trying to transition that culture, placing a spotlight on the education portion of what we get in PME. Trying to get supervisors now to approach their young airman, not what, oh, man, you got to go to ALS like, oh man, this is super exciting, you get to go to ALS. It wasn't until I came through the senior academy as a student that I finally started to understand you go through these PME courses so the Air Force can get some return on that investment that they've invested in your entire career. And allowing you to become a better version of yourself through self-awareness and team building. And that's our university.


2023 has been a year of constant challenge and continuous change. We run the risk of fragmentation of our global economy, increasing uncertainty, and serious geopolitical fracture. In the meantime, the climate crisis is accelerating, reminding us of the need, the imperative for the green transition. We at the ECB continued our fight against inflation this year. At our last governing council of the year, we kept our interest rates unchanged. We remain absolutely committed to returning inflation to our 2% target. And I made clear that we will not lower our guard until we are sure we will achieve exactly that. Throughout this year, we've taken strong action towards reaching this goal. This year was also marked by other important milestones. We welcomed Croatia to our Euro family, making it a 20-member state family. We launched the preparation phase of the digital euro. And we chose two possible themes for our future banknotes – European culture and rivers and birds. I am sure that many of you are looking forward to the festive season now. So I wish all of you a joyful holiday, a merry Christmas and a happy start to 2024.


Card number 30. Donald Greg. Donald Greg. Vice Presidential Security Advisor, Donald Greg. In the wake of the hasn't-fossed debacle, C-card number 29, Donald Greg, National Security Advisor to Vice President George Bush, C-card number 32, tried to distance himself from the activities of his old friend, Felix Rodriguez, C-card number 30. Greg stated publicly that he didn't know of Rodriguez' involvement in the Contrast Supply Network until August 8, 1986, although he did admit that he and Felix were still fast friends. Greg took credit for bringing Rodriguez and Oliver North, C-card number 13, together but insisted that they had not confided their activities to him, adhering instead to the need to know principle. Rodriguez, on the other hand, broadcasts his ties to Bush and Greg to anyone who would listen. According to Richard Seacourt, card number 19, the relationship between Greg and Rodriguez became so notorious and led to such widespread public speculation about Vice President Bush's involvement with the Contrast Supply Operations that John Singalob, C-card number 7, wrote to North in September 1986 saying that Rodriguez's daily contact with Bush's office could damage President Reagan and the Republican Party, C-card number 36. Clearly, Greg's disclaimers in regard to Rodriguez were intended to limit the injury to George Bush's reputation. When Oliver North was assigned to the National Security Council in 1981, Greg was the head of the NSC's Intelligence Directorate, which was responsible for all the covert action projects undertaken by the NSC. Greg, Donald Greg.


Hey world, my name's Lucas Doney, International Trainer and Artist for Don Paul Mitchell Systems, and I'm gonna share what I'm most passionate about, which is cuttin' hair. We're gonna get right into it with our mannequin. We've got it pre-zoned out, divided with a natural parting over the left eye to this crown area, where all the hair's sewn into the mannequin. That's one of those areas that we need to be mindful of, and then straight down on the center back. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna work through a graduated shape. I think that's one of the most challenging things we can do as a hairdresser. But we're gonna work something asymmetrical, so working up to something slightly shorter on the left, slightly longer on the heavier side of the part. By starting the shape, I think what's most important is deciding what that length, that choice of length is gonna be. On a mannequin, they love everything you do, so you get lucky. But it's important to make sure that that choice of length is a good decision and suitable and complementary to the head shape. So, working with a mannequin, they have a perfectly round head, so we're able to create something and make decisions with a little bit more flexibility. We're gonna start right in the center. Now, section number one is gonna be the most important section of the entire haircut. Because my friend Clinton says, if section number one is no good, the haircut's no good. So, we're gonna try and work really clean, really methodical, and make sure that we are mindful of maintaining a good, like, approach. So, I'm gonna take a little bit of each side. Section number one. It's gonna be a little bit of a triangular shape. So, wider at the hairline, skinnier at the occipital area. Put that hair out of the way. So, section number one's gonna dictate everything about this haircut. So, I may cut section number one more than once, just to make sure that my choice of length is really suitable to what we're looking to create. Now, I always section with the wide side of the comb, and comb and groom with the fine side. That just helps me maintain good tension and good control. So, through here, I'm looking at my shape. What I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna take my fingers as I comb, and I'm gonna hinge them down. That's gonna allow this length at the top to be longer than the length at the hairline. So, in turn, it's gonna create a graduated shape towards the top. What we see a lot is people pulling the hair straight out. Now, straight out is gonna give me a layered effect, because now my length is the same at the top of my section as it is the bottom of my section. So, I always like to tuck my knuckles in, and hinge down like a little drawbridge. Make sure you have good control. Gonna come down once again, cutting that length shorter at the hairline, longer at the occipital bone. So, if I comb it straight down to natural fall, you can already tell that it's beveling in. That tells me that I'm already creating a graduated effect. So, I'm gonna cut this just slightly shorter. I think my choice of length needs to be slightly shorter. As I'm working too, you may notice that I do an interesting thing with my scissors. And that's just to make sure that I have a straight wrist position. So, if I'm here, I'm holding my wrist straight, but if I bend my wrist a lot and hold my scissors this way, then I have a really sharp angle in my wrist. So, I, in turn, move them in my hand, and it allows me to maintain a good body position and good hand and arm position. So, cool. Section number one. Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna work from there. I'm gonna take pivoting sections on the left side all the way to horizontal, so it's gonna be about six sections. On this side, I'm gonna pivot to about a diagonal, and then I'm gonna work parallel to that, moving forward. So, what's really important is to make sure that our sections are consistent. So, on a shape like this, I will always count my sections. So, my guide, and then now I'll rename this section number one. You know, it's important to make sure that you maintain balance, and if I take six sections on one side, I need to take six on the other. So, I wanna make sure that it's symmetrical, at least through these first few sections till we work into our asymmetrical end result. And we color our mannequin this morning, which was nice. It's got a nice coat of six R, all made sure the demi on it. So, a nice demi permanent hair color. Just gives the hair a little bit of shine, a little bit of slip, and makes it a little bit nicer when we get to the blow dry. So, I've cut section number one. On the left, I'm gonna look at section number one on the right now. So, I wanna make sure that my sections are parallel, so a lot of times I will take the comb, and I will push my section, or the comb through for sectioning, and then I can use my thumb just to hold the hair. It's a little bit easier to make sure that I work a little bit cleaner that way. Now, section number two, or excuse me, one on the right side, comb from underneath to organize your guide. Now, what I'm really mindful of is paying attention to the root of the hair, or the scalp area. That's gonna tell me how much over direction I'm using, as well as how much elevation I'm using, making sure that it's the same. A lot of times as hairdressers, we tend to look like at the hair being cut in our fingers, at the cutting line. Scissor is already straight, so it's gonna cut a straight line if you close it. But if I'm mindful about where the hair's coming from at the scalp, that can tell me whether or not I'm working symmetrically, or how much elevation or over direction I'm using, because a lot of times our clients are always moving their heads, so we wanna make sure that we're pretty mindful about where the hair's coming from. Then from this same point, jumping back over to this side, section number two, comb that down, keep it nice and clean, comb from underneath, looking at the root of the hair. So my eye is drawn right in here at my section. That's why it's really important to work clean, because then you can see your sections as you work. Comb that down to natural fall. It's already sitting into a bevel, so we know we're doing something right. And if you guys have questions, shoot them out. I'll try and answer a few of them as we work. I also have to try and cut hair at the same time too. So organize my guide from underneath, looking at the root of the hair. You wanna do your best to stand in front of your section.  Cool, like in the way that's looking. So we're gonna keep working. I'm gonna take one more section over here. I'm gonna work to about the mastoid process, so that little bone behind the ear. On a mannequin, it's sometimes challenging because they don't have bone structure. It's all round. So basically where that occipital would be. Or where that mastoid would be rather. So this will be the last section of the graduated shape on this side. And on the other side, we'll work towards something more horizontal. Be mindful of my elevation. You notice too, that as I cut the sections of hair, I'm not dropping it and then repicking it back up. I'll cut my section here. Hold my elevation, add the hair to it so that I can maintain consistency through the shape. So, I'm gonna work through this. Got one section here until we get to the horizontal. And you notice too, that I will move the head around a little bit, just to make sure that I can work in front of my section. Maintaining that elevation coming through. I've got one more section and then I'll be horizontal on this side. And now essentially what we're doing is we're creating a little bit of a roadmap for the rest of our haircut. On this one side, we worked horizontally, all the way up to that horizontal point. And on the other side, we stopped at a diagonal still. So what will happen is if we just work parallel from these sections where we stopped our graduated shape through the back, what that allows us to do is create an asymmetrical end result without a lot of complication. So I know that my outline's gonna be impacted towards the end. So I'm not too concerned with the outline right now. So I'm gonna work parallel. I'm gonna do the whole left side and then the whole right side. So I'm paying attention to my roots still. What you'll notice too is I tend to do this. I'll bounce the section a little bit. And as you can see at the scalp area here, you start to see the hair buckle, a lot of slack here. And if I pull it down too far, I can tell that it's wrapping around the head shape. So what you'll see me do quite a lot is bounce the section of hair to make sure that my elevation is consistent. And I haven't decided what the outline's gonna look like. We're gonna put the outline in when it's dry. So whatever the outline looks like now is just a byproduct of the decisions we made with our internal shape. So our graduated shape. We haven't decided what the outline looks like. So a lot of times with a client or a model or something you're working on, what I would suggest is make your decisions based on priority and practicality. What's priority to you? What's priority to your client, right? Your client could come in and say, oh my gosh, like this back area, this graduated part is the most important part to me. I want it to be stacked up. We use that phrase a lot. A lot of clients will use that phrase. If that's priority to them, that's where I'm gonna start. If the priority would be like an outline, then I'd make sure that I would start with the outline. So making your decisions and your sectioning approach and your decision making based on priority and practicality. Where do you need the most control, right? You need the most control of the graduated shape. You need the most control of the outline. I'm gonna work my way around. Working horizontally now. So now