WEBVTT 00:00:13.386 --> 00:00:18.995 In 1990, I traveled to South Africa as part of my work with Outward Bound. 00:00:19.414 --> 00:00:21.801 That was life-changing for me. 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:26.683 Nelson Mandela had just been released from prison a few months before, 00:00:27.285 --> 00:00:29.745 and apartheid was being dismantled. 00:00:30.104 --> 00:00:33.847 I worked with mining groups and banks and other businesses 00:00:33.847 --> 00:00:36.706 facilitating interracial team-building courses, 00:00:36.706 --> 00:00:39.188 each lasting eight days. 00:00:40.298 --> 00:00:43.341 The mining guys all worked on the same shifts together, 00:00:43.341 --> 00:00:44.812 and yet, 00:00:45.332 --> 00:00:47.423 on the same shifts across race, 00:00:47.423 --> 00:00:49.538 they never ate meals together, 00:00:49.538 --> 00:00:52.377 they never shared the same dorm rooms, 00:00:52.377 --> 00:00:54.749 and they never drank beer together. 00:00:54.749 --> 00:00:56.455 One white miner’s wife told him, 00:00:56.455 --> 00:01:00.051 “If you sleep in the same room as a black man, I will divorce you.” 00:01:00.717 --> 00:01:05.211 We started intensive team activities minutes after they arrived. 00:01:05.891 --> 00:01:08.257 At first, I was inspired and connected 00:01:08.257 --> 00:01:11.012 with the black miners from different tribal groups, 00:01:11.012 --> 00:01:15.674 who would always spontaneously sing and dance around the campfire. 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:20.163 Over time, I found that I had a lot in common with the white men as well. 00:01:20.163 --> 00:01:22.377 They were good guys one-on-one, 00:01:22.377 --> 00:01:25.869 and yet, they were part of a system that was oppressive. 00:01:25.869 --> 00:01:29.202 They were in power, and others conformed to their system. 00:01:30.242 --> 00:01:31.631 I found over time 00:01:31.631 --> 00:01:33.689 that I had more in common with the white men 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:35.180 than I was comfortable with. 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:38.294 I looked into their eyes and I saw myself. 00:01:38.294 --> 00:01:42.059 I felt compelled to come back to the US and work with people like me, 00:01:42.059 --> 00:01:43.742 other white men. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.431 Back in the US, I spent seven years researching: 00:01:48.431 --> 00:01:50.771 How do white men learn about diversity? 00:01:50.771 --> 00:01:52.771 What triggers our awareness 00:01:52.771 --> 00:01:56.047 and our movement towards being advocates for diversity? 00:01:56.047 --> 00:01:58.238 In my dissertation research, 00:01:58.928 --> 00:02:00.545 I found the white men I studied 00:02:00.545 --> 00:02:03.828 learn almost everything from women and people of color. 00:02:04.588 --> 00:02:06.940 They didn’t turn to other white men, 00:02:06.940 --> 00:02:09.047 and in fact disconnected from other white men 00:02:09.047 --> 00:02:10.697 and were angry at them. 00:02:11.247 --> 00:02:13.830 I was presenting these results at a national conference 00:02:13.830 --> 00:02:15.647 and a black woman stood up, 00:02:15.998 --> 00:02:17.541 and she said, 00:02:17.541 --> 00:02:20.762 “If that’s the pathway to diversity for white men, I’m exhausted.” 00:02:20.762 --> 00:02:22.171 (Laughter) 00:02:22.171 --> 00:02:24.458 “I don’t have the energy to educate all of you.” 00:02:24.458 --> 00:02:26.017 (Laughter) 00:02:26.017 --> 00:02:27.776 And she was right! 00:02:28.307 --> 00:02:31.386 Another colleague of mine, also with an Outward Bound background, 00:02:31.386 --> 00:02:32.597 Bill Proudman, 00:02:32.597 --> 00:02:34.773 had an idea to break that pattern. 00:02:34.773 --> 00:02:38.501 He said, “Let’s get in the room with a group of white guys 00:02:38.501 --> 00:02:41.344 and spend four days examining ourselves. 00:02:41.344 --> 00:02:43.834 What does it mean to be white and to be male, 00:02:43.834 --> 00:02:46.071 and for many of us, heterosexual?" 00:02:46.731 --> 00:02:49.745 We called it a white men’s caucus. 