5 things / Project Reset

This week I reflected on a big lesson I learned from my years in the wedding industry, and how that can be applied to other industries. I wrote a post on LinkedIn about the simple assumptions we make as humans. If you have a few minutes to read it, I'd love to hear what you think.

Here are some of the favorite things I learned this week:

• In New York City, Project Reset is giving low-level criminal offenders (like those who shoplift or spray graffiti) the opportunity to avoid court and jail time by taking art classes.
  
  

• California wants to ensure that all registered voters have a seamless experience next year, so they're training poll workers on best practices to be inclusive of transgender and non-binary voters (eg, if someone's appearance seems different from the name on the registration list).
  
  

• Twitter is banning all political ads. They can't control the divisive mis-information that is often part of political ads, so they're stopping them altogether. 
  
  

• If you have an iPhone, you may have noticed some new emojis in this week's software update: there are some emojis with disabilities, and some with a neutral gender expression.. There's finally a short haired emoji for me that is not male!
  
  

• Finally, here in Chicago, Starbucks is about to open their world's largest store. In advance of that, they announced a donation of $10 million for small businesses in low-income neighborhoods. The money will go to four community banks, which will then pass along loans to about 500 small businesses. This can have a real impact on some poorer neighborhoods.