my elevation is controlling my graduated shape and my cutting line is controlling my horizontal shape. So what that does is allows me to create, have control over this while my elevation allows me to control this. And once again, as I comb it down into its natural fall, I can tell that it's beveling. And what we see here is like a lot of times we think this is a hole. But I haven't decided what I want this to look like yet. So looking at it now, I can tell you that that's probably gonna come off there when I put in the outline. So I'm not concerned with the outline right now. That's all gonna be something that we do while the hair is dry. So once again, another horizontal section. Comb that hair down. I think grooming the hair forward. That one little tip that like someone once taught me keeps the hair out of the way and I can see my scalp line too. So that's like a big thing for me is to make sure that I can see that because I'm paying attention to the root and I wanna make sure that everything's consistent. Hold my elevation, add the hair to it. Hold the elevation, add my hair to it. Move my feet. And because I'm paying attention to the root of the hair, I can move the head around and work through my haircut. Even if they were looking down, if they were looking up, if they were looking anywhere, I can still be mindful of where the hair is coming from. I don't have to necessarily have their head in any one specific position because I'm looking at this, not trying to match where I pull it in space but actually trying to match where I pull it from. Which was a big eye-opener for me. I know cutting hair, it was like a, I guess I just had never thought about it. So for me, it was like, wow, that's a really great way to look at it. You know, it really changed the way that I cut hair. So once again, if I look at this elevation, I know that if I pull it down, that elevation is far too low. It's going to be very, very heavy. If I pull it too high, then I'm going to move into closer to layering the hair. So I want to have a little bit of a heavier feel to it. So that way there's a little bit of length preserved through the top. Got some questions coming in. Hi, good cutting. Great. People like it. We're taking it to the people. I had this cool opportunity to be here, hanging with my friend Matt in his studio. It's such a privilege to be here. So cool. I appreciate the opportunity. Once again, I'm following my section. So my eyes are up there. And when I comb the section about two thirds of the way down, I'm going to shift my eyes to the ends of the hair so that I know I'm at my cutting line. So combing it down to natural fall, it's all beveling inward. So I can tell that it's going to sit into a pretty nice shape when we're done. Last section on this side. And I always think about too, how that hair is going to dry. On a mannequin, it's not as important because they don't have body heat. But on a human being, you do want to think about the body heat and how the hair is going to dry. So I always think like even during the blow dry, we'll talk about it. A little bit about where that hair naturally is laying while it's being warmed up by the body heat. Working all the way forward. Last section here. So we've got a little bit of a graduated shape here in the front. We're going to shift to the other side now. So I've created my graduated shape through the nape. And this side I stopped one section shy of where I went to on the other one. So it's going to be more diagonal. What that's going to do moving forward is going to preserve a lot more length and density towards the front than I did on the other side. The other side sits more balanced. This side's going to sit slightly more diagonal forward. Therefore it's going to be longer on one side. So it'd be kind of a cool way to create a graduated effect that sits asymmetrically so that it's just a little bit more foolproof. Once again, I'm going to comb, I'm going to push with my thumb. Hold that hair, comb this down. And all I need to do is then put my clip where my thumb was. So I'm going to take a small portion of what I cut on the other side and just make sure that they tie together a little bit. And now my sections and my fingers are going to be parallel to my section. The reason being is now I'm creating that end result that's a little bit longer towards the front. So that diagonal sectioning makes it easier for me as I work to maintain that little bit of over direction. And my cutting line are going to ensure that this gets longer towards the front. And you'll see what an impact that has moving forward. Once again, parallel section, thumb goes in. So what's important is to make sure that as I section I push, push, push, push, push. My thumb holds that hair above and I can just comb the hair down. That way all that groomed hair stays nice and neat above there. Little section of what I cut previously, comb from underneath, looking at my root. So this is more like a traditional what people would call a graduated, like a triangular graduation. Just depends on where you went to school. You know, we always have this conversation about like you could call it whatever you want as long as you understand what you're doing, right? So we have this ongoing joke when we teach that we start naming techniques after foods and it's kind of funny because like, hey, a little taco layer and a burrito layer. As long as you understand what the cause and effect is then you don't necessarily need to have a set word for it. It'll be whatever you want. So I'm moving around the head now. We have that diagonal forward section angle. So that's gonna make sure that I am keeping that longer front. So I want to keep my comb and my fingers parallel to my section. And you'll see even though it didn't look like it was that different in the back as far as one being horizontal and one being diagonal by the time you get to the front that the impact it has is gonna be quite a lot more than you thought. So let me cool to see the asymmetric feel to it. Push that section all the way to the front hairline. Once again, thumb goes in, comb the hair down. Now all I do is I then take my clip and I'll put it right where my thumb was so it can hold the hair out of the way. Now I've got a guide all the way from the front and the back. So this can tell me that I could work from front to back or I could work from back to front. It doesn't matter now because I have hair that is my guide underneath. So whatever's most comfortable to you there's no right or wrong way to do it. I'll demonstrate a little bit of both. It's whatever gives you the best end