You may be familiar with the name Grace Hopper. An amazing woman Grace, who died in 1992, is one of the foreparents of the computer age. She retired in 1986 a rear admiral and the oldest serving officer of the US Navy. Some of her awards include Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. (Learn more about Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper, USN, Ph.D. at Wikipedia.)
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or Capiat Contio (Seize the meeting or seize the engagement)
By Cavana Faithwalker, Organizational, Community and Personal Empowerment Strategist, Facilitator
Language, Posturing, and the Chasm Between Control and Growth
The museum director was thrilled to hear the news about engaging the black community through talk radio, however, my department heads forbade me to do the show. In my best, “you’re not the boss of me“ posture, I told them I would indeed do the show. One department head was upset I had told the director of this opportunity at the same time as informing the heads instead of presenting it to the department heads first presumably for approval.
At the time many art museums throughout the country had difficulty getting people of color “through the doors” and it may still be the case. This was particularly loathsome since the museum is surrounded by black neighborhoods.
A case can be made for this reasoning.
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Language: as an aside language is important in conceiving goals, relationship and objectives. Suppose the language is: “had difficulty getting people of color to access the museum as a resource,” instead of “through the doors,” and “the majority of the museum’s neighbors are black,” or African American, as opposed to “surrounded by black neighborhoods. “ The paradigm changes drastically. The initial language can be used to gauge what your corporate subconscious is saying, hold it, observe and talk yourself into a paradigm of abundance letting go of society driven scarcity language. This happens often in industries. You may have noticed a shift in the last 25 years from the term “outreach” to community “engagement,” and in another field from “caretaker” to “caregiver,” just as in larger society a change from “manning” a table to “staffing” a table. You don’t have to wait for industry consciousness to change and in fact, because you are dealing with issues specific to your environment and context - you might be the impetus of change in your industry.
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Environmental Consequences
I also learned that overall in this particular department it was better to beg forgiveness. This is not at every organization, of course, and obviously not in every department of an organization. However, it is out there enough I would be remiss not to draw it out a bit
This kind of environment stymies productivity, creativity, deeper employee vestment and investment in the company, promotes group think and it should not be business as usual.
At the very least, it raises issues of trust and honesty, feeds communication silos that drain the company of vision and synergy. The strong employees resort to begging forgiveness but even they can turn into disinterested “yes people,” and become part of the group think plus it would be much better not to have this as the dominant means of accomplishing things.
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This kind of environment stymies productivity, creativity, deeper employee vestment and investment in the company, promotes group think and it should not be business as usual. |
Finding Your Way To Creative Expression
Good Supervisor Soil for Asking Permission
"Water which is too pure has no fish." ~ Ts’ai Ken T’an
- As leader, boss, facilitator recognize your personal vestment which will inform some of your decisions and actions.
- *Value the opinion, ability and points of view of others.
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On open house nights with Art for Early Childhood Education classes inevitably there would be art supplies out for an activity and inevitably throughout the evening parents would direct their children what to put where and what color it should be or even totally displace their children fulfilling their own need for creativity and vision. Often when working in a different endeavor with Art On Wheels who caters to populations with physical and mental disabilities, attending occupational therapist, and caregivers were prone to do this. With Art On Wheels we had the opportunity to address this and cater to this need. Had parents and occupational therapist noted their actions and why they were vested, they most likely would have chosen other options that weren’t antithetical to our goals.
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- Make peace with muddy water- understand the difference between arbitrary chance and calculated risk. This doesn’t mean calculating the likelihood of success only but calculating the impact of failure to establish whether or not the risk is worth it. Sometimes you can project the point of no return. Also arbitrary chance can be exciting and fruitful. You don’t have to see everything clearly and in many cases this is an advantage.
Old Timers and Us Kids
In the 80’s I worked for a private naval architecture firm “on the boards,” designing, redesigning ships. At the time I was hired there was an influx of young folks like me in their 20s. There were older employees we called them “old timers” and they called us kids. There wasn’t a deep organizational chart, just us guys “on the boards” immediate supervisors who were engineers and then the owners of the company. Us kids laughed often at the oldtimer culture but there was a great heritage and history of shipbuilding among them that was beautiful so that old-timer was a term of endearment. This example may explain how wide was the age chasm.
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Did ya hear the one about two monks and a lovely girl:
Two monks were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around the bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. "Come on, girl," said the first monk. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. The second monk did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he said. "It is dangerous. Why did you do that?" "I left the girl there," the first monk said. "Are you still carrying her?" |
Cavana Faithwalker is an Organizational, Community and Personal Empowerment Strategist and Facilitator.
Cavana Faithwalker was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He has a degree in public art marketing and management from Cleveland State University. “So my degree is mix of urban studies, marketing and communications and studio art." Read the rest of Cavana's story here. |
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