Nonviolent Communication and Social Change: 1

This is about Nonviolent Communication and social change. It was always part of what Marshall talked about – using NVC as a way to support social change. It was important to him, and he was never as clear about it as I would have liked him to be. Now, though, I’ve reached a point where I’m glad he didn’t fill in the gaps. I think it’s dangerous territory for one person to define what is meant by ‘social change’.

Are you starting with judgements?

If we think that the world needs to change, it is easy for judgements to creep in. ‘This is terrible – we need to change it.’  Already there are two judgements. Firstly, there is an analysis that something is terrible or wrong. Secondly, the ‘change’ that is envisaged may be a specific strategy based on a political view. Even as we make a judgement that change is required, we may be imposing a political world-view on others, perhaps without even realising it. Certainly our cultural bias will creep in.

Instead- what is moving you? What are you seeing? Are you horrified and longing for peace? or Are you hopeless and longing for inspiration?
As you come together

Whole movements are built on ‘doing good for the world’. We all have a strong psychological drive to be seen to be ‘good’, and a similarly strong drive to be tribal. So it’s seductive for us to join movements that are ‘doing good’. I see a danger in being unaware of what’s driving us and not understanding the ‘power-over’ dynamic we’re using. I was first alerted to this danger by a friend who worked for an NGO in the Pacific islands. She described organisations parachuting in to build schools – a good thing, surely? – which then didn’t always support the local society and economy in the long run. Provided with a very different education to that of their parents, children left school without a full grasp of their own culture, and often left the islands.

How much judgement is there in the phrases we hear regularly? ‘The world is in a terrible state’, ‘These are unprecedented times’ and so on. Is this the whole picture? There’s plenty of research to show, for instance, that the number of conflicts in the world is decreasing. Closer to home, a family was recently bereaved in my neighbourhood. From my window, I saw the stream of visitors offering help and support. I heard ‘thank you’ and ‘take care’, over and over.  The world isn’t always terrible. Be careful not to be pulled into the story, to become scared. In fear, we become more tribal and this leads to polarisation.

We can very easily move to ‘othering’ in our attempts to build something together: We are better then those people who do nothing. Or We know the best way to be in the world- if only everyone learnt Nonviolent Communication!

What to do

Be alert not to be pulled into ‘groupthink’ (of ‘doing good’) rather than thinking for ourselves.  Jonathan Haidt explored the groupish gene. Not a bad thing- but be aware! It’s important to notice when we’re convinced that we are fighting a good fight. We’re hardwired to seek validation from groups and be conscious of the danger this brings. We are so desperate to belong that we tend to lose ourselves and our discernment.

There been a lot in today’s blog about what to avoid. Next time, I’ll explore more about how NVC can make a positive difference in social change, and provide some more questions so you can check with yourself about your own (and others’) motivations.

The pressure to do BIG social change that’s paralysing action

graffiti of word revolution with love in red

I came to Nonviolent Communication and social change via my work in schools. I knew they could be places that people wanted to go to every day- but it would take a shift at every level to do this.

Change seems so necessary because so much of our lives seem cut off from our natural ways of being and so much of what I have is dependent on others not having it including food, clothes and fuel. That change will need to be at a systemic level and I believe, BIG social change- a change in the way we behave and think and see each other.

Over many years of involvement in groups of people practising NVC I worry there are subtle messages that social change has to have a large audience to be social change- somehow I hear the words social change has got wrapped up in a definition that this has to be enormous- be making a difference on a global scale. I’m sure many people tell themselves- I’m not doing social change… because they don’t have a huge project they are involved in. one that the U.N. might have heard of!

Maybe we are stifling all our attempts to be of service to contribute to change because we immediately judge what we as doing as small and ‘not worth it’?

I would like us to see it differently. For example…If you are raising a child and have worked on yourself to undo your conditioning and are choosing not to use reward and punishment – you are involved in social change. If you greet the person who gets annoyed with you with kindness and care- you are involved in social change. We can all chose where we shop – this too is social change.

A social change project is a social change project regardless of its size and I can make my life a social change project if I want to.  How I speak to myself my be my first act of social change- especially if this is reversing trauma and abuse patterns in a family. How about acts of social change rather than acts of random kindness? And let’s start with ourselves.

What small social change acts will you make today? how can you apply Nonviolent Communication and social change?

Rest as Resistance

woman on a swing

Sad to say our trip to Spain was cancelled earlier this week.