result. I'm always under the impression that I'll never tell you anything is wrong unless you don't understand why you would do it. Hold my elevation, comb the hair down. There's my guide working my way all the way from front to back this time. So like I said, as far as working through your sectioning and your shape if that gives you a better end result working from front to back, then do that. If it works better from working back to front, do that. Like I said, there's no right or wrong way to do it. Whatever gives you the best end result and makes your client the most happy when they leave. Once again, push through, hold it with my thumb or finger and I'll just clip that out of the way. Comb that hair back. Once again, I'm trying to keep my fingers and comb parallel to the section. Check for my guide. And what's cool about this is we've started to play with the idea of counting sections like I mentioned before. And the reason why is for balance and consistency. Now on this particular haircut, we're creating something that's asymmetrical so it's just as important to count your sections with that as it would be with something symmetrical. So comb that to natural fall, already sitting into a nice graduated shape, parallel section. We're getting into the top of the round of the head and we're on the heavier side of the part with this particular side. So a couple more sections. The coolest part will be when we start to put an outline in it, what an impact that has on the overall shape. Check for my guide. Because I'm going parallel to my section line, it's really quite easy and consistent to find that guide. And I always hold the hair and add to it. I try not to drop my sections too much. Trying to pick it up at the same elevation I started at was too challenging for me. So I started to try and maintain it through the whole thing. It just left a better end result. Cool, parallel section. So our zone on top is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And as you can see, this is gonna be dramatically longer on this side than the first side. So could you do this on like a longer spectrum, longer choice of length? Absolutely. Could you do it on a shorter choice of length? Absolutely. I think what's cool is going through stuff like this, it's more like an exercise, right? The first exercise. And could you take this haircut and put it on someone like, you know, that would fit them? Absolutely. Could you take bits and pieces of it and create something that's suitable for your client or your model? Absolutely. And I think that's what's cool about us as hairdressers is we get that opportunity to be as creative as we want and we're only limited by the choices we make. So it's pretty cool. So we'll come through once again. Got about two more sections, I would say. So coming from the front, same thing. Checking for my guide, nice and strong. Tells me I'm in the right place. Sitting good. So here's the last one. Now my elevation slightly increases and it's been slightly increasing through the entire graduated part. So I don't want to have too much of a heavy weight line. A little bit is okay, but during the refinement and the dry hair cutting, we'll talk about kind of how to adjust that or soften it. So we'll have a little bit of length in the front that we'll refine when we go into the blow dry, but we have something that sits asymmetrical, but from the back, we'll sit a bit more balanced once we put our outline in. Little bit of quick slip, so just reduce my drying time. And I like to make sure the product's like all the way in the hair. Where's your comb from? It's my favorite color. The army green one? I was just telling the story the other day. It's a Cecibon comb and I've had it since beauty school. I'd give it to you, but it means a lot to me. So you can't have it. Yeah, so I'm gonna use a wrap drying technique and it just allows me to keep the haircut pretty small. And the reason why we call it a wrap dries because we're using the roundness of the head to stretch the hair. Throw a nozzle on now, so that way I can get a little more stretch, a little bit more control, just to bevel the ends. I'm gonna use a little hot off the press to just keep the hair nice and healthy. For stuff like this, I always use like a thermal protectant, especially when you've got color on the hair. So we've got six R demi on the hair. And I wanna make sure that I'm keeping it healthy, keeping it protected from any thermal usage tools, whether it be a curling iron or a smoothing iron. And I tend to spray it all the way through the hair, give it a little comb through, and then start my iron work. Just works a little bit better for me. So just as I cut the hair, I tend to work through like the iron work with the same methods, with the same approach to discipline, just keeping it nice and clean. And I tend to try and pass through the ends of the hair just once. So you see me kind of use the iron and like regroup and reorganize, but I really only pass through the ends of the hair one time slow and hot. So this one is Paul Mitchell Express Ion Style. So it's a 1.0, it means it's an inch wide on the plates. And it's the same one that goes with this blow dryer. So we released these two guys together. Mine have been around the world and back. And what I love about it is the plate is skinny and the iron heats up really quick. And I like the finish. So we have a silver one. This is the Invisible Wear Edition. So this one they designed to have this flat white on one end faded into this flat gray, which is super cool. So I wanted the matching set so that I looked cool. But this one is great. I love it for shorter lengths. Also a great tool if you like, are that person that curls hair a lot with a smoothing iron or puts texture in here because it is a smaller width. It does create a really nice tool for like creating flips and bends and curls and things like that. So drop it into the back. Same thing I did on the other side here. Let's try and stay clean. We also like my friend Clinton. You don't follow him, Clinton Norris. He's a great haircutter, great mentor of mine. Look up to him a ton. I got a great circle of friends around me that really motivate me and push me to be better at what I do. And he has a saying that if you're the best person in the room, you're in the wrong room.  