Welcome to the fifty-ninth issue of CEE News!
At Center for Executive Excellence, our mission is to take you from what is to what is possible. Whether we’re helping leaders implement culture transformation, helping teams build trust, or coaching individual executives to accelerate professional growth, our goal is to offer our expertise to effect positive change. That’s our wheelhouse. That’s our safe space.
Today, we’re stepping out of our safe space because the collective what is is broken. To move from what is to what is possible, we must stand up for one another as members of the human race. We must stop ignoring the fact that the human race has devolved into a competition for domination based on skin color. We can no longer see something like the senseless killing of George Floyd, offer thoughts and prayers to the family, and retreat to our circle of safety.
At Center for Executive Excellence, we’ve written about the neuroscience of bias, we discuss bias in the workplace at our leadership conferences, and we share resources to invite our followers to build their bias library. But we must do more.
We commit to continuing to educate ourselves about the disproportionate socio-economic harm imposed on Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to using our platform to push progress forward on inclusion and diversity. And we commit to partner with organizations to move from protest to policy to redress racial injustice.
During the process of helping our clients move from what is to what is possible, we often say, “That knot of discomfort you’re feeling right now is change. It means that you’re challenging the status quo and addressing the root causes of the problems that are keeping you from moving forward.” This is a moment when many people may want nothing more than a return to normalcy, or to remain comfortably numb to injustice. As difficult as it may be to admit, that desire is itself a sign of privilege. George Floyd’s death is shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a “normal” future, and build one that lives up to the highest ideals humanity.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.” We must re-commit daily to being that change, and to use our platform, power, and privilege to create a better, more just world for everyone.
To our Black brothers and sisters — we see you. You matter and your lives matter.
Sheri Nasim | President & CEO
