Undress Indifference
To Make a Difference, Resist Indifference.
I love listening to great speeches.
For me, they really highlight the power of words to shift our emotional state, to create a sense of inspiration and to challenge our thinking.
When you consider famous speeches you might think of Martin Luther-King or Barrack Obama, however the one that has moved me the most is a speech by Elie Wiesel.
Wiesel was the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, a Holocaust survivor, writer, professor and political activist.
Following an invitation from the Clintons, he delivered a speech called The Perils of Indifference at the White House as part of a Millennium series of talks back in 1999.
As a Holocaust survivor, Wiesel knew what it was like to be the victim of indifference – to be overlooked, unnoticed, excluded and disregarded.
During the speech he shared his passionate perspective about why indifference can be worse than hate and anger, and why it is always the friend of the enemy. He said:
"For the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the Other to an abstraction".
When we think about our lives today, we may experience indifference in our organisations as a lack of responsibility, a sense that to be competitive we must look after ourselves at the expense of others. It may arise when things get too hard and we have a sense of indifference about the effort needed to create change.
On a personal level we may experience indifference as someone looking away, glancing sideways in a conversation, not noticing, not listening or crossing the street in avoidance.
You may have experienced some of these things yourself.
On the other hand, we also have great capacity for empathy.
If someone came knocking on your door and needed your help it's likely you'd let them in and do what you could to help. It's likely you would stop, take notice, and make a difference to their plight.
I had direct experience of this last weekend when on a walk with friends. A woman was running past, and as her foot hit the pavement she fell awkwardly. The reaction from all our group was to stop immediately to check she was OK. In fact many people on the path stopped when they saw she ws injured to check if there was anything else they could do.
As humans, we have a great capacity to jump in and help when the need arises.
But how well do we apply this principle when it comes to speaking up for ourselves?
As explained with passion in this rant by Jordan Peterson, indifference can be a significant roadblock to sharing what's on your mind.
If you think you don't make a difference, that your voice doesn't matter, then you are more likely to hold back rather than speak up.
To gauge the extent of this, take a moment to reflect and ask yourself if your self talk includes any of the following phrases:
'It doesn’t matter that I didn't say what I wanted to say today, it can wait’.
'It wasn't that important.'
'It's probably not going to make that much of a difference anyway.'
Does any of this internal dialogue sound familiar?
By undressing any sense of indifference you may have about the difference you make, you are more likely to speak up.
Here's three things that may serve as useful reminders:
1. You already have influence. You exist in a network. What you do influences those around you which in turn influences those around them. Your ability to influence is infinite.
2. Your voice matters. The world is a better place when diversity is not only brought to the table, but everyone's voice is heard. Put your hand up and keep it up.
3. You make a difference. You can't not. The thing you get to choose is what type of a difference that is. Consider when you are in conversation with others - how can you smile wider, linger longer and listen deeper? How can you shine your light in a way that makes a difference to others and starts a chain reaction?