I wanna surround myself with people that are better at what they do than I am. Okay, now the outline. So everything we've done so far has been internal, meaning that it's everything within the outline. What I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna put an outline in that is really gonna make the internal shape pop. And I think that's one of the biggest things is one of my biggest mentors in haircutting says it's not about what the haircut looks like when they leave, it's about what it looks like when they come back. So with that being said, I'm gonna look to make sure that this haircut looks good when it comes back. So little bit of a spray. This one I'm using hold me tight and this one I'm choosing because it's lightweight and I can actually put it in and help hold some of this hair in place as I put my outline in. So it's light enough that I can comb through it but also has enough hold that when I start chipping into my outline and cutting my outline, that'll give me a little bit of control so the hair won't push around as much. Now, based on what your client wants, you can decide what your outline looks like. I'm assuming that my client wants exactly what I want which the mannequin always does. So my outline I'm going to actually connect this to the back. So I'm gonna get pretty low. I'm gonna start in the center back and I'm gonna go forward to my outline. So, okay, so I'm gonna start by club cutting or blunt cutting. And when I do that, that's just my rough draft just to get some of that length off. Now, I'm gonna start working on the overall shape. I know I can come in a little bit more at this length on the back dialed in a little bit. Now I've shifted to using the points of my scissors just to put that little bit of an outline in there. So comb the hair, comb the hair, comb the hair. Like to stabilize my scissor with my other hand. Okay, so this is something that I could sit and do for like two days. I could sit and chip an outline. Now, does that mean that you should do it? Probably not, unless your haircuts were a really expensive, I guess.  And this is one of those things where your mirror would come in handy quite a lot. A friend. And it's all about just combing it and working it, combing it and working it. Cause I basically want this to look like she could walk out into a tornado and have her haircuts still look good. So the last tip I was talking about was when you're cutting backhand, especially to make sure that that gets longer towards the front is to always make sure that the point of your scissor is pointed down below the pivot point. That's always gonna make sure that the hair gets longer. Cutting backhand, we have a tendency to hold the scissor quite flat. And then what will happen is we won't end up saving length in the front. We'll end up just cutting it flat. So if I always make sure, and I'm looking here, that this is angled forward, that's a good visual to know that if I put a marble on my scissor, it would roll off the tip of it, okay? A lot of times we're looked so focused on this area that we forget to look at the scissor that putting the line in. So once again, just club cutting my length off and now I'm gonna work my two shapes together. So this is kind of that little point where we're gonna bridge the gap. Feeling pretty good about my outline in the back. I've got that moving short to long through here. Now I'm gonna look to tie the two together in the front. So what I wanna look for is, am I looking at the shadow or am I looking at the actual length of the hair? So tilting the head forward can make sure that I am looking at the actual line. Because sometimes our eye gets so distracted by shadows and things like that, that I always wanna look at the line. So my connection now is gonna be just loosely through here, basically from this little point right here where it's a little bit weaker. That's just because the hairline underneath there, that's right where it changes. That's right where that front of the hairline changes. So from that point, I'm basically just connecting weak points in the hair. And that's always a great way to do it because if you look at the weakest point, that will help you create the most ideal outline on a haircut is to make sure that those two points are connected. So from here in the back, I worked from back to front. Here I'm gonna work from front to back and we'll keep that little bit of length in the front. Gotta head out, but I wanna say thanks. Oh, thank you Mary, better. You snapped, that's a good thing. I've heard that, that's a good thing, right? Like you snapped on that one or slapped on it? Something, something's good. I'm gonna take it as a good thing. So I'll put a little spray in here. So for this particular look like I was saying earlier, I wanted it to be like pretty fluid, but also be very commercial if you wanted it to be. So a lot of those clients that come in and they want like some sort of disconnected, maybe asymmetrical haircut, we don't have a really clean approach to it. This is a great way to do it because you can do it by just counting. So it's a bit more foolproof, kind of ensures that the end result's gonna be there because you're counting your sections and you're also working methodically. So it makes a nice fluid, graduated shape, has some longer length towards the front and you can kind of dress this either way you want. I cut it with a side part over the left eye. You could, if you wanted to cut it with a center part, you could cut it with a part on the other side, completely up to you and whatever suits your client or what you're trying to accomplish. So in the back, we cut a graduated shape, meaning that our length here was shorter than our length here. So it created this graduated effect. On this side, we pivoted up all the way to horizontal and we worked horizontal sections all the way through to the front. So our graduated shape sits balanced in the front. Then on this side, what we did is we created a graduated shape that then pivoted but not all the way to horizontal. It still remained diagonal. And what that does is by matching parallel sections, created a longer side, which swoops in and you can see like how nicely this comes in and gets way longer, created that nice asymmetrical feel and then we put an outline in it. And I think the outline, even though it gets overlooked a lot, that's what really makes the haircut stand out is having a clean outline. So when they walk down the street, somebody sees the outline from across the street, they're gonna be like, dang, that looks good. So check it out, jump on Instagram, shoot me a message, tell me what you think. I'll try and jump on later and answer a lot of the questions and texts if I can. And thanks for tuning in everyone, appreciate it. Once again, my name's Lucas Stoney, International Trainer Artist for Paul Mitchell. Follow me on Instagram, it's the same handle at Lucas Stoney.


