Home | Who we are | Global Coordinating Team
Global Coordinating Team |
|---|
• Members of the Global Coordinating Team
• Members of the Information Technology Wizards Team
• Members of the Global FundraisingTeam
• Interfaces of HumanDHS Communications
• Appreciative Emailing
Members of the Global Coordinating Team |
 |
MICHAEL F. BRITTON |
|---|---|
 |
EVELIN GERDA LINDNER Evelin Gerda Lindner is the Founding Manager of HumanDHS. She is a cross-cultural social psychologist and physician. She holds two Ph.D.s, one in medicine and one in psychology. In 1996, she designed a research project on the concept of humiliation and its role in genocide and war. German history served as starting point. It is often assumed that the humiliation of the Germans through the Versailles Treaties after World War I was partly responsible for the Holocaust and the Second World War. It seems therefore important to understand the nature of humiliation and how it is related to the occurrence of genocide and mass violence. From 1997-2001, Lindner carried out this research, interviewing over 200 people who were either implicated in or knowledgeable about the genocides in Rwanda, Somalia, and Nazi Germany. Her research indicates, that, indeed, the dynamics of humiliation may be at the core not only of genocides, but also of current events such as the "war on terror," American questions such as "why do they hate us," or whether combating poverty would reduce terror or not. Lindner is currently primarily concentrating on writing planned book/s and articles on humiliation, as well as establishing Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies as an international platform for further work on humiliation. |
 |
LINDA M. HARTLING Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Core Team, the HumanDHS's Research Team, and HumanDHS's Education Team. She is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, HumanDHS Global Core Team, HumanDHS Global Coordinating Team, HumanDHS Research Team, and HumanDHS Education Team. She is furthermore a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). Linda is the Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI) at the Stone Center, which is part of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Dr. Hartling is a member of the JBMTI theory-building group advancing the practice of the Relational-Cultural Theory, which is a new model of psychological development. In addition, Dr. Hartling coordinates and contributes to training programs, publications, and special projects for the JBMTI. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical/community psychology and has published papers on resilience, substance abuse prevention, shame and humiliation, relational practice in the workplace, and Relational-Cultural Theory. Dr. Hartling is coeditor of The Complexity of Connection: Writings from the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at the Stone Center (2004) and author of the Humiliation Inventory, a scale to assess the internal experience of derision and degradation. |
 |
JUDIT RÉVÉSZ Judit Révész is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and the Education Team. In 2007 Judit received her Master of Science in Organization Development from the American University and the NTL Institute joint program. Prior to that, she graduated from ELTE School of Law Budapest, Hungary in 1998 and practiced litigation and corporate law for a year in Hungary. She then studied conflict resolution and mediation at Columbia University, Teachers College, in New York in 2001. Judit subsequently worked as a mediator in New York on cases referred by the Small Claims Court. In this capacity she experienced how mediation actually fulfills the deepest meaning of conflict resolution for all parties as opposed to only litigation. She also worked as a facilitator on numerous conflict resolution courses and trainings at Teachers College and at the United Nations. She has been involved with Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies since its inception, as its NY resident, and kindly taking upon herself the important role of the HumanDHS website contact person. |
 |
BEATRICE JACUCH Beatrice Jacuch is a clinical psychologist currently interning at the Prague Psychiatric Center in the Czech Republic where she provides psychotherapy and assessment. She received her Masters degree in clinical psychology from the Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her dissertation was on psychological resilience to terrorism and combat trauma in a sample of civilian and military personnel in Iraq. The aim of this study was to discover and identify factors that contribute to increased resilience. The study, led by Anne Speckhard, is still ongoing. For several years Beatrice has worked on various research projects investigating issues such as: trauma , posttraumatic stress disorder in Holocaust survivors, terrorism and its psychological consequences, and fostering resilience to terrorism. In Prague, next to research and clinical work, she volunteers for Amnesty International. |
| SHARON BURDE Sharon Burde, a mediator for over two decades, believes that a multi-cultural society with equal access to power and equal assumption of responsibility is the only way to achieve true democracy. Sharon Burde teaches graduate students at NYU and is a member of the Steering Committee of the CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium. In former Yugoslavia she has worked with women of all ethnic origins to create new multiethnic programs and models. She furthermore worked with Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam for ten years - with Palestinians and Israelis in support of models that promote peace and justice. Neve Shalom/ Wahat al-Salam means "Oasis of Peace" in Hebrew and Arabic. It is a village, where an equal number of Jewish and Palestinian families live, work and educate their children in a community of peaceful co-existence and equality. Sharon is particularly interested in the Wahat al-Salam dimensions of deeply rooted conflict. Please find here The Enigma of the Middle East - A Measure of Success by Sharon Burde, in Newsletter of the Conflict Resolution Center International, January 1998 pp. 27-28. |
|
| CORINNA CARMEN GAYER Corinna Carmen Gayer is also a Member of the HumanDHS Education Team. Corinna is a PhD-student in peace- and conflict studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin. She finished her masters thesis entitled Of Irreconcilable Nature? Biodiversity Conservation and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Brazil at the Department for Social Sciences at the Humboldt-University in Berlin. [read more] |
|
 |
ERIC VAN GRASDORFF Eric Van Grasdorff is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors and the the HumanDHS Global Core Team. He is a Political Scientist and has graduated from the Free University of Berlin, German, on the topic African Renaissance and Discourse Ownership in the Information Age (2003). Born and grown up in Dakar, Senegal and later in Germany, he has very early in his life developed an intercultural identity. Eric Van Grasdorff is a Core Team Member of the Cameroonian NGO AfricAvenir and currently the Chairperson of its German section in Berlin. Additionally to being the Content Manager of both the HumanDHS and the AfricAvenir websites, he is currently building the Internet platform on Diversity Management for the German Heinrich Böll Foundation. Eric organised the 5th Annual Meeting of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies in Berlin in 2005. His research interest include ICTs and International Relations, the Development/Postdevelopment Debate, Africa, African Renaissance and International Relations and Globalization, Transnational Corporations and Social Responsability in Third World Countries. |
 |
ZAHUR AHMED CHOUDHRI |
 |
REBECCA ANN KLEIN Rebecca Ann Klein is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and the Education Team. She is interested in creating effective, culturally sensitive nutrition programs within the field of Public Health. She is currently a student at Tufts University, working for a Master of Science in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition, with the aim to gain skills to run international health projects, and/or work with the politics and policies that affect the global food supply. She also takes classes at Tufts' school of International Law and Diplomacy. Earlier, Becca completed a year of volunteer service through the AmeriCorps* VISTA program where she spent her time coordinating a teaching garden with Oregon Food Bank serving Washington County in Hillsboro, OR, USA. She has traveled extensively and is eager to do more. Becca is a graduate of Hampshire College in 2001 with a concentration in Nutritional Anthropology. |
 |
DONALD C. KLEIN Donald C. Klein, Ph.D., was also a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Education Team, and the Global Core Team [...] He was Professor Emeritus of the Graduate College of The Union Institute & University, which offers an innovative non-residential doctoral program for working adults. Don Klein has been one of the first to explicitly examine and write on the humiliation phenomena. His first publication on humiliation goes back to 1991 (Journal of Primary Prevention on the Humiliation Dynamic, Vol 12, no. 2, Winter, 1991; Vol 12, No. 3, Spring 1992). Don kindly writes (May 26, 2007): As my contribution to appreciative e-mailing, I'd be delighted to make copies of my book New Vision, New Reality available to network members at close to cost. the book describes the state of "Appreciative Being" that Evelin refers to as a state of awe and wonderment. The book sells for $11.00 plus postage. Network members can purchase it for $10.00, including postage anywhere in the world. To order copies, send checks made out to Sea Otter Press and address them to: Sea Otter Press, 11006 Wood Elves Way, Columbia, MD 21044. With love, Don Klein [read more] |
 |
TONYA R. HAMMER Tonya R. Hammer is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, and the HumanDHS Research Team. In August 2008, Tonya took up the position of Assistant Professor with the University of Houston-Clear Lake, in Texas, U.S.A. In August 2008, Tonya took up the position of Assistant Professor with the University of Houston-Clear Lake, in Texas, U.S.A. In 2008, Tonya finished her doctoral dissertation entitled: Myths, Stereotypes, and Controlling Images in Film: A Feminist Content Analysis of Hollywood's Portrayal of Women's Career Choices, at the Counselor Education and Supervision department at St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas (the dissertation can be ordered through ProQuest). She summarizes her disseration as follows: "Myths, stereotypes and controlling images are imbedded in cinema. Women can be disempowered and marginalized by these images and it is important to explore the images found in this medium and the potential they have to affect women’s career choices. The content analysis of 81 films revealed themes including but not limited to the idea that relationships should be secondary to careers in women’s lives; women are secondary to men in the workplace; women in power are depicted in isolation; women are portrayed in traditional careers more than non-traditional careers; regardless of career choice women are often depicted in a negative light and women of ethnicities other than White are not adequately represented in mainstream media, in any area, much less with regard to career choices. Through film women are learning that they are secondary to men in one more area of society and that, in essence, there is nothing wrong with this perception." Her Masters degree in Psychology and Counseling is from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas and her bachelor's degree is in English from the University of Texas, Arlington. Prior to entering the counseling field she was a paralegal for fourteen years. She is currently working as a case manager with Communities in School, San Antonio, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help students stay in school and prepare for life. Communities in Schools' main focus is working with students who have been determined by the state to be "at-risk" a classification in itself that can be humiliating regardless of the conditions that led to the labeling. Tonya's current research areas include, incorporation of relational cultural theory into career counseling, the use of film in counseling, and the issues of humiliation and shame surrounding malpractice claims against therapists and clinical supervisors. Tonya wishes to work overseas after she finishes with her dissertation. She writes: "My goal or vision statement for my professional career is to teach on the college level. Specifically, I would like to teach on the graduate level in the field of counselor education. I am inspired and challenged by the dialogue that is entered into in the classroom when you have a passionate educator. I want to be that passionate educator and be able to share my passion for RCT and for social justice advocacy, including the work of the humiliation studies network. I see this being done not only in the classroom but through the written word as well. I see myself writing and publishing not just journal articles but books as well. I have always loved to write, evidenced by my undergraduate degree in English, and I would like to combine those skills with my interests in Relational Cultural Theory, as well as social justice advocacy to produce written works that would be incorporated not only into my classroom but other classrooms as well. Personally and professionally I want to use every opportunity to further an understanding of Relational Cultural Theory and Social Justice. I see both as being vehicles through which we can interrupt or end the cycles of humiliation that occur in our everyday lives both on a personal and a global level." Please see: • The Global Impact of Humiliation on Relationships and World Peace, presentation proposal together with Dana Comstock to the Third International Women's Peace Conference, Dallas, Texas U.S.A., July 10-15, 2007. |
 |
CHRISTOPHER SANTEE Christopher Santee is is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, HumanDHS Education Team, and Project Associate of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). He is currently studying and residing in San José, Costa Rica. He obtained a Bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on Peace Studies from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, USA in 2005. Christopher has been working and interning at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica since February, 2005. He hopes to enroll in a masters degree program in a yet-to-be determined institution for Sustainable Development, Peace Studies or International Relations with a focus on Latin America. Recently named Project Associate for the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network, Christopher will be working to aid the creation of a peer reviewed e-journal as well as a composited book on the study of humiliation. Prior to 2006 Christopher was a member of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado, organizing rallies and informational gatherings on the occupation of Iraq by the US as well as anti-racial profiling campaigns for US immigrant groups in the Colorado area through the Safety Net. Some of his work there included organizing a benefit concert for freetheslaves.net, featuring internationally renowned poet and activist Saul Williams in April, 2005. Through the service learning program at Naropa University, Christopher also coached high school students in community organizing and political activism on issues of civil rights and awareness utilizing the model of Public Achievement from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota. Please see American Diversity and the Role of Humiliation, note prepared for the 2006 Workshop on Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 14-15, 2006. |
|
ZUZANA LUCKAY |
|
|
HILDEGUNN NORDTUG |
|
 |
STEPHANIE HEUER Stephanie Heuer is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team and the HumanDHS Education Team. Stephanie Heuer is currently a Technology and Computer Lab instructor for the third year at Randol Elementary School teaching grades K-5. A seasoned 10-year employee of Hewlett Packard during the 80's, Stephanie lived in Tokyo for two years implementing semiconductor software and teaching Engineering Analysis in Korea and Taiwan. She has an extensive background in software development, implementation of projects, technical writing, and project management. She lived in Norway for 11 years, and after having her two daughters, pursued a career in Middle Eastern dance instruction, which has been a interest of hers since the early 1970's. She studied dance (folkloric and Raks Sharqi) in Egypt, USA, and Norway. She has sponsored many workshops in Europe in order to educate dancers as to the historical content of dance and how that interacts with each country/culture differently. She has written several articles on dance, mostly published in the Middle Eastern Dance Journal, Habibi. Stephanie moved back to California right before the 9/11 attacks in New York. She was moved to action by a radio interview of Zainab Salbi (founder and president of Women for Women International) and flew to Washington D.C. to interview her. Her published article, Look Beyond Despair, inspired her further to involve herself with this organization which is dedicated to helping women around the would who have been displaced by war and trauma. Please see the educational book that Safa created, inspired by our 2004 Paris meeting and Robert Fuller's work on Rankism. She is publishing this book by herself, so please write to her for a copy, safa40@hotmail.com: I Feel Like Nobody When … I Feel Like Somebody When … See also WWW.SOMEBODYBOOK.COM, andthe cover page for theSpanish edition. Please see Safa's generous offer to donate 100 % of the profits of her book sales to our educational program, in honor of Don Klein! Please read her letter to ALL here! |
 |
JESSICA E. CICHALSKI Jessica E. Cichalski is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team. |
