We are pleased to share an excerpt from The California Psychologist on the occasion of Dr. Mark Rittenberg’s keynote speech, “Leadership is Love. The Power of Human Connection”, at the California Psychological Association Conference in April 2020 (canceled due to Covid-19).
“The lights came up and the actors hugged each other, crying as they stood to take a bow. The audience was on their feet, cheering and crying at the same time. The love between these two South Africans seemed nothing short of a miracle, because on Monday morning when Betty arrived at the Avis Brand Ambassador workshop and realized she would be in a workshop with a range of South Africans of all races, nationalities and positions within the company, she called her husband and asked him to come and fetch her. He said, ‘Stay until lunchtime and if you still want to go home, I will come and fetch you’. Three days later Betty had just played Stephanie opposite Thabo, an African man and a branch manager at Avis, who played Dr. Louis Feldman. As the leader of this workshop, my team and I were trying to break down the barriers left by 50 years of apartheid. In this case we managed to create a dialogue that meant people could really see the humanity in each other across the divide.”
[excerpt from Holding Their Feet to the Fire (c) 2020 The California Psychologist and California Psychological Association]