The Leadership and Empowerment Institute, Inc.

Community Within - Between - Among:

A Model For Multicultural Change in the Community Building Process

The late Virginia Satir, an internationally known pioneer in the field of family therapy, said: We come together from our sameness and grow from our differences." But in our culture to be different is to be in jeopardy, to be judged wrong, outcast, perverted, unnatural. These are the pejoratives that come with difference and diversity. Fear of difference is the building block for racism, genderism, prejudice and bigotry. Refusing to follow the party line, not being of the group in either attitude look, dress or culture is often a recipe for personal and cultural disaster. In a country that calls itself the great melting pot, the stew is becoming more and more toxic. We are awash in our fear and incongruity. The hypocrisies that are continuously woven into our national fabric could ultimately destroy us.

Our basic human vulnerability, which has the potential for insuring our compassion, can also trigger our weapons of prejudice, bigotry, violence, and greed. If we are to turn the tide of our times, we must find a way to discover and promote high self-esteem and high system-esteem.

Satir believed that the system operates at three levels, The Self, The Other, and The Context or Within, Between and Among. We cannot truly value the self, without valuing the other two levels of our system. They are inextricably linked. Community between and among must begin with community within. Planned positive change that is sustainable must come from an internal awareness that values the whole system.

The ability to relate to others is essential in developing a strong sense of self. And in community the rights of everyone must be respected.

M. Scott Peck, author of the Road Less Travel and founder of The Foundation For Community Encouragement, recognizes the centrality of inclusivity in the building of community. We are invited to notice the ways in which we exclude ourselves and others in his model. The challenge in building true, and sustainable community rests in our ability to reach out beyond our differences beyond the barriers that separate us to create a sense of relatedness in which trust can develop within, between and among self and others. It means that we are willing to share our woundedness and our vulnerabilities. Both Peck and Satir see the sharing of vulnerability as important in creating compassion and establishing relatedness.

Individuals with high self-esteem can assume value in difference as well as sameness. We commit to become and behave from our best self, our highest ideals of civility. We can open our hearts, hands, and minds to awake consciousness about the choices we have. We can open and close doors as we need, not based on arbitrary and shallow criteria fueled by our fears and our ignorance. We are aware of prejudices and bigotries and we can deny them influence in our day to day existence.

Most of us live with internal and external oppression afraid to trust our knowing, our experience and afraid to give voice to who we are. We keep our feelings and thoughts hidden. We feel shame and are ashamed to acknowledge it.

Because of our deep fear of being seen for who we really are, we are unable to be in true community. We maintain pseudo relationships. Scott Peck identifies pseudo-community as one of the four stages of community building. In pseudo-community, we are the most comfortable when we believe that everyone is the same and there is an absence of conflict.

The need for sameness only, limits the richness of full human expression and experience and can be oppressive. If we can heal our wounds enough to attend the issue of our esteem we can do something about oppression, our own and our culture’s. We can heal our woundedness within the context of true community.

Pseudo community can be very useful as we make initial contact with each other, perhaps as we take the time to examine each other and ourselves. But pseudo-community cannot support the deeper connections that can occur when we understand and accept our differences.

However expecting ourselves to accept on the outside more than we can accept on our inside is shortsighted and unrealistic and will bankrupt us. We are living beyond our spiritual means if we expect ourselves to honor in others that which we cannot honor in ourselves. We must learn ways to accept our basic humanness. Congruence is the ultimate golden rule that supports true community. It both requires and supports self-esteem.

Congruent living requires impressive inter, intra and meta personal skills. The prerequisite values can be stated in simple but powerful beliefs. All human beings no matter their culture, creed, color or context have the necessary resources to grow, learn, heal and change. Being human means we are born with the spiritual, emotional, mental, physical make up and with basic needs that reflect our multiplicity of needs.

A mega-vitamin for healthy human development is being understood. Being recognized for our differences as well as our sameness is empowering. We have all suffered loss, we all dream, we all have more capacity than we use and we do the best we can with the resources we have at any moment in time.

Even with the infinite number of ways that we are all alike, our miraculous uniqueness to each other suggests that there is always potential for our ideas and perspectives to be enlarged and enriched or modified by real contact with another human being or context.

But central to our ability to allow for the full range of our human experience, is the ability to manage the very real and natural conflict that emanates from our differences. In the Peck model of community building, we enter the stage of chaos when we attempt to change or fix each other. The challenge is to surface the difficult issues with respect, to set aside our baggage… old attitudes, beliefs, assumptions in order to listen deeply to another, to continue the adventure of creating authentic community by honoring and affirming our differences.

Community Among: Developing the Context for Multiculturalism Within the Organization

The context is the container or structure that holds us to a place, time and purpose. It is integral to our defining and understanding the meaning of who we are and why we exist at a particular moment. Acknowledging our thoughts, feelings and sensations enhances the self and makes it possible for us to value the other or the context.