As members of the human family, we are standing up together to protect what's sacred. This fills my warrior spirit. You know, being able to see people act on the call of Ta'a, asking everybody to warrior up against the Kinder Morgan pipeline. We're stopping Kinder Morgan to protect our relatives in the Alberta tar sands that are dying because of the toxic poisons that this tar sands is contributing to, not just there, but across the whole planet. We're taking back to our old teachings and our cultures of having a watch house location. This watch house is in the heart of Slewa Tooth territory, but also along the Kinder Morgan pipeline route. Today we're making a stand. We won't allow this to be built without our consent. Indigenous peoples have the right and the ability to say no in their home territories, and this is what this building represents. We have two paths to choose from. One that is green and just, and one that is death and destruction. I for one choose life.


Today is International Women's Day and its theme for this year is breaking the bias. Already Nigerian women seem to be doing just that as members of the House of Representatives have just rescinded their decision on 3 bills earlier rejected in the process of the 1999 Constitution amendment.  Mae'n bwysig i'r cyfnodol yn cyfansiol, a mynd i'n dweud o'r unig cyfansiol yma yn y casgliadau Cyfrindigol. Yn y gweleddoedd hynny, mae gynllun gweithio'r Cyfrindigol ar gyfer yr Unigol, oedd yn gweithio'r bwysig i'r bwysig wedi'i bwysig yn cyfansiol. Yna'n gweithio'r cyfrindigol ar gyfer yr angylbrig. Mae'n gweithio'r cyfrindigol yn gweithio cyfrindigol, ac mae'n gweithio'r cyfrindigol yn gweithio cyfrindigol. I thank you so much, ladies, for joining me. Thank you very much. And happy International Women's Day. Same to you here. Thank you very much. Great to be. I'm going to start with you, Ankyl. It's interesting that we're at this juncture. For some women, if not most Nigerian women, this is a win because I remember last week the reactions that I was getting from women when the bills were thrown out. In fact, it took the first lady and some other women to come into the National Assembly for this bill, and they all left very disappointed. Aside from the fact that this bill has been rescinded, why do you think it's taken the Nigerian woman so long to be able to be heard in terms of these kinds of issues, bills when it comes to indigentship. A Nigerian man is allowed to give his wife indigentship, but a woman who's married to an outsider cannot do that. So it seems like the woman keeps taking the back seat. Why has it been that for so long? Good evening, everyone. I believe it has been so for so long, simply because there is a lot attached to it. We have cultural issues in Nigeria and in Africa. We have religious issues and customary things. Women are not supposed to be here. Women are not supposed to be there. You should be seen and not heard. If you recall in 2016 the issue of women belonging to the other room and belonging in the kitchen and stuff like that at an international forum by no less than the president of Nigeria. I mean, when women are faced with this type of oppression, if you like, within the political system when attitude like that is coming from the president, you begin to wonder what it is that is going to become of women in politics. And also like I said, women we have all these cultural biases where it seems as if if a woman is in politics or is in activism she's got to be single perhaps she has no husband perhaps and if she does maybe the husband is dead or divorced because it seems as if women can't really accept themselves without actually having meanings external meanings and their greater meanings read into some of the obstacles that women face when they go into politics. So I'm not surprised that first of all women are rising up now to the point where we're having a situation where the men are going to step back look, we had bills that were presented on behalf of women, those bills were for the benefit of women now when that is presented in the National Assembly where women voted for men and then these men turn around and deny us things that are meant to be in our interest you begin to wonder what else these men are prepared to deny women in politics in Nigeria as a whole. Interesting Let me push you a bit as we see today I'm sure that you're aware most of the CEOs in Nigerian banks are women, women are breaking the glass ceiling in these regards but when it comes to politics it seems to be the woman finds herself in between a rock and a hard place and I was just saying it a few hours ago that the most a woman holds position wise in political parties is either she's a treasurer or the woman leader then the woman is the same person who galvanises support they seem to be the ones who are the one that brings people together to vote just as Miss Briggs has said so why is it so difficult for us to break grounds in the political system aside from the cultural bias could women be also part of their own problem? So I want to put a broader perspective on this struggle all through history the struggle for right civil rights human rights and indeed women's rights has been a journey and not a destination so these things take time and it requires the people concerned in this case us women to raise up our voices collectively and ask for our rights you see even in developed economies like the United States they are still trying to get civil rights for black people extending rights to minority groups so this is a journey and the time has come in 2022 where we women have spoken or speaking with one voice to say not just in the boardroom but in the political sphere we want to have a seat at the table now some women have already broken the bounds as you said but it is important that we want now is for that opportunity to be available to all women and for that opportunity to be embedded in our constitution so that any young girl knows that the constitution affords her the opportunity to reach her height whether it is politically in business and in whatever sphere she is she is a part of this country she has a right to aspire and to get to the top of this country let me just push you forward in the political sphere now we've seen the case of the only female president that year who didn't even have her friends vote for her but maybe we should also consider or should we consider the politics at the local level is that not where we should start from again we see women come together to put monies together to buy a Shreibie we see women put monies together