“We are all androgynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other — male in female, female in male, white in black and black in white. We are a part of each other.”
Leave a comment“Moving from a transactional to a transformational paradigm requires structural change.”
– john a. powell
Systems Thinking and Racial Justice Featuring Professor john powell from Bella Celnik on Vimeo.
Much appreciation goes out to our friends and colleagues in the Leadership Learning Community for hosting this May 16th webinar with esteemed Professor john powell, Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study on Race and Ethnicity, and the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. IISC has been privileged to have partnered in the past with staff of Kirwan to shed light on the complex systemic nature and inter-sectional realities of racialized outcomes in our country. You can also check out other interviews, like this one, with Professor powell.
Leave a commentSo many new and interesting tools out there with the potential to use the virtual sphere to reconnect us person to person, and perhaps fuel the new economy. You might also want to check out this article by Bill McKibben on some neighborhood developments using technology in Burlington, VT.
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Julie Auger’s post to Rethinking Complexity speaks directly to our central concerns here at the Interaction Institute for Social Change . What do you think? How might this inform your organizational strategy? Read More
Leave a commentHow Do You Feel (About Art)? from svanes on Vimeo.
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I am just getting familiar with this new tool that is still in beta (the creators would appreciate any feedback about it). Wondering what applications you may see to collaborative social change work. I am imagining polling people in a system for key resources, ranking the best sites to hold a convening, possibly doing something related to stakeholder identification . . . . And while you are pondering this, check out Kare Anderson’s list of collaboration related sites and books, add to it, or create your own.
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This evening, I’m joining Samantha Tan, Maria and Greg Jobin-Leeds in hosting a Walk Out Walk On book party with our friend, co-author Deborah Frieze. I appreciated Deborah’s take on this past weekend’s rapture madness – the following is from her blog post on the topic – Doomsday comes and goes. How come we keep falling for it? Read More
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“To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.”
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“Our ability to live in reality is essential.
But that takes some training.”
-Robert Fritz
If you have followed this blog in the past week and a half, you know that the IISC staff completed an intense and valuable retreat last week, focused on issues of power and privilege as they manifest in our organization and connect to the ways that we show up and are perceived in the world beyond our walls. Last time I blogged about this event, I mentioned my take-away about the challenge and importance of embracing paradox. With a week’s worth of time now to reflect, I am happy to report that the conversation continues internally among staff, and I for one am seeing movement. There is plenty of dialogue about how to keep the momentum going, to maintain and firm up our hold on the individual and collective truths we accessed last week.
It turns out that one commonly shared insight about staying on track was, drum roll please . . . Read More
Leave a commentI’ve really been enjoying reading The Dragonfly Effect, by husband and wife team Andy Smith and Jennifer Aaker. Having just recently shared the opening powerful story about Teams Vinay and Sameer with my wife, I was delighted to see this slide show come up via Twitter (how appropriate). Take a look (don’t be intimidated by the number of slides, you can move through them very quickly). It’s also a great example of how to tell a story with PowerPoint. Curious to know what thoughts and possibilities this inspires in you.
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Photo by: vincentevanpig
I was just talking to a scientist friend of mine. He told me, and I quote, that “unfortunately, in science, we fail 95% of the time, we inch along towards a breakthrough.” There is a lot of good talk about failure lately, but I don’t think I had ever heard it this way before. When I heard him say that I felt like I wished it was a widely known fact. Read More
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“I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people”.- Maya Angelou, 1984
Leave a commentMake Change Stick Beyond the Meeting
Turn ideas into agreements that stick, and keep change going after the meeting ends. Perfect for teams stuck in “great conversation, little action.”