How do we make space for collective grief and healing in a time of great loss? By transforming public space and disrupting business-as-usual! Watch this amazing flash mob in Johannesburg to see a moving tribute to Nelson Mandela.
The Soweto Gospel Choir is performing a song written during Mandela’s imprisonment. The song is entitled Asimbonanga or “We have not seen him”.
Stowe Boyd has posted a provocative and largely resonant manifesto on the future of work. Our ways of doing business are thoroughly obsolete, “only 29% [of workers] are actively engaged with work.” If this obsolescence is true for the private sector, it is even more true for those of us who work for justice.
Even before I read in the Boston Globe that trust is at an all-time low in the U.S., I was planning to write about trust. Our colleagues at Interaction Associates have been tracking the connection between leadership, trust and business performance for years. Their 2013 Trust Report reinforces earlier findings that higher levels of collaboration, trust within a company are correlated with higher performance.
We work in close partnership with the Barr Foundation. I appreciated this video of my friend Rahn Dorsey, the foundation’s evaluation director, articulating three keys to breakthrough on complex public conversations. I specially like that Rahn’s understanding that even when the will for change is strong, it takes good process to make a way.
I saw “Gravity” last night. It was a fun thriller, relatively formulaic; and yet, also of great importance. It is significant that “Gravity” has been the top seller at the box office three weekends in a row.
We often focus on the understanding of power as a process and as a social construct rather than a fixed asset. As Beth Roy says, “power is not something you have; it’s something you do.”
I have been thinking about today’s post for days. But, with the possible shutdown of the federal government, I wanted to raise a few questions and concerns. We have a (theoretically) representative form of government, which begs the question whose interests are actually being represented by the gridlock in Washington? Read More
Several persistent questions keep us learning and experimenting.
How do we avoid re-traumatizing people of color in this work? Often, people of color in racially mixed learning spaces bear the burden of teaching through telling their own stories. While sometimes liberating, this can also re-open wounds and create resentment at having to prove one’s reality to people who may be reluctant to accept what they have not experienced. And, over time, it can be disheartening to keep extending grace to different people in different spaces for the same mistakes. Racially homogeneous caucuses are one useful antidote. How else can we avoid these dynamics, particularly working in mixed-race settings?
The following post is part 2 of a 2 part series on some collaborative tools and strategies to help us change our selves, change our organizations and change the world. We hope you find it helpful. We encourage you to join the conversation!
We are compelled by a quote from Theory U, attributed to William O’Brien “The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.” Collaborative tools and strategies are only truly useful in the hands of practitioners whose hearts are big enough to hold the complexities, struggles, hopes and fears that accompany the work of transforming racism. Read More
I’m proud to call Billy Parish a friend; he is an incredibly sweet person. I am a fan of his commitment and imagination. I’ve been hearing about his company, Mosaic, since it was but an idea. I was blown away to see it featured in today’s New York Times – A Bet on the Environment. Read More
“We have to rid ourselves of the notion that innovation relies on the genius of an individual. We produce and innovate together only in networks.”
