|Photo by Kelly Schott|http://www.flickr.com/photos/so_wrong_its_kelly/4386155115|
A couple of weeks ago I was an enthusiastic participant in our sister organization Interaction Associate’s most recent offering in their LeaderLens webinar series. The featured presenter was Erik Gregory, a specialist in positive psychology. With roots in the theories and practices of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm, positive psychology focuses on the study of human strength and virtue, rather than pathology. This includes looking at what explains resiliency, courage, optimism, and hope, even in the most daunting of circumstances. Read More
|Photo by Arenamontanus|http://www.flickr.com/photos/arenamontanus/282327168|
Coming off of a couple of powerful days exploring power and privilege in the internal life and external work of the Interaction Institute for Social Change. So much still to process, and one of my immediate take-aways was our facilitators’ invitation to embrace paradox in the form of different perspectives and experiences, intentions and impacts, stated and espoused values. As one of our process agreements for our time together stated – “All of us, individually and collectively, embody paradox- identities, beliefs, and experiences that seem to contradict each other.” As has been stated elsewhere on this blog, and more elegantly by my colleague Gibran Rivera, the invitation is to hold apparent contradictions and tension long enough for something new to emerge, that moves us down the evolutionary path.
We are wired for connection. You give us the internet and we turn it into the largest web of connections that has ever existed. Each of us has mirror neurons, “neurons that mirror the behavior of another, as though the observer were itself acting.” Empathy is our highest capacity – the vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. Our highest levels of development come with a heightened capacity to see and experience truth in other perspectives and at other levels. Read More
Words and the way in which we order and convey them can have tremendous power. This has been driven home by a variety of experiences and stories. There was the environmental conservation effort that was having a hard time bringing certain stakeholders under its umbrella until it began offering others the opportunity to join a movement to “preserve quality of place.” Then there was the effort to intervene on the behalf of some of our depleted fisheries that began with a slogan more or less about about “saving fish,” and that only ended up bringing key players into the fold when it shifted to being about “ensuring that we can fish forever.” Engagement is a science and an art form and the importance of our word choices is not to be underestimated.
What experiences have you had with the power of words in the pursuit of social change?
Make Change Stick Beyond the MeetingTurn ideas into agreements that stick, and keep change going after the meeting ends. Perfect for teams stuck in “great conversation, little action.”
