Transform ourselves to transform the world
— Grace Lee Boggs
ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING
We are in a time of reckoning and we need the uprising, we need leaders who hear the insistent call to serve, to step forward boldly into the unknown. We must grow the resilience of organizations that can hold the projected pain of these times and generations past. Together let us practice how to act with integrity and vision while supporting our healing. Let us support our communities in remembering our noble births, in walking our unique paths to liberation, knowing that we were never meant to survive, to be seen, to speak, dream, or dance.
The support that Dr. Vickie Chang offers falls within the domain of unanchored care, an idea put forth by Maurice Mitchell in the article Building Resilient Organizations. Her work addresses sticky areas such as
Differentiating between care as an organization and the emotional labor that belongs to the individual, including the ability of managers and staff to identify and work with trauma
Setting and compassionately holding clear boundaries as an organization while creating a shared focus on collective learning and self-reflection (rather than shaming and call-out culture)
Encouraging and providing support for effective conflict engagement
Building a culture of celebration and connection while orienting towards growth (with discomfort being part of the picture). Allowing rigor to coexist with joy, play, and expression through food, art, music, movement, and culture (Mitchell).
In a time of cascading traumas, everything is rising to the surface. All the grief, rage, and terror we feel is connected to developmental, ancestral, and collective experiences of pain. In the long run, only that which we bring our awareness to can be healed. This is incredibly messy and painful work. It often looks like cancel culture, polarized us/them thinking, and a regression in behavior. When trauma arises, we become child versions of ourselves. We can lose the capacity to act in integrity with our values. Ideally, we need time to be nonfunctional in a capitalist sense— to feel, to fall apart, and to be held. Without these structures in place, communities, organizations, movement staff, and particularly leadership, are left to hold the pain.
The work of building big begins small— in relationships where we can make mistakes, grow, and learn “in mutual power” (Adrienne Marie Brown). Dr. Chang uses a variety of practices to support organizations, including awareness and body-based exercises, which allow greater connection between the body and mind, and increased capacity to bring our full selves into conscious awareness and relationships. She offers land based practices which connect us to the earth for grounding, wisdom, and support. Group dialogue, including a focus on deep listening and personal inquiry, can be useful for improving connection and belonging.
How can we build the world that we dream of? The work of liberation happens day by day, and each of these relational incidents is an opportunity to meet an outcast part of ourselves, an exiled part of society.