You may recognise me from my ten-year career as a comedian and entertainer. I’m not as committed to comedy as I used to be, but it was a great way to get known.
l began my career as a counsellor and social worker. Over the past 15 years I've combined working with people, entertaining and running a consulting business to create innovative ways to manage diversity, creativity and change. In 2007, the Arts Regional Trust and New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship told me I was a creative and social entrepreneur. It was news to me.
You may recognise Philip Patston from his ten-year career as a comedian and entertainer. He's not as committed to comedy as he used to be, but it was a great way to get known.
Philip began his career as a counsellor and social worker. Over the past 15 years he's combined working with people, entertaining and running a consulting business to create innovative ways to work with diversity, creativity and change.
...Diversity is the synergy of uniqueness and commonality.
...Extraordinary human potential
lies within fear and limitation.
...Diversity exists more in
decay than growth.
We need to take more individual responsibility for how things are. Everything we experience in our personal, professional and community lives, we have created, individually and collectively, with our thoughts and beliefs. The world we’ve created is both complex and simple, important and significant, depending on how we look at it.
We have an abundance of creative opportunity to change our reality. Change happens in cycles, not in a linear progression. If we want to change anything we need to have a clear long-term vision. We must understand that change happens in forward, backward and sideways directions – and the vision will change as we move. Serious change can’t be made without fun and laughter. We are at our creative and productive best when we are having fun doing what we love with people we enjoy.
We must adopt a new understanding of diversity. Diversity is the synergy of our similarities and differences, not a list of characteristics and categories. Conflict is created by acknowledging only difference. Discrimination is created by valuing only similarity. To truly experience diversity, we must understand only two things: how we are all simultaneously unique and common.
We are all wiser than we think. Most people make decisions because they are scared of what will happen if they don’t do things. They micro-manage to avoid losing control. They stay in relationships to avoid being alone. They get angry to avoid being sad. Love is the antidote for fear. Everything is either an expression or an experience, and wisdom is reality expressed and experienced after love.
Philip Patston became self-employed in 1998 after getting into comedy, somewhat by accident, while working at the Human Rights Commission. He made regular appearances on Pulp Comedy and had a brief but acclaimed role in Shortland Street. In 1999, he received the Billy T Award for his commitment and contribution to comedy in New Zealand. Philip established his company, Diversity New Zealand Ltd in 2001. Four years later he founded Diversityworks Trust as a vehicle to create social change.
Other highlights of Philip's professional life include:
