May/08/12//Cynthia Silva Parker//Featured, Race, Class, Power

The Power of Connection

Racial justice work can be soul depleting or soul enriching. A lot depends on how we do the work and who we do it with.

Last week, six of us from the Boston area gathered to reflect on our experiences at Transforming Race.  Sponsored by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Transforming Race brought together academics, students, advocates and leaders of a wide range of nonprofit organizations to explore Visions of Change. We were challenged to consider: What would a generation or two of racial progress look like?  What seeds of change are in place right now?  How do we get from here to there? The theme was inspiring all by itself, and the many speakers, workshops and activities engaged our hearts as well as our and minds. All of that was very good.

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May/04/12//Curtis Ogden//IISC:Inside

Making the Invisible Visible

I am so proud of my colleague, Gibran Rivera, for the due recognition that he has received lately in various quarters for his deep thinking and transformative work.  And I am grateful for how eloquently he captures the nature and intention of our collective work the Interaction Institute for Social Change in a recent interview:

“IISC seeks to make the invisible visible. When we are successful, people find themselves working in ways that are life-giving, generative, and unlike most of their experiences of working together.  We achieve this by paying close attention to process. Process works best when everyone knows what it is and where we are [in] it. But process is not enough. We seek to create spaces and conditions that foster connectivity at the level of authentic relationship. When we are working in authentic relationship with one another, when we learn to connect to each other in the place where our shared purpose meets, then it can feel like the work is happening all by itself. But these spaces have to be designed; they have to be held and they have to be tended to. This is where we come in. And this is how interconnectedness becomes palpable.”

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May/03/12//Marianne Hughes//Featured

Dear IISC Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

After nearly twenty years leading the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC)—and loving every minute of it—I will be transitioning from my role as IISC’s executive director as of July of this year. After a couple of months off, I will return as an independent consultant to continue doing this work that I love so much—both on my own and on behalf of IISC.

It has been an honor and a privilege to work shoulder to shoulder with people like you—extraordinary change agents who labor every day to make the world a better place.

IISC is now in search of someone to take what might be one of the best jobs on earth—leading IISC as it partners with organizations, communities and networks to move from shared vision to collective action toward building a more just and sustainable world. Please pass the word along. View the job listing here.

With love and gratitude,

 

 

Marianne Hughes

 

 

 

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May/02/12//Curtis Ogden//Inspiration

Why Not Exhilaration?

A blog post on the Management Innovation Exchange site has got me thinking.  In a post entitled, “Forget Empowerment – Aim for Exhilaration,” Polly LaBarre profiles Ricardo Semler of Brazil’s Semco Group.  Semco is noted for its dramatic turnaround as a business, and for its unusual way of managing itself under Semler’s leadership, as noted by LaBarre -”no organizational chart, no fixed offices or working hours, no fixed CEO, no HR department, no five-year plan (or two- or one-year-plan), no job descriptions or permanent positions, no approvals necessary.”  All of this is geared towards increasing individual autonomy and agency, participation at every level, and trust.  The results are reported to be quite astounding with respect to business outcomes as well as employee fulfillment, with a long line of interested prospects at the door.  Semler himself has even freed himself up to pursue interests in the realm of helping to reform primary education and the legal system!  So how can I not help but be curious about some of what I/we might bring into our organizational life and work at IISC? continue reading

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May/01/12//Gibrán Rivera//Structural Transformation

Lessons from Frances

Today is May Day.  A few weeks ago I had the unique opportunity to share some ideas about working with complexity with a group of funders who are committed to social justice.  It was quite an honor to sit in the same panel as the great Frances Fox Piven and the amazing Ai-Jen Poo.

Ai-Jen was recently named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. I’ve been following her work for a while and I can tell you that the mention is well deserved.  Frances has influenced, informed and inspired thousands of people who have committed their life to this work.

In the presence of such an elder and a luminary anyone would be a fool not to take notes.  I thought I would share some highlights from Frances’ talk with you: continue reading

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