Trabian Shorters: Narrative Change is Culture Change

Oct 10

Trabian Shorters: Narrative Change is Culture Change

Listen in as Kristine and Trabian discuss:

How cognitive science provides tools and evidence for moving from deficit-framing to asset-framing
Why it’s our choices that define us, not our circumstances – and this is the most powerful way to identify ourselves and others
Why we act on what we perceive to be true, forgetting that perceptions are faulty, fleeting, and can be changed in an instant
What we’ve got wrong about helping, generosity, and equity
How negative narratives blind us to the reports, research, and statistics that prove the positive role and contribution of black men in family, community, society
The power of understanding how spirit drives us, unites us, and fuels joy

Key Takeaways:

Philanthropy won’t be seen as a true ally until it stops anchoring to problem and deficit
Love is the reason to asset-frame
Equity is not about being kind, generous, or helpful. It’s about giving people what they’ve earned and letting them solve their own problems and create their own future
Narrative change is culture change; it’s that simple and that profound
The most powerful place to start is understanding people’s aspirations and contributions
Philanthropy pays people to center with and stay in deficit
Whether you intended harm or help,
We need LOVE now = Live, Own, Vote & Excel is the formula for the Black community – and every community!

"All of us, at any given time in our lives, could have been the bad guy. Only those of us who have agency are allowed to introduce ourselves the way we want to. Folks that we claim we want to help, we start by putting them down so that we can then lift them up - it’s a thoughtless, inherited practice we can reject." — Trabian Shorters

More about Trabian Shorters:

Trabian Shorters is one of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and the catalyst of a national movement to first define black people by their aspirations and contributions, then to secure their fundamental freedoms to Live, Own, Vote and Excel.

He is a retired tech entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author, and former vice president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation where he was responsible for $300M in active grants and endowments in 26 US cities.

His nonprofit social impact network, BMe Community, is award-winning for innovation, impact, and storytelling and boasts more than 400 black leaders plus institutional allies committed to building “equity without stigma.”

Shorters is the international authority on an award-winning cognitive framework called “Asset-Framing®” which is in high-demand by heads of influential philanthropic, journalism and social impact networks.

Asset-Framing equips its practitioners to have far greater social impact, raise more money, engage broader populations, and make fundamentally stronger cases for equity and systems-change.

Connect with Trabian:
BMe Community: https://bmecommunity.org/

Black LOVE Pledge: https://blacklovepledge.org/

Website: https://trabianshorters.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joinbme/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trabian-shorters-620596/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trabian

Twitter: https://x.com/joinbme

NYT Best-Selling Book: Reach: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Reach/Ben-Jealous/9781476799834

Connect with Kristine:

Website: https://www.impactfullinc.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impactfull_inc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristine-breese-michie/