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VALUES ARE LIKE BLACK MATTER

VALUES ARE LIKE BLACK MATTER

Values are the dark matter of any organization

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How Do You Believe?  Questions We Never Ask

How Do You Believe? Questions We Never Ask

How DO I believe what I believe?

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Woke to the World of Words

Woke to the World of Words

When we realize the power of words, a world is awakened in us that wasn't there before.

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How Can Leaders Use Metaphors to Lead?

How Can Leaders Use Metaphors to Lead?

Metaphors build a bridge of meaning between leaders and those they lead.

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Can storytelling save us?

Can storytelling save us?

When we share our stories, our hearts open, fear is released, and we are able to come together as one.

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Using Stories to Bring Students Together

Using Stories to Bring Students Together

Storytelling empowers & connects us all. Charlotte & Lauren are using stories to bridge the divide among students at The University of San Diego.

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What's Your Metaphor for Your Organization?

What's Your Metaphor for Your Organization?

The metaphor that you use to describe your organization says a lot about how it runs and how it's viewed!

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Speech ACTS are Sticks and Stones

Speech ACTS are Sticks and Stones

Speech isn't something that we can observe or touch like an action, but it has the same power, and often the same consequence, as an action.

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What's Your Metaphor for Leadership?

What's Your Metaphor for Leadership?

The metaphors that a leader uses can reveal much about their leadership style.

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With a Bedrock Focus on Values, Gold College Students Learn to Use Stories to Lead

With a Bedrock Focus on Values, Gold College Students Learn to Use Stories to Lead

Our values drive us. When we have an understanding of those values, we can use stories to help us lead.

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Values-Based Leadership Sets the Tone of Instruction at Gold College

Values-Based Leadership Sets the Tone of Instruction at Gold College

Values- the key ingredient for a successful organization!

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Gold College is Changing the University of Alberta

Gold College is Changing the University of Alberta

When a college wanted to create strong leaders within their faculty, what did they do? Created a program, of course!

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People I Love: Mario Savio

People I Love: Mario Savio

A civil-rights activist. A seeker of justice. Changer of the world. That was Mario Savio.

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People I Love: Bella Abzug

People I Love: Bella Abzug

A powerhouse, revolutionary, and feminist, Bella Abzug fought against the narrative she was born into and wrote the one that she wanted to live!

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People I Love: Shirley Chisholm

People I Love: Shirley Chisholm

A leader who spoke the truth and refused to live into the narrative that was given to her! She fought to write her own and to inspire others to do the same!

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People I Love: Angela Y. Davis

People I Love: Angela Y. Davis

Angela Davis rose above the narratives that she was expected to live into and wrote her own counter narrative! It took tremendous courage and it was that courage that drew Cavanaugh-Simmons to her.

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Bridging the Racial Divide, One Story at a Time: The Origins of My Interest in Diversity Work

Bridging the Racial Divide, One Story at a Time: The Origins of My Interest in Diversity Work

Cavanaugh-Simmons's interest in diversity began when she was a young girl. That interest developed as she grew and put her on the path of counter narratives and storytelling that she is on now.

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People I Love: Angeles Arrien

People I Love: Angeles Arrien

Cavanaugh-Simmons found love and comfort in Angeles Arrien. A woman who loved life and found joy in simply living, Arrien inspired those around her to do the same.

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Metaphors Shape Our Lives, So Choosing Wisely is Essential

Metaphors Shape Our Lives, So Choosing Wisely is Essential

The metaphors you use to tell your story can have an impact. Are they limiting your thinking or are they giving it a space to grow and see the potential?

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People I Love: Cesar Chavez

People I Love: Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez was a man of quiet power and passion. He was an activist, labor organizer, and seeker of justice for American farm workers. Here, Cavanaugh-Simmons describes how his work inspires hers.

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Seven Ways to Thicken a Narrative for Richer Stories

Seven Ways to Thicken a Narrative for Richer Stories

A story begins with a past, present, and future. A GREAT story involves all the details in between!

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People I Love: Dag Hammarskjold

People I Love: Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold believed in "dents", which would lead to a rift, which would lead to an opening. In the opening, is where the true work for peace would begin.

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How to Shift the Narratives that Shape and Limit Us

How to Shift the Narratives that Shape and Limit Us

The metaphors that we use to describe our life matter. They can change our behavior or they can limit us. What metaphors will you use?

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People I Love: Robert F. Kennedy

People I Love: Robert F. Kennedy

"What might have been?", is a question that Christine often contemplates when thinking about Robert F. Kennedy.

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People I Love: Malcolm X

People I Love: Malcolm X

Malcolm X was a man of passion- strong and eloquent and on a journey of self-discovery during his last year of life. Christine Cavanaugh-Simmons was a young teenage girl, drawn to his search for truth and his ability to live into the story that he wanted for himself.

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The Power of Counter Narrative

The Power of Counter Narrative

Two stories shape our lives: the stories we tell about ourselves, and the master social narrative that defines our relationships and roles within society. When people in marginalized groups offer what’s known as a “counter narrative,” they open up new worlds of possibility for themselves and others in their group.

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A Long and Winding Path

A Long and Winding Path

From a difficult girlhood in Oakland, CA, to extraordinary success as a narrative coach, Chris has walked the walk and helped a lot of folks.

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The World of Words and the Importance of Narrative

The World of Words and the Importance of Narrative

The stories we tell ourselves—and others—can hold us back or propel us to new achievement. That’s why business executives increasingly are discovering the power of tapping into their own life stories.

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The Narrative Process and the Transformative Power of Stories

The Narrative Process and the Transformative Power of Stories

Through a guided narrative process, management consultant and president of CCS Consulting Inc. can help executives discover their stories, re-author parts of those stories that are holding them back, and then share them effectively with their teams.

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Re-Authoring: A Key Aspect of Narrative Intelligence

Re-Authoring: A Key Aspect of Narrative Intelligence

The heart of narrative therapy and coaching is “re-authoring,” also known as “creating a counter-narrative.” The premise of this approach is that a life doesn’t have just one story, it has many, and healthy choices can be made among them—a patient or client can re-think, revamp, restructure the story of his or her life.

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Executives Need Perspective to Bring Positive Change to Organizations

Executives Need Perspective to Bring Positive Change to Organizations

As leaders get farther from where the real work of their organizations is being done, their understanding of what is happening on the ground diminishes and their language becomes more abstract. If executives hope to implement positive change in their organizations, they need to have a firm understanding of what life is like for lower-level employees.

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The Book

Book

Help leaders unlock the power of stories to inspire, engage and guide teams and entire organizations

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My Story is My Path

Resources for all those called to leadership who understand the power of words and stories to shape their futures from one of the nation’s preeminent narrative coaches, Christine Cavanaugh-Simmons of CCS Consulting Inc.

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