We gain the freedom to see, to hear, to speak, to feel and connect without the influence of fear. In the community building process this experience is called emptying. Letting go of the need make community happen and being fully present to self and others is, paradoxically, what enables the emergence of true community. We accept that we cannot make community happen and we open ourselves to a spirit within and beyond us. When true community is reached it is palpable to most but not necessarily all of those involved. True community is the safest context within which to achieve multicultural change.

Multicultural change is movement away from the traditional homogenous context in which experience and reality are defined from one cultural point of view. In our society most organizations reflect a limited and narrow view of diversity. Because of our history of racism and segregation there have been few incentives for adding color or shape ( race and gender) to top levels of the organizational environment. We know about the glass ceiling that enables corporate leadership to remain almost totally white and male. Leadership at the top of our political, social and educational institutions that help to bring about multiculturalism is virtually non-existent.

Multiculturalism is the acceptance, appreciation and honoring of diverse cultural experiences. It means acknowledging that the organization is enhanced by its diversity. It involves creating an organizational atmosphere in which difference can thrive and grow. Diversity within the organization is valued in balance with sameness. Understanding and appreciating what is different about us makes space for a healthy celebration of what is the same about us.

This represents a major change in the way we as a society do business with each other. It redefines our relationships one to the other. For those of us who have been major beneficiaries of the traditional system such changes can be disturbing. Without bold and effective leadership this kind of change is virtually impossible. Conscious leadership is viewed as strategic use of the empowered self to achieve systemic change and transformation that can benefit the whole as it serves the individual. Change at the individual level is a pre-requisite for leading organizational change.

We have already discussed the importance of individual self-esteem on performance. High self-esteem opens us to new awareness and experience. It is this new awareness and experience that motivates the leader to facilitate organizational change.

Within the context of multiculturalism, the leader perceives difference as non-threatening. Having accepted all parts of him/herself clear of the baggage the prevents living and operating authentically, the leader can be excited about the new possibilities that come with diversity.

By becoming the author of her life, and not being limited by rigid scripts that originate outside of herself, the leader experiences a peace within that empowers her to take bold steps that will enhance the character and culture of the organization.

The leader comes to understand the value of multicultural context. She understands the role of true community in creating systemic change. She has made her first step away from the old status quo and is willing to introduce the foreign element, multiculturalism, the transforming idea.

She articulates this new awareness not only with verbal communications, but becomes a visible model for the change she seeks within the organization. She "walks her talk", she is congruent. She is able to apply her new awareness in her relationship with others, and has the ability to expand her connections to include those from diverse cultural experiences, creating peace between.

According to the Satir Model, introducing a foreign element to the old status quo inevitably creates chaos. According to Peck, chaos occurs when we recognize that we are not the same. These are not mutually exclusive. The old status quo often means sameness.

Chaos within the organization represents the storm and turbulence that occurs when the foreign element is introduced. Every part of the organization is in flux. Old structures no longer work for the new order, relationships change, and old rules and policies may no longer apply.

Effective leadership is essential during this phase of the change process. Individuals who are not experienced in planned inter and intrapersonal change cannot know about the human reactions they will face when they lead multicultural change.

Leading an organization through its chaos requires a steady hand at the wheel while the ship travels turbulent waters. The captain needs to be confident, clear, consistent and compassionate. She must offer a sturdy hand with a gentle touch, holding for the organization a strong belief in its efficacy and integrity.

From chaos the organization moves to integration and practice, the application of the transforming idea. The organization tries on its new character, makes adjustments in structure, atmosphere and personnel to accommodate the new situation.

Having experienced this part of the change process at an inter and intrapersonal level, the leader is able to coach the organization with wisdom and understanding through this part of the change process. She is able to model congruence, and support communication that honors the self, the other and the context. She is unable to maintain the essential and vital balance between sameness and difference. This is not change for the sake of change, but rather change that is intelligent, wholesome and wholistic, serving the overall mission of the organization.

From integration and practice and implementation a new status quo is created. The leader now presides over a new organizational culture and character. There is now an atmosphere of acceptance, appreciation, and honoring of difference. Members of the group are able to honor and affirm their differences, communicate with authenticity, raise difficult issues with respect and relate with love and care. Multiculturalism is the norm. The leader is the catalyst, the activist for maintaining the new context.

Within a multicultural context the self-esteem of all members is enhanced. High system-esteem is directly proportionate to the number of individuals within the organization who experience high self-esteem. High system-esteem is characterized by structures within the organization that are stable, safe, secure, and stimulating. These qualities become more achievable as individuals within the organization feel better about themselves and each other.

The high self-esteem leader will act to provide an organizational context that promotes stability, security, safety and stimulation. These qualities enhance the "community among" all members. The vital balance is maintained. Prejudice and racism cannot take hold. The system is flexible, all options are possible under the guidance of wise leadership that knows how to maintain the delicate interplay of self, other and context.

Copyright, L.B.Callair, 1998

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to webmaster@leadandempower.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2003 Leadership & Empowerment Institute
Last modified: May 19, 2003