to go on girls trips how many women can come together to support a female candidate whether it be a councillor whether it be a local government chairman whatever it may be can we see that galvanised support and how do we even go about this in the first instance because what I saw today at the national assembly is that women are the most important women need to continue to organise and to focus our attention our energies, our finances our resources towards what we want today I have an aspirant for a health of rep in my constituency who is a woman today I have a woman governor aspirant in my state Ambassador Coyotoyo I have a dozen other men who are aspiring for the governorship of Cross River state so increasingly with this voice that we've come out with women will aspire when you don't have role models there then it's difficult for women to aspire when you don't have the collective calling for this then it is difficult so we hope that coming into 2023 women will organise we will focus our vote we will vote for women and we will vote for men who recognise the important role that women play so that's what we're going into 2023 through the political parties and through our communities we will do that great back to you Ms Briggs she talks about mentoring and I want to push you on that you are one of the strongest voices in the Niger Delta we saw you push for young people in the thick of the Niger Delta militancy are there young women that you are mentoring because you see like I said a lot of young women are yet to understand or come into the fullness of their purpose and they need some hand holding is there a fora in let's say for example river state or biasa state where young women are groomed for leadership we see these things happening in other places but is there such a thing because we also see young men being groomed for leadership but how many young women are being hand held or taught what to expect in the future and how to be ready for it it's one thing to be to groom either young ladies or young gentlemen for political roles in Nigeria as we have it today but you see when this grooming is going on and then on the other hand you hear the people who are supposed to be grooming them saying you know what we do agree that it is about time for you to get to the table to take a seat at the table but then you have to wait until I am done with what I am doing that means that if I'm 70-something years old and I'm aspiring to be the president of Nigeria and I need the support or the galvanising of youths to support me that is very much okay but then you have to wait until I'm maybe 80-something years old now for me I don't call that grooming anybody is a form of deceit now in my own process you referred to the Niger Delta and in river state by Elsa state I find definitely in the past few decades that I have been at this that we are in a struggle within a struggle women are in a struggle within a struggle they are in a struggle even for fellow women to take them seriously and we are in a struggle where our folks our husbands, our brothers our uncles, our partners don't take us seriously so in my own case I came from a background of being encouraged to be whom I have become today but how many people how many young ladies have had that sort of opportunity so we do need to start with our young women starting from primary school age to make them to understand that they need to be strengthened in the way they think for themselves and they need to acquaint themselves with justice what is right and what is wrong what is a truth what is a lie and that they have to participate in the role of nation building they have to participate in the role of becoming whatever you want to become in the future so it is an uphill battle for women it is an uphill battle for young people today because of the strategies they must take which is sacrificial and they have to be very careful not to compromise what they are aiming for it is so easy to find yourself in a compromising circumstances and situation even before you know actually that you finally find yourself in an entrapment if you like but it is possible I have come to realise that it is possible first of all to be able to orientate our our youth our young women particularly for them to understand that they and they alone must make these sacrifices and must participate in the processes that they are dreaming about for the within the next 10 years or 20 years depending on where you are today I see no reason why we don't have female governance I know Coyo very well she's my friend she's a colleague of sort in activism but I also do know how far she has come to find herself at a point today where she's actually said that she will aspire and not only that she will aspire that she does qualify to aspire and quite honestly that she's very likely to do a much better job than anybody else have done before her but as I said it is an uphill battle especially for women back to you Miss James still talking about mentoring here you can catch them young because look around you I was just talking to a young lady a few minutes ago and she talked about social media and tick-tucking we see a lot of interesting sometimes very saddening things on social media and a poor representation of our young women who are these models that these young women can look up to that we have enough of them in our communities, in our world I mean it's easy to say can we look around and find one that we can say well that's my role model that's the kind of person that I want to mentor me are these young people even being pointed in that direction in the first instance I think for the very young we need to look to the educational system from primary school young women, young girls and young men need to be taught about the role of women in society the role of women in nation building the role of men in nation building and having men and women side by side in that process so we have children spend most of their time in school so that is where it needs to start in primary school in secondary school in university these structures when they are setting up institutions and clubs and organisations those places need to be gender friendly gender neutral and so that they learn and instill the principles of gender equity from a young age throughout their educational system and into society and the more we have role models in politics, in business you mentioned that the banking MDs today the more we have those role models the more this will become the norm today it's available for very few women and we want to mainstream the idea of