Addressing differences when working together
Watching the conversation between Hannah and Wilmi was an opportunity for reflection on working within teams and in partnerships across teams. Wilmi is the director of Seven Passes, an NGO organization based in South Africa that has previously collaborated with New School students.
During her discussion with Hannah they both brought up great points in regards to power dynamics within teams and across collaborations, in taking into consideration colonial histories, the division between western and non western countries, race and political views or agendas that are bound to specific ethnic geographies.
As they mentioned during their conversation a big step towards those issues during the collaboration between the New School and the organization was that those histories were openly discussed and unpacked in terms of what they meant for each team member and in terms of where do each member viewed themselves positioned in relation to postcolonial national narratives. Another point that was brought up was the conversation around race, especially in relation to the context of South Africa. Both Hannah and Wilmi made excellent points such as openly discussing the racial dynamic and acknowledging privileges, where those applied, as well as being open to understanding perspectives from different positionalities and willing to unlearn behaviors that might be unintentionally hurtful or disrespectful. Hannah brought up a great point to paying attention to statements that may unconsciously involve essentializing others’ identities as an example of an approach that can cause harm.
During our work with Clowns Without Borders conversations similar to those have taken place either in terms of CWB experience working with local partners either within our own group work, since we all come from different backgrounds and perspectives. A good point that I feel we could take from the conversation keeping our collaboration with CWB in mind is that besides our own people we are all also historical and political subjects, that are embedded in power structures both on a local and a global scale. Therefore, when collaborating on such a global scale we need to keep those dynamics and structures in mind as we approach each other. A good example that Wilmi gave was the concern of the community she was working with on how they were perceived as less fortunate and how they felt that this representation wasn’t the way they viewed themselves. That’s a point that we have often discussed with Naomi and CWB in terms of approaching communities that live in very different conditions than the ones we are used to in the US and CWB’s ability to view these communities within their complexity, resilience and structures of knowledge and not merely as their circumstances. Finally, Hannah made a point that is a good takeaway for any team work and not just CWB. Creating a respectful and safe environment means that when differences or conflicts will inevitably arise team members feel comfortable enough to bring those up and discuss them in a way that can move the team closer and past their differences.
