Whether you're considering a small change to one
or two processes, or a system-wide change to an organization, it's common to
feel uneasy and intimidated by the scale of the challenge. You know that the
change needs to happen, but you don't really know how to go about delivering
it. Where do you start? Whom do you involve? How do you see it through to the
end?
When striving to make an organization fully inclusive, all too often, the
questions themselves can seem overwhelming, the task insurmountable. But when you really think about it, each one
of us is a change agent. We each have
the power and the responsibility to affect those around us. Change is a process, and we have to start
somewhere. Small steps CAN make a
difference.
One of my
favorite stories:
Once upon a time, there was an old man who took walks on the beach every morning.
Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm
had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as
the eye could see, stretching in both directions.
Off in the
distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the
boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could
see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw
it into the sea. The man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what
it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused,
looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed
them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. When the
sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied,
“But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m
afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”
The boy bent
down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the
ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”
Moving a faith organization toward inclusion may seem like throwing back all the starfish on the beach; but go ahead, start with the ones you can reach.
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