We all have a perception of how knowledge comes to us. The teacher imparts to the student, the doctor to the patient, the broker to the investor, officers to the lower rank, trainer to trainees, expert to novice. There seems to be a prescribed order to imparting knowledge. A way of being is passed on. The system grows and expands. The novitiate becomes voiceless. She is hushed in assimilation and so has no desire to critique or initiate novelty. This inevitably leads to a period of silence; people are busy but do not think expansively. All effort boils down to variations on recurring themes. The silence is devastating but is not heard above the hustle and bustle of activity. The absence of thinking fatigues but none dare to address it, because there is a desire to maintain the existing complacency.
Voids are not tolerated in life. They fill with something new or with something dead. A thinking novitiate—in the market place, in the academy, the religious environment, in technology, the government, the corporation or wherever will always shake up the status quo (shake up does not necessarily mean destroy but transform). This person can be consumed by an internal urging. She wants to be a vital entity in the setting. She sees new ways of being that are profitable to both client and organization. He wants to be part of the team. He may be one of long-standing employment who suddenly awakens from the stupor of silence and sees possibilities for a “new normal”. The global devastation of the two pandemics—the corona virus and racial injustice—sets the stage for new ideas and glimpses of possibilities that can be innovative and viable in a post-pandemic normal.
The student imparts to the teacher, the patient to the doctor, the investor to the broker, lower rank to the officer, trainee to trainer, novice to expert. With dialogical relationships a vision or novel idea comes to fruition. The insightful see that others possessed varying degrees of the same vision. The conversations give life-giving energy. Astounding birth and growth occur.
Reflections
Every quarter examine your performance in your position. Do you have any innovative insights?
What are two new concepts in your professional area? Which one can you use?
Dorothy Watson Tatem, D.Min., ACC
Senior Associate
Next Step Associates, LLC
Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D.
CEO & President
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