Intention.
Alignment.
Practice.
This is the three-part process that Ignite CSP uses in every coaching engagement, every workshop. It’s the foundation of our work, and as coaches we apply it in our lives daily. Over the last week I have been thinking hard about how this framework can instruct Ignite CSP in taking our work forward in a specifically antiracist direction.
First I’m looking at intention.
Intention: how do you hope to affect the person you’re speaking to? What do you want the outcome of your communication to be? Intention stems partly from mindset, and it is the driver of our communication. Intention chooses our words and colors our tone. It seeps into our body language and selects where we sit in the room. It is active and working all the time, whether we know it or not.
One of the most powerful tools in my life is an awareness of deliberate versus default intention. Deliberate intention means I’m thinking about the outcome of my communication and actively making choices to further that outcome. Default intention means I’m reactive, not thoughtful, and likely to be misunderstood or to cause a disagreement.
All intentions are action words, verbs. Default intentions are verbs like to hide, to get it over with, to defend, to shut it down, to diminish, to prove I’m right, to show they’re wrong. These may serve a short-term goal, but they don’t further any long-term connection or growth. In fact, default intention frequently impedes real communication. It is often born out of fear and discomfort, and it always fails to acknowledge the needs of the other person.
Deliberate intention requires us to pause, to think about how we want to connect. Do we want to listen deeply? To clarify? To support? To welcome? To challenge? Deliberate intention serves the long-term goal of deepening connection and understanding. It is always in service of the other person.
In this historical moment, I am looking at my own commitment to deliberate intention in a new way. Action begins with intention. In this light, I think about Patrick Skinner, a police officer in Savannah, who says that in order to serve his neighbors, he must first think of them as neighbors. He rejects the mindset of the warrior police, militarized and weaponized, and instead embraces the idea that he is there to talk, to connect, to know the people he lives near, and to show up for them in the way they need him.
I am also reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist. At Ignite CSP, we are looking deeply at our default intentions. What are our systems and assumptions that further a racist agenda? What are the steps we need to take to transform these into deliberate intentions that serve our plans and goals moving forward?
There are no answers yet, but I am committed to finding them. Intention is the foundation of action.
