This month, I attended the Scarborough Charter Inter-Institutional Forum on Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education and was reminded of the power of words to mobilize action—whether for individual growth and transformation as has been popularized through the work on having a Growth Mindset, or on the scale of organizational and social change.
Our gathering started with a keynote by Liban Abokor, who used the metaphor of a train to anchor the opening remarks. The Charter is a train, not a plane. We are not meant to change flight plans. Trains stay on schedule and have a clear path. The Charter already laid the tracks to our destination: Black Flourishing, Inclusive Excellence, Mutuality, Accountability. Our mission is to keep on towards that destination because of those relying on the train getting to its destination. The Charter was never meant to be a fair-weather document. This metaphor animated the whole conference. It got repeated, rinsed and remixed, all while reminding us that despite threats to human rights progress for Black, Indigenous and socially marginalized communities in this moment, the train cannot stop.
This is the power of words and language, and metaphors are among the most powerful in reshaping our minds, our hearts and our actions for social change (see my latest article on this in the Practising Social Change journal here).
Your words shape your world and our world. Our current world is full of overstimulation and algorithmic and artificial intelligence slop creating echo chambers and sowing division. We are glued to screens and there is more to read and cognitively process than ever before. Information and cognitive overload is a constant battle in a world of ongoing complexity and polycrises, where the computers and devices we have programmed can process information faster than we humans can. Our work in this time is not to hide from the complexity, it is to learn the new skills we need to lead through it (see my dialectical leadership article here)
One impact of this overload is a kind of paralysis in the form of disconnection and dissociation that can occur because the world around us is becoming too complex and hard to process or explain. In general, I see this paralysis in those struggling and overwhelmed with our digital era transition, while others simply consult their favorite artificial intelligence companion for an answer in real-time, in the middle of a conversation, and move on. I don’t believe either is the complete response to truly engaging the world in this era.
So what do we do? What might help to break out of the paralysis on one hand and avoid oversimplification on the other? What are your wellbeing hacks to survive and thrive in these times?
There is a lot of advice out there as we have been paying more and more attention to our global need for better mental health and wellbeing. All around us are reminders to take a break from screens and social media, get out in nature, eat right, exercise, take a vacation…all of which are great strategies and we must do. There is however this way in which after we do all that, we return to the slop. It’s ubiquitous at this point and just taking a break from it isn’t enough.
I believe we must learn again to stare at reality as it is and is becoming, (re)learn what information to pay attention to and process and discern what is truly noise that isn’t serving us and must be discarded. We need to learn to go through the messy middle rather than avoiding or oversimplifying current reality. And yes, it might mean wading through some of the slop. We must slow down and pay attention to our words and others’ words. Rather than assume, project, take words out of context as we are all increasingly prone to by skimming information, we can take time to inquire, sort out our own dissonances, look at the whole context and then choose our words and actions. This work of both critical and transformative thinking is needed now more than ever. What we believe shapes how we think and how we think shapes our words. We can go about unconsciously consuming and regurgitating slop that will shape our minds and beliefs, or we can (re)learn the ability to critically think so we can constructively communicate and collaborate with each other even when we disagree, for the betterment of us all. This ability to communicate is the bedrock of human experience and is critical and fundamental to human development. The ability to think about how we think and use language to communicate also expands our worldviews and keeps us learning, growing and transforming as humanity. What is at stake is much more than our changing information technology and digital world. What is at risk is a fundamental bedrock of our humanity as communicating, learning, and cooperative social beings.
So now more than ever, after you have taken a break, and taken care of your physical, emotional and spiritual health, in all the ways you should and which also support our mental health, remember that our minds are being stretched more than they might ever have been. Know that in today’s world, accessing ease and mental clarity and health also means allowing your mind to stretch and bend. Expect the overload to still be there when you come back from that vacation and learn to look clear-eyed at all the information coming your way, even the seemingly contradictory, unbelievable or unprecedented. Teach yourself to slow your mind and focus on what matters, then choose and act. And one of the most underrated actions is the words you choose. Words matter. There is so much wisdom and power in the saying: “choose your words wisely,” because words make or break us whether from our own self-talk, in interaction with others or at the group and social level. Your words can cast a vision, change the course of someone’s life or change an entire system. Just slow down now and think of the words that have shaped you. I offer you also a cognitive exercise I recommend in my teaching and leadership coaching, and practice myself when I notice I am hitting cognitive overload.
- How is what you are currently reading impacting you?
- What words/stories/metaphors are inspiring you right now?
- What words/stories/metaphors are pulling you down?
- What matters most? So what? Now what?
And to draw on one of those metaphors animating me right now, perhaps the work of leaders and changemakers in this era, in the words gifted to me through my lineage, is to be a Baobab tree.
What’s yours?