I recently sat down for a webinar covering:
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Belonging
Justice
DEIBJ, for short. This is important work in our fractured world, and work that I cannot shy away from as I embark on my journey to be a professional coach. I’ll admit that the narrative in my head has gone something like this…
“Leave well enough alone…”
“No one wants to hear a middle aged white woman talk about these things.”
That has to stop…
I’ve known this for a long time but fully realized it upon listening to the recording of a meeting by my peer coaching group. We are…
A middle aged white woman (hey, that’s me)
A high achieving millenial
A black man
An immigrant from an English speaking country
An immigrant from a non-English speaking country
And we all have opinions. We all see the world through our own lens. Our own filter. Even through the spirited discussion that I heard, I saw beauty. I saw a fearlessness in each member of the group speaking fearlessly.
It makes me think back to the principal that we learned that states “You can’t make a mistake.”
So if I approach the world knowing that I can’t make a mistake, I know that I can speak freely. I may offend someone. I may annoy someone. I may say the wrong thing. But it’s all an opportunity for awareness and learning.
