Posted in Structural Transformation
January 25, 2011
We at IISC have the privilege of witnessing heartful, sometimes heart wrenching dialogue about critical issues in our world from multiple perspectives. We work with passionate laypeople and professionals focused on education, environment and sustainability, public health, peace and justice, youth development, racial justice, city planning and community development, to name a few disciplines.
I’m encouraged by a few themes that are coming up more and more in our work. And, I’m even more encouraged that increasingly, they are emerging as imperatives, not just “nice ideas.” As we facilitate processes and bear witness to the struggle to bring forth justice, here are some of the voices we’ve heard calling out: Read More
December 14, 2010
The “No Labels” political effort feels more like the work of well resourced spin doctors than an emergent political movement that can address the paralyzing institutional polarization that might bring our country to its knees. I was struck by this quote from a New York Times story focused on Bloomberg’s role:
In fact, though, the rise of the independents represents a movement in exactly the opposite direction — away from party organizations altogether… This isn’t so much a political phenomenon as it is a cultural one. In the last decade or so, the Web has created an increasingly decentralized and customized society, in which a new generation of voters seems less aligned, generally, with large institutions. MoveOn.org and the Tea Party groups, for instance, were born as protests against the establishments of both parties, and they empowered citizens to create their own agendas, rather than relying on any elected leadership. Read More
July 21, 2010
photo by partie traumatic
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This often quoted comment by Dr. King forms the foundation of Adam Kahane’s new book, Love and Power: A theory and practice of social change. Melinda Weekes and I attended a recent book talk by Adam, attracted to the topic because, at IISC we’ve been thinking through and practicing the connections among power, love, networks and collaboration for years now. Much of what Adam shared resonates with our thinking. The book builds on the thinking of theologian Paul Tillich. His definitions are worth taking a closer look:
Read More
May 26, 2010
|Photo by eqqman|http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqqman/17854302/sizes/m/|
Based on the recent conversation we’ve been having here, I thought I’d re-post from last April.
For a while, I’ve been fairly unsuccessfully trying to create a space in my apartment that works both for my heart and for my head. My meditation cushion is there as well as my altar and poetry and spiritual books. It also has my desk, computer and bookshelves overstuffed with books and journals about power, white privilege, race, class, genocide, conflict and social issues. If I’m honest, it’s the most chaotic room in my apartment.
May 25, 2010
My recent post on the limits of policy elicited a very good conversation. One of the things that became evident is that in some settings people are so focused on their personal development and their community life that they pay little attention to the issues of the day. In other settings people are so focused on the fight for justice through policy change that they pay little attention to their own well being or to the hard work of building community. Read More
May 7, 2010
(A re-posting from June 2009)
One of the blessings I’ve experienced in our social change work as process experts and professional facilitators is the exposure we get to have to various fields of social change work. Since last October, my colleague Andrea and I have had the pleasure of consulting with an amazing collaborative of stakeholders, the Springfield Health Equity Initiative, who have determined to build a plan to reduce the incidence of diabetes in the black and brown neighborhoods in the city of Springfield, MA. Even more boldly, these dedicated and thoughtful leaders have also chosen to take up an analysis for their work that incorporates how systemic, government sanctioned, racial discrimination has played a direct role in creating the egregious disparities in health outcomes we see today among black and brown folk in the U.S., and regardless of class. Read More
April 6, 2010
DISCLAIMER: Dear Progressive friends, I have not sold out! I still believe in economic justice and I remain painfully aware of the racialized outcomes of poverty.
I feel like part of my mission in life is to expand the lens with which we look at our quest for social transformation. One of the points I keep harping on is the point that happiness matters. And this is why a recent David Brooks column caught my attention. Read More
January 15, 2010
|Public Domain|http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2009/01/dr-martin-luther-king-jr.html|
Haiti. I’m sure I’m not the only one who watches with profound sadness at the loss of life and devastation by way of natural disaster and makes direct comparisons to the Hurricane Katrina tragedy and its blow to the precious people of New Orleans.
Read More
November 20, 2009
I heard a wonderful sacred story yesterday. It was shared by a member of SEIU’s in-house training arm (SEIU is the union representing service workers — janitors, custodians, parking attendants, homecare workers, etc.) in a conference I was asked to attend as a guest faculty member on behalf of IISC. The day began with a brilliant invitation to share personal stories exemplifying “change” in our lives. The true story that follows was just one of many captivating, poignant, death-defying stories my ears had the pleasure of taking in yesterday. What an experience it was! Herein The Story of the Shoe Store Pink Slip (title mine), as told by “L”: Read More
November 3, 2009
I am an admiring fan of angel Kyodo williams and a few weeks ago she called my attention to a powerful blog post she wrote, “doing darkness,” it has been on my mind since. I invite you to take the time to read and contemplate it. Angel is inviting us to take a close look at the distinction between change and transformation. She proposes – and I agree – that while change is something that can be undone with a shift in context, transformation is something that can not be undone.
This proposition appeals to my own commitment to the evolutionary paradigm, and to an idea of social movement that demands our conscious engagement with our own evolution. Angel’s in an excellent articulation, and so I would rather you give your time to reading her piece than to anything else I could say about it.
Read More
September 15, 2009
One of the issues with the current funding system is that it tends to invite dishonesty from organizations seeking grants. And perhaps we should not say dishonesty, but the system certainly makes it easy to fall into the temptation of overstating the case, of presenting an aspirational goal as an established reality. This pattern is detrimental to everyone involved. It hurts the funders who will not be able to meet their goals even if they believe they are funding with purpose. It hurts those being served, organized or mobilized, and it certainly hurts the organizations who get caught in the game.
Part of the problem with the normalization of this often subtle dishonesty is that it actually keeps organizations from staring their own reality in the face. As a consultant to all kinds of organizations, from foundations to the grassroots, I experience this insidious state of non-truth as a serious obstacle to my own work. We can’t help an organization move if the organization can not be honest about where it is. The situation forces us to spend a lot energy surfacing the truth, but if we were starting from truth then we would be able to use that energy to hit the ground running. Read More
September 11, 2009
Eight years ago Today:
- 8:46 am – AA Flight 11 hits the North Tower of the WTC
- 9:03 am – UA Flight 175 hits the South Tower
- 9:37 am – AA Flight 77 hits the Pentagon
- 9:59 am – South Tower falls
- 10:03 am – UA Flight 93 crashes in Shanksville, PA
- 10:28 am – North Tower falls
As a nation of families, neighborhoods, communities and citizens, let’s pause to remember the lives and courage of the nearly 3,000 who lost their lives 8 years ago today, on September 11, 2001.
Read More
