Liberation is Accountable Connection: A Healthcare Leader's Perspective

This thesis explores how the characteristics of white supremacy culture and colonization create disconnection from self and others. The fear, scarcity, and dehumanization widen the gap and create a landscape that harms all, including those who seemingly benefit from it, at the cost of connection to our shared humanity.The inquiry centred on how living conscious inquiry into understanding the characteristics of white-supremacist culture and personal accountability in anti-racism and decolonization might enhance one individual’s leadership skills and abilities and enable one to develop a personal leadership practice of centred accountability and a just culture within the work environment for healthcare teams. Through this first-person, action-oriented process, using journaling, mindfulness, and meditation practices to create compassionate connection at multiple levels, allowing time and space between stimulus and response, and consciously considering the programming, accepted norms, and reactions that harm by disconnecting and devaluing the shared human experience. In healthcare, a field many choose to enter with the intention of helping, dehumanization and urgency create a moral disconnect for practitioners, patients, and families. The four findings indicate that the concepts of perfectionism, goodness, helping, and comfort create unrealistic expectations and a disconnect from the reality of life and humanity. The study found liberation in the concepts of practice and embodiment, which change the relationship to time and expectations. Compassionate, centred accountability among leaders and practitioners creates an environment conducive to decolonization and a more just healthcare culture. Keywords: first-person action-oriented research, healthcare, leadership, decolonization

Author dc:creator

• Benson, Amy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Holmes, Shawn, Y

• School of leadership studies

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/IR-20957

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/29428