Dr. Gwen Simmons, North Carolina, shared a couple of thoughts with me in response to my request for ideas for strengthening DKG. Below is one of them.
"Does DKG NOW have a learning disability? Yes, I think it does.
Before the time of Peter M. Senge
(1990) and Ronald A. Heifetz (1994), Dr. Blanton (1929) structured DKG to be a Learning Organization; that is, an
organization where members are expected to participate in the activities of
the Society; although DKG may not be transformed by a member’s participation but
the member is transformed into a leader in
her own right.
I
have never minded what a colleague calls the “grunt work” of DKG because when
I understood that any responsibility you assumed in DKG you would” learn on the
job” and the DKG Organization would probably not be transformed by your grunt
work , but you, as an adult learner, would
continue to learn and hence, be transformed.
DKG, as educators often do, has an
overall mentality that something must be produced that is tangible—when in
reality what would really transform this organization is women thinking on
their feet and being able to listen, disagree without taking disagreement to
mean rejection and creating an “us against them mentality” (If you don’t think
like me, there must be something wrong with you because there is certainly
nothing wrong with me.)"
Absolutely! Can we learn to listen to understand, rather than listen to respond? Through our differences, might we become stronger? I think so! Our actions must be addressed as tangible, but also feasible. Alone our tasks may seem overwhelming, but together we can make large tasks small.
ReplyDelete