About Shadow Culture
Shadow Culture is a veteran advocacy consulting firm that provides Veteran Cultural Competence training to help organizations that serve, hire, or market to the 2.6 million Americans who have served in Iraq & Afghanistan since 9/11. Shadow Culture trains civilian leadership to recognize the values and mindsets of post-9/11 veterans, which represents a largely untapped/under-utilized wealth of unique problem solving abilities, ethical leadership, and values based culture.
WE USE ART, MUSIC, STORY, & SCIENCE
TO HELP CIVILIANS BENEFIT FROM VETERANS
VETERAN CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Your team will gain cultural competency for understanding the unique values, mindsets, and gifts of those who serve in the military. Veterans are often thought to be uneducated, dangerous, and each suffering from PTSD. This workshop will dispel these harmful myths and stereotypes and provide an accurate framework for a civilian to make sense of the reasons why Veterans still embody many of the values and virtues of their service days.
Caregiver & SERVICE PROVIDER
From physical conditions to mental well-being, you'll get an overview of some common issues facing veterans. This module will include discussions about Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD, Moral Injury, Military Sexual Trauma, and how to think differently about difficulties returning to civilian life after serving in war or military service. Training will cover language, values, mindsets, triggers, standards, and tactics to come into kinship with the warrior spirit, not misunderstand it.
RECRUITING & ONBOARDING
Because veteran culture is fundamentally different from corporate culture, HR professionals are wise to adjust standard language regarding key motivators away from external rewards, towards internal rewards. Understanding that Vets are oriented towards a mission and serving others should be incorporated into the recruiting process if your organization wants to benefit from the wisdom, experience, and dedication that Vets bring.
EMPLOYEES & STAFF
Once an understanding of how Veterans can be such effective warriors on the battlefield, behaviors and attitudes that result from service can be placed in a context in the business environment where they can support your team in ways that will deepen your team's connection to those who serve, but also challenge conventional workplace expectations. In the end this will reduce turnover, enhance teamwork, and leverage unique skills often left idle.
READY TO OPTIMIZE YOUR ENGAGEMENTS WITH VETERANS?
Get in touchLEADERSHIP, COURAGE, DEDICATION
INTEGRITY, ADAPTABILITY, & TEAMWORK
WANT SOME ON YOUR TEAM?
Stakeholder Value Map
Veteran Cultural Competence training can have deep and broad impact to a wide variety of business stakeholders. DOWNLOAD PDF
Acting in a tribal way simply means being willing to make a substantive sacrifice for your community - be that your neighborhood, your workplace, or your entire country.
CLIENT CASE STUDY
The Veteran Resilience Project hired Shadow Culture and Paul Riedner to develop a marketing and communications strategy that would connect VRP to the community and build trust in the Veteran Community so that MN Veterans in need of trauma therapy could access their network of over 25 EMDR therapists located in over 20 cities across Greater Minnesota. The outreach and advocacy strategy relied upon language that respects the sacrifices and culture of those who serve, focusing on their incredible resilience, not the narrative that media often focuses on.
AUTHENTIC BRANDING
Developed VRP branding, website, podcast, community outreach, email list, newsletters, social media, and apparel through a crowdfunding campaign.
VETERAN INTERVIEWS
ResilienceMN is the podcast series developed for connecting the public to the amazing experiences and wisdom of military veterans.
SPEAKING & ADVOCACY
The advocacy for VRP lead to a policy change at the head VA Office in Washington, DC. Watch Paul's presentation for the story.
Fellow Americans,
Shadow Culture is committed to helping organizations benefit from the incredible lessons, wisdom, and culture that are the by products of serving in the US military in times of war.
Over 2.6 million Americans have served in Iraq & Afghanistan since 2001. Less than one half of one percent of Americans have shouldered the weight of an entire nation during the two longest wars in U.S. history.
American society is grappling with some very messy, complex, and unique issues right now. On the surface it seems that we are tearing apart at the seams, but if you look more closely and with perspective, you can take the view that what was once hidden is now seen. Only when we're able to diagnose the sickness are we are able to treat it – to flush the toxins out of our system.
When you begin to understand some of the cultural traits, mindsets, orientations, behaviors, and valuable skill sets that military veterans walk back into civilian life with, then you can start to access and apply them in business, government, or community.
When you hire me to train your team about Veteran Cultural Competence, you are hiring a husband, a father of three, a Carleton College graduate, an MBA from the Carlson School of Management and a former US Army Deep Sea Diver.
The costs of war compound when we don't apply the wisdom it bestows.
Forever Grateful,
Paul Riedner
Founder | Shadow Culture
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Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse.
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