Brave & Bold Conversations
Brave & Bold Conversations
Written By Raquell M Holmes, Ph.D.
“I choose to advocate and lead because the people picking cotton sacrificed for us to be where we are now.” I appreciate this message from Mellody Hobson in her Happy Warrior interview with James Manyika at the McKinsey Global Institute. “It’s the least we can do is to carry this burden—the least.” She has a sense of history that guides her commitment to creating opportunities for others who will come after her.
History is more than events that happened in the past. It reflects the evolution of ways of living in the world.
Since this interview, we have seen in America: the election of the first Black, Asian, female Vice President; a physical assault on the Capitol to stop an election; and a White police officer found guilty on three counts for the murder of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd.
These singular events emerged from advocates boldly and bravely speaking, writing and protesting for years to create the conditions in which such monumental actions could take place. These are ordinary people organizing with their pain, dissatisfaction, hopes and insistence for a just and fair America.
In the public's response to Floyd’s murder, we have the opportunity to see, all at once, millions of people responding to the grassroots work led by others. Cesar Chavez, who organized migrant workers, when asked how one creates a movement, responded: “Well, first you talk to one person, then you talk to another person, then you talk to another person.”
Individuals, departments and companies are in the midst of a historic reorganization of how they work. From the ground up, everyone is being asked to help build new cultures. How can we do better? How can we develop personally and professionally?
Hobson highlights the mentoring relationships she built by speaking to one person and then another. She shares how she grew professionally, by building—I say improvisationally— with each person who invested in her. “Feedback is neither constructive nor non-constructive. It is.” She creatively built with what people said and did. “Why is he saying this? . . . If this feedback is a gift, take it for what it is.” Use it.
Accepting and working with what people give is a capability we can all cultivate.
Learning to do this with conversations on race is, as Hobson says, “the least we can do” to give more than what we have inherited to those who come after us. I invite you to consider Hobson’s suggestion: drop classifying feedback—constructive/ non-constructive. Instead, work to listen to and creatively build with what your team or investors offer.
Building transforms challenging, uncomfortable conversations into new opportunities. Our current societal challenges are an amazing opportunity to create history that we are all proud of, one that brings into existence liberty and justice for all.
Are you creating opportunities for your teams to transform your culture in this historic moment?