Becky Margiotta - Impact with Integrity: How to Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself

Copyright 2022 by Becky Margiotta
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Girl Friday Books, Seattle
www.girlfridaybooks.com

Produced by Girl Friday Productions

Design: Rachel Marek
Project management: Sara Spees Addicott
Editorial production: Jaye Whitney Debber

Cover image komkrit Preechachanwate/Shutterstock

Excerpt , 2017).

Table reproduced by permission from Kathy Obear, Privileged and Marginalized Identities (Social Justice Training Institute, 2010).

reproduced by permission from Kathlyn Hendricks, F.A.C.T. Process (Hendricks Institute, 2017).

reproduced by permission from Kathlyn Hendricks, Persona Interview (Hendricks Institute, 2003).

ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-954854-27-7
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-954854-28-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021920209

First edition

For Christine and the two amazing human beings she brought into this world, our children, Huck and Vivian.

Humans get notice periodically that This is it! This is the most critical, pivotal moment in human history. Maybe in retrospect historians will find another era where so much was at stake, but right now you couldnt find a better guide than this book to landing in your leadership and contributing to our world. This. Is. It.

Personal change is not enough anymore. Tending your own garden isnt enough. Systemic change that accounts for variables, resistance, and the unknown is needed to transform society.

Some people lead brilliantly but cant teach others how to do what flows from them so effortlessly. Many people talk a good game but sputter out at the street level of implementation. Others inspire transformation in short bursts but cant maintain change. Becky Margiotta both inspires and sustains and can show you how to scale true contextual change.

Becky can show you how to tend your own garden so you can create even more impactful systemic change. So many of us want to change the world, and so many of us have hurled our well-being and life balance onto the sacrificial pyre, believing that doing good must use us up. In Impact with Integrity, youll learn how to be well while being of service. I know, I know. It sounds like another do-gooder manifesto with no legs. But what most people who want to make a difference dont realize is that you need to be the difference first, and then allow the difference to move through you. In this book, you can enter a new world of contribution while filling your personal reservoir.

Beckys rsum is an adventure novel in itself, but youd never know it from her unpretentious demeanor unless her experience bears directly on the issue at hand. In which case, she can laser beam the relevant experience or parachute in the exact statistics and places where it worked. She does a kind of shape-shifting that we usually only experience in action-hero movies. Like a magnet arranging iron filings around itself, Beckys focus and commitment align her choices to generate real power, the power of full engagement. Shell show you how to unleash your genius and make it funny. Shell get in your face with relentless authenticity and then walk with you through the door thats always been there behind all the secrets and self-criticism most people employ to motivate themselves. Shes done the work, put in the hours, and honed the craft, and you can get it all by osmosing what speaks to you most.

This isnt so much a book to stuff into your mind as a rollicking whole-body, whole-mind, and wholehearted adventure to enjoy. Youll find hidden doors, chutes-and-ladders moves, mirrors, and puzzles to transform your way of acting effectively in the world. Becky addresses the most important collective issues at this pivotal point in human history, emphasizing the value of full-spectrum feeling and the justice imperative that each of us can meet and cocreate through responsibility. Theres a lot of evidence that systemic suppression of feeling lurks in the basement of most conflict and power struggles. Becky invites you to genuinely befriend all the musty corners of your personal feelings closet and embrace presence and powerful engagement. She guides you through the overview and the right-now elements of actually getting from here to your goal with a range of examples that always favor possibility through the portal of full authenticity. Shes embodied openness to learning and stands toe-to-toe with you until you turn inward, welcome feedback, and collaborate toward genuine equality.

Heres the best part. There are nutrients on each page, bite-sized blessings you can easily receive and practice and use to access your genius to build structures that make your dreams real. You can go through the book chapter by chapter or just open to any page and apply the wisdom right now.

The world is on fire and in desperate need of volunteer firefighters. If you have ever wondered if there was a purpose for you, a place in the world in need of your unique genius, the answer is yes. If you have ever wondered when the right time is to step into your purpose and explore the path of your potential, the answer is now. The how is in your handsand within your power. You dont have to do that work alone. Becky has created in this book a doorway for you to look at yourself and the very local power you have and to hone that power to create large-scale social change.

In my work providing training and coaching for organizations looking to address culture, I always tell people to do their own work first. Do the internal work of checking your own beliefs and values and exploring how they contribute to the very world you seek to change. Frankly, I am often met with a blank stare: What does it mean to do your own work? Now I can just hand them Impact with Integrity: Repair the World Without Breaking Yourself. This book invites you to explore new ways of being, freeing you to create fluid and moving dynamics that can carry us to new places. Examining yourself is key to supercharging your power to make the world a better place.

People eager to create change in the world are often powerfully motivated to find solutions to big, hairy problems, seeking an impactful action they can take to stop harm against the vulnerable. It seems odd, then, to look for solutions to these problems inside ourselveswe, after all, are the ones who want to help. Too often we start looking for answers by focusing our energy on fixing others, or on the problem right in front of us. If only we could change everyone else then all would be right with the world! Only it doesnt work that way. To make change, we must be the change. All change we wish to manifest, we must make first in ourselves. And thats the best part: all the power we need to make change begins right here, right inside each of us.

Leaders need to think about how they show up as leaders, because this shapes the environment in which the work will take place. Real change requires community, listening to and engaging with those we serve, and attention to the impact of our work. Without a real, authentic dialogic environment, the kind of communication needed to make lasting change in the world is unlikely to happen. Instead we take on the colonized normsflawed mirrors of patriarchal white dominant culture. Leaders who create emotional spaces for themselves and others are able to build true community inside organizations, and give their teams the blueprints, skills, practice, and tools they need to create impact.