Reconciliation: No simple answers to complex situations – Reconciliation in the
workplace
– by Seth Naicker
Reconciliation: a word, a verb, a ministry, an action, an ideal. I am passionate about doing the work of reconciliation. As much as I have some understanding I am still learning about the length and breadth of this God ordained agenda of Reconciliation. Let us consider together "reconciliation," as a value, an ideology and a way of life, where there are no simple answers to complex situations.
Reconciliation in our everyday life needs to be defined and extended much further than the lines upon which races are divided, this may be a priority of the social disparity and the cause of much pain within society, but reconciliation must not and cannot be limited to the discussion and the concern for racial reconciliation alone!
There are many a social discord that is racial, but is also religious, cultural, socio-economic, class based, abilities based, gender based etc. The work of reconciliation must be so defined that reconciliation provides a framework that allows for our people: meaning our parents, our elders, our children and youth, and future generations to be able to grapple with this broad based definition of reconciliation.
For the purposes of an example, and to be transparent and authentic about my concern, I have found too many white people excited about having their, in USA wide terms- ‘persons of colour'- friends, who they are willing to reconcile too and with, and even tolerate, but there is limitation concerning their ability to wrestle with the historic social injustice and social realities. The reality that under pins racism and the related matters concerning power and privilege etc, and moving from accepting an individual to accepting a community, is somehow excluded from understanding reconciliation and embracing ‘authentic reconciliation.
On the other hand, I have noted persons of colour, who have bought into becoming co-opted into a system of whiteness, instead of these persons of colour being voices for and of the marginalized, we see people who play the system wide recognized social reality of bicultural operative-ness. They do the shuck and jive or the duck and dive, they do the divisive, detrimental, and demeaning dance, where everything is premised upon succeeding within the confines of a system, and very little thought is committed to transforming the system. If reconciliation is ‘watered down’ like this, we may as well just call it a work of 'weak reconciliation.’
I am not blinded to work of white persons, and persons of colour who are seeking to make positive change, but I do believe that there must be a freedom of people's minds concerning their consciousness and their image of self. If people continue to operate in a world where whiteness is the standard then we will never be able to combat the matters of racial and other disparities on an equal playing field.
In my personal journey I was born into a society plagued by legalized racism through the governance of Apartheid, within South Africa. I have been immersed in a racialized society, from birth and even within a post Apartheid era, it is my work to un-work the mechanisms of ‘brain wash’, where white was categorized as superior. This ‘un-working’ process is the tough work of introspection and reckoning with my-self concept that I must commit to daily, as I journey seeking to live free of labels and stereotypes, and more especially a system that enthrones whiteness. I must, and we must together, consider that the great equalizer is the consciousness that we are created in God's image, and this fact must propel the mindset that 'I am not more than any one, I am not less than anyone, and that my bank balance should not dictate my confidence and my belief in who I am!’
We must wrestle with the issue of consciousness and how much of whom we are is based on the social construct of whiteness, yet there is much greater diversity to which we are, where we come from, and our heritage. When we can grapple together with the hypocrisy and social evil of racism, religious intolerance, homophobia etc., without the time wasting process of an internal need to defend, we may arrive at a place of utter, complete and bold courage to do the sacrificial work of reconciliation: that calls us to lay down our right, to be willing to stand in the tension, and even be beaten and sworn at: like Gandhi, like Martin Luther King Jnr., like Malcolm X, like Steven Biko, like Roberta Menchu, like Nelson Mandela, and like Jesus Christ.
I believe that our world is in a season when authentic reconciliation can take place. We should seize the moment, to really get deep with this practice, ideology, and highest agenda of "Reconciliation.” Let’s stop beating around the bush and go deep with this work of coming together. In the words of Mother Teresa, we have the opportunity to 'make something beautiful for God.' May God give us the strength to deal with the complexity of life and the reality that 'there are no simple answers to complex situations!"
Required change for leaders in South Africa! – by Seth Naicker.
