Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Leadership & Diversity Workshop


I've been in a highly acclaimed Diversity workshop for my company, and today I learned what it felt like to decide people's fates; to choose who lives in a group based solely on your perception of their ability to convey your last words to your loved ones. And then to look those people in the eye and tell them "you live" or "you die". It was, to say the least, intense. After that, we had to tell those we had chosen what we wanted our loved ones to know. Obviously, that was difficult. But our instructor pointed out that we were not dying, and did not have to make these choices. We could tell our loved ones ourselves. I'm lucky in that I tell my family and friends what they mean to me quite often, but the whole exercise pointed out just how important it is to keep doing that, and not wait for a crisis or tragedy. I thought I should share what an important lesson it was.

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