EVENTS 📆
How to build community 🔥 ✨ that lasts? #StopAsianHate
A small active community is the first step towards achieving a clear objective outcome for any movement. With the rise of attacks against Asians and other minorities, what are some strategies that you have used to build community and prop a movement forward?
Join us on Sun, April 4, 2021 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM ET
TRENDING 🔥
How corporate Canada is addressing anti-Black racism 8 months after protests
We don't hear about Anti-racist policies in corporations early and often enough. Things feel different in the past year with the constant barrage of media coverage against black communities. Black Canadians often experience inequity with pay, job opportunities, and advancement.
A newly launched Canadian initiative has attracted 450 companies to pledge support for the BlackNorth' diversity initiative. Wes Hall, who is founder and executive chairman of Kingsdale Advisors and founded BlackNorth Initiative. They have committed to hire more Black people in leadership positions and promote education on battling indirect discrimination in the workplace. The “pledge” against anti-Black racism goes beyond workplace environments and supports the growth and opportunities in the Black business community.
Clubhouse has revealed the German tech scene’s lack of diversity
I've been using the Clubhouse app for a month. I can't say I've seen blatant examples of people of color being excluded in rooms the way the article describes. I did notice people of color are less represented in larger rooms and stages. I asked Abraxis, an early user on Clubhouse via Instagram what to do if you're a person of color and don't feel comfortable in a room. He gave common-sense advice akin to the real world. Leave the room if you don't feel comfortable and start your own rooms when you feel comfortable. Focus on quality, not the number of conversations.
Toy designer and inventor is reshaping the future of learning through play
Social entrepreneurship is alive and well. What started as a university project, is now reshaping the future of learning through play. Ilana Ben-Ari is a toy designer, social entrepreneur, and the founder of Twenty-One Toys. The company uses educational toys to teach empathy, resilience, and collaboration through play. The toys teach kids how to work in teams with their peers and shows the importance of collaborating as a pathway for successfully completing tasks.
TIMELESS 🕑🔙
You’re Not Listening. Here’s Why
Have you heard of the closeness-communication bias? Neither have I. The closeness-communication bias occurs when the closer we feel towards someone, the less likely we are to listen to them carefully. This may be because we think we already know what the person is going to say, an unconscious tendency if you will. This closeness-communication bias can deteriorate relationships. The less you interact with close friends, family members, significant others, the more likely you may lose those special relationships.
Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, and evolutionary psychologist believes the way you overcome this bias is to conduct everyday talks. For example, small things like asking someone how their day is going can go a long way. The writer of the New York Times article, Kate Murphy, is the author of the thought-provoking excellent book, You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters.
FUTURE 👁️
Imagine Your Flexible Office Work Future
Ever since Covid-19 began, most people were encouraged to work from home if they could. Initially, people were overjoyed working from home but that didn't last long as the pandemic dragged on. Anne Helen Petersen wrote a fascinating article about how the structure of work is outdated and needs to change.
Petersen's 5th point in the article is: "If you’re actually serious about DE&I, you have to be serious about remote work." I agree with her observation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are very hard to achieve in normal times because it "insists all applicants move to expensive and exclusionary cities". While it's hard to collaborate remotely, it's possible and many people are doing it since the pandemic began. Petersen believes a diverse workforce with diverse leaders who succeed should live wherever they want, not where a company wants.
TOOLS 🛠️ ⚙️
Collaboration and the post-COVID world of work
Phil Simon, a prolific tech writer and speaker, has written a book about how to push the envelope of collaborative tools. We use tools every day to collaborate effectively. But according to Simon, we only use a small percentage tools effectively. His call to action is to re-imagine collaboration - where people take advantage of the true power of collaborative tools.
Most people use collaborative tools as a means to reduce emails and video chats, which is the basic reason for using the tool. Phil goes further saying we can do so much more with these tools even with limited technical skills. The Hub-Spoke Model of Collaboration is the main idea of his book, and he details the benefits to employees by using internal collaboration hubs, which serve as a digital HQ. His new book is Reimagining Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and the Post-COVID World of Work.
