She wasn’t 19 and dancing was not her jam.
She was 29. 
And, man oh man, did she know how to ride. 

Born enslaved in 1820, Araminta Ross worked as a house servant at the age of 6. 

By the time she turned 13, she worked in the fields on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was 29 when she got wind that she, along with the other enslaved Black people on the plantation, would be sold. It was at this point that she resolved to run away. The business of running away as an enslaved person was all hush hush and under cover. It took a lot of stealth and underground preparation to make a successful run for the north.

Aided by a white woman, she boarded the railroad, alone, dead set on becoming free. 

She followed the North Star by night, arriving in the state of Pennsylvania and then traveled to Philadelphia. She worked there and saved her money. A year later, she went back south to get her enslaved sister and her two children. She made another trip to bring up her enslaved brother and two other men. She escorted her 70-year-old parents to freedom too.  

Having taken her husband’s last name and preferring her mother’s name to her own, Araminta Ross is best known as Harriet Tubman.

Harriet was strategic, cunning and functioned with nerves of steel. Each trip was a covert operation that ran at great risk. She was the conductor who ran the ground game expertly. Under threat of death and with a $40,000 bounty on her head, she ran the dangerous routes many times. She could not have done it alone. Harriet relied on white people who lined the underground railroad at every stop. Together they ensured a safe passage to freedom for 300 enslaved Blacks over 19 trips in a 10 year span of time. 

How many trips do you have in you?

Harriet made 19 trips to make equity a possibility. In 2024, we can go far together, too. 

The perilous road they trod is easy now in comparison, made smooth by the sweat, risk and death of those before us. Our task now is to first see, strengthen our resolve and then strategically move in tangible, visible ways to make life equitable for all. They did it when the risk of death hung in the balance. We can do it now by making a difference. It’s time to take our place on the railroad to equity. We have conductors and advocates aplenty to make equity real in America. 

Let’s ride. 

It took the work of Black and Whites working together to make freedom possible in Harriet’s lifetime. Now, with the combined efforts of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, whites and other identities, we can work as one to make equity ring. It will take the best of us to pull it off. That was true then. It’s still true now. 

We are better, together.

Tracy
Tracy Carmen-Jones
Partner
ChoicePoints Learning
www.choicepointslearning.com

The post Hey 19: No, we can’t dance together (Steely Dan). appeared first on ChoicePoints Learning.

Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement that created the possibility for me to meet and get to know you.

Without Martin Luther King, Jr., I would have no knowledge of the fullness of you or even what it feels like to have met your acquaintance. Without the blood, sweat and tears that MLK shed and his repudiation of state-sanctioned terrorism of Black people, our paths would have never crossed in the ways that we have come to know each other. The bread that we have had the good fortune and God’s favor to break together at work and in friendship would have never been tasted.

I think about Martin Luther King Jr often.  

His courage to lead and the audacity to believe that we could be better together across the races astounds and emboldens me. Crushed in on all sides, battling stinging injustices externally while fighting internally to simply keep the movement together and moving forward was a monumental task to take on. MLK was an amazing strategist and tactician who knew how to surround himself with strong people who shared his vision and had the backbone to execute it, even in the face of death. Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement is our American legacy.  

The shared history of America is part of each of us today.  

Our shared history is in my lifeblood. It’s in yours too. It is embedded and flows through us as we live inside this old house of America that’s been passed down to us—in all of its splendor, inequities, fortune, prejudices, opportunities, poverty, wealth and systemic disadvantages.  

Martin Luther King Jr stood up for the possibility of unity. 

What is true for me now is that I know that unity in ways that matter among Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and people of all ethnic identities is possible. I invite you to stand up and be a part of making America, our old house, better. From the courthouse to Wall Street, in school rooms and work rooms, on Zoom, Teams and in your own home, you can make a difference.  

Stand Up. He did. We can. 

Martin Luther King Jr and others have toiled and died for us. Let’s make good on their investment in creating unity in significant and meaningful ways. Get to know someone of a different ethnic identity than you and create connection in a genuine way. If you see an inequity, an interaction monopolized by the majority ethnicity in the room or ideas that don’t seem viable when they are shared by a Black, Indigenous Person of Color (BIPOC), stand up. Like MLK, you can be the difference that ripples and cascades for generations to come. 

We are better, together.

Tracy

Tracy Carmen-Jones
Partner
ChoicePoints Learning
www.choicepointslearning.com

The post If it wasn’t for Martin Luther King Jr, I would have never met you. appeared first on ChoicePoints Learning.

As we enter 2020, the narratives and behaviors of fear, distrust, misunderstanding and polarization are permeating every element of our society; from our communities to the workplace.  Today’s cultural and political environment is as divisive as it has ever been in our history.  Perhaps one of the most obvious topics wrought with fear and misunderstanding is race.  The dynamics, complexities and implications of race are interwoven into the fabric of our communities, organizations and institutions.  Yet, the widespread implications of such dynamics are not only infrequently discussed, but often dismissed and denied.  We have a choice.  We can succumb to divisive dynamics or seize this opportunity for bold, courageous and transformational leadership. We do have a choice.

