"Change is created one conversation at a time.
Social fabric is created one room at a time, the one we are in at the moment."
- Peter Block
How many times have you tolerated conversations that left you unmotivated, depleted of energy and wondering why you're wasting your time?
Personally, I've had it!
How about some more straight talk? ...
Listening to stories, diverse opinions, examples and ideas.
Then taking the best of the best.
Do something - not disguised in rhetoric &
("cya"" - ask me for the definition if you don't know)
What happens when we change the conversation?
Personally, I've had it!
How about some more straight talk? ...
Listening to stories, diverse opinions, examples and ideas.
Then taking the best of the best.
Do something - not disguised in rhetoric &
("cya"" - ask me for the definition if you don't know)
What happens when we change the conversation?
- We respect diversity
- We begin to talk about possibilities instead of continuing to debate the issues
- We honor the gifts and strengths that each of us brings to the table
- We laugh together - humour is essential in change leadership
Transformation occurs simply through language. Words. Questions. Gestures.
Conversations (and organizations) move in the direction of the questions they ask!
Example # 1: "How do we discriminate?"
We say things to each other without realizing that our beliefs and values differ so much from whoever might be listening to our coffee shop conversations.
When our use of the language is so "normal" we often don't realize how we use words to discriminate - race, colour, sexism, ageism, obesity...
Let's take a look at the Under-Belly of "White Privilege"
"I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege,
as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege.
I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day,
but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious n each day.
White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."
Source: Peggy McIntosh is Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research for Women. This essay is excerpted from her working paper. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.”
Do we have your attention yet?
PRINT these 4 pages from the full text.
DOWNLOAD Here:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Conversations (and organizations) move in the direction of the questions they ask!
Example # 1: "How do we discriminate?"
We say things to each other without realizing that our beliefs and values differ so much from whoever might be listening to our coffee shop conversations.
When our use of the language is so "normal" we often don't realize how we use words to discriminate - race, colour, sexism, ageism, obesity...
Let's take a look at the Under-Belly of "White Privilege"
"I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege,
as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege.
I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day,
but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious n each day.
White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."
Source: Peggy McIntosh is Associate Director of the Wellesley College Center for Research for Women. This essay is excerpted from her working paper. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies.”
Do we have your attention yet?
PRINT these 4 pages from the full text.
DOWNLOAD Here:
http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf
Example # 2: Young aboriginal woman who has changed the conversation in Thunder Bay using music as her platform.
Have you heard about ShyAnne Hovorka yet?
Here's her view about how to change the world
- using her strengths
to present the gifts of change.
Straight talk.
Huge influence.
Admirable leadership in community action.
Example # 3: Comedian Jon Stewart's Rally for Sanity in U.S.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXmbzLI3pnk&feature=share
November 18 Learning Day....
"Diversity: Key Leadership Skill = Respect"
As a leader, you have the authority and responsibility to change conversations in all of your relationships.
- Listen for words that disguise forward motion (cut the bs) and create chaos and confusion
- Listen for issue centred talk - that ignores possibility
- Listen for questions that point to opportunities
- Listen for white privilege, male privilege, North American bias
Take notes...
"It all starts with uncertainty...not be resolved until we can listen to people's experience of things like racism and sexism-just listening without trying to defend ourselves...."
- Margaret Wheatley
- Margaret Wheatley
Yours in Leadership,
Maggie
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