Transforming organizations - building alliances across divides

Transforming Organizations, building a culture of inclusion:

Creating Collaborative Contexts so Everyone Contributes their Best by transforming organizations – building alliances.

For the first time in history, the future of life itself is in question. Our communities are threatened with moral, economic and ecological devastation. There are powerful forces arrayed against us. We need each other in order to bring about change. At Tools for Change we are about transforming organizations and building alliances to create critical mass.

Historically, in order to gain access to American society, all of us have been expected to leave our different cultures, traditions and perspectives at the door. This has made it impossible to create inclusive contexts and establish the trust necessary to work together effectively.

We are stronger when rooted in our different communities and identities because we see different aspects of the situation. Just as importantly, our power is multiplied when we can call on our different constituencies.

Tools for Change workshops on building alliances embrace four assumptions:

Everyone has a great deal of information and misinformation about people different from themselves. Mainstream culture precludes open discussion of this information.
Alliances that are both powerful and lasting require changes in perceptions attitudes and behaviors of those with power and privilege and those who are oppressed.
There are specific organizational and personal strategies that can qualitatively change the nature of our working together across differences.
It is to everyones benefit to establish just relationships.
Work needs to be proactive and vision based.

In our work we help people explore their personal, social and organizational histories. Collectively, we explore the different meanings of power: differential access to resources, power from within vs. power over). and the relationship between those with privilege and those without. We learn ways to deal with common dynamics of guilt and blame and create ways to build sustainable relationships.

Working from the Inside Out and Outside In

Organizations and Communities need to effect change on several scales to bring about justice and provide resilient solutions. Working from the inside out, we can develop self-care, compassion for ourselves and others. Working form the outside in, we form alliances, and work in networks to change the circumstances of our lives. Together, we can face the complex problems facing our communities. To do so, we need to create containers of trust, in which we can hold each other accountable in compassionate ways. Tools for Change holds workshop on personal and social transformation to help us work together across difference, to create braves spaces in which we are encouraged to take risks to face the hard stuff and step into power with each other.