When fraudulence and leadership discrepancy occur at highest levels of power in South Africa, it is not merely illegal. Such illegality should be seen and understood as acts of injustice and crimes against humanity. These high order criminals suck the resource out of our economic system, which should be reforming the lives of our poor, marginalised and economically frustrated South Africans.
When people of power steal from the coffers of our national supply and make multinational tradeoffs that favour their personal greed and bank accounts, it would be appreciated if their self interest ideals had no effect on the lives of our working class.
The reality of life however, is that we are connected and unfortunately whatever high level leaders go about, surely affects our everyday people. It might sound absurd but the ethical code and conduct of our honourable organisational and societal leaders, and their choices, have direct effect on our everyday lives.
In a new order of democratic fertility leaders need to be informed by leadership principles and core values that interrogate systems that fail people. Leaders need to go through or be refreshed by personal change experiences that bring value to the lives of people that they serve.
There are too many leaders who accept the things they cannot change, especially when that change calls for responsible and active critique of unjust social and organisational happenings. Leaders need to be courageous in going about bringing change in areas they think cannot be changed. Leaders who have inspired the world have unwittingly gone about pursuing change in places and spaces that others said were impossible. Leaders need wisdom to know the difference between costly change and possible change. Knowing the difference should not result in inaction concerning change that is costly.
It was a costly exercise when Steve Biko challenged the Apartheid dictators of South Africa. Aung San Suu Kyi knows costly change through her detention for the course of freedom in Burma. Leadership within communities and organisations in our 21st century require a revamping of the serenity prayer, and it goes as follows:
God, grant me:
Serenity to understand the things that seem impossible to change,
Courage to change the things I can,
Perseverance to engage things that will be costly to change, and
Wisdom to know how to acknowledge the need for, implementation and realisation of positive change!
Engaging stereotypes in the workplace: “diminish the stereotypes and realize the change!” – by Seth Naicker
Stereotypes are propelled by generalization of people, culture and places, e.g. Indian people like hot or pungent food. It may be true in the general sense of things, but there are those Indian people who have no interest for food that has the mother-in-law masala sting. It is natural for people to operate with stereotypes based upon their experience and their interactions with the other or lack thereof, but we must challenge stereotypes that diminish, devour and destroy people.
As you engage your everyday world, where are your stereotypes present, active and rampant? Get introspective and reflective and do a personal audit of the way you treat people and the way you react based upon the pre-conceived ideas, beliefs and biases that you have learned, inherited and established.
Moving into action:
Having introspected how do you move towards change?
• Start deconstructing thinking patterns, points of view and outlooks on life, that are informed by unhealthy stereotypes which break people down. Now in the context of meaningful relationships start reconstructing healthy realistic outlooks that promote well being.
• Ask yourself how you would like to be treated? Now, ask your colleague/s how they would like to be treated. Once you’ve established this, start applying the following golden principle: “Treat others as you would like them to treat you, but more importantly honor and treat others as they would like to be treated.”
• Stephen R. Covey in the “7 Habits of highly effective people” states, “seek first to understand then be understood.” This is not easy to do, but definitely worthwhile since it humanizes our interactions. Seek to understand the person as a priority, before you expect the person to understand you.
• Apply your listening skills and openness to the person whom you work with. Be present and active as you seek to listen to and understand the other.
Allow people to live beyond the boxes and mental prisons we place them in. By doing so we will be liberating ourselves and others!
Do I have a choice? Considering choice making in the workplace and the complexities that go with it! – by Seth Naicker
I have been a part of discussions, talk shops, work-shops, academic presentations and regular person to person discussions on the issue of choice and whether or not people have the freedom to choose. Fundamentally I agree that everyone has the ability to choose and that every person has the freedom of choice, but this fundamental, simple and very shallow acknowledgement must be interrogated by a deeper analysis and the complexity that for some it is easier to choose whilst for others it is not. Furthermore the complexity of choice and the reasoning process lying beneath the surface of choice making or the ability to choose, must be further investigated and discussed. In my experience it seems to easy to render all faults within society, organizations or personal and professional development on the simple statement “you have a choice so choose” or “you had a choice and you chose badly”.
