I’ve been taking stock recently and not blogged for a while. There’s so much madness around that I feared my blogs might just be rants about people building walls to keep out the poor and vulnerable; our government’s determination to frack Lancashire despite overwhelming objections; how a young man from Eton can get away with sharing images of child abuse; or how rubbish the customer care is from my mobile phone company!
I’ve felt there’s so much craziness that I didn’t know where to start, so I stopped! But then on March 9th we ran an International Women’s Day event and my head started to clear.
The theme was Pledge for Parity and we ran a small, local, free event. Natwest paid for the room hire, brews and cakes, I did the marketing – and we had a full house.
Our main speaker was Chris Conder MBE, one of the founders of B4RN who is a woman that epitomises JFDI – and she was a massive hit. She showed the power of community action and how people working together can make brilliant things happen -against all the odds.
And then I asked each of the women in the room to make their own pledge for parity. I explained that that could be a little thing or a massive thing. And these are some of the pledges….
How great are they?
We can fall into the trap of thinking that bringing about change has to be a big act and so it can freeze us and makes us feel powerless. But what if each and everyone of us made a pledge to make a tiny difference to another person’s life?
As an ethical business trainer I meet and work with lots of organisations who know it’s no good waiting for the government to bring about change, we have to do what we can ourselves and lead the way.
What would the impact be of every willing person on the planet noticing their personal power and doing just one thing that made a difference to someone? And we all can, as we all have things to give. I was raised in a working class community where money was very short, but that didn’t stop us supporting each other. It might be a cup of tea, a listening ear, a hug, a smile or a place of safety for an afternoon.
What would you pledge?