| NOOR AKBAR Noor Akbar is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, of the HumanDHS Research Team, and the HumanDHS Education Team. He is a native of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and has earlier worked as a free lance journalist. He has a Master's degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from the University of Peshawar and is presently doing his Master's degree in Political Science from the same university. The title of his project in the HumanDHS's Research Agenda is Terrorism and Humiliation: To Show Empirically that Humiliation Is one of the Root Causes of Terrorism. Noor has conducted a research thesis on the topic of Osama Bin Laden and Pakistani Press- a Portrayal Study of Daily Dawn and Daily Mashriq. (The study was an analysis of the two national daylies, one Urdu and English, after the 9/11 scenario.) Besides, Noor Akbar also worked as a Research Associate in a research study on the Pukhtoon Jirga (an indigenous institution for conflict transformation and peace building in the Pukhtoon belt of Pakistan and Afghanistan). This one and a half year study is awarded by United States Institute for Peace (USIP). Noor has recently conducted, as co-facilitator, a series of trainings in non-violent communication, conflict transformation, and coexistence to the UNHCR Staff, implementing partners and government officials at Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He has also been awarded a scholarship by the Center for Non-Violent Communication to participating in a fifteen days (19th to 4th July 2005) Special Summer Session with Marshal Rosenberg, at Orchidea Lodge, Switzerland. Presently he is working as Communication Officer, at Just Peace International Inc, a nonpolitical, nonreligious, nonprofit, civil society initiative, that aims to work for JUSTICE & PEACE through conflict transformation methods in order to protect and promote constructive peace by assisting, advocating and empowering grass roots communities, organizations, governments and the civil society to enable them to allow judicious, sustainable and productive interaction to realize maximum human potential in an environment of peace, justice and dignity. |
|
 |
BRIAN WARD Brian is also a member of the HumanDHS Gobal Core Team. Brian presents himself to us as follows: My name is Brian Ward and I am a 55 year old male New Zealander from Irish and Scottish descent. I am married with two teenage children and a 27 year old daughter from an earlier marriage. My work has been mostly as a public servant as a traffic and roading engineer, and I now work from home as a consultant. You can learn more about me at the website www.fivepower.co.nz. My website www.fivepower.net represents my worldview and I would very much welcome any comment or question arising from it. I credit myself to be a systems thinker which probably explains my almost obsessive desire to innovate and look for sustainable solutions and ideas. About two years ago I discovered my real freedom after realising I had lived most of my life under a conditioned state and in an environment that was not sufficiently compatible with my true self. Through much reading and meditation I managed to shed all my previous mental models and discover what I now understand to be correct. I guess you can call this self actualisation or enlightenment. My mindset is that of oneness with everything and I now live in a state of synchronicity and interconnectiveness. I don't have all the answers, in fact I present most ideas as questions or propositions. I am a little skeptical of astrology but I have found a connectivity with it that I can not ignore. To me, understanding the pervasiveness of evolution and observing its effects of systematic and continuous improvement, offers me an ability to observe the incremental changes for the positive. I invite you to read and discover the ideas in my website and tell me what you think! |
 |
CHRISTINE MARIA LOCHER Christine Locher completed a post-grad certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at Fernuniversität Hagen in 2007 with a thesis on conflict resolution focusing on North Korea. Before that, she studied Journalism, Intercultural Communication and Psychology in Munich, Germany. She graduated with an M.A. in 2004, her thesis was on "National Stereotypes in German travel guidebooks about Japan." Her interest for research about stereotypes was greatly inspired by her studies abroad in Japan at Kyushu University and in Ecuador. In addition to her M. A., she also did a post grad intensive course in business studies at Fernuniversität Hagen focusing on strategic management and organization. Her main points of interest are training, coaching, intercultural communication and conflict resolution. Her personal mission statement is "to lead to knowledge and freedom." At university, she founded the students' representative body of Intercultural Communication and developed integration projects for foreign students. She is volunteering at WYSE (World Youth Service and Enterprise ), an educational NGO associated with the UN department of public information. This NGO works with young people from all over the world on leadership, universal values and conflict resolution. Christine has completed training as a group facilitator/transpersonal educator at WYSE. Her quite diverse work experience spans from working on a construction site to selling jewellery to software marketing to exhibition management to call center agent to teaching German to journalism. She now works for a consulting company in the training department. Christine will complete a training program for integral business coaching in 2007. She is also receiving training in Psychosynthesis, Non-Violent Communication and TRANSCEND. Christine loves traveling and studying languages. She speaks German (including several southern dialects), English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Mongolian (at different levels). She promised several of her international friends to study their mother tongues as well, luckily without giving a deadline for it. Please see: The Conflict with North Korea / North Korea as a Source of Conflict. An Analysis from a Peace Studies Perspective. Presented as graduation thesis in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at FernUniversität Hagen, 2007. |
 |
JENNIFER KIRBY Jennifer Kirby is also a Member of the HumanDHS Global Core Team, of the HumanDHS Research Team, and the HumanDHS Education Team. She graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. At the university she published her senior thesis on "The Nature of Holocaust Survivor Poetry: The Power of Poetic Expression." She is currently the Administrative Assistant/Event Coordinator for Appalachian State University's Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies. As she continues her academic interests, Jennifer plans to pursue graduate education in genocide and peace studies while incorporating her interest in humiliation studies within her field of study. In her free time Jennifer loves reading, traveling, and spending time with animals of all kinds. |
 |
SOWAN WONG Sowan Wong is also a Member of the HumanDHS Research Team, and of the Global Core Team. She has earned her Masters in Psychology from Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, with Michael Harris Bond as academic advisor. She is now working on her Ph.D. at Brunel Univeristy, West London, UK. Please see Michael Harris Bond & Sowan Wong, Measuring Emotionality across Cultures: Self-Reported Emotional Experiences as Conceptualizations of Self (retrievable also from http://self.uws.edu.au/Conferences/2002_CD_Wong_&_Bond.pdf), in Graven, Rhonda G., Marsh, Herbert W., and Simpson, Katrina B. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Biennial Conference. Self-Concept Research: Driving International Research Agendas ( Sydney: SELF Research Center, University of Western Sydney, 2002). |
Members of the Information Technology Wizards Team |
|
LINDA M. HARTLING Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Core Team, the HumanDHS's Research Team, and HumanDHS's Education Team. She is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). In 2007, Linda began to develop our internal cyberspace Ning, where we can conduct internal discussions. Linda is the Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI) at the Stone Center, which is part of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Dr. Hartling is a member of the JBMTI theory-building group advancing the practice of the Relational-Cultural Theory, which is a new model of psychological development. [read more] |
|---|---|
|
ERIC VAN GRASDORFF Eric Van Grasdorff is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors and the the HumanDHS Global Core Team. He is a Political Scientist and has graduated from the Free University of Berlin, German, on the topic African Renaissance and Discourse Ownership in the Information Age (2003). Born and grown up in Dakar, Senegal and later in Germany, he has very early in his life developed an intercultural identity. Eric Van Grasdorff is a Core Team Member of the Cameroonian NGO AfricAvenir and currently the Chairperson of its German section in Berlin. Additionally to being the Content Manager of both the HumanDHS and the AfricAvenir websites, he is currently building the Internet platform on Diversity Management for the German Heinrich Böll Foundation. Eric organised the 5th Annual Meeting of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies in Berlin in 2005. His research interest include ICTs and International Relations, the Development/Postdevelopment Debate, Africa, African Renaissance and International Relations and Globalization, Transnational Corporations and Social Responsability in Third World Countries. |
| MARTIN STAHL Martin's educational background is in Political Science, Philosophy (Freie Universität Berlin). Here is a summary of his activities: • Faluma.com - One of the world's biggest online music stores for Soca & Calypso music • Faluma Digital - Digital label for Caribbean music (label.faluma.com) • Dingolay Music - Label for local caribbean influenced music (myspace.com/dingolaymusic) • Tourmanagment for Guru (Gang Starr, Jazzmatazz), Bahamadia, CL Smooth, Cali Agents, Hieroglyphics,.. • conception and maintainance for research/science websites (maccorama.de) |
|
 |
MICHAEL HAGGERTY Michael Haggerty is a technology professional and open source advocate with an interest in the intersection of politics, technology and culture, the transitory nature of modern social interaction and the positivist potential for groups to gather and mobilize through online organization. He is responsible for the delivery of all client solutions, new product research and development, architecture of Trellon's network delivery infrastructure, acts as the lead on all strategic consulting projects and carries out a number of other tasks corresponding to the management and operations of the organization. Professionally, he brings a wealth of enterprise IT expertise gained through positions held with Lockheed Martin, the Federal Government, Washington Hospital Center, and various start-ups which have gone on to do great things or vanished completely. Michael possesses dual degrees in English and Philosophy from Washington College and has so far successfully resisted the urge to attend graduate school. He is active politically in various causes, a veteran of the 2004 Clark for President campaign, serves as the IT Director for the YearlyKos convention, scores a solid ENFP every time he takes a Myers-Briggs personality test and generally tries to be a decent human being. In his spare time, he enjoys reading the works of great thinkers, closely following the fate of the Boston Red Sox, challenging the accepted standards of the community with his bonny young daughter and making things light up and go beep. He resides in Las Vegas and Washington DC. |
| JOHN "TIM" DENNY John (Tim) Denny is an ICT and Education Specialist at the Open Schools Program - Open Institute, in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. |
|
 |
COLIN ONG Colin Ong TS is the Managing Director of MR=MC Consulting and Founder of Mentors4Startups, which provides a global platform to introduce newly-launched companies with a professional mentoring environment. Colin is an active Social Entrepreneur and is the Singapore/Indonesia Chapter Representative of World Future Society and Chinese Representative of World Future Society. By training, he is an Economist, having graduated from the University of Western Australia. [read more] |
BILL LELAND |
|
ANDRE JAEGER |
|
 |
MOHAMMAD HASSAN QURESHI Hassan Qureshi is working with Tranzum as Manager e-Marketing, He overseas websites, e-commerce initiatives & e-marketing activities of all the business divisions & companies of Tranzum. Tranzum provides services in diversified industries including express, logistics, warehousing, distribution, mail order, travel & tours, visa drop box, management development, event management & publications. With its corporate office in the Middle East (Dubai), Tranzum has established offices in various regions across the globe including South Asia, North America and Europe. Hassan is the founder member of e-Marketing Board of Pakistan which provides information, training and events on best practices of online marketing and e-commerce to Pakistani audience. |
|
BRIAN WARD Brian is also a member of the HumanDHS Gobal Core Team. Brian presents himself to us as follows: My name is Brian Ward and I am a 55 year old male New Zealander from Irish and Scottish descent. I am married with two teenage children and a 27 year old daughter from an earlier marriage. My work has been mostly as a public servant as a traffic and roading engineer, and I now work from home as a consultant. You can learn more about me at the website www.fivepower.co.nz. My website www.fivepower.net represents my worldview and I would very much welcome any comment or question arising from it. I credit myself to be a systems thinker which probably explains my almost obsessive desire to innovate and look for sustainable solutions and ideas. About two years ago I discovered my real freedom after realising I had lived most of my life under a conditioned state and in an environment that was not sufficiently compatible with my true self. Through much reading and meditation I managed to shed all my previous mental models and discover what I now understand to be correct. I guess you can call this self actualisation or enlightenment. My mindset is that of oneness with everything and I now live in a state of synchronicity and interconnectiveness. I don't have all the answers, in fact I present most ideas as questions or propositions. I am a little skeptical of astrology but I have found a connectivity with it that I can not ignore. To me, understanding the pervasiveness of evolution and observing its effects of systematic and continuous improvement, offers me an ability to observe the incremental changes for the positive. I invite you to read and discover the ideas in my website and tell me what you think! |
Members of the Global Fundraising Team |
|
LINDA M. HARTLING Linda M. Hartling, Ph.D., is a Member of the HumanDHS Board of Directors, the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board, the HumanDHS Core Team, the HumanDHS's Research Team, and HumanDHS's Education Team. She is also a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (JHDHS). In 2007, Linda began to develop our internal cyberspace Ning, where we can conduct internal discussions. Linda is the Associate Director of the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute (JBMTI) at the Stone Center, which is part of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Dr. Hartling is a member of the JBMTI theory-building group advancing the practice of the Relational-Cultural Theory, which is a new model of psychological development. [read more] |
|---|---|
| RICHARD SLAVEN Richard Slaven is the Administrator of the Martin Fisher School of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He holds a B.S. degree in Physics and Mathematics, a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration. For 20 years he was a superintendent of public schools in Oregon, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts, overseeing $ 25,000,000 budgets and over 400 faculty and staff. [...] Dr. Slaven has presented keynote addresses and workshops on leadership and employee development to hundreds of educational and wellness groups throughout the US. He believes strongly in the worth and dignity of all people. During his superintendency years his primary focus was on developing outstanding educational programs for underprivileged and/or under-challenged students. [read more] |
|
|
ZAHUR AHMED CHOUDHRI |
| Advisors: Andrea Bartoli Juliet Gumbs Theo van Koolwijk Neil Ryan Walsh Paul Stokes |
Interfaces of HumanDHS Communications |
We, the HumanDHS network, have seven interfaces of communication within our network and with the wider world. At all interfaces, we wish to use the appreciative approach that we have adapted to the HumanDHS vision.
These are the interfaces:
1. Emails: Within our network, we communicate by way of email most of the time. By doing so, we achieve a high degree of global connectivity and avoid overhead cost (by not using snail mail and paper, and not having an office). We organize our meetings, just to give an example, only digitally. Over time, the email load has become too big for Linda and Evelin, and therefore we currently embark on creating ways that the email conversations can be cared for by our Coordinating Team (we need more helpers!). We wish to fashion these conversations in a way that is transparent to all our Coordinating Team Members so as to preserve the coherence of our work and to move forward as a group.
2. Our News Section: You see the News Headlines of our most recently posted news items when you click on http://www.humiliationstudies.org/. Evelin has maintained this News Section since 2003, both as author and administrator. Since 2007, Evelin registered most of our Coordinating Team members as authors as well. Martin Stahl installed a News Section new software in the beginning of 2007, together with a strong and effective spam filter that keeps inappropriate comments out. The rest of incoming comments is managed by Evelin.
3. Ning: This is a virtual meeting place for our network members that Linda began developing during the first months of 2007. The aim is to provide a space for our network members to discuss internally. Please see Nora Femenia's pledge delineating the etiquette that we wish to heed within this space.
4. Our Journal of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, see also http://www.humiliationstudies.upeace.org/: Our journal is up and running since March 2007. Its Co-Editors Victoria Fontan and Amy Hudnall are in charge, together with Project Associate Christopher Santee, the journal's Academic Board and Support Team. We, as Global Coordinating Team, need to remind every researcher in our network to consider our journal as publishing outlet for their work and their students' work.
5. Our web site: Evelin is maintaining our web site since its inception in 2003, taught by Martin Stahl and Eric Van Grassdorff, who installed the web site. On our web site you find an option to contact us, see the Contact us page. Judit Revesz receives all messages and forwards them to Evelin (except the spam). It would be great to have more people getting involved. Points of involvement would be our Global Coordinating Team, our Research and Education Agendas, and our Intervention ideas. Please see our Call for Creativity and our Who we are page for possibilities of how interested people can get involved.
6. Our annual meetings: It would be great to build a team that could organize our meetings in the future, and also build the meeting sites for each meeting on this web site.
7. We are planning an e-classroom as part of our educational activities!
Dear Global Coordinating Team!
