Note from Isobel: You will notice that this is decidedly incomplete in terms of what we were supposed to say and inaccurate in the sense that we didn't say a lot of what it's in here and said a lot that isn't; it's also unhelpful in terms of guidance for time and how to group people. This plan is not really a plan and not really a script; it's more a reflection of what we were thinking when we planned the session, but we are always making decisions in the moment based on what is going on in the room with the people who are in attendance.
In taking this approach, we have been influenced by our work in coaching, which is very much about being present and responding to what is in front of you, and the work of adrienne maree brown, who advises, "less prep, more presence."
If you want more guidance on how to to think about this, let us know.
A lot of what we are going to talk about is a rejection of the typical norms for strategic conversations, so in that spirit, we are going to strip our presentation of the typical trappings of those conversations. So: no PowerPoint, which is a vehicle for the transmission of reductive, pre-digested messages that the people in power control. No phones, no laptops - we have printed stickers with a QR code that has all the information from this presentation, and a PPT, and ways to keep in contact with us, but we want you to put away your tech so you can pay full attention to each other. No long introductions touting our credentials - I am Rydell, this is Isobel, and today we are offering to guide some conversations around some big ideas.
Typically, if we even ask participants to introduce themselves to each other, it’s name and role. And that immediately sets up a power dynamic in the room, because the institutional logic of schools and districts dictates that rank is important, and research tells us that people in power talk more in group settings. So we want you to introduce yourselves by your name and any other aspect of your personal identity that you’re proud of, and leave your professional identity out of the mix.
And then, we want you to have a conversation about belonging. Some of you may have been following Geoff Cohen’s work for a long time - he writes about stereotype threat and wise interventions - and he has a new book out called Belonging. He talks about how important belonging is to our health and wellbeing, and how feelings of exclusion cause social pain, which we experience in much the same way that we experience physical pain.
Isobel: So Rydell, how come you know so much about belonging?
Rydell: I wrote my dissertation on it.
So we want you to have a conversation about what needs to happen, or not happen, in order for you to feel like you belong in this space. We’ll start.
Rydell:
Isobel: Two things: first, when people comment on, or make fun of, my accent, it signals that they see me as a foreigner, an outsider, and it provokes feelings of not belonging that I can otherwise go for weeks and months without feeling; second, as a European white person talking about equity, I always feel the need to prove how woke I am, so when I am asked questions in forums like this about my involvement in equity work, I can feel myself get a little defensive.
Before we turn it over to you, we have some guidelines that we’re importing from our coaching work, around entering a sacred space when you are listening to others.
Someone’s story is their story, and you are charged with protecting it from repetition, judgment, or interpretation.
Whatever anyone shares in a sacred space stays there. Even with the best of intentions, don’t bring back up to someone what they shared. If they want to, that’s fine, because it belongs to them. But you don’t have the right.
Conversation #2 Testimony Service
Bright spots as a counteraction to deficit thinking. Bright spots pulpit. The adjacent possible.
Rydell: Talk about testimony service and its function as building perceived self-efficacy and highlighting what is going well. Lots of research to support this approach (World Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry, Positive Deviance), but I want to take you into one of the practices of Black churches, and here’s how it goes…
Conversation #3 Power & Rationality
Power hoarding, rationality, who is qualified.
Infantilization
Decentering of power and position that makes improvement science an approach and a strategy, but also makes it a democratizing force, and more effective because it broadens the definition of expertise.
Hazing
Conversation #4 The conversation that only these people can have
Use this as the debrief.
adrienne maree brown’s Principles of Emergent Strategy (from her book, Emergent Strategy), includes: There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.
Find someone that you haven’t talked to so far. Share: did you have that conversation? What was it that you needed to say or needed to hear? What are you taking away from this session? And what are you grateful for?
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1st Corinthians 13:12