Understanding context
Happy Sunday Everyone
Today I am writing to you from the Cederberg mountains. We are here because it is here, 13 months ago that I made my decision to leave media.
It was a hard decision. I love what media adds to democracy. I care about the teams that I worked with. It had been my life for 17 years. Yet, I knew that I needed a new context to advance that which I care about – creating a more humane, more connected, more effective world.
Without that decision, I would not be writing this letter. I would not have the amazing conversations that have resulted. I would not be working with the wonderful clients that I am. So, I am grateful. Thank you for continuing to witness and support my journey.
So, our visit back to Edenveldt farm is to close the loop, to acknowledge decisions made and the journey traveled.
Today’s letter is about pausing to see the reality of the world around us so that we can take mindful, deliberate action to create a better world.
STRATEGY
Rage becomes her
Good strategy can’t happen without understanding context. Effective leadership can’t happen without understanding context. Real connection can’t happen without understanding context.
Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger is a powerful provider of context.
She weaves together exhaustive research with case studies and personal experience to paint a picture of systemic gender-based inequality. She covers what it means for women in all spheres of life, from family, to physical safety, to healthcare, to the workplace.
She shows that “being a woman can literally be more expensive”. Citing a study by the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, “girls’ clothing costs, on average, 4% more than boys, while women’s clothing costs 8% more than men’s. Girl’s toys cost 7% more than boys do – even for identical products. One of the biggest gaps was in personal hygiene and care products, which cost women 13% more.”
She brings home how violence permeates women’s everyday lives, “Two-thirds of women journalists report work-related threats, sexist abuse, intimidation, and harassment. Personally, I’ve developed an absurd skill, that of being able to weaponize virtually anything. I wear thick, heavy, and sharp-ended hairpins. I order hot tea when I travel alone on airplanes, easily spillable on a handsy neighbour. The list goes on and on.”
The New Yorker called it ‘relentless and revelatory’. It is essential reading.
SELF
Turn your gaze inwards
All social change begins with oneself. I have found it to be the hardest change. It is easier to take refuge in sociological and economic analysis. It is far harder to acknowledge where bias and discrimination turn up in oneself. And harder still to change oneself. Yet, it is where social change begins and holds.
I have borrowed this exercise from Debbie Irving’s Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race (more about this book in another letter).
“What values and admonitions did you learn in your family? Think about education, work, lifestyle, expression of emotions, and so forth.
Make a list of ten principles, values, and unspoken beliefs. Siblings and cousins can be a good resource for thinking about this.
Now consider what conclusions you draw about people who do not appear to follow your family’s belief system.”
Soul
Can art change history?
Artist Titus Kaphar took his children to the Natural History Museum in NYC. In this talk at the official TED Conference he explains “…we go into the front entrance of the museum, and there’s that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt… And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking. And on the right-hand side of him is an African-American walking… my oldest son, who’s nine, says, ‘Dad, how come he gets to ride, and they have to walk?’… fundamentally what he was saying was, ‘… Dad, that doesn’t look fair. And why is this thing that’s so not fair sitting outside of such an amazing institution?’”
He goes on to demonstrate how his work tries to shift our perspective. You have to watch it to understand. Kaphar says
“What I’m trying to do, what I’m trying to show you, is how to shift your gaze just slightly, just momentarily, just momentarily, to ask yourself the question, why do some have to walk? What is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums? What is the impact of these kinds of paintings on some of our most vulnerable in society, seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time?”
I wish you a week of expanded vision.
Best wishes
Karl
PS: Please email me comments as always. They are so helpful. I also post this letter on my LinkedIn profile, if it resonated with you please do share it.