Welcome back, readers! We’ve moved on to our next class together, Organizational Change.
Our opening foray into the topic is to review a video by Matthew Taylor at The RSA Group (2010). The video can be found on YouTube™ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo . Mr. Taylor discusses his perspective on what he calls, “The 21st Century Enlightenment.” The first question to contemplate is why Mr. Taylor calls the talk what he does. After watching the video a few times and taking the time to think about the overall presentation, I believe I understand why. He compares today’s need for greater empathy across all cultures to the need in the 18th century of making the mental leap from feeling and religion to a more science-based driver of norms and ideas.
At the 1:18 mark, Mr. Taylor stated, “To live differently, we need to think differently (2010).” I believe Mr. Taylor is making the point that if change is going to happen, it must first start inside of us. Gandhi is often quoted as saying “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” He didn’t actually say that (Morton, 2010), but the bumper sticker saying is a good variation of what Taylor is trying to convey. Taylor is saying that before we can hope to drive change, we have to change our thoughts. Without a doubt, I believe this is how change must start. I find myself facing change constantly. My home life and work life are excellent generators of the necessity of change. If I were to lock my way of thinking and refuse to adjust my thoughts and beliefs, the world would run off without me. As a practitioner of inclusion in the Cultural Diversity arena, being open to changing my thoughts when presented with evidence contrary to my beliefs of expectations has become the expectation I have for myself. Those of you that have followed my learning journey on this blog will know that the capability to be open to new and different ideas has been hard learned by me and I know that it must be continually practiced.
Later in the video, around the 4:10 mark, Mr. Taylor argued that “We need to resist our tendencies to make right or true that which is merely familiar, and wrong or false that which is only strange” (2010). I can remember the incredible eureka moment I had regarding this idea. Some seven years ago I was given my first opportunity to attend an in-depth class on Cultural Diversity and Inclusion. The class was a week long and was one of the most mentally taxing weeks of my life. Time and time again I was presented with opportunities to realize that situations or ideas that I had perceived as wrong were not wrong. They were different. They may have even been strange to me. They were not wrong. I felt as though I matured more in that week than in any five-day stretch maybe ever. Am I uncomfortable with some cultural practices? Yes. However, I look at them from a different perspective than I would have in the past. I look to understand, not judge. I try very hard to recognize that when I am uncomfortable in a situation I need to ask myself why. I am the one who is uncomfortable with the situation and I need to own that. It is not the other person’s problem.
We have a propensity as a culture in the US to become enamored with reality shows and the practice of anonymous degrading and insulting on-line. Mr. Taylor (2010) makes the point that we should spend more time trying to develop empathy in our citizens instead of nurturing the culture of degradation. My expectation is that society will need a greater motivation than currently exists to make the switch to building empathy. Money motivates media. Media swings a big stick when it comes to driving cultural changes. As in the case where implementing real Diversity and Inclusion programs in corporations won’t take off until there is proof it will drive revenue and earnings, media and the internet won’t stress empathy until it attracts viewers. I have noted in past blogs that Fred Keeton (2012) at Caesars Entertainment has made the financial case for diversity successfully, but he seems to be one of the few that have truly cracked that code. Can empathy be brought to the forefront in society? Yes. I think it may take some type of looming catastrophic event to trip the switch, though.
There is a point, around the 5:15 mark, where Mr. Taylor talked about the factors that are isolating people and groups from society. He notes that the growth of empathy has stalled as a result. Whether it is the widening income gap in the developed world, tensions between ethnic groups growing, or the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the world, the impact is a fracturing of society. What does this mean to us as educated leaders? It harkens back to the point made by Dr. Steve Robbins (2013) about the way the human brain processes the feeling of being excluded. The punch line is that the areas in the brain that light up on a brain scan when a person experiences the feeling of being excluded are the same ones that light up when the person experiences physical pain. Dr. Robbins calls the pain from being excluded “social pain” and the brain cannot distinguish between it and physical pain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlDTu6zg0c Therefore, as leaders, we must realize and remember the impact had on someone by excluding them. As a society, the impacts are incredibly powerful and the results of those separations are easily seen on the nightly news.
This video includes many ideas in its mere 11 minutes of running time. I have a few points that I will ponder as I go back to work tomorrow. The prime point will be the reminder that things about which I am not familiar are not necessarily wrong, they are certainly different. I will continue to work toward educating people on the power of diversity and inclusion. I will look for ways to improve empathy in myself and in those with whom I come into contact. The biggest point that will keep me searching is the thought about how to drive society away from idolizing the degradation of others and looking for ways to admire empathetic practices. Emotional Intelligence is definitely an additional avenue to look into as a catalyst in this particular arena.
See you next week!
Michigan, U. o. (2013). 2013 Business & Finance MLK Convocation - Dr. Steve L. Robbins 01/21/13, YouTube.
Morton, B. (2011) Falser Words Were Never Spoken. New York Times
RSA, T. (2010). RSA ANIMATE: 21st Century Enlightenment, YouTube.
Unknown (2012) Diversity by Design: Fred Keeton, CDO, Caesars Entertainment. Diversity Best Practices
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