I am extremely exited that you all join hand with Linda and me in our shared global adventure of building an alternative global community, a global community of dignity, where we try to walk our talk! We need an immense amount of mutual support and love for this task, because so far, nobody really knows what walking the talk really means. We are all like Bambi on the ice, and we need to help each other up each time we fall....
Lovingly, to you all!
Evelin, May 2007
"HumanDHS Relational Ambassadors" Program |
Linda Hartling kindly puts forward the idea to formulate a "HumanDHS Relational Ambassadors" program (May 19, 2007):
Here's one idea...I'm wondering if we could formulate a "HumanDHS Relational Ambassadors" program in which we train and support interested individuals to assume specific aspects of the work, in particular electronic communication. Perhaps we should develop something more formal, perhaps a "connected curriculum of appreciative training" that is facilitated through mentoring relationships?
In addition to managing the interfaces of communication, dear Evelin, I see us multi-tasking in these ways:
• 1. Finding the most effect ways to encourage and facilitate the participation of those who wish help with our efforts to walk toward a
talk of equal dignity.
• 2. Continuing to develop and define what it means to practice a HumanDHS walking-toward-our-talk approach (e.g., appreciative emailing, appreciative practice, etc.).
• 3. Identifying and describing specific roles and responsibilities that can be assumed by others in way that facilitates their growth and the growth of the organization.
• 4. Most of all, I think we will always need to help each other up each time we fall as we move this work forward.
I am looking for models of how other organizations that have been able to do this effectively.
I am so thankful to participate in a community that is developing the fluid expertise and relational resilience to grow while allowing people to be authentic "humans among human-beings." It is a wonderous experience.
I'm sending my warmest wishes to all of you,
Linda
Linda adds an idea for developing a HumanDHS Resume:
I agree with you, dear Michael, when you suggest that it might be helpful to reflect on our strengths and weaknesses. Building on your idea, I'm wondering if it would be helpful to collect a "one-page" profile of information from all of the members of the Global Coordinating Team? Without duplicating information that is already posted on our website, this one-page summary might be a little like a HumanDHS resume that includes the following:
• 1. Name & Email
• 2. Brief Biography (two sentences)
• 3. Strengths/Weaknesses (I appreciated your example, Michael!)
•
4. Describing Our Desired Level of Participation: Limits and Aspirations (For example, I am currently working a demanding, "more than full-time position." At the same time, I am deeply devoted to the work of the HumanDHS network. Because of my work responsibilities, my HumanDHS efforts are generally restricted to evenings, weekends, vacations, and holidays. Furthermore, there are times when my work responsibilities completely consume the energy I would use to contribute to HumanDHS in my off hours.
In the future, I am hoping to reinvent my work schedule in a way that would allow me to contribute more time to HumanDHS. However, until then, I depend on people's generous understanding when I need more time to respond to electronic messages.)
• 5. Optimizing Time (Also, I wonder if it helps for people to describe the time they would like to give this work? For example, I am have made an open-ended commitment to supporting Evelin's efforts. Some people might be able describe how many hours a week or months they would like to devote to supporting the work in a specific way.)
• 6. Personal Goals, Role, & Agreements (For example, my goals for my contribution to HumanDHS this year have been:
1. Setup a bank account for humiliationstudies.org
2. Setup a Paypal account for humiliationstudies.org
3. Get these accounts linked together so transactions are streamlined.
4. Get a functioning button on our website that will take donors to our secure website.)
Again, dear Michael, thank you for your thoughtful, thought-provoking email.
I am sending both of you lots of love,
Linda
Linda kindly formulates our overall vision as follows (July 17, 2007):
For me our approach means daring to "move toward mutuality" in all of our efforts. I conceptualize "movement toward mutuality" as an powerful act of resistance to organizational practices that implicitly or explicitly propagate exploitation. In "Relational-Cultural-Organizational Theory" (my variation on RCT), exploitation might be called "relational-organizational malpractice" (a variation of Joyce Fletcher's term). Far too many for-profit and nonprofit organizations depend on countless forms of relational-organizational malpractice, including shameless exploitation. Whether this occurs in an organization that is working for good or not, it is still malpractice.
Five Guiding Ideas/Ideals for HumanDHS by
Linda Hartling (November 28, 2007):
1. Relationships come first
2. None of us is as smart as all of us
3. It is not just the work we do together, but how we do the work together
4. We are humans among human beings (ubuntu)
5. We will all do better when we all do better
Michael Britton about leadership in our HumanDHS network (February 6, 2008):
Incubators/Admirers/Encouragers of the good in each other, and of collaborative inquiry in undertaking initiative:
So these are two roles I have been thinking about that, as I see it, preempt but do not replace the roles of leader/manager/and the like. They come before those more familiar and well-defined roles.
To achieve a network of equal dignity, requires practicing the discipline of first establishing and sustaining the roles of Incubators/Admirers/Encouragers of the good in each other, and of collaborative inquiry in undertaking initiative. Collaborative Thinking: That which can impact others should be first thoughtfully brought to their attention to get their input so as to arrive at a more thought through decisions about what to do. The extending of that kind of thoughtfulness should be welcomed and answered in kind.
Within the context of treating each other in these ways, we can then know best how to proceed with projects and matters of leadership.
Appreciative Emailing and Commenting |
Please see also our Appreciative Enquiry page
Nora Femenia kindly provides us with The Liverpool Pledge (and connects it to humiliation) (May 30, 2007):
'Flaming' is a growing problem on the net and in email. At the 5th International Forum on Online Dispute Resolution, held in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and hosted by TheMediationRoom.com on the 19th and 20th July 2007 at the University of Liverpool, UK, a Statement was drafted and agreed to by consensus in the following terms:
"While information and communications technologies (ICT) enable unprecedented interactions between individuals around the world, they also introduce some dynamics that can degrade dialogue.
ICT enables people to communicate immediately and anonymously, often without moderation, and in some circumstances this encourages behavior (such as threats or insults) that most individuals would never engage in face-to-face.
This behavior may make people feel unwelcome, disrespected, humiliated or harassed in their online interactions. Ultimately, individuals may be dissuaded by these dynamics from participating, which undermines the vibrancy of our global conversation.
As a result, we encourage individuals to:
• communicate online with respect
• listen carefully to others in order to understand their perspectives
• take responsibility for their words and actions
• keep criticism constructive
• respect diversity and be tolerant of differences
We embrace full and open communication and recognize the unique opportunity for expression in the online environment. We support freedom of speech and reject censorship. These principles are not intended to address what ideas can be expressed, but rather the tone with which communications take place."
Internet and email users worldwide are asked to help promote these standards by pledging to follow the Statement of Respectful Online Communication. Those who run Forums, message boards and blogs are encouraged to include the Pledge as a condition of membership and all are encouraged to include the statement 'I have signed the Liverpool Pledge to honour the Statement of Respectful Online Communication' in their email signatures.
The wording of the Pledge is as follows:
"I pledge that in all my online communications, whether by way of email, posting to message boards, blogs or completion of any online form or wiki or editing of any website statement, that I will, at all times, honour the following rules:
• communicate online with respect
• listen carefully to others in order to understand their perspectives
• take responsibility for their words and actions
• keep criticism constructive
• respect diversity and be tolerant of differences."
If you wish you can support the Pledge by completing the Form at https://www.themediationroom.com/. Your privacy will be honoured by TheMediationRoom.com and your address only used by us to alert you to new developments with regard to the Pledge.
On Appreciative Nurturing, by Evelin Lindner:
Dear Friends!
Please let me share with you a text (see further down) that is in the process of being written by several of our network members. You are invited to add to it! (If you wish to contribute to this text, please send me your contribution and I include it into the attached text!)
