Reflections in Practice #6
A celebratory set of reflections this week
Here’s my weekly reflections in practice, available here too, since LinkedIn started suppressing them with mentions of white supremacy culture, far right and authoritarianism being deemed ‘not relevant’ to workplaces 😂
Reflections in Practice #6
On Thursdays, we have a Celebrations Session, a practice inspired by my coach Maude Burger-Smith. It helps us notice progress and slows us down enough to appreciate and recognise what matters. Sometimes it's a struggle to find things, and other times, we're overflowing - yesterday was the latter and here are some of them.
Yesterday, we ran the first session on our sustainable food movement JEDI Leadership programme. We wanted to begin by recognising that this kind of learning is different because it's unlearning too, and because JEDI leadership is a way of being as much as it is doing. We asked participating CEOs to bring an object that reflected why they wanted to be part of this cohort, and it was inspiring to hear the rich stories they shared. Excited for what's next as I work closely with Sareta Puri and Idman Abdurahaman to create change.
Some time ago, we translated our founding anti-racism programme into BSL, and it's been running with our client for the last 3 years, involving around 80 team members. We're coming to the end of that now and about to start an evaluation review with ongoing recommendations for next steps. In that process, I've learned alot about deaf culture, how to run and design workshops, learning and materials that will land, the world of interpreting and its journey to inclusive language, when to trust my instinct and when to seek guidance from my deaf client lead and co-facilitator and BSL interpreter to support effective learning.
Super excited to be in conversation with a few potential clients about power shifting and sharing projects! All in very different contexts but with some similarities about the challenges that come from being in conventional and traditional structures that reinforce and replicate the very behaviours and practices they seek to move away from. My grandfather has been on my mind a lot this week, maybe connected to this, since he was the original rule-breaker and challenger, living life entirely outside the lines drawn for him as a Black man. Even though we did not always see eye to eye, especially on issues around patriarchy, which I fiercely challenged him on, we had this deep respect for one another's energy and fight. I think he would have been proud to see the kind of work I do these days.
I don't talk much about my life in Spain here, but one reason I ended up living here was that Brexit made me feel like I didn't belong. I read this quote today from the Spanish prime minister about their recent commitment to ensure that immigrants have papers and can participate fully, which touched me deeply.
'MAGA-style leaders may say that our country can't handle taking in so many migrants, that this is a suicidal move – the desperate act of a collapsing country. But don't let them fool you. Spain is booming. We can buy into the zero-sum thinking of the far-right and retreat into isolation, scarcity, selfishness and decline, or we can harness the very same forces that, not without difficulties, have allowed our societies to thrive for centuries'
