While it is important to adopt best practices from the leading edge, we must also chart courses into the pioneering ideas of today some of which will become the leading edge and best practices of tomorrow.
I’ll be adopting best practices but also not staying content with that being enough. I want to uncover the ideas which are fresh and lead us into the future we all need to be our truest selves.
The past American dream was about opportunity based mostly on wealth and money. Creating a world of opportunity for future generations.
New American dream clarified by Amanda Gorman in her inaugural poem of January 20, 2021 is one of justice, inclusion, unity.
She paints the picture of our collective dream that we would leave a world better for our children and their children. A better world that to me is renewed.
Not of opportunity through comfort and means but of opportunity through love and bravery.
Amanda Gorman reciting her Inaugural Poem for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
Transcript of Gorman’s Poem on January 20, 2021:
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We’ve braved the belly of the beast We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn’t always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another We seek harm to none and harmony for all Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree And no one shall make them afraid If we’re to live up to our own time Then victory won’t lie in the blade But in all the bridges we’ve made That is the promise to glade The hill we climb If only we dare It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy And this effort very nearly succeeded But while democracy can be periodically delayed it can never be permanently defeated In this truth in this faith we trust For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us This is the era of just redemption We feared at its inception We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter To offer hope and laughter to ourselves So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it If only we’re brave enough to be it
Excerpt from my journal on 03Nov2020…shared via blog on the day of inauguration of President Joe Biden:
Today elections around the USA came to a close. As I was working at a polling location in Indianapolis, I realized and felt a purpose beyond myself that I have not felt often before.
I was helping people live out democracy. The freedom to speak for what you want and demand what you believe is right.
I helped people who voted in the same way I did as well as people who I would disagree with. When I helped each person, I felt the power of democracy.
Even those I disagreed with, I felt the purpose of giving them the chance to make their vote heard. I wanted them to have just as much of a chance to demand what they believe is right…even if I disagree.
This is the power of a purpose beyond yourself. We have something to stand on which unites us.
This idea of a purpose beyond ourselves recalls to me John Maxwell’s framework of Level 5 Leadership. The most effective leaders are those who lead with a purpose and on principle. We follow them, they follow us, because of who we are and what we are on mission towards. It is not because we have authority, nor because we have their permission, nor because of what we have done for the group or for them. It is because we have respect. Because of what we represent beyond ourselves.
Our great friend (she’s great and our friendship is also great!), Anna Tragesser brought a revival of Dolly in our home and life in the last year or so.
She continues to amaze me with her grace, resilience, and universality.
In 1979, Ocatvia Butler published Kindred. I had not read any of Butler’s work before this and I now am hooked. There is much reflection to go through in the fact that I didn’t know her work…I am glad to know her work now and sad it was not part of my life earlier.
Kindred has so many themes that are relevant to our time. The book follows Dana, a young Black woman living in 1976 who is taken back and forth through time to her ancestors in a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. She is jostled between her reality as a 1976 freewoman and one of a pre-Civil War slave.
There is some divine serendipity. I finished the book on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year.
Power is a constant theme in the book.
SPOILER ALERT!
At one point, Dana and her husband, Kevin (a white male writer), are both pulled back in time to the Weylin plantation. Dana is later called back to 1976 LA but Kevin is left behind. Dana stays in 1976 for 8 days until she is pulled back to Kevin and the Weylin plantation of the year 1815. What she soon finds out is for Kevin, and all others at the plantation, it had been a whole 5 years she was gone. Time did not work in unison between her two realities.
Eventually Dana and Kevin find each other in 1815 and make their way back to 1976. While home Dana questions what Kevin did over those 5 years:
“One more thing. Just one.” He looked at me questioningly. “Where you helping slaves to escape?” “Of course I was! I fed them, hid them during the day, and when night came, I pointed them toward a free black family who would feed and hide them the next day.” I smiled and said nothing. He sounded angry, almost defensive about what he had done. “I guess I’m not used to saying things like that to people who understand them,” he said.
Kindred by Ocatvia Butler (Chapter: The Storm)
Kevin entered 1815 with a certain power or privilege along with knowledge of what is truly right and to come.
He brought the future to bear and did his part to support the oppressed and marginalized.
What is the future that each of us can bring to bear? We have a power and privilege and can see a world that is to be. What is our role? What can we do? If someone asks us if we helped a cause, would we be able to say “Of course I was!”
I cannot recommend this book more highly. Thank you to my wife, Kelly, who introduced me to Octavia Butler.
Power is pervasive even when it is exposed for what it is.
One thing I’m doing is building up my own personal passion to increasing diversity and changing power dynamics in family, business, and society.
As leaders, we must clarify and communicate our own connection to this work. This requires us to educate ourselves and put up a mirror to see where we must change and the cost to not changing.
For me it is about my wife, my niece, and my friends. I see how women, people of color, and LBTQ+ friends around me are limited. I also see the potential inside and around them to be their truest selves. I love them so I will work to make it better.
If we simply rely on the bottom line to justify increasing diversity, we perpetuate the power dynamics which maintain patriarchy and white supremacy.
If you want a place to start your journey of educating yourself, check outmy list or ask a friend.
We learn best by eventually doing something ourselves. To enhance this, we can use an experiential learning framework to push ourselves or others through.
This can also be used in coaching if a coachee has a situation they are discussing and wanting to improve. We can walk them through these steps and continue the progress in future sessions.
I love this framework as it is what I could see myself do naturally but also helps fill gaps to ensure I make the most of an experience.
At times I’ll do something and not even reflect. Journaling or talking through the situation is helpful for reflect.
Even when I do reflect, I may stop there and avoid conceptualization. Maybe because fear of shame or such but consider “So what?” really lets the reflection sit in and take effect.
Even still, I may feel good about myself and stop with conceptualization. “Yay I made a new self awareness discovery…” But it has no weight if it doesn’t change my behaviors. Applying is key. I use Start, Stop, Continue to help me keep my apply brief but actionable.
Then go back through the cycle. Act again and reflect, then conceptualize, then apply…repeat.
Ed Batista has great content written on experiential learning. Post 1 and Post 2. Image above is from Ed Batista.
Anytime we are examining our actions, there is a possibility of stepping into shame. Check out Brene Brown’s work on this to ensure you’re equipped to move through shame rather than let it hold you back.
A great mechanism to make an action plan to make a behavior change. At the end of a reflection process, coaching session, meeting, you can write down what you will start doing, what you will stop doing, and what you will continue doing.
For example, I read a recent article on making diversity more than a business case and here are my Start Stop Continue in follow up:
Start: Clarifying and sharing my own personal motivation to work on equality initiatives.
Stop: Accepting the business case for diversity as enough motivation to make change occur.
Continue: Encouraging people in coaching and other situations to create person vision statements and emphasize the importance of this.
It works because it’s easy to remember and gets to the heart of change, behavior and rhythms.
phil invites 