Cat Cuevas

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I provide strategic leadership for a more joyful, regenerative and socially just world. I shape strategy and culture to harmonize the people-profit-planet-peace economy so that organizational objectives are designed and reached in a more humane way and in right-relationship with communities and ecosystems.

My previous degree was in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, so I had a macro view coming to the LIOS program of what happens when people can’t get along effectively. The LIOS experience gave me a more micro and applied behavioral sciences view through a cohort model where we practiced consistently. 

Two years of practice and feedback from my cohort allowed me to refine my skills and build a more sophisticated practice for myself. It was a wonderful experience to have a community to brainstorm with and work together. The practice became an art.

It was a delight staying involved in the program over time, watching the uniqueness of each cohort discover its own passion, direction and flavor. My group graduated all women. We challenged and deconstructed the white masculine models, bringing a more gender and racially diverse perspective to the learning under the leadership of Dr. Mark Jones, Program Director. 

We critiqued and expanded the curriculum and it’s application, exploring the relevance and impact of the models in different environments. In this way Dr. Jones facilitated a strong container for us to shape the curriculum to more meaningfully meet the developmental, personal and professional needs we had as a group of women leaders. 

We brought more women and BIPOC authors to class. We brought our new babies to class. We brought up power dynamics, trauma informed leadership and our lived experiences in class. And, we created our own theories of practice that centered in joy. 

When I came to LIOS, I had been working in the nonprofit, education and healthcare sectors and I kept seeing the same problems over and over again. Implementations were the same. There was a lot of burnout. Nothing was really transforming. My work is about transformation and culture shift. I wanted to know the magic sauce that shapes  transformations at scale. 

My cohort and Dr. Jones helped me gain the capacity, personal resilience, and community resilience to sit in the muck, messiness and VUCA of leadership. Staying connected to my cohort and having ongoing opportunities to practice since then has elevated my career, helped me broaden and deepen my impact, and made me many forever friends in the process. 

As a first step, the LIOS program was a great opportunity to learn outside of a typical corporate or education model. Based on my lived experiences and identities, the academic models typically taught didn’t work for me and my communities. 

And often, created more harm that good. The space to tear apart the models and do action research with my cohort was liberating. This was the kind of learning that now helps me address the wicked problems in the world.

I came to the program already teaching conflict resolution, EQ and leadership skills. We had the privilege to learn at a deeper level, to critique, test and evolve the content and process of our learning so it better meets the needs of this day and age, and the contexts that we work. Our collective experience was quite special.

LIOS aims to give learners a place to apply learning. Leaders need a forum to practice skills, away from the job. These leader core skills: how to give and receive quality feedback, helping/coaching skills, the ability for self-reflection, and cultural competence are all very important for leaders. 

Leadership today is broader, more chaotic, more uncertain, faster, and more ambiguous - It’s an impossible job to be a leader. Leaders who are rooted in their purpose, and can adapt themselves and their organizations are critical to the future of humanity. 

~Cat Cuevas, Unify Consulting, Head of People and Culture | DEIB, People Operations and Talent Development Strategist. LIOS Tough Stuff and Master’s Degree, 2011-2013