NEW RELEASES 📚🎥🎵🎮
Book: Together is a hopeful retelling of lockdown life
Covid-19 has changed more lives at a record pace than most other events in the past century. Not surprisingly, the pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of millions of people. Artists and other creatives have been a constant breath of fresh air.
Illustrated by Luke Adam Hawker and written by Marianne Laidlaw, the book “Together” is a simple yet moving set of visual stories about a man and his dog. Pets have become the companions and collaborators we have touched, felt, and hung out with since the pandemic started. According to Hawker, Together is a more hopeful take on the challenges of the last year. As people have been more divided in recent years, coupled with the plague, he believes, there is something "quite beautiful about how people were reacting as a whole.” The book is based on Hawker's dog and his late grandad. To learn more, watch Hawker's short video on how his grandad and dog inspired the book here.
POP CULTURE 🎥🎵🎮
Justine Allenette Ross on black utopias, black trauma, and the power of visual language
It's easy to be enamored by artists like Justine Allenette Ross who are tuned into the collective consciousness. Originally from Detroit, Ms. Ross is an American illustrator who focuses on human interaction, blackness, and playful observation. She believes in the power of language that everyone can understand, with inclusivity being at its core.
She introduced 'The Negro Series', created to battle collective trauma by imagining a utopia where black people are safe and can be themselves. For example, 'The Negro Series' features 'Brunching Negros', 'Negros in Nature', and 'Negros at Home Minding Their Business'.
She describes her work as observational, figurative, playful, cartoony, chaotic, and human, and wants her art to look like a viewer just stumbled on it. She's a delightful force and her art and words make me smile. Her motto: "If you're true to yourself, it's better for the planet."
NOTABLE PEOPLE📝 📖🖊️
John Russell obituary
John Russell died of cancer at the age of 66 in London, UK. He was devoted to improvisation and collaborated with prominent jazz and blues musicians over 5 decades. He stepped into different roles as a promoter, campaigner, entrepreneur, and performer. He founded the Mopomoso club - the UK’s longest-running musical event. People loved his musical style and use of harmonics, chord progressions, and voicings for his improvisations. He launched magazines, musician collectives, and record labels to create pathways and propel the growth of up-and-coming musicians.
BONUS 😮 😳
A Concerto Is a Conversation
I found the conversation between the two characters in the film captivating, authentic, and powerful. Co-director and Hollywood film composer Kris Bowers talks with his 91-year-old grandfather, Horace Bowers Sr., who has lived a full and extraordinary life. Horace talks about the constant discrimination he and so many other people of color faced in the Jim Crow South. Life gradually improved after he moved to Los Angeles and became a successful business owner.my favorite line comes from Bowers Sr.: “You've got to know, you cannot stop me”.
The film, co-directed by Canadian, Ben Proudfoot, has received an Oscar nomination for best short documentary category. It screened as part of the New York Times “Op-Docs” series of short documentaries and at the virtual 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film was executive produced by Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay. Bowers is no stranger to success and scored the Oscar-winning film “Green Book” and earned an Emmy Award nomination for scoring “Mrs. America” and “When They See Us”
LASTLY 🏠 ❓ ℹ️
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The Collaborate for Purpose newsletter profiles people who believe two heads 👥 are better than one 👤. They see past their friction and differences and come together to collaborate for social impact.
📨 Flavian DeLima is the founder of Collaborate for Purpose and curates the newsletter. We are 1/3 newsletter ✨, 1/3 podcast 🎙️ and 1/3 kitchen table conversations 🔥. It takes a village to find the best stories of the week.
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"If you're true to yourself, it's better for the planet."
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Collaborate For Purpose curated newsletter. I decided to create this curated newsletter to showcase stories about people who see past their friction and differences and come together to collaborate for social impact.
Some of the categories in this issue are what's trending, timeless stories, the future, new releases, and pop culture.
If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with someone, who is different from yourself.
If you have any stories you would like to suggest for future issues, then direct message me on Instagram or Twitter or reply to this email.
Enjoy!
Flavian DeLima