00:02:50.253 --> 00:02:53.536 The first white men’s caucus we did was 20 years ago. 00:02:53.536 --> 00:02:58.161 Since then, we’ve done hundreds of them, with thousands of white men. 00:02:58.161 --> 00:03:01.740 Over time, we found that white men don’t know three things. 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:04.277 One, we don’t know that we’re part of a group, 00:03:04.277 --> 00:03:05.956 and that we have a culture. 00:03:06.446 --> 00:03:08.244 Two, we don’t know that others 00:03:08.244 --> 00:03:11.187 are having a different experience in the world than us. 00:03:11.187 --> 00:03:13.188 And three, we don’t know 00:03:13.188 --> 00:03:16.624 that the process of learning this is actually life-changing for us, 00:03:16.624 --> 00:03:19.342 and we gain so much in the process. 00:03:20.252 --> 00:03:21.475 Just to be clear, 00:03:21.475 --> 00:03:24.806 white men are not the only people in the world that don’t know things. 00:03:24.806 --> 00:03:26.007 (Laughter) 00:03:26.007 --> 00:03:28.813 All of us have learning and work to do 00:03:28.813 --> 00:03:31.945 around how to partner more effectively with each other. 00:03:31.945 --> 00:03:35.217 I’m just talking today about the white-male part of the equation, 00:03:35.217 --> 00:03:37.565 which is often not articulated. 00:03:37.565 --> 00:03:40.572 So let’s go back to the first thing that white men don’t know. 00:03:40.572 --> 00:03:44.027 We don’t know that we’re part of a group, and that we have a culture. 00:03:44.027 --> 00:03:46.863 When I look in the mirror, I see Michael. 00:03:46.863 --> 00:03:48.981 I don’t see myself as a white male. 00:03:48.981 --> 00:03:51.618 Others, women and people of color, may see a white male, 00:03:51.618 --> 00:03:53.442 but I just see Michael. 00:03:53.442 --> 00:03:56.861 This is partly a result of how diversity is framed. 00:03:57.271 --> 00:04:02.339 When we look at race, for example, we often focus on people of color. 00:04:02.339 --> 00:04:05.681 When we look at gender, who do we usually talk about? 00:04:05.681 --> 00:04:06.842 Women. 00:04:06.842 --> 00:04:08.560 When we look at sexual orientation, 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.520 we often focus on gay, lesbian and bisexual. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.110 We don’t examine being white, or being male, or being heterosexual. 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:18.471 It’s like an invisible part of myself. 00:04:18.861 --> 00:04:21.739 I once worked with a SWAT team commander 00:04:21.739 --> 00:04:26.025 who came back and said he applied what he learned the first day on the job. 00:04:26.025 --> 00:04:31.182 He was in a situation that usually ends in a fight or an arrest, 00:04:31.182 --> 00:04:33.280 and he was able to avoid both. 00:04:33.280 --> 00:04:37.384 Seeing himself and recognizing himself now as a white male, he realized, 00:04:37.384 --> 00:04:40.378 “This stranger does not know me personally.” 00:04:40.378 --> 00:04:42.663 And he didn’t have to take anything personally. 00:04:42.663 --> 00:04:46.189 He shifted from defensiveness to inquiry, 00:04:46.189 --> 00:04:48.770 and he was able to take an explosive moment 00:04:48.770 --> 00:04:51.368 and turn it into a moment of partnership. 00:04:52.477 --> 00:04:54.808 So white men, we don’t know we’re part of a group. 00:04:54.808 --> 00:04:57.338 We also don’t know that we have a culture. 00:04:57.338 --> 00:04:59.504 We’re like a fish in water. 00:04:59.504 --> 00:05:02.274 We rarely have to leave our cultural waters, 00:05:02.274 --> 00:05:04.896 and so we have the least awareness of them. 00:05:04.896 --> 00:05:09.209 The culture, our culture, permeates our schools, our institutions, 00:05:09.209 --> 00:05:12.359 Church, businesses, most places we go. 00:05:12.359 --> 00:05:14.851 So we have the least awareness of it. 00:05:16.181 --> 00:05:18.041 I love my culture, 00:05:18.041 --> 00:05:21.862 and I’ve also come to see that when I overuse its strengths, 00:05:21.862 --> 00:05:24.470 those strengths can become weaknesses. 00:05:24.470 --> 00:05:27.441 So what are some of the traits of white male culture? 00:05:27.941 --> 00:05:29.840 One is rugged individualism. 