Last week, the Global Dialogue Center and Women in the Lead participated in an extraordinary event called the Habitat Jam. It was created through the visionary collaboration of the Government of Canada, UN-Habitat and IBM. For 72 hours, people representing 191 countries around the world came to talk with one another online about the most pressing issues of our time in cities and communities across the world. It was the largest online dialogue ever held, crossing a new threshold of human communication and involvement ---- a truly historic moment. The purpose of the event was to invite citizens of the world to put their fingerprint on both history and also to invite them to help shape the priorities for the upcoming WORLD FORUM III being held in Vancouver in June 2006.
What was moving about this special conversation was that it was INCLUSIVE ---- really INCLUSIVE. Three specific examples that touched me were:
1. They had volunteers go to slums and places where the people do not have access to computers or live in communities where they would not be asked to sit that the table to share their needs and creative ideas ---- and they held "world cafes" to include everyones voice. Read more...
2. I invited a blind friend to come hoping that it would be accessible. IT WAS! ... and many people with disabilities were there sharing their stories and ideas. My friend, Bill, had such a great time that he made the front page news.
3. Rich and poor, people across all dimensions of existence were there to be with one another. There was a mutual sense of respect and dignity for all...72 hours of "world peace."
WOMEN had an amazing presence there. They came to tell their stories of leadership, share their needs and blaze the trail with new ideas. Around the world, there are so many wonderful examples of women discovering their essential roles in creating better futures in our cities, communities, organizations, governments and home fronts. As these 21st Century pioneers forge new paths, there are lessons for all of us to learn and apply to our own spans of influence and opportunity.
LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP
Not long ago, I wrote a story about some wonderful women in AFRICA that has stayed with me. I thought about them at this conversation.
What I remember is looking into the beautiful faces in the picture of these leaders and mothers and reflected on their story, realizing that these amazing qualities that were demonstrated in their inspiring story -----the qualities of courage, ingenuity, capacity to love and calm and heal, to teach and nurture and to build trust and reinvent --- are the qualities that we need everywhere in the world today---qualities that lie within us too.
AREN'T THESE THE QUALITIES WE NEED NOW?
It also came to me that by their example, the good women of Africa are calling upon us to join them, developing our capacity to change the landscape of our workplaces, marketplaces, communities where we live --- in businesses, politics, the public sector, government and in our homes.
How can each of us translate these qualities of leadership and being good neighbors into our important work and lives?
As we approach this season of gratitude, giving and reflection, may we all commit ourselves to a new consciousness about our gifts and the opportunity for us to lead the way.
Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
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