By Trish Perry
As many of you know, I was in Prague for the ICF Global Converge at the end of Oct. The best word I can use to describe the experience of the conference and Prague is ABUNDANCE.
I will be recapping all of my sessions for the December Catalyst as it will take me a week to do the recaps. For this issue, I do want to recap the closing keynote by Luvvie (pronounced Lovie) Ajayi who is a Nigerian born author, speaker and digital strategist. She was engaging, inspiring and challenging. A great close to the conference. I could write 3 pages, but I will stick to the key points.
Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable.
Luvvie stated her keynote by talking about telling the truth. She said that telling the truth is deeply uncomfortable. She also talked about the fact that telling the truth is often extraordinary because we, as a society, are more comfortable with harmony than the truth. She also talked about the fact that justice is an obligation. To have justice in the world we have to tell the truth which means we are going to have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable!
She gave a couple of tips about deciding if it is the right time to tell the truth. Often we are afraid of the consequences of telling the truth. She used telling the truth on a job as an example. Ask yourself “What is the consequence of me telling the truth? If the consequences is getting fired, as yourself if you want to work for a company where they would fire you for telling the truth?
Luvvie also has 3 questions she always asks herself before telling the truth:
- Do I mean it?
- Can I defend it?
- Am I saying it thoughtfully or with love?
Asking these 3 questions BEFORE you speak will ensure you show up the way you want to show up and it ensures that you are challenging or telling the truth kindly.
One good way to challenge is to ask questions. By not attacking head on, you give many people the opportunity to consider the truth.
Telling the truth often causes fear within us. How do you overcome fear? You don’t overcome it, you go through it. Recognize your fear and say “yes” to it by going through it!
I thought about truth telling and challenging this morning as NPR was talking about the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes that crashed killing almost 350 people. There were many people that were involved in getting those planes to market. Many people knew there was a single point of failure, yet the plane was still sold. Was there a person in a meeting who did not speak up because they were afraid of getting fired or afraid of what someone might thing about hem? What if they would have told the truth? This truth was uncomfortable as it would have cost millions to fix the issue and it would have delayed getting the plane to market. AND the truth would have saved 350 lives and saved Boeing its reputation and the mutli-millions of dollars that it is going to cost the company. Would you have told the truth if you were in that room? Hindsight is 20/20.
Thank you Luvvie for challenging us all to tell the truth in a kind way.