Good morning and I hope your world is a beautiful as the weather is here in Vancouver this week.
It’s Pride Week in Vancouver. Like cities in the rest of Canada, Vancouver ranks as one of the most inclusive cities on the planet. 10's of thousands of people will line the streets in the West End on Sunday for the Pride Parade. And this week's festivities were ceremoniously opened by Mayor Gregor Robertson at City Hall on Monday. Politicians from the federal and provincial governments, as well as the city were on hand, all wanting to get pictures with each other!
Deep down, I see Pride Week as evidence of transformation. A transformation of a whole city. People point to various moments in the life of this amazing city as pivotal in our journey towards inclusiveness; the shameful Komagata Maru incident 100 years ago this year when a ship full of Sikh men was refused entry to the port after a perilous journey from India, the internment of Japanese families during the 2nd World War, the ‘hippies’ camped at Coal Harbour, the AIDS crisis, EXPO '86, and even more recently, the 2010 Winter Olympics.
I suggest a different metaphor. We ‘wrestle’ with inclusiveness in our social and corporate lives. It is not because of a specific moment in history, rather it is a constant wrestling match between our selfish egos and the other. This week in Vancouver we celebrate the inclusion in our social networks, of our Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Two Spirit, Questioning sisters and brothers. And we now wrestle with how we might move to a broader and then healthier city that values everybody, regardless of their income or their mental or physical health. Or in organizations, how do we include the outside thinker, the person who does not want to go on the company picnic, or who challenges the status quo ideas? How do we open ourselves to including those who would have us change, would have us transform? We have come a long way, and the road is long.
In this month’s BC Business http://www.bcbusiness.ca/ in the “Visual Learning” section, there are some very funny lines about ‘Creating a Company Vision’. One really struck my eye; “Gather the oldest, whitest males from the company, put them in a boardroom and let the magic fly.” And I thought, ‘hmmm, I’m in my mid-fifties, I’m white, I facilitate these things, often with men who are older than me in board rooms. What is this saying to me?” Inclusiveness is difficult in the workplace. We may see and hear ideas that don’t make sense to us. We may get defensive (always dangerous). We may say, ‘well that may be fine in your happy little hipster world, but here in the real world…” We may say or do any number of things to edit the ideas into something we think is palatable. And we may be exactly right in doing or saying any one of these things. Or we could be completely wrong. Inclusiveness is vital for creativity and innovation. It is the way we learn, it is the way we grow, it is the way new possibilities emerge. It is through inclusiveness that we grow up.
Just like each and every one of us, as we face life's difficulties, and as this city has learned over the last 125 or so years, we grow, we change, we become different. Our selfish egos wrestle with ideas and possibilities in the other and become bigger, stronger more inclusive minds and hearts. May that growth continue for each and every one of us.