A Community of Effort

There is an ongoing controversy brewing in the hearts, minds and faith of millions of people in the United States around the issue of Christmas being driven from the cultural landscape. As one would imagine this is a complicated and sensitive issue.

From the perspective of many Christians, I can understand how the increasing disappearance of Christmas iconography and displays can feel like a war has been declared against Christmas. Yet, there is another side to this conversation that also must be factored into the discussion.

Despite the perception that Christian-related symbols are being ushered from the public landscape, an abundance of Christmas-related images are still on display in many public places, many more than for other religious holidays that occur during the same time of year. From a perspective of someone who is not Christian it can feel like Christmas is everywhere and yet from a Christian’s point of view it may seem that the displays are less frequent and less religiously based. With scant few examples of other publicly recognized religious observances, including Hannukah, Buddhism’s Bodhi day, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice and the celebration by African Americans of Kwanzaa, aside from Christmas, I think it’s important to establish that from the point of view of these other religions, “generic” symbols such as Christmas trees, wreaths, garland, candy canes and sleighs full of presents, Santa at every mall, still appear very Christian.

An even more sensitive, and what may be the key, issue involves nativity scenes on display in public places, and especially on government property. The privately owned local mall may be fine for such a display, especially if it provides space for other religious displays. Conversely, government and municipal buildings, including schools, would not be appropriate places, as our laws continue to support a separation of church and state.

Ultimately, I think the issue comes down to an established privilege reinforced by a one-up and one-down public mindset. The group in the one-up position, in this case Christians, see their symbols as the rule and not the exception. However, when there becomes an increase of exceptions, the one-up group thinks the rules are changing when in reality what is occurring is a leveling of the playing field. When it comes to the public display of religious symbols during the December holidays we should be looking to create an “And” not an “Either” and to treat each others as allies instead of adversaries. Only then can members of all religions, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu, be recognized, respected and appreciated for their unique beliefs. buy cialisbuy cialisbuy levitrabuy levitrabuy propeciabuy propeciabuy somabuy somabuy levitrabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy propeciabuy levitrabuy somabuy cialisbuy levitrabuy propeciabuy soma

(This post was contributed by Guest Blogger, Organizational Development Consultant and member of our Community of Effort Donna Alonso)

My “Latin American Journey to Self-Discovery” was born from a spiritual awakening I experienced during the summer of 2003, shortly after I completed my advanced degree in organization development. This incredible idea came to me as I was feeling full of gratitude for life and filled with genuine excitement about life’s possibilities. It was a simple, yet, profound moment when the intense thought became an idea that became a dream that became a calling that became my inner voice and self saying, “GO to Latin America, live, learn and be with others!”

In 2005 and 2006, I launched my self-directed immersion program to explore three distinctively different Latin American countries: Puerto Rico, Panama, and Ecuador. This was not a vacation; it was a journey – one nurtured with incredible learning experiences that evoked everlasting change within my whole being.

Prior to leaving the United States, I researched and reached out to various organizations and made arrangements to volunteer with an American non-government, non-religious organization called “Global Citizens Network” (GCN) who partners with grassroots organizations around the world. I volunteered to work in two different communities in Ecuador right outside the city’s capital of Quito. I partnered with GCN because their mission speaks to my shared values of promoting peace, justice, cross-cultural understanding and global cooperation through the sharing of resources that will enhance the quality of life around the world.

During my travels, I lived with local families and used local hostels as needed to help me make the transition between families, communities, and countries. I frequented an established travel club and briefly attended language school - both provided great local contacts. I kept a journal the entire time I traveled to help me capture a real, pure essence of what I experienced. There are so many experiences in fact that it would take pages and pages to even begin to describe what was so generously given to me from the hearts and souls of the people I lived with and grew to know as family as well as others whom I met throughout my travels.

One of my most cherished experiences was the time I spent in the dry, mountainous, desert-like, Afro-Ecuadorian community called Tumbatu. I lived with an exceptionally wise and hard working couple, Marisol and Fabian, and their two, young children. Marisol is a vibrant, resourceful and dedicated mother and wife and a strong leader in her community. Fabian is a patient, reflective and supportive father and husband and a primary worker in the community’s local farm. They are very proud homeowners especially because they actually built their home themselves. They expressed their excitement and hopes for their home improvement plans and assured me that when I returned some day, they’d have indoor plumbing and running water. Fabian worked daily on the community farm to cultivate the land that produced beans and other crops. Marisol worked three days a week as a domestic worker for another family in a larger town on the other side of the river. She showed me how to wash my clothes in the village’s natural water system and make the best three bean salad and natural papaya shake! They welcomed me into their home and treated me like family. They shared their food, their home and their stories. Stories? Ahaaa, so many!

However, with all of this, my favorite times were the evenings I spent sitting outside with Marisol and Fabian and sometimes the children after a long day simply talking and sipping warm tea and passionately discussing a variety of subjects such as, politics, history, education, culture, economics, Spanish and English vocabulary and just every day matters. They helped me better understand the complexities of Ecuadorian history and culture and gave me an awareness and perspective I could only know from actually living and experiencing their world. They told stories about their families and how they met, and they shared their hopes and dreams. We laughed, I cried, we exchanged pictures and we vowed to somehow stay in touch.

You may have questions, like, “How are you different now as a result of this journey?” Or, perhaps, “What would you recommend to people who may want to do something like this?” How am I different: I returned to the United States one year ago and since then, I’ve heard family, colleagues and friends say, “You seem different” and, when I ask for more clarity, I typically hear “You seem calm,” or “You seem at peace.” Their observations are accurate. I feel changed at the core of who I am, and, I believe this change within me is still happening! This difference is most prevalent during times of uncertainty and resistance. Who I am today feels one with what I believe and what I do.

When I was in grad school, I learned about “the gift of presence” and how you can only acquire it when you “become whole and in access to and the courage to become more and more of who you are as a unique person – to change and grow from within.” It was then when I also heard for the first time the term “use of self” and the notion of “use of self as an instrument.” I believe the long term impact to what I experienced during my Latin American Journey is in how I embrace myself, and how I use myself to impact others. And, yet, I wonder, “How do I continue to use what I’ve learned and experienced to further my own development and how do I share what I’ve learned to enhance the development of others?” As practitioners who facilitate change, we have to be willing to continuously explore and challenge our own boundaries. My intent to immerse myself in this journey to self discovery was to stretch myself in a way I’ve never experienced before. The outcome taught me to pay close attention to the emotional reactions, biases and perceptions for myself and of others.

I enjoy doing organization development work because I get satisfaction from helping organizations learn how to change their environments in a way that sustains improved impact. If as the consultant practitioner, I am the primary instrument of the OD work, then my self-directed cultural immersion project was a great success. I came away with a deeper understanding of my emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes. My journey to self discovery was a very special gift and, yes, I’d do it again when the time is right. So, stay tuned because my journey continues as I further embrace self and willingly explore my Spanish European ancestry during my next trip – Spain, 2009.

(Donna Alonso is an independent organization development consultant working with not for profit and for profit organizations. She facilitates small and large group sessions in a way that supports inclusion, identifies emergent themes and allows respectful and appropriate space for difference. Clients appreciate Donna’s ability to connect strategic goals to performance, champion diversity initiatives, and build authentic relationships. Donna received her advanced degree in Organization Development from The American University in Washington, DC. and National Training Laboratories (NTL) Institute, Alexandria, Virginia. She’s lived and worked in Latin America and volunteered for projects designed to promote social justice and preserve the culture of indigenous communities. Donna can be reached at donnaalonso at hotmail dot com )

Is there a limit to how many ideas you can have in one day? To dreaming new dreams? How many ideas have you had today? In the last five minutes? Ideas are infinite – leading to innovation, greater creativity and new ways of doing things. The challenge, of course, is how do we create an environment in which people feel safe enough to “think” not just alone but together? How do we create organizational environments that can really capitalize on the intellectual genius of their workforce? That is the challenge for the 21st century; and we are still very much in the infancy of this major revolution.

