Friday, September 13, 2013

Speaking of Peace ...

It happens that there's more than a bit of turmoil at my agency right now.  We're under new management and, as is often the case, that means a transition to a new way of doing things.  I've been through changes of management before.  Shaking up the status quo is never pleasant!  But (if you survive the shakeups with your job intact) you get used to new processes, learn a few things and move on.

The EL-Civics team, one of several groups in our adult literacy not-for-profit, is currently feeling a lot of concern over recent changes that directly affect our ability to serve various learner populations around the city.  I don't think it's appropriate to comment publicly on what the changes are, but later today some of us are going to try to meet with the Director of Education and/or the CEO.  Our goal is to get information -- more understanding of why some decisions have been made, where that is leading us, and what our role will be in that future scenario.

On the train into the city (it departs in a half hour), I'm going to be thinking of peace.  To my mind, peace is borne more of listening than speaking.  My intention for today is to listen as much as I can!  Let's see how it goes.

PS: Maybe I should have titled this post "Listening for Peace ..."

Edit to add: I'm glad I went in to the office with the intention to listen.  I talked too, but my goal was to hear -- to gather information.  That set a tone in my mind that was, I think, more effective than going in  with an intention to "be heard".

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