Proud and Powerful

Time: 75 Minutes

Source: Advocating Change Together in 1999. To purchase a copy: www.disabilitytraining.com or

1-800-543-2119.

Purpose: Disability Culture Rap is a 22-minute experimental documentary exploring disability identity and culture.

Directions: Begin this session by discussing the following questions as a large group:

· What does the word “culture” means to you?

· What do we mean by “disability culture? ”

After discussion, show the video to participants. When participants are done watching the video, discuss the following as a large group:

· What stood out to you?

· What surprised you?

· What are some of the things you learned?

Week One: Day Three Handouts

• Visionary who sees the big picture
• Very idea oriented, focus on future thought
• Insight into – mission and purpose
• Develops solutions creatively
• Looks for overarching themes, ideas
• Likes to experiment, explore
• Strong spiritual awareness – attribute to “higher level”
• Appreciate a lot of information
• Divergent thinker

Value Words: “option, possibility”

Roles: Big Picture Thinker and Visionary

West Bear

Seen as practical, dependable, and thorough in task situation

• Helpful to others by providing planning and resources
• Moves carefully and follows procedures and guidelines
• Uses data analysis and logic to make decisions
• Weighs all sides of an issue, balanced
• Introspective, self-analytical
• Carefully and thoroughly examines people’s needs in situation
• Works well with existing resources
• Keeper of traditions
• Skilled at finding fatal flaws in an idea or project

Value Word: “objective”

Roles: Evaluator and Follow-up

North Buffalo

• Assertive, active, decisive
• Likes to be in control of relationship and determine events
• Quick to act, expresses sense of urgency for others to act
• Enjoys challenges and challenges others
• Thinks in terms of bottom line
• Likes quick pace and fast track
• Courageous
• Perseveres, not stopped by hearing “no, ” risk taker
• Likes variety, novelty, new projects
• Comfortable with being in front

· Good motivator of others

Value Words: action oriented phrases such as: “Do it now, " “I’ll do it, ” “What’s the bottom line? ”

Roles: Leader and Driver

South Deer

• Allows others to feel important
• Value driven regarding aspects of professional life
• Establishes relationship to accomplish tasks
• Interaction is primary
• Concerned with process
• Supportive, nurturing to colleagues and peers
• Willingness to trust others’ statements at face value
• Feeling-based, trusts own emotions and intuition
• Team player, receptive to other’s ides, builds on ideas of others, noncompetitive
• Able to focus on present moment
• Concerned with creating a positive environment

Value words: “right, fair”

Roles: Relationships and Process

North Buffalo

South/Deer

West/Bear

East/Eagle

Leadership Compass: Pitfalls When Styles are Taken to Excess

West/Bear Can be bogged down by information Can become stubborn and entrenched in position Can be indecisive, collect unnecessary data, mired in detail May appear cold and withdrawn, with respect to others’ working styles Tendency towards watchfulness, observation Can remain withdrawn, distant Resists emotional pleas and change

North/Buffalo Can be bogged down by need to press ahead and decide Seem to not care about process Can get defensive quickly, argue, try to out expert you Can lose patience, pushes for decisions before its time May get autocratic, want things their way, plow over people in decision making process May go beyond limits, gets impulsive and disregard practical issues Sees in terms of black and white, little tolerance for ambiguity Not heedful of others’ feeling, may be perceived as cold

South/Deer Can be bogged down when believes relationship and needs of people are being compromised Has trouble saying “no” to requests Internalizes difficulty and assume blame Prone to disappointment when relationship is seen as secondary task Difficulty confronting and dealing with anger, may be manipulated by anger Easily taken advantage of Immersed in present, loses tract of time Immersed in NOW, may not see long-range view

East/Eagle Can be bogged down by lack of vision or too much emphasis on vision Can lose focus on tasks Poor follow through on projects May become easily overwhelmed Not time-bound, may lose track of time Tends to be highly enthusiastic early on, then burnout over the long haul Can develop a reputation of lack of dependability

Leadership Compass: Suggestions on Working with A…

West/Bear Allow plenty of time for decision making Provide objective facts and figures a person can trust Don’t be put off by critical “no” statements Minimize expression of emotion, use logic when possible Appeal to tradition, sense of history, correct procedure

North/Buffalo Present your case quickly, clearly and with enthusiastic confidence Let them know how they will be involved – their pay off and their role Focus on the “challenge’ of the task Provide plenty of autonomy When establishing timelines, stick with them Give positive public recognition Use them in tasks requiring motivation, persuasion, and initiative

South/Deer Remember process, attention to what is happening in the relationship, feelings between you right now, is of primary importance Needs to feel decisions are ethically right- justify decision around values, ethics, the right things to do Appeal to relationships between you and this person, this person and others Listen hard and allow the expression of feeling and intuition in logical arguments Easily steamrolled, beware this person may have a hard time saying “no” to you Provide plenty of positive reassurance Let this person know you like them personally and appreciate them

East/Eagle Show appreciation and enthusiasm for ideas Listen and be patient during idea generation Avoid critical, judging statements of ideas Allow and support divergent thinking Provide a variety of tasks Provide help and supervision checkpoints on detail and project follow-through

Week One: Day Four