• Appreciative Nurturing (AN), a text in the process of being written collectively.
This is a text is not finished. If you wish to contribute, please let us know!
• Please see also reflections by Michael Britton on
How People Defend Themselves Against Hope: Lerner Responds to Cindy Sheehan's Resignation.
• Please note also the five-to-one rule! In order to make relationships last, be it in our families or with our colleagues, we need to be aware of the
human negativity bias. For our group to remain cohesive, we always need five positive interactions for every negative one. Please see "Accentuating the Negative" by Richard Conniff the New York Times, a humorous explanation and nice read! Another nice read is "5 Important Talking Rules For Couples" by Ian Kerner on NBC!
• Please see also Genevieve Vaughan's books on nurturing:
- For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange. Austin,TX: Plain View Press, 1997, and
- Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible. Toronto, Canada: Innana Publications, 2007
Most lovingly,
Evelin
Noel Mordana kindly draws our attention to the following article (May 31, 2007):
Flame First, Think Later: New Clues to E-Mail Misbehavior
By Daniel Goleman
New York Times, February 20, 2007.
Michael Britton kindly shares his reflections on Appreciative Emailing (June 03, 2007):
I want to share some thoughts about our collective thinking-through about appreciative emailing and internal conversations among Network members. Our Network's mission is conceptualized as helping change the world from a place of rankism with norms of humiliation to egalization with norms of appreciation. The invisible need to become visible, the unrecognized recognized, the left-over peoples made part of the world of "those who count." The Network has been fashioned around identification with Ghandi's concept that it is necessary to be the change that we wish to see happen in the world. We must, with each other, walk the concepts we talk about. And so the very central focus that has emerged on appreciative communication via email: We
want to treat each other as mattering at all times. We want to recognize the vulnerability that all of us have to each other, and to communicate in ways that carry that vulnerability in mind. We also want to recognize the Nelson Mandella good, beautiful, strong, insightful, talented, generous, talented parts of each other as they appear, even when their owners do not realize they have such qualities. We want to bring out in each other our voices and our under-owned good selves. These, I think, are some of the elements involved in appreciating each other as we go about conversing via the internet.
I would like to add another element to the concept of appreciation, and that is appreciation for the task. We do have a mission, but it is not a mission "out there," an abstract principle to be talked about. I think we intend to conceptualize our mission in a relational way. We care about the human world, the entire human world, and how we humans are going about things together. The help we give is not money, but insightfulness. And so we converse together in part because we all understand more fully as we listen to each other and think together about our perceptions of the human world and the condition of being humans together. We also create more insight than any of us start with precisely because we are listening to each other, getting new ideas and perceptions as we react to the thinking of others. Conversations, when they work well, become richer because we do them together.
I think a large element of appreciation has to do with what it is we are crafting, which is different from how any of us are feeling, though it is also related to that. What we are crafting is insight, ever richer and ever more useful to specific people in their own circumstances. Our conversations make use of our knowledge of ourselves, our life experience, our feelings and all we've learned from others' words, from literature, films, traveling, observing for ourselves, interviewing others... We bring all of that, when we come together in a conversation, and spread out what seems relevant at the moment, to whatever it is we are trying to understand more deeply and usefully at that moment. We respect the responsibility to judge whether something we'd like to say really adds to the understanding that is developing or is irrelevant. We understand that a feeling or image that comes up in the middle of a discussion, seemingly out of nowhere, may be a door opening to greater understanding if we choose to go through the door. We also come together, some of us, to research the ideas that are generated, to find out if what we think is really so, and to provide evidence that others can take seriously so that our understanding becomes not only useful but well used.
I think a large element of the appreciation we have for each other emerges in those moments when we are concentrating on the thing before us that we, together, are crafting at the moment. While there are many specific situations and topics we come together to examine closely, like surgeons respecting each other's additions to the task as we collaborate on the case at hand, I expect an important element of the Network's process is going to be the emerging of several large themes into which the specific parts fit, and which themselves are components of the overarching vision of moving from rankism to egalization. I think Ning offers the opportunity to tend to exactly that. I see Ning as providing several forums in each of which a central theme can be put on the table. And everyone with expertise and interest can gather around that table, sharing insight and knowledge and experience, listening to what others say, trying to understand the subject better, adding in experiences from different parts of the planet to see how they illuminate the question at hand, trying out new thoughts in our own minds as a result of what we've taken in. We expect to be changed by the interchange, to understand more fully, to have a more accurate sense of the larger world, to have a greater clarity of passion or principle. This can be thought of as so many individuals, each of whom walk away from the table with more ideas of their own. It can also be thought of as having created a shared picture together. It can be thought of as a something that is not any of us, a well-crafted work in progress hovering among us, through which we will engage each other and the larger world with a somewhat different or somewhat strengthened understanding. I think Ning provides a vehicle for doing that, as well as for doing other things (like working on future conferences), if we use it in that way. If we create forums that embody the large themes that capture our minds, our hearts and our embodied spirits as we look out on this world of humankind, while staying anchored in our personal and local lives, I think we will have a sense of building a large, rich, coherent and very useful world of insight that others will use to make our shared world more livable for everyone.
So I wrote this to champion both appreciation of each other and appreciation of our task, and more specifically appreciation of the crafted work over which we labor together. I realize this way of writing about it emphasizes a quality of respect and serious concern. There is a patient on the table, and the patient needs to survive. If you are designing a shelter, you must get the lines right. Respect for the task and for each other as crafts people: these are important qualities to foster in our walking our talk together. Another time I would like to write about appreciation of each other and of what we are crafting with an emphasis on the qualities of nurturing and playfulness, which bring other things to light and add other, very wonderful dimensions to our electronic conversing with one another.
Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson (Harvard Business Review, November, 2007):
Even the largest and most complex teams can work together effectively if the right conditions are in place:
What Executives Can Do
• Invest in building and maintaining social relationships throughout your organization.
Example: Royal Bank of Scotland’s CEO commissioned new headquarters built around an indoor atrium and featuring a “Main Street” with shops, picnic spaces, and a leisure club. The design encourages employees to rub shoulders daily, which fuels collaboration in RBS’s complex teams.
• Model collaborative behavior.
Example: At Standard Chartered Bank, top executives frequently fill in for one another, whether leading regional celebrations, representing SCB at key external events, or initiating internal dialogues with employees. They make their collaborative behavior visible through extensive travel and photos of leaders from varied sites working together.
• Use coaching to reinforce a collaborative culture.
Example: At Nokia, each new hire’s manager lists everyone in the organization the newcomer should meet, suggests topics he or she should discuss with each person on the list, and explains why establishing each of these relationships is important.
What HR Can Do
• Train employees in the specific skills required for collaboration: appreciating others, engaging in purposeful conversation, productively and creatively resolving conflicts, and managing programs.
• Support a sense of community by sponsoring events and activities such as networking groups, cooking weekends, or tennis coaching. Spontaneous, unannounced activities can further foster community spirit.
Example: Marriott has recognized the anniversary of the company’s first hotel opening by rolling back the cafeteria to the 1950s and sponsoring a team twist dance contest.
What Team Leaders Can Do
• Ensure that at least 20%–40% of a new team’s members already know one another.
Example: When Nokia needs to transfer skills across business functions or units, it moves entire small teams intact instead of reshuffling individual people into new positions.