gender equity gender balance in our society I'm a bit and I'm going to pose the same question to both ladies I don't necessarily know if we should put that at the foot of the educators I'm saying this because in today's world it's the big brother celebrities it's the money guys that are more intriguing for our youngsters so they skip the process in between they see the finished product and so that's who everybody wants to be because these guys are the to make me to say the 30 billion gang or whatever they call them these days and so they don't necessarily want to look to you because you know you might not necessarily be wearing the kinds of things that they're interested in or driving the kinds of cars and living the kind of life, the jet set life but again should that responsibility solely be to the educators yes I know that if you go to school abroad you have bring your dad to work days that they bring in people that do different things and so these children can aspire to be one of those but we don't have that in our systems here yet I believe but where does the family come in in all of this? I still believe the school system is very important because that is a structured environment and the issue of nation building broadly including the role of women should be taught in schools really there is also a role for the family and society and celebrity culture but you know with tiktok and social media and celebrity culture these things happen in 2, 3 minutes if that whereas nation building is a serious issue needs to be discussed from different perspectives and dealt into so it's not something a celebrity on tiktok can transmit in a 4 second video these are serious issues that need to be talked about seriously within proper structure and context it's multi layered and everyone has a role to play religion has a role to play our traditional rulers our traditional institutions we have a role to play for me as a woman I have a role as a traditional ruler to provide an example to the young girls and women in my society and even having that position says to those women here is somebody who has attained this position and I can do so within a traditional context so that's important okay finally Miss Briggs before you go I was listening so intently let me say this when I was growing up and quite honestly you can't talk to someone like me without me having to refer back to when I was growing up I think I'm not exacerbated at this point in my life by what is available to our children and grandchildren at such a young age because one I'm in tune with it and then second because I have had a background from where I grew up where these exposures were not there and therefore could not have been detrimental now having said that when you are also growing up before you even get to go to school the major role makers or the people you look up to are your parents are the community are the society within your immediate surrounding or environment and so you pick up from there solid solid behaviour solid way of thinking of responsibility towards society even and your role within society now we lack that today and so we need to be able for our leaders that or people that are aspiring to take up a leadership role and even people like me who can connect the past and today the present and even the future because of our past background have a lot of role to play and making sure that what seems to be missing today the responsibility growing at a young age of what and who you become in the future is so wrapped around what you have seen and you look at what's happening you mentioned it okay look at TikTok which was just something that came up just before the pandemic came and because of the time that TikTok came you could see a lot of things I was horrified there is no reason why we cannot use TikTok to drive the process of political process without our young ladies or our young men dragging their trousers all the way down to their pie our young women twacking or whatever it is called so it's not what is available it's how you use it and the content create with what is available well ladies of watching Italy Time is not our friend I want to say thank you to Ankil Briggs a human rights activist and Obonga Manbaba James a women's rights activist thank you so much ladies we're hoping that one way or the other we will be able to catch our young girls catch them young thank you so much for being part of the conversation thank you so much happy women's day everyone happy women's day well thank you all for staying with us as we round off the show today we're looking at Nigerians as they give their take on the bias that women experience everywhere and that's on street views well I'm Mary Anna Cohn I'll see you tomorrow on Plus Politics as we talk for development and in this society that we are now everybody has their own rights to do what they want it's good for everybody to have their own right like if you feel like going to school to have your own satisfaction it's okay by you it's not by force that that's you don't have any rights to go to school all these days international women's day international fathers day international whatever day how does it reflect into our life in Nigeria there can never be equality anywhere not even in the western world but however haven't said that we appreciate our mothers our sisters gender equality in political representative in Nigeria forget it I feel like they're supposed to be the same as men because nowadays because of the way our great grandfather did and said that they're supposed to be in the kitchen and because of that some people they didn't even send their women to school even me because I'm here because of what my dad did it's women's rights they have rights to say they want to go to school because I didn't go to school because my dad said I'm a lady that I can't do anything the only thing that they have to do is for me to get married and go to my husband's house because they think that it's only the men that are useful so I don't feel that way I feel we are equal as a woman I think a woman should especially in a country where doesn't give out the space it's the same as says that if you train a girl child you train a nation so that shows that a lot can be done when we train a girl child a lot can be achieved when women go further in life and we can see it in the case of we can see it in the case of we can see it in the case of we can see it in the case of our sister Koshuola so we can see that great potentials in women and if we can help them maximise it we just need a country that can that can encourage them