Black History Month

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February is Black History month, and an appropriate time to share a few thoughts and projects that came from our time of listening, as we discussed in our blog post last June. 

Over the next month, we are excited to share with you two new projects Clapham is involved in, each being an outcome of our listening. We’ll also be sharing a list of other Black-owned initiatives, businesses, and organizations that we are excited about! We are in the process of evaluating as a company how our time and resources can be used to support Black-owned businesses. 

I am learning about active listening.  What it should do to us is change us, move us, motivate us. In his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes: “It’s critical. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”  

After publishing our June blog post, one of the interesting things that I personally encountered was pushback on the list of people we are listening to. Some of the pushback challenged: “Why are you listening to THAT person?”  or “Don’t you know you might be influenced by their thinking?” or even “It’s dangerous.”

However, I would argue, it is more dangerous, as we’ve seen, to listen to only people in our group - the people we agree with. Social media, curated email newsletters, and even intelligent advertising make it easier than ever to live in our own echo-chambers. 

Yes, listening is dangerous. What we hear might confront our previously held beliefs and challenge us to take a step outside our comfort zone. Often our inclination is to jump to a solution. But if we are to rebuild social capital as a nation, we have to stop and listen first. 

It is critical.

Stay tuned weekly as we continue to show our support and announce partnerships throughout the month!