Difficult Conversations

Mazarine Treyz (she/her/hers) (COBID #8347) has done leadership consulting since 2009, and won government contracts since 2011, when she got her first certification as a woman owned, emerging small business in Austin, Texas. She moved back to Oregon in 2012, and since then has trained over 23,000 people in both the government and nonprofit sector. Her organization does Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) facilitation and trains people with keynotes, plenaries, workshops, webinars and courses.

She specializes in organizational development, DEIAB, helping people see the gifts in their shadows, facilitation, learning and development, marketing, teaming and more. Treyz loves to help people name and claim the structures that hold us back.

Taught DEIAB workshops for The Oregon Clinic and KBOO, Oregon’s oldest continually running community radio station in 2018

Her Name It podcast from 2019-2021 interviewed a variety of DEI practitioners to increase advocacy and support for DEI.

In 2021 she completed the Racing to Equity Leadership Cohort to become a better DEI advocate at the government level.

She consulted with Pride Northwest, the Portland LGBTQ advocacy agency from 2018-2019.

Most recently co-directed a DEI conference in November 2022 called Path to Action and in 2023 co-organized a conference called A Brave Space for Black Fundraisers.

She is a current contractor with State of Oregon, Oregon Metro, State of Washington, and City of Portland, providing trainings for diverse firms since 2018. Further selected government & state association work: Multnomah County, Business Diversity Institute, Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, National SBA Small Business Week, IRS/SSA, City of Austin, Texas, and many others.

Read on to discover other work with government agencies on

  • Teaming
  • Organizational Development
  • Virtual Meeting Facilitation Training
  • Technical Assistance,
  • Leadership Training and More.

Sample recent government workshop:

Difficult Conversations & Conflict

Often when we are at work, we avoid difficult conversations. We hope it will all just blow over if we ignore problematic behavior. Sadly, if we don’t speak up, this is a prescription for the behavior to continue. How can you speak up at work, have these difficult conversations, preserve relationships and create a better working environment for all of your team members? Attendees will walk away with a step by step checklist for having difficult conversations, and a much better understanding of power dynamics that can make or break a team.

Here are some of the topics we cover in this session:

  • Power dynamics that affect difficult conversations
  • Talking about racism at work
  • Questions to ask before having a difficult conversations
  • Understanding Intent Versus Impact – How to give a genuine apology-
  • The 4 parts of accountability
  • The Apology- The What and the How
  • Roleplaying an apology focused on intent vs an apology focused on impact
  • What is tone policing and why is it wrong?

Government Employee Attendees Say:

“Love the content – seriously one of the best and most direct, real DEI discussions I’ve ever had”

“Building safe space to engage in uncomfortable necessary conversations! Great job navigating the discomfort!”

“Covered many examples. The style was educational, respectful and caring and met us where we are”

“Great interactivity, brought out some good, thoughtful conversations”

PAST PERFORMANCE