Hi folks and welcome to my Reflection for last Friday 17 May 2024.
Building Collaboration in Gladstone
Last week I had the pleasure and honour to work with Gladstone Region engaging in action together, building collaboration skills with local leaders and community members.
During the conversations, I noticed how the stories we tell ourselves and others carry our beliefs and values. This includes hope for change or cynicism.
In Gladstone, like many other regional towns, there is no shortage of passion and commitment to make positive change and improve pathways towards the future. What we were working on was being able to see patterns together, listen to different voices together, and share understanding together. Based on that, we could then develop some collective actions together.
The Heart of Our Stories
At the heart of this work lies the stories we tell ourselves and others about what we value, what we honour, and our loyalties.
What we value, hope for, or are sceptical about is connected to our stories. Through stories, we inherit ways of seeing, understanding, and valuing the world around us. We take our inheritance of beliefs delivered through stories and convert them into our values. Furthermore, we pass on our own version of value-laden stories to our younger generations.
We contextualise and synthesise beliefs and values into stories that resonate with us and help us feel at home in our identity and belonging. And as we have been exploring, sometimes those stories bring us together with others in collaborations, and sometimes they keep us apart.
Reflecting on Your Stories and Values
My encouragement and challenge to you is to think about what stories you are telling yourself and others about your values.
We know we value things when we give them lots of our attention and we think they are precious.
We know we value things when we defend them from criticism and ridicule.
We know we value things when we feel afraid to lose them.
The stories we tell ourselves and others carry our values. I encourage you to examine how your stories reveal your values and help keep you focused on what is important for you, the people around you, and your loved ones close to you.
Be encouraged and encourage others.