Following on from my last post, just quickly, before I prepare myself to co-direct the first retreat of the second Be. Leadership intake...
Psychological projection is a useful way to understand discomfort with diversity. When people react negatively (or overly positively for that matter, in that bleeding-heart liberal way they do) to another culture, lifestyle, or belief system, a useful exploration may be:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Authentically valuing diversity has nothing to do with understanding others. It's all about awareness of and comfort with self.
At the intergenerational talk I did with Sam Orchard at the 2012 Changemakers Auckland Convention today, we split the audience into three groups to think about justifications for the following options for gender identification on passports:
The most interesting observation came from a member of group 3 who proposed that, with technology like iris and finger scanning, it is pointless to continue to use such an arbitrary characteristic as gender to help confirm someone's identity.
Indeed.
I love the idea of entropy, explained eloquently by the BBC's Dr Brian Cox. According to Wikipedia, "In statistical mechanics, entropy is a measure of the number of ways in which a system may be arranged, often taken to be a measure of "disorder" (the higher the entropy, the higher the disorder)."
Watch this video and then let's consider entropy from a social change perspective.
Hello, it's 2012 - hope you had a great break. So, are you ready for change?
Not cataclysmic, apocalyptic, chronomatic, revelational change.
I mean subtle, gentle, influential and revolutionary change. Like this:
Finally, let me reveal my own morphic theory...and a simple truth.
Controversial biologist Rupert Sheldrake believes that traditions, customs and rituals are maintained throughout history and embedded in societal lore and cultures through a process of what he calls morphic resonance. At the heart of this well-debated school of thought is the concept that energy is transferred within and between fields containing evolutionary memory that exist around us.
Sheldrake points out that, in order for rituals to have a "deliberate and conscious evocation of memory, right back to the first act...ritual acts must be performed with the correct movements, gestures, words, and music throughout the world."
Am at a bit of a loss for inspiration to blog today so I thought I'd take the liberty of sharing an email I received this morning:
"I saw you at the LATE at the Museum a while back. Your ideas about decay have been incredibly important and meaningful to me, and I have thought about them and reconsidered my own life in terms of decay and what can come from it. I find them useful on an almost daily basis, and have talked about them with others.
"Thank you very, very much."
I'm part of a team working on Pink Shirt Day 2012 and I've just been emailed links to these two wonderful videos by young gay men who have been targets of bullying. The second is a response to the first. Both these young men thought they were unique in their experience; in fact it was common.
As I've said before, they probably have more in common with the young people who were triggered to bully them than they'll ever know, too.
It's important to understand that these guys aren't the problem. Nor are the young people who were triggered to bully them. Schools are not the breeding ground for bullying.
The conversation about gender equality has long been commonplace in workplaces around New Zealand. It's the foundation of the EEO movement and, as the precursor to cultural diversity and "family friendliness", is often the corporate world's only claim to some semblance of equity.
Here's the dilemma: Binary notions of gender - ie. male and female - are on the decline with transgender and genderqueer people more and more challenging the idea that one has to stay the same gender or, in fact, be either one or the other.
Another seldom explored dynamic is that of masculine and feminine traits. Dominance, logic and decisiveness may be generalised as masculine traits, among others; intuition, creativity and caring as feminine. Masculine traits are often more likely to be nurtured and valued in men than in women. Feminine traits, in contrast, though more likely nurtured in women, may also more likely be valued in men, depending on context.
Disability awareness is slowly becoming more commonplace in workplaces around New Zealand, though it hasn't really taken off like other diversity issues. You find it sometimes in community organisations, particularly disability service providers, and some Government agencies.
In most cases the corporate world asks, "What does disability have to do with us?"
So here's the dilemma: Awareness of disability is a red herring. Everyone is aware on some level that what we call "disability" exists in some people (medical model). Some are even aware that "disability" can be seen as a social construct of environmental, attitudinal and policy barriers that exclude 20% of society (social model).
Growing awareness of cultural diversity has become commonplace in workplaces around New Zealand.
But here's the dilemma: Culture is changing constantly, particularly among generations, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Learning what is culturally appropriate in one context may or may not be relevant in another.
The inquiry here is how to create the space for culture to emerge fluidly and comfortably by decaying expectations about what is the right and wrong way to do things. It's about generously allowing people to get things wrong and politely explaining why. And being prepared to authentically apologise when a mistake is realised.
