I have been deep in the world of RFPs, an acronym that stands for “Request for Proposals” as a consultant finding my way through a rapidly changing digital landscape. In the sprit of many entrepreneur talks, I have at times shared a similar sentiment as many self-starters, “I wasn’t expecting to get into the field. It sort of happened by accident.” I once believed in this phrase however now the meaning I attribute to accidents is a lack of attention, like running into the car in front of you on the highway because you were distracted by your phone. It was no accident that I chose where I wanted to have the most impact was with the written word, but my attention to mass-produced content wasn’t serving me.

I studied the history of communications, Supreme Court cases that shaped free speech and theories of change. Although my Masters at Harvard University was difficult, applying that knowledge in the real world and not behind a computer screen was my greatest challenge which led me to the company of prolific community organizers and poets who could run campaigns and knock on doors. I was very steeped in a world of written call and response until Cambridge Community Television gave me a space to explore my own voice as the host of live television show, Café con Cass. Before that time, the inspiration for my work for many years was to challenge to the status quo and I didn’t start to thrive professionally and personally until I stopped internalizing that being authentic in this world wasn’t an opposition or a challenge, it was a way of being and there are billions of ways of being in this world beyond automation.

I don’t limit automation to technology or assembly lines. An example of automation is also the way that Americans say, “Hi, how are you?” in passing versus in conversation. I prefer questions like, “How’s your heart?,” or “What inspires you today?” With my clients I ask, “What would you like to accomplish today?” or take a moment to land, since we are not robots (yet). A world beyond automation now includes a communications practice that inspires a sense of agency for clients. We share agreements, work plans, and my way of building agendas and guiding the work has structure, but this structure is built with natural materials versus click-bait. I choose my clients as much as they choose me. Whether through a website design, 1:1 coaching session or brand kit – my work focuses on engagement versus attention. The origins of the word attention was first used in Medieval Times, a period I would rather not revisit.

We have a choice of where to direct our focus and yield our power. As someone who walks both the digital and natural world, I see the way that development continues to challenge the spaces where we can roam freely. Knowledge once shared in community and even among strangers is now being marketed with funnels and never-ending clickbait. What was once social media has become a corporate venture of endless clicks and AI learning. As long as there is a choice and clean water, I am not opposed to change however it is important to consider how technology can only work by pulling data from the past. Have you ever been the human or with a human who can only focus on the past? Have you been defined by an erroneous past written by someone who was not capable of seeing your truth? The present is where we can change all of that and this is the biggest decolonial understanding I have invited back into my life.

I make sure that with every leader I coach or organization I advise to ask them, “Have you told yourself your own story yet?” and often times people are surprised by this question. It is in this reflection that we yield our power, imagination, and can feel confident in the presence of many who have different ways of living. Unlike a bamboo rooted and not breaking in the wind, the Internet can be broken and our motherboards / nervous systems can catch fire. In order for super computers and data centers to run, they must be cooled my massive rivers. Communications should not be a field that has barriers to entry or comes at a cost to the natural world. We, as human beings, often forget that we are as much a part of natural world as any other animals. We need better stories, compassion and movement that helps transmutate energy versus only looks to the past.

That’s all for now!