What if we took the focus off of attempting to eradicate loneliness…
and instead re-prioritized our deep need for connection?
ABOUT KYLA, the speaker
Kyla Sokoll-Ward is a speaker, facilitator, and professional community builder who speaks about the impact of loneliness on millennials and generation Z. She has shared her message internationally, on multiple TEDx stages, and has facilitated connective experiences for thousands of young adults around the world.
Kyla’s work aims to help young adults upgrade their empathy skill set, ask better questions, and get more curious about what it means to be human. She has interviewed dozens of millennials around the world about their experiences with connection and loneliness and uses this data to inform her content.
Having spoken to audiences around the globe on the topics of loneliness and connection, Kyla creates unique, interactive keynote and workshop experiences where participants not only learn about creating more connective workplaces and communities, but also partake in facilitated connection exercises that give them immediate information about how we can easily and meaningfully relate to one another.
Beyond her work as a speaker, she has facilitated programming and community building initiatives around the world for thousands of young adults. Through keynotes, workshops, and 1:1 mentorship, she aims to disrupt the status quo of connection and challenge others to connect more intentionally, vulnerably, and empathically with those around them in order to build more effective communities for young adults. She’s a firm believer that we’re only one good question away from connecting with the entire world.
Why millennials and Gen Z? Why loneliness?
Millennials and Generation Z have been deemed the loneliest generations to ever exist; chronic loneliness is said to be as deadly for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day; loneliness has been deemed an “epidemic”. These generations may be lonely, but what makes their loneliness different from that of other generations? And what can we learn about building more effective connections and communities from the way that we are experiencing - or not experiencing - our emotions?
Kyla discovered her love for asking hard questions in the first several years of her career as a coach. Eventually, she realized that loneliness seemed to be the emotional root of many challenges in the lives of her clients. Not only this, but she saw the way that loneliness was being narrowly defined as “social isolation” and how pathologized it was through the use of terms like “loneliness epidemic”.
She began conducting informal research called the Millennial Loneliness Interviews where she interviewed dozens of millennials around the world about their experiences with loneliness, how they find community, and what connection means to them.
Based on the results, she was able to design a framework for creating connection and reframing the experience of loneliness. This formula is relevant in our personal lives, in community building, and in corporate settings looking to engage - and retain - employees.
As a professional community builder in San Francisco, Kyla has seen first-hand through facilitating hundreds of programs how “community” is becoming an increasingly foreign concept to young adults flocking to large cities. Not only this, but the communities already in place are rarely equipped with the tools needed to create spaces that attract and maintain true connection amongst their participants. Through her work as a speaker and facilitator, Kyla sees how a lack of strong community is detrimental to the mindsets, social identities, and professional successes of young adults today… and what can be done to reclaim it.
ABOUT KYLA, the human
I’m someone who enjoys living life in the deep end.
This means leaning into the uncomfortable, the ugly, the delightful, and the ecstatic in all that life will inevitably offer us.
I highly value self-inquiry, silence, and curiosity about others. I like going beyond the surface - quickly, asking difficult questions, and prioritizing connection.
I refuse to ask the question “What do you do?” because I prefer questions that gather insight over information.
I don’t check my phone when a friend leaves the dinner table - I just sit there and wait.
I’ve meditated every day for the last 5 years. It has been magical and excruciating and it has changed my life.
Pretty much anything can make me cry: a spectacular vista, a beautiful song, a really juicy fig.
I am often overwhelmed at how magnificently complex human beings are.
And I’d rather drink kombucha than cocktails.
I believe that our greatest asset is each other. If we stop to look around, there is a lot to learn about ourselves through the way that we relate to those around us. I like helping people discover that for themselves.