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:31.773 And I love that part of me. 00:05:31.773 --> 00:05:34.499 I love that I pull myself up by my bootstraps, 00:05:34.499 --> 00:05:36.597 put my head down and work hard. 00:05:36.597 --> 00:05:38.853 It has served me really well. 00:05:38.853 --> 00:05:42.563 And I know I can overuse that, as others can too. 00:05:42.563 --> 00:05:44.798 Any of you ever know of white guys 00:05:44.798 --> 00:05:47.152 who get lost and refuse to ask for directions? 00:05:47.152 --> 00:05:48.475 Audience member: My dad! 00:05:48.475 --> 00:05:50.434 Michael Welp: And that happened recently? 00:05:50.434 --> 00:05:51.639 (Laughter) 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:53.779 Just so, I’m modeling white guys. 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.250 You can actually read directions here. 00:05:56.663 --> 00:06:00.393 So, also, I love the action orientation. 00:06:00.393 --> 00:06:03.278 That’s another aspect of our culture. 00:06:03.278 --> 00:06:08.205 And that action orientation is about doing and getting things done. 00:06:08.205 --> 00:06:11.208 I like to fix things, I like to solve problems. 00:06:11.208 --> 00:06:14.909 I can also overuse that problem-solving mindset. 00:06:14.909 --> 00:06:17.351 Any of you ever have to tell your white male spouse, 00:06:17.351 --> 00:06:20.162 “I don’t want you to fix this, I just want you to listen”? 00:06:20.162 --> 00:06:21.238 (Laughter) 00:06:21.238 --> 00:06:24.459 Anybody hear that? As white guys, have you ever heard that before? 00:06:24.954 --> 00:06:27.178 Also, our culture teaches us 00:06:27.178 --> 00:06:31.223 that we can’t be rational and emotional at the same time. 00:06:31.223 --> 00:06:33.763 So we leave our emotionality behind. 00:06:34.083 --> 00:06:36.166 Other cultures don’t do that. 00:06:36.866 --> 00:06:40.405 When I live in this - invisible to me - cultural box, 00:06:40.405 --> 00:06:42.233 I don’t even think of it as a culture. 00:06:42.233 --> 00:06:44.497 I just think of it as being a good human, 00:06:44.497 --> 00:06:46.485 or a good American. 00:06:46.485 --> 00:06:49.830 And I judge others by this invisible cultural box, 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:53.669 and that puts them in a place where they feel judged. 00:06:53.669 --> 00:06:56.534 Unconscious bias, that’s what it is for me, 00:06:56.534 --> 00:07:02.782 which is that it’s like a background operating system on autopilot, 00:07:02.782 --> 00:07:05.725 that I didn’t even know was running in myself. 00:07:05.725 --> 00:07:09.352 I might say I’m culture-blind or I might say I’m gender-blind, 00:07:09.352 --> 00:07:12.021 and that I just treat everybody the same. 00:07:12.021 --> 00:07:17.000 I don’t realize that others hear that as having to fit into my cultural box. 00:07:21.605 --> 00:07:25.968 And I don’t even know that I’m causing that assimilation in others. 00:07:25.968 --> 00:07:27.200 Others can be frustrated 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:30.601 because they know they have to leave part of themselves at the door. 00:07:31.061 --> 00:07:34.795 And what’s even more interesting is we do that to ourselves as white men. 00:07:34.795 --> 00:07:37.109 We also fit into the cultural box, 00:07:37.109 --> 00:07:40.497 and when we do that, we leave some of our humanness behind. 00:07:40.987 --> 00:07:43.723 The second thing that most white men don’t know 00:07:43.723 --> 00:07:47.945 is we don’t know that others are having a different experience in the world. 00:07:48.365 --> 00:07:52.922 Most of us just naturally connect on sameness and commonality. 00:07:52.922 --> 00:07:57.433 In fact, intercultural research shows that when you engage difference, 00:07:57.433 --> 00:08:01.046 most people either deny or minimize those differences, 00:08:01.046 --> 00:08:04.948 and that pattern shows up for younger generations as well. 00:08:04.948 --> 00:08:09.409 And yet, women, people of color and others have different experiences, 00:08:09.409 --> 00:08:11.583 and if I’m only connecting on sameness, 00:08:11.583 --> 00:08:14.793 I’m not seeing another part of their reality. 