Diversity is Realty

Undeniably, our global and societal demographics have changed and will continue to change significantly.  Diversity numbers are rising and by 2045 people of color are projected to be the majority not only in the U.S., but across the world.  This will be the “New Normal.” This “New Normal” will require organizations and businesses to abandon their historic, comfortable, status quo approaches and strategies to effectively engage, utilize and benefit from this different marketplace and societal reality.

As a result of these dramatic demographic shifts, we’ve already seen significant changes in the way business is done.  Diversity is no longer the obligatory politically correct term cavalierly stated to appear woke, but is the driver of social and economic reality.

Tools of Change

Coaching has historically been at the forefront of helping leaders address the challenges of organizational change and effectiveness.  One of the most successful tools in the arena of leadership development is coaching.   Given the dramatic cultural shifts occurring globally, and the impact it is having on people at every level, coaching is an even more vital element in the leadership development and organizational effectiveness toolkit. 

While organizations and businesses are preparing for and adapting to the impact and realities of the “New Normal,” are coaches readying themselves to properly address the needs of our clients as they face these new challenges?

Coaching with Cultural Competence

Similar to organizations and businesses operating in this “New Normal” reality, coaches cannot continue serving leaders using the same tools, models, approaches and mind sets of yesterday. The key to effectively operating in our “New Normal” world is to coach with cultural competency.   

At its very essence, coaching is about partnering with clients to inspire them to maximize their personal and professional potential.  Coaches encourage and embolden their clients to become the experts of themselves; producing the solutions and strategies that bring them satisfaction and fulfillment.  Therefore, it is fundamental that coaches become culturally competent, meaning they are aware of and understand the distinctions of difference, and can skillfully integrate those understandings in service to maximizing the development of their coachees.

So, what is cultural competency? 

Cultural competency is not a destination to reach or a class one takes to be deemed certified in and the learning is complete.  It is a process of on-going learning that invites self-awareness and assessment of biases, stereotypes, and perspectives held of others as well as, increasing awareness of the contexts and lived experiences of others who are different from us culturally. 

A Culturally Competent Coach is one who:

• Is actively in the process of becoming aware of their own assumptions about human behavior, values, biases, stereotypes, personal limitations
• Actively attempts to understand the worldview of their culturally different client.
• Is in the process of actively developing and practicing appropriate, relevant, and sensitive intervention strategies and skills in working with their culturally different client.

Leadership coaches have a uniquely powerful and influential position to affect positive change in the lives of people and shift their ability to improve and grow.  In today’s “New Normal,” leveraging one’s cultural competence is essential for personal and organizational success.

The post Get Ready, Change is Coming (Actually, It’s Here) appeared first on ChoicePoints Learning.

I’ve been in corporate America for years now and boy how I’ve invested in getting to know you and you, me.

Relationships have been borne out of countless conversations before the meeting, after the meeting, on Webex, behind closed doors, at lunch, coffee and in teambuilding events. We’ve been in the trenches of work together. I know first-hand how having work relationships has made work better,  challenges surmountable and life at work richer, fuller somehow.

In these moments, I feel like you see me for me and that we’ve gotten beyond the skin, titles and functional areas we’re in. I know and embrace the you you’ve shown me.  

I think of many of you as my Sisters-and-Brothers-from-Other-Mothers.

It’s time to take our work friend kinship/relationship to another level, a new normal. My world is filled with African American men, young and old, corporate and working class, executives and cleaning staff.  Mustached, clean-shaven, suits, jeans, erudite,streetwise, even some in earrings. They are my family, the husbands, brothers and sons of my ‘Momtourage’ mothers group, school chums, Boy Scout Troop 242, church members and friends. My world transforms into a cornucopia of brown hues when I leave the office. Every one of them are loved and valued.

It’s important that my husband, son and dad make it home safely each day. That a chance encounter with an officer doesn’t result in me living without them. It’s important that your family and friends make it home safely each day. I know how much your family and friends mean to you.

My world may be colored differently than yours yet our desires for a great life are largely the same.

So today, I’m embarking on a new normal, sharing more of me with you in my heart’s deepest desire for you to see the dimensions and breadth of African Americans more comprehensively. We talk about everything else that’s available for public consumption-let’s add what’s on the news about African Americans and the police to our conversation. I believe you are just and have the horsepower and empathy to help dream up a new normal for America.

Join me. Better yet, share the load and initiate a dialogue about this topic. It’s already front and center on my mind.  

Let’s lead and light a way forward.

The post A New Normal appeared first on ChoicePoints Learning.