Around the world on 8th March women are being celebrated during International Women’s Day. We celebrate Women’s Day because, in spite of considerable progress, women have still not achieved equality in the workplace, in the Boardroom or in our governments. Intelligent Management spends a chunk of its time in Italy for projects where this post is being written and where the pungent floral scent of Mimosa abounds today as this is the established gift for this occasion.
Italy, by the way, is a country where women carry an unfair share of the burden of everyday day tasks beyond their regular jobs. Few can afford to raise a family on one salary and it is therefore not surprising that the birthrate continues to fall. The health minister has described her nation as a ‘dying country’. See Italy is a Dying Country Says Minister as Birth Rate Plummets.
The power of kindness for equality
On reading a Huffington Post piece today regarding women’s rights I was struck by the words of a young actor, Emilia Clarke, on a strategy for greater equality: acts of kindness.
Little small acts of kindness can add up to a big movement. On this International Women’s Day I am not proposing a big idea, I will leave that to the leaders and politicians; instead I propose that each and every one of us start to re-energise our kindness gene, give it power and share it with each other, with our sisters and brothers.
As I read recently, kindness is sexy, it’s good for us, it makes us feel happy and valued. Positive action starts with small individual deeds that accumulate over time and become a movement… a movement toward a more equal society where kindness anchors our feet to the ground while giving us the momentum to keep chipping away together.
From a systemic perspective, she is absolutely right. We regularly speak out about the need to move away from traditional command and control organizations towards a systemic model. This involves creating effective interdependencies and collaboration. If all this effort were oiled by acts of kindness how much quicker and easier the transformation would be.
Our mindset is our reality
Equality is not just something we earn or deserve, it is also a mindset. How we think about ourselves, our potential and our role profoundly limits or frees us. That is true for both men and women, and so I close with one of the most remarkable declarations of human potential from Nelson Mandela.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
In Memoriam Agnes Murray Montgomery who passed 8th March 1992.
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About the Author
Angela Montgomery Ph.D. is Partner and Co-founder of Intelligent Management, founded by Dr. Domenico Lepore. She is co-author with Dr. Domenico Lepore and Dr. Giovanni Siepe of ‘Quality, Involvement, Flow: The Systemic Organization’ from CRC Press, New York. Angela’s new business novel+ website The Human Constraint looks at how the Deming approach and the Theory of Constraints can create the organization of the future, based on collaboration, network and social innovation.
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