• Change your leadership style as your team develops. At early stages in the project, be task-oriented: articulate the team’s goal and accountabilities. As inevitable conflicts start emerging, switch to relationship building.
• Assign distinct roles so team members can do their work independently. They’ll spend less time negotiating responsibilities or protecting turf. But leave the path to achieving the team’s goal somewhat ambiguous. Lacking well-defined tasks, members are more likely to invest time and energy collaborating.
This HBR in Brief presents key ideas from a full-length Harvard Business Review article. See the entire article here.
Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders by Joseph L. Bower
(Harvard Business Review, November 2007):
The most successful CEOs, on balance, are those who are developed inside the company—but manage to retain an outside perspective
When a CEO retires or steps down, companies are often left in the uncomfortable position of trying to find a new leader without having anyone in ranks who is prepared to take over the job. Bower argues that, rather than hiring an outsider as is often the case, companies should try to actively cultivate future CEOs on the fringes of the company. These employees would presumably have a hybrid "inside-outside" perspective. Bower very clearly outlines the numerous ways in which both outside and inside perspectives are essential to leadership, as well as the proper methods for "grooming" such individuals.
Please read more at http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/.
The Role of a Coordinator/Director in our HumanDHS Work, by Evelin Lindner
Most people are socialized, and still embedded, into hierarchical top-down structures, and the role of a coordinator is automatically expected to mean "top-down leader." This is not the case in our network. Our definition of a coordinator is different. A HumanDHS coordinator is more of a facilitator and nurturer, implementing our appreciative approach. We use the image of a tree to illustrate the nature of our HumanDHS work (we sometimes also use the metaphor of a forest), and the coordinator is not at the top, but at the bottom of the tree, nurturing the roots, the trunk, and the capillaries of the tree, so that branches can grow, with fruit maturing on the branches.
Perhaps an art teacher is a good model, an art teacher who nurtures the creativity of her students, and brings out their best. Some students may begin to paint on paper, others will be drawn to making sculptures, again others may experiment with digital media. The result will be vast diversity. This teacher may be an artist on her own account, however, she will not allow her own approach to dominate her students. Thus, her two identities, of a) being a facilitator of diversity among her students, and b) being artist in her own right, will be clearly distinct and be expressed by profoundly different scripts of behavior.
Our three main branches are our Research, Education, and Intervention initiatives and teams, and the fruits are the various tangible projects that are being developed by individual members of our network.
We develop our Global Coordinating Team to nurture the entire network, and also each branch and sub-branch needs to be nurtured and facilitated by coordinators/directors, again working from the bottom, not from the top. A coordinator does not dominate the members of his or her team, but encourages our members to develop their own particular work in the context of the overall HumanDHS vision. The coordinator helps everybody to integrate their work with the other members, and facilitates cross-fertilizing by creating synergy between our members. A coordinator nurtures our work in a Diversity in Unity fashion (or Unity in Diversity), whereby the Unity is expressed in the HumanDHS vision of equality in dignity, and Diversity by the myriads of ways in which this vision can be expressed and embodied. A coordinator provides the nurturing of the roots, trunk, and capillaries of the tree in an appreciative fashion, he or she does not create the fruits, the particular projects. Each fruits is created by one or several individual team members.
Coordinators can also be members of their own team, in case they are also creating a fruit/project of their own. However, our experience tells us that these two roles must be kept apart very stringently. The members of a team must not mistake the coordinator's own project to be meant to dominate the work of the entire team. It must be made clear that the coordinator's own project, and thus role as member of his or her team, will not interfere with the more neutral nurturing and facilitating nature of the coordinating role.
As a result, we wish to arrive at "shared leadership" and "selfless leadership." Since we believe that it is important for all of us to walk the talk, we wish to invite people into our group who are willing and able to promote our mission to embed our network's vastly diverse approaches to our topic into a cooperative relational spirit of humility and mutual support and respect (please see Relationship Tips developed by Judith Jordan, and Linda Hartling, at the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute in 2006). Competitive and adversarial behavioral styles that draw their strength from dominating and humiliating others have no room in our work. We wish to encourage selfless leadership and would wish to avoid including in our group autocratic "big-ego" styles. (Peter Drucker called for organizations to function like orchestras. See Concept of the Corporation - With a New Introduction by the Author, published online by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ, in 1993; originally published in 1946 by John Day Company)
The overall framework for our work that we hold to be important is that we wish to work for and not against, namely for equal dignity for all. And, even though we aim at raising awareness for the destructive consequences of cycles of humiliation and the suffering of people who are being exposed to humiliating treatment, we do not wish to engage in humiliating humiliators, which would merely turn the spiral of humiliation further. We rather wish to promote respectful approaches also to humiliators and the non-violent humbling of humiliators.
We call our approach the "appreciative approach." We aim at creating a humiliation-free, collaborative environment characterized by mutual respect, mutual empathy, and openness to difference. We believe that conflict can only be waged in a good way (as decscribed by Jean Baker Miller), if it is embedded into mutual appreciation. We wish to refrain from engaging in inefficient monologuous "loudspeaker communication." We wish to resist the widespread misconception that appreciation forecloses clarity.
Hans Blix formulated a list of adjectives that would be desirable for the conduct of an inspector. This list fleshes out the concept of walking the talk:
• Driving and dynamic – but not angry and aggressive
• Firm – but correct
• Ingenious – but not deceptive
• Somewhat flexible – but not to be pushed around
• Calm – but somewhat impatient
• Keeping some distance – but not arrogant or pompous
• Friendly – but not cozy
• Show respect for those you deal with – and demand respect for yourself
• A light tone or a joke may sometimes break a nervous atmosphere.
- Hans Blix, quoted from http://www.un.org/. See also page 52 in Hans Blix (2004), Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Please see also:
• Is it Possible to "Change the World"? Some Guidelines to How We Can Build a More Decent and Dignified World Effectively: The Case of Dignifying Abusers, by Lindner, 2006.
• See also Creating We, by Judith Glaser, Platinum Press, 2005.
• Appreciative Nurturing (AE), a text in the process of being written collectively.
• "The End of the Organization?" by Michael C. Gilbert, in Nonprofit Online News, February 7th, 2008: "We need to make this transition [to network structures] successfully: (1) We need ways of making network structures tangible to those who want to support civil society. (2) We need to develop and propagate the language of networks, with adjustments suitable to our many communities of practice. (3) We need models of collaboration and communication that help organizations make the most out of their new permeability. (4) We need financial structures that facilitate network centric funding and (5) legal structures that facilitate network centric employment."
Appreciative Leadership in Our HumanDHS Network: The Tree - Job Descriptions by Michael Britton, June 2008
Dear Friends!
I am thinking of concentric circles. In the innermost circle are the small number at the heart of the Network, whose job seems to be threefold: (1)the bringing in of new people, which you, Evelin, do so amazingly; (2) meditating/reflecting on the core concepts of the Network: humiliation, dignity, appreciation, transformation, nurturing -- and how these are lived in day to day interactions/relationships with each other, within the Network, with anyone; the role of Tenders of the Mission, explorers of the "tactics" of appreciation, apology, forgiveness, etc; (3) providing service to the members in the next circle: encouragement, modeling of good relating, connecting them with one another as resources to each other, encouraging them in their own sense of mission, their own projects, etc. -- the Tree encouraging its branches to dare to grow their own fruit.
