The Practice of Kindness
Фильм және анимация
There is a growing recognition that kindness has an important role to play in our approach to a wide range of challenges. Whether we are talking about people in communities, or service providers and citizens, we know that relationships have a powerful impact on our wellbeing.
However, we have found that while the idea of kindness is becoming more widely discussed, there is still much to do to understand what kindness looks like in practice.
In March 2018, the Carnegie UK Trust brought together a Kindness Innovation Network, made up of over hundred people and professionals from across Scotland, who were interested in encouraging kindness in their own communities and organisations. At the same time we began to work in partnership with North Ayrshire Council, to embed kindness as a value throughout the local authority area.
This short film explores the learning and experiences of some of the participants in these two projects. It showcases some of the interventions and approaches that enable kindness; it highlights the complexity of ‘radical kindness’, which challenges established systems and structures; and it emphasises the importance of creating space for challenging conversations about the type of communities, organisations and society that we are striving towards.
Read the accompanying report: bit.ly/ThePracticeOfKindness
Film created and edited by Tim Gray at TartanZone Media: www.tartanzone.net/
Пікірлер: 4
Yes. Great work. Thanks all. Kindness and related matters address fundamentals such as: * Vulnerability is the greatest strength (and basis/path to contentment/peace). * Trauma is growth. (Life is not always 'happy' and we grow by living through and emerging stronger and wiser after difficulties. * People who've suffered, or who are very sensitive in other ways, are generally the wisest, strongest and most caring, especially if they've been helped to navigate trauma positively (which we can all do for others, for free - just listen and care - people don't necessarily need fixing; they simply want to be understood and validated, and that's very very easy). * While empathy in deep matters (e.g., grief, emotional crisis, hopelessness, hardship, abuse, etc) is difficult to teach or learn (it's generally attained by living through the experiences concerned) we are all human and can empathise naturally if we open our hearts and listen without judging. * People obviously find it easier to risk being open and vulnerable (kind and loving) if the organisational or community culture recognises, advocates and rewards this at a cultural, philosophical and leadership level. * What we measure determines what we do and the results we get. We must measure these intangibles, which is a much deeper aspect of leadership than P&L. * Everyone essentially really wants to be good and loving, caring, helpful. Nobody is born bad. * The process-oriented systems/structures (especially de-humanising technology) necessary for organising big communities/nations/economics/health/education/globalisation/etc have produced cultures that exclude and fail to value natural human qualities and authenticity. This needs fixing, while avoiding organisational chaos while we change things. * Small steps. The Universe is on our side. * We must all re-imagine/re-shape economics and values. And communities, and nations, and all the other divisions we tend to create, because humankind tends to be too clever for our own good. Re-imagining and re-shaping is challenging because we have a world of nearly 8 billion people, increasingly many ravaged, displaced, starving, war-torn, and all of us individually and collectively optimised via technology, economics, media, etc., that cannot be re-shaped overnight. It took us 10,000 years (since the agricultural revolution) to get to this point. And 200 years since the industrial revolution. And 60 years since globalisation began. And 30 years since the digital revolution began. And 10 years since the artificial intelligence revolution began. So we need to be very clever indeed as to how we retain the good bits, and to rediscover, re-learn, teach and gradually adapt/adopt the good bits we've lost. It starts with kindness. Love. * Happily, there is a very powerful positive effect when people start to be more vulnerable and kind, because it spreads very fast and deep and wide. Emergent solutions, not prescribed. * It is about being human, which means using all our senses as much as possible. Technology-based words are not enough for authentic human relationships. We need to sing, dance, play, engage with nature and what is in people's hearts, rather than what big systems of government and economics have grown to dictate, and what we tend to accept as ok, when it's not * Ancient wisdom offers many of the answers. * Stories and arts/music/nature are infinitely more powerful than technical manuals. * We must be mindful of the unhelpful bias built into all big systems and technologies, which means challenging and questioning everything that feels wrong, constructively and kindly. * We don't have to do all this alone. Just a smile, even in a voice on the phone, makes a powerful human connection. It's magical, try it. There are nearly 8 billion of us. 8 billion people can literally move mountains, so together we can change the world. Thanks all. AC
10 minutes of management talk 😀
Isn't it sad that some organisations seem to believe that being kind is not a risk worth taking? And also that some people believe they need to be trained how to be kind?