mid-week Connect: 5/24/23 ~ Walking the cultural talk
Greetings and Happy Midweek!
This week, I’d like to begin exploring with you the topic of ‘walking the talk’ across disciplines and across cultures. We’ll focus first on several general insights I’ll share which brought me to this topic, and in future Connects we drill down into specifics. These will all fit neatly in the Transformations component of our PROACTive Framework, since as we seek to ‘walk the talk’ in whatever context, that dynamic can be truly transformative!*
I come to this topic looking back over several of my own career pathways - work related (field linguistics, strategic planning administration and consulting) and personal (motherhood, volunteering). And I see myself constantly crossing back and forth between academic ‘talk’ and ‘real life walk’ frontiers, within my own culture and across cultures.
For years, I was mainly on the academic talk side - learning, teaching and mentoring in classrooms or class settings. But then too, I am so glad to have had the opportunities and privileges of being community based, walking alongside local colleagues with long-term (like - decades long) project design and management.
One trade I made early on, for myself, was to not pursue a degree beyond my MA - which would have meant more academic talk for the better part of several years. I was too busy walking that talk during those years, immersed in linguistic fieldwork while also homeschooling my kids with, incidentally, a goal for them to be autonomous learners, walkers as well as talkers.
My intent here is not to disparage either talking or walking. I believe it takes a healthy mix of both to create sustainably integrated dynamics in all cultural settings. Rather, I want to make the distinction for us all to be able to consider: when are we talking, and when are we walking…and of what value, current and future, is each - to us and to others through us? That could well make for some transformative insights!
How about you ~ what talking and walking are you doing lately - and how might each transform your life and work?
Share about that with a friend or note it here.
And check out the Global SKILLs LINKs below for more on walking the talk - and vice versa!
Thanks for being part of this Connect community.
Until next week,
Betsy
Global SKILLs LINKs
~ Oh my - doesn’t this just take your breath away: https://www.walkingthetalk.com/en-us/
~ Great example from corporate culture: https://www.walkingthetalk.com/en-us/
~ LOVE this expanded take on the topic, in the Science domain: https://www.nsta.org/science-and-children/science-and-children-mayjune-2023/walking-walk-and-talking-talk
Notes
Related Connect posts on this topic: 2/24/21 - Awakenings; 3/22/23 - bitter 1st cup; 11/16/22 - sweet & savory (you can find these by using this link: https://www.globalskillspartners.com/blog-1)
* Through my business Global SKILLs and several partner subsidiaries I offer unique cross-cultural consulting and training including:
3 Dimensional Dynamics Model:
1st dimension = HOME ; 2nd dimension = HOST ; 3rd dimension = HARBOR)
PROACTive Learning Strategies:
PRO = PROfile, PROcess, PROgram
ACT = Application, Collaboration and Transformation (which we explored this week)
~ contact me for more information on this model and these strategies and how you might use them in your current programming: betsy.barbour@gmail.com
2023 ~ Celebrating 40+ years of working in
intercultural communications and global community building
“It takes a community to build a community”
Please Note: this is copyrighted content.
Please do not reproduce or share without my permission (betsy.barbour@gmail.com)