In the next circle are the members of the Network who are essentially doing their own thing, drawn to the Network by a shared focus on humiliation, dignity, nurturing, appreciation, transformation -- who participate in the sharing and cross-fertilization and mutual encouragement that takes place at the Conferences, and hopefully via the internet forums. The forums allow for an easier "networking" around shared interests -- education, research, etc. -- to compare, contrast, keep each other updated so that synergies can pop out and be taken advantage of, etc.
A coordinator or director of one of those forums is someone who takes the step out of the second circle into the first: S/he may continue to do their own thing, but that is not what the position is about. When acting in this role, the person focuses on the members in the second ring and what they are about, what they are trying to do, and provides encouragement, connections, brainstorming and the like for them in the pursuit of their own projects. A coordinator is a nurturer of other people in their own work, and sometimes in their own lives when they feel overall discouraged. A "coordinator" is not thought of as a "director" but more as a servant, a provider, one who seeks to be of help.
A coordinator also tends the larger picture in that domain, be it education or research or whatever: Where do all the individual efforts seem to be going, what do they have in common, where can they cross-fertilize, what does the bigger picture of global transformation seem to be most in need of that can be put out as a thinking-point that individual researchers might or might not want to take up as part of their work.
The other side of a coordinator role, as someone who has been brought into the first circle, is to enter into the shared process of reflection that goes on at the heart of the Network, reflection on humiliation/dignity/nurture/ transformation/appreciation/etc, as broad ways of understanding global life, its needs and possibilities, and on the "micro" level of our lived interactions. This is the realm of "walking the talk" and anyone who comes into the first circle as a coordinator takes on the responsibility for this kind of personal reflection so that, in the course of attending to the members of the Network he/she deals with, the interactions embody the effort to live what we think about. In this the goal is that whoever we have dealt with comes away with their own dignity "grown" or affirmed in the process.
How to be a social entrepreneur, by Search for Common Ground (SFCG Newsletter - Spring 2008)
Dear Friend, dear social entrepreneurs,
Our mission is to find creative ways to transform conflict, and we have regularly broken new ground. For example, we have developed methodologies to defuse violence across entire societies. Just as the Molière character did not realize he had been speaking prose his whole life, we did not know, in our early years, that our work would eventually be described as social entrepreneurship. But, in 2006, the Skoll Foundation named Susan Collin Marks and me to their Fellowship of Social Entrepreneurs. So, now we have a plaque on the wall that affirms our organizational commitment to "innovations that benefit humanity."
Basics. We have developed a list of principles, which follows, for how we practice social entrepreneurship. (And every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving, Susan and I lead a workshop on the subject at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.)
• 1. Start from vision. Our vision is to transform how the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial, win-lose approaches to non-adversarial, win-win solutions. All that we do must be consistent – or at least not inconsistent – with our vision.
• 2. Be an applied visionary. We strive to be incrementally transformational. To change the world, we break down complicated tasks into finite, achievable pieces.
• 3. Enroll credible supporters. Because social entrepreneurs operate on the cutting edge, they often are seen as marginal. Prominent backers can be very helpful.
• 4. Be prepared to deal with high levels of complexity and uncertainty. When you intervene in complex systems, like international conflicts, there almost certainly will be unexpected outcomes.
• 5. "On s’engage; et puis on voit." As Napoléon said, you become engaged, and then you see new possibilities. This translates into recognizing that you cannot usually plan in advance the sequence to be followed or the results to be achieved.
• 6. Practice aikido. In the Japanese martial art of aikido, when you are attacked, you do not try to reverse your assailant’s energy flow by 180 degrees, as you would in boxing. You accept the attacker’s energy, blend with it, and divert it by 10 or 20 degrees in order to make you both safe. In our work, this means accepting a conflict as it is, while transforming it – one step at a time.
• 7. Make "yes-able" propositions. As Roger Fisher and Bill Ury wrote in their landmark book, Getting to Yes, everything works much better when people say "yes" to your proposals, which need to be both in their interest and in yours.
• 8. Display chutzpah. Chutzpah is a Yiddish word for effrontery or nerve. As Leo Rosten wrote, it is the quality "in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan." Still, chutzpah should be applied only in moderately pushy, culturally appropriate ways.
• 9. Develop good metaphors and models. Most people will not shift their attitudes and behaviors if they do not have a good idea of where they are headed. Metaphors and models – compelling stories – are crucial to reframing reality.
• 10. Have a high tolerance of ambiguity. If you are uncomfortable with not knowing where you are going and cannot deal well with the unexpected, you probably will not be a successful social entrepreneur.
• 11. Find trimtab points. On ships, the trimtab, a tiny rudder at the leverage point, is used to turn the craft with minimum effort. Similarly, social entrepreneurs need to be skilled at converting comparatively small inputs into maximum outputs.
• 12. Be persistent. We recommend adopting the example of the child’s toy truck that moves ahead until it hits a barrier, backs off, and then finds another path forward.
• 13. Apply fingerspitzengefühl. This is a German word meaning to have an intuitive sense of knowing – at the tip of your finger. Either you have it or you don’t.
How to Format Papers for Submission to Our Website
Everybody who has written on the topic of dignity and humiliation is warmly invited to send in their papers to us.
If your paper has already been published elsewhere, or you have a style of formatting that you personally prefer, we are very happy to receive your paper in that form. All languages are welcome, since we have members from all corners of the world. We often use American English inside the U.S. and British English outside.
What is very important for the members of our network is that they can quote from your contribution. Therefore you need to provide them with a full set of information about your text. Apart from your name (and, if relevant, the names of co-authors), the full title of your text is needed, where it has been written or published, and the publishing house, or your institution, for example, your university or organisation. In case your text has been published in a journal, the name of the journal is needed, the number of the volume, the issue, as well as the first page number and the last. For a chapter in a book, the number of the chapter is needed and the page range. It is important that your text has page numbers, so that our members who wish to quote from your text can refer to a page number.
If your text has been published elsewhere, we need to ask the editors for their permission to place your text on our website.
If your text is not yet formatted, it would be lovely if you could help us by formatting your contribution as follows:
1. The title should preferably be bold and in a larger font.
2. Under the title we would like to have the author's name, preceded by a copyright sign (©).
3. In case the text is longer than one page, we would like to have a footer for the name of the author, and a header for the title and the page number (in Word, use View > Header and Footer > Page Setup > Different first page, etc.).
4. We use single-spacing for our texts.
5. Some people are not natural English speakers and need support to make a text readable, please let us know and we try to find help.
5. When everything looks fine, the Word document needs to be transformed into a Pdf file (use, for example, http://convert.neevia.com/), and given a name. Please use your family name, and then identify the conference, in case of the 2008 NY workshop, this would read as follows: "FamilynameNY08meeting."
6. Please send us both, your Word version and your Pdf version! Thank you!
In a next step, we upload your text on the website, into the folder called "documents," and then make links to your text on several subpages of our website, namely:
1. On our publications page, under the correct category (Scholarly Papers by Global Advisory Board Members,
Scholarly Papers by Global Directors & Global Core Team Members, Student Papers, Guest Contributions).
2. On the page of the relevant conference or workshop, first under the name of the person, and second under the heading "papers," see for exampole, the 2008 NY workshop.
3. In case you are a member of one of our teams, a we make a link in your biography.
Thank you!
Evelin, August 2008
Links
Web Still in Infancy
The world wide web is "still in its infancy", the web's inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has told BBC News... "What's exciting is that people are building new social systems, new systems of review, new systems of governance. "My hope is that those will produce... new ways of working together effectively and fairly which we can use globally to manage ourselves as a planet."..
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7371660.stm.