In previous posts we talked about the shift from the Industrial Revolution—an age in which mechanization ruled and people were seen as little more than hands and feet. Organizations are now struggling to make the transition to this new age where a person’s value is measured by their intellectual contributions, of which there are no restrictions or boundaries.

We are transitioning from a model of scarcity—of old mindsets of limitations, production and control to a new mindset of abundance in which competitive advantage comes from individuals’ and teams’ ability to outthink their competitors if given the right supports, systems and processes. We are moving to an age in which our capacity to innovate, and the need for speed of knowledge transfer and application will determine the ability to succeed which means we must trust one another and successfully share ideas and thinking more rapidly. Clearly if there are no limitations to our ability to think then there is no limitation on our ability to be innovative and creative.

The challenge, however, is that while we‘re moving towards a place where our best asset is our intellectual capital, organizations haven’t figured out the many ways to capture and capitalize on it. Mass collaboration and Global Co-Creation enabled by social networking platforms and Web 2.0 technology are a start, but they need to become a way of life inside organizations to make a difference. Most of the performance management and reward systems, promotion systems and structures are not yet designed to embrace and support our ability to think and ideate in organizations. When was the last time you actually had thinking time in your day-to-day work schedule? When was a meeting structured in such a way that people were able to bring their best thinking and not just top-of-mind answers as they hurry through their day?

Ask yourself again, “Is there a limit to what I can think?” If the response is “no,” then in that answer exists the crux of this revolution of ideas and intellectual capital

There are many things that need to change within organizations to make sure it is safe enough for people to share their thinking, and to capture and best leverage this intellectual capital.

Where would you start?

“Over the next two decades, 76 million Americans will be retiring and only 46 million will be entering the workplace to replace them, according to the American Society of Training and Development. The vast majority of those 46 million workers will be from Generation Y, also known as the Millennial generation.” (from Management Techniques for Bringing Out the Best in Generation Y)

In the 1970s, organizations were beginning to focus on the need to be more diverse in response to consumer demands. Now more than ever, it is the marketplace of talent driving the need for diversity and organizational change. Because of the imminent talent shortage caused by the retirement of 76 million Americans over the next 20 years, the Millennial generation is in a position to challenge workforce conventions and make organizational demands that previous generations had no leverage to make. These demands include fast-track career positioning, greater life work integration , additional training and cutting-edge technology, but the demands don’t stop there.

The Millennial generation is working to change the rules. They see themselves as consumers in a different sense – they are CHOOSING where and how they are going to work. This generation is unwilling to be pioneers of diversity and inclusion. Many of them watched their parents play those roles and their expectation is that organizations have become more diverse, instituted workplace flexibility and removed the barriers that have been identified over the past twenty plus years. They know they are expected to deliver – and they expect organizations to live up to those same rules. They are ready to contribute.

A recent New York Times article discussed one such example of Millennial expectations. Stanford Law students have undertaken a project to evaluate and hold accountable the prestigious law firms for their results with respect to diversity (the numbers of women, people of color and gay lawyers who are partners) and inclusive practices (including workplace flexibility and the number of required billable hours) by handing out “diversity report cards” to the big law firms

Beyond refusing to accept positions at firms that scored poorly, these “best and brightest” students have bigger plans. They will be lobbying top schools and universities to restrict recruiting by firms who scored in the bottom of the rankings. The students also have plans to send the scores to the general counsels of all Fortune 500 companies with the recommendation that the rankings be considered when selecting lawyers and law firms.

This is the first generation who can say, “Here are the rules we want to play by, so if you want the best and the brightest you need to be positioned to utilize our talents.” For this generation, it’s not all about the money; it’s about a healthy life work integration, an inclusive environment that is conducive to collaboration and innovation, a culture that invites their voice, their input and their ideas and most importantly, it’s about feeling valued and able to contribute.

“Firms that want the best students will be forced to respond to the market pressures that we’re creating,” said Andrew Bruck, a law student at Stanford and a leader of the project. This is just one more example of how the game is changing for organizations, and for those that say they just need more time to make improvements, it just might be too late.