In agreeing that all people have the freedom of choice, it must be clarified that theoretically and intellectually it is so, but the practicality of an ‘I can choose” philosophy is where the problems arise and the rubber meets the road. It is here that I have contested and must continue to contest this simple analysis and shallow propaganda that all people have a choice and all people can choose. My main reason for raising the argument or contestation is based upon my observation that choice making or having the ability to choose is more complex than simple based on the art of choice or the art and educative process of choosing.
The complexity arises from the fact that social constructs and social realities have existed for lengths of time which have unfortunately rendered large numbers of people, communities and a whole generation of human beings choice-less or with the belief that they cannot choose. They do not have the ability to acknowledge that by their belief in ‘I cannot choose’ they are there in choosing not to choose. In fact it is here that smart intellectual arguments and hopeful statements of ‘make a choice to be a better person’ is rendered useless, when people have been plagued by the rationale that they have no choice.
Dominant rulers and dictatorial leadership, who have enjoyed the thrust of colonial escapades and continue to enjoy the thrust of neo colonial escapades, have actually minimized people into a state of social depravity and passivity. Such examples can be seen clearly in the Nazi regime and its brain washing of soldiers who carried out the merciless acts of ending the lives of Jewish people because of Nazi ideology. Yes they made a choice but it is clear that they were influenced by a system that convinced them that what they were doing was right. Again I agree that these people made a choice, but is this the type of choice making that we hear in our motivational pep talks and choice making consultations provided by corporate trainers and consultants. I think and I believe not.
On 3rd assignment, a show that presents provocative media covered a story on mob justice. In this story a mother was told that she had to discipline her son for being a thug and mugging people in their township. The mother was given a bolder and told that she should cast the first stone. The mother clearly had to make a choice, either hurl the stone at her son or face the consequences of the mob dealing with her and her family for her inaction or reluctance to discipline her son. Clearly she made a choice but we cannot deny that there are social factors which dictated circumstances.
It is therefore important to provide people who are in a state of mental, physical, emotional, social, and economic oppression – the opportunity and experience that will aid them in the process of arriving at a place and space where they know how to exercise choice and to choose wisely. Maybe in the example of the mother being forced by a mob seeking justice, she could have chosen to use some delay tactics or find a way to prolong matters until her son was able to run away or until police came. Maybe when we look at the example of the Nazi regime and the brain washing of people who became agents of evil, we must further explore the opportunities to expose people to the art of choice making.
Especially in the corporate arena or the everyday workplace where we may not face social evils of mob justice or Nazi law, but we do face social realities of people being regulated and many times minimized by organizational rule and autocracy. It is here that we must understand that not everyone feels like they have a choice even if not choosing based upon their belief can be easily argued as they have chosen by not choosing. I have come across many people who feel totally captured and disenfranchised by their environment. I have spent much time coaching people on the method and approach of creating agency within the structural confinements of their working place. The ability to create agency is a choice but it is a skill acquired and an approach that requires time taken to study activism in the workplace that is diplomatic. Creating agency diplomatically provides healthy pressure within gate keeping systems that by design are actually choking the passion out of people in the workplace.
“For to choose is a choice that must be chosen, when you know that choosing is your choice to choose”.
I offer this statement in light of deepening our discussions and understanding of life. In my everyday world I see people trapped in social realities believing they cannot make a choice or choose to bring change to their personal and family life circumstances. Social circumstances of unemployment, lack of education, lack of access to resource or social networks, or just the inability to make a choice strategically in light of our complex democratic South Africa, are factors that must be considered when considering choice and people’s ability or inability to choose. Choice is not worth choosing when your choice ends up in you loosing. It is a strategic choice making that must be engaged and explored in a world that is driven by capital gain and upward mobility.