Margaret J. Wheatley's Without Reflection, We Go Blindly

A quote by Margaret J. Wheatley states, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” In order for us to gain any knowledge from what we have learned throughout this course we first must be open-minded to seeing things from a different perspective. Learning to become self-aware, becoming conscious of one’s own biases, and learning about and becoming sympathetic to those who are different are three simple ways we can improve ourselves.
Becoming self-aware is easier said than done because sometimes we don’t even know what we should be self-aware of, but once I was exposed to the cultural autobiography and the privilege walk, becoming self-aware was rather easy. While …show more content…
Advantages I have in these four categories are that I am middle class, and speak English while being Hispanic and female bring challenges. Because I identify with Hispanic and female I have to surpass the stereotypes of a Mexican submissive housewife with no education and ten children. I recall a time when I was sitting in the living room studying when my dad came home from work and said, “You didn’t make anything for dinner? You know, if you ever want to get married you have to learn how to cook and be a good housewife, if not no guy is going to want you.” But my beliefs are that labels don’t matter, if you are driven to greater things then it was you who accomplished it and not because you are “male” and “white”. Being a part of the privilege walk experiment helped me to visualize how I am placed in society. At times, taking a …show more content…
In the movie “Outsourced” when the main character Todd first arrived in India he still has the American lifestyle and customs but as he finds himself struggling to connect with the people that is when he decides he needs to learn more about the culture. Three things that stood out to me during the movie that helped Todd become less ethnocentric was the difference in individualism vs. collectivism, idea focused vs. relationship based, and the uncertainty tolerance. An example of individualist vs. collectivist is when Todd first got to India he was going to try and keep his job position but towards the end of the movie Todd helped Puro get a higher position, Todd’s experience in India helped him to not be so greedy and lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it. An example of idea focused vs. relationship focused is when Todd would only go to work to see the call times decrease to under a 6.0 and nothing else, versus towards the end when Todd began to bond with the employees and built a connection with them by letting them decorate their work spaces, resulting in a better work environment and call scores. Lastly the uncertainly tolerance was most crucial for Todd because he always had to be in sync with his schedule not taking time to stop and enjoy the culture. For example, like when it was a holiday for the change in seasons and Todd got all dirty with color, at first, he was a little upset but then