We had been looking forward to meeting all the staff at Cortijo Romero, meeting you all and to working and resting together. We now have even more time opened up in front of us. I was struck with ideas of what to do… and how to use it… then I listened to this podcast- Rest as Resistance. Here was the shift in perspective I’ve been looking for.

Tricia Hersey weaves together so many powerful insights from her work- I urge you all to listen- then take a nap…. no seriously… even during this pandemic we are not resting enough- because of this pandemic we are not rested enough.

‘Using time’ is a capitalist idea and I want to step out of this brainwashing.

As I walked and listened I realised even my walking wasn’t full of rest… I was trying to ‘do’ my steps, I was trying to get somewhere- how about I danced while I walked? how about I let my arms swing? How about I rest my spine and let nature take over? We are born to walk and dance.

via GIPHY

Lately I’ve been inviting my 1:1 clients to slow down and be with their experiences. It seems to me that is where the magic is.
Our invitation next week is to rest in your feelings and needs, our course is entitled Find your Inner Compass. We still have spaces available for our mini- online course and for sure we will be encouraging you to rest.

Maybe with a bit more stillness than Beyonce here, but who knows?

Who are we to second guess what rest will look like?

Reluctant Leadership

women holding banner saying We are the ones we have been waiting for

“We are the ones we have been waiting for” the sign says- but what if you don’t want to be? What if we are practising reluctant leadership?

Because we know being a leader these days is raw, gritty work standing up and suggesting a different way forward based on our deepest values- those that connect us. As a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer, I find myself being asked to speak- people even give me a microphone and write down what I say. I know I am sharing what I have learned so far and I’m glad it supports people. I didn’t set out to be a leader, and now I see that it is essential work for us all as we head for climate breakdown. Leading the way towards a world that works for all finding along the way that we all need healing from the trauma of our past and the generations who have lived through war, famine and separation.

There is steady flow of huge numbers of powerful people who do not want to change how it is now- or who want even more separation and they pull in the other direction,

Standing up to this and being in our pain and inviting others into theirs is exposing. Being vulnerable and naked emotionally and leads to cold sweats, binge eating and no place to hide from what’s going on for you… I don’t think it’s just me.

I know now why women don’t do it so often- because we cannot rely on our structural and physical power- we have to dig deep and go against ideas of how women should behave.

I often read that women are not in positions of leadership because they lack confidence…. for sure and let’s dig further into the idea that it is all about confidence as if we could flick a switch and just be confident like men.

BEFORE we even try and find the confidence we need to find the spaces to practise, to try and to mess up and to become…. we don’t often have these spaces…. In nursery’s/ kindergartens I went into I watched children painting. Usually the board was in the corner of the room next to the taps, there was often a long process of putting aprons on and and negotiating space, water, paints, brushes- which the adults if they were wise, left the children to sort out. Then there was freedom to create with no judgement. Creations were labelled- by the children and left to dry and take home. Somewhere along the lines this stops happening and art becomes about comparison and a ‘lesson’. I wonder if we do the same for other things? For sure leadership in girls is called bossy and research suggests that the labelling has a negative impact on women in the workplace even though men also show behaviours that are labelled bossy.

How to be a leader? how to do something we’ve only ever experienced in a patriarchy….. this is unknown territory- we all lack confidence to do this- if someone says they know how to be the kind of leader we need this century I do not believe them. We are all trying to find new ways and one thing I’ve learnt is that there is no ‘way’ just trying, messing up and learning at this moment in time.

That is not to say I don’t see leadership I admire- I do and I watch and learn.

This kind of leadership is also about teams, support, and what to do afterwards, where to go with all that comes up after stepping into leadership … because we want to do it our way and not with armour plating, but stepping up and being seen is dam HARD on our systems and we haven’t yet created the space to grieve, celebrate and be proud….

Our confidence will grow when we do it- mine has…. But I am the reluctant leader and still hide….at the same time I started delving into leadership I started exploring my addictions and the numbing I do….. still diving deep and being my own leader just now.

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Reading

Some reading on Leadership I am enjoying or are in my pile to read this summer:

Brené Brown Dare to Lead, The Tao of Leadership John Heider- I had to get it on Kindle as out of print, Margaret Wheatley’s work, Frederic LaLoux and Reinventing Organisations and Otto Scharmer and Theory U .

What are you reading or exploring on this topic?