I see you
I value you
and I exist for you.
Latise Hairston
So we don’t talk over these voices. Sharlyn Turner Bryant.
These quotes were from a discussion on social justice and how coaching and change management can be used to navigate disruption. Social justice is where everyone has the opportunity to thrive in society.
Social justice flourishes when gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability barriers are struck down. United Nations.
Sawubona. A zulu greeting. The translation is we see you. The response is I exist for you. With speech, we see, acknowledge our connection and commit. Latise introduced herself with this salutation. For me, if first impressions matter, and we evaluate within minutes, what changes if we treat each other this way? What if our response reflects an intent? An intent to listen, not with judgement, but with equality?
When someone is spoken over and not heard, what has changed from the initial intent? How is the “veil of professionalism” used to create barriers to expression? I can hear the word “appropriate”. How is this used in dress codes, behaviour, and guidelines to create obstacles and why are they there? What changes if the verbs are thrive and flourish?
The recording is available for the next few days on the Associate of Change Management website. There are also details of the forthcoming sessions.
Winter returned to clothe the catkins and primroses. There is an expression that in the mountains you can experience four seasons in one day, as the weather changes so rapidly. Two seasons live together in the trees. The new buds and the icicled snow. The alpine choughs camped out near my apartment for a few days. They pretended to be swallows playing with the thermals and flying near the windows. They look like crows with bright scarlet legs. They don’t have the flying skills and “get off your balcony” aggression of the swallows.
Coaching is focusing on vision and future planning. As one group of volunteers for the Uprising charity are about to graduate, another group begin. There is a sense of change. I look to it with a sense of thrive and flourish.