00:08:14.793 --> 00:08:17.468 It’s not that my view of the world is wrong; 00:08:17.468 --> 00:08:19.757 more likely, it’s incomplete. 00:08:20.721 --> 00:08:24.526 So, for instance, I don’t have to think about my own safety. 00:08:24.526 --> 00:08:27.639 If I go jogging at night, most of the time I’m pretty comfortable, 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:29.108 even going alone. 00:08:29.108 --> 00:08:30.499 I travel on business a lot. 00:08:30.499 --> 00:08:34.891 I arrive late into airports, and I drive to the hotel. 00:08:34.891 --> 00:08:36.497 Sometimes I get lost. 00:08:36.897 --> 00:08:38.570 And I’m not too worried about that. 00:08:38.630 --> 00:08:41.644 It’s just not easy, 00:08:41.644 --> 00:08:44.467 but it’s not unsafe for me, for most of the time. 00:08:44.467 --> 00:08:49.259 Many women would want to arrive in the hotel before dark, 00:08:49.259 --> 00:08:52.002 and would want your hotel room to be off the ground floor 00:08:52.002 --> 00:08:53.675 and not near an exit. 00:08:54.295 --> 00:08:56.619 I was traveling with my business colleague, Bill, 00:08:56.619 --> 00:08:58.895 to Kalamazoo, Michigan, 00:08:58.895 --> 00:09:01.060 to work with an executive team. 00:09:01.420 --> 00:09:04.668 Well, right after I flew into O'Hare Airport, 00:09:04.668 --> 00:09:06.613 thunderstorms closed the airport. 00:09:06.613 --> 00:09:10.150 Soon, I found out there were no more flights to Kalamazoo, 00:09:10.150 --> 00:09:12.939 and there were no more rental cars. 00:09:12.939 --> 00:09:15.173 Bill’s rugged individualism kicked in, 00:09:15.173 --> 00:09:19.230 and he propositioned a taxi to take us all the way to Kalamazoo. 00:09:20.260 --> 00:09:24.000 We got there 2:30 in the morning, and by 8 a.m. that morning, 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:27.451 we are standing in front of the executive team, proud, 00:09:27.451 --> 00:09:31.166 and talking about how our adventure was and we were going to get there. 00:09:31.166 --> 00:09:34.274 Failure wasn’t an option in that rugged individualism. 00:09:34.274 --> 00:09:36.626 Well, there was one woman on that team. 00:09:37.266 --> 00:09:40.095 She raised her hand, and she said, 00:09:40.735 --> 00:09:45.646 “I would have never gotten into that taxi and driven across rural America at night 00:09:45.646 --> 00:09:48.348 with a stranger as a taxi driver. 00:09:48.348 --> 00:09:50.201 And I would have made up an excuse 00:09:50.201 --> 00:09:52.619 so you wouldn’t think I wasn’t a team player.” 00:09:53.495 --> 00:09:57.313 I looked at her, and I looked at Bill, and I looked at the group, 00:09:57.313 --> 00:10:01.898 and I said, “I teach this stuff, and I’m blind to it at the same time.” 00:10:04.371 --> 00:10:06.991 The word “privilege” is a hard word for us as white men 00:10:06.991 --> 00:10:09.422 because we don’t feel privileged. 00:10:09.422 --> 00:10:11.778 We actually feel like we’ve worked incredibly hard 00:10:11.778 --> 00:10:13.356 for everything we have. 00:10:13.356 --> 00:10:16.069 And I would say a deeper perspective is, yes, 00:10:16.069 --> 00:10:18.151 we have worked incredibly hard, 00:10:18.151 --> 00:10:22.422 and there are things that we haven’t had to navigate or negotiate or think about 00:10:22.422 --> 00:10:24.302 that other groups are. 00:10:25.106 --> 00:10:28.385 For instance, more examples of how my life might be different 00:10:29.015 --> 00:10:30.628 being heterosexual. 00:10:30.628 --> 00:10:33.503 At work, I can have a picture of a loved one on my desk 00:10:33.503 --> 00:10:36.470 and not worry about what other people think about, 00:10:36.470 --> 00:10:41.072 or not worry that it might hinder my next promotion or get me fired. 00:10:41.712 --> 00:10:43.177 As a cisgendered person, 00:10:43.177 --> 00:10:46.190 I can go out on the spur of the moment with friends 00:10:46.860 --> 00:10:49.758 and know that I can find a bathroom that I can use 00:10:49.758 --> 00:10:52.457 without being harassed or beat up. 00:10:52.926 --> 00:10:55.655 As a white person, at work people don’t look at me 00:10:55.655 --> 00:10:58.519 and think I got my job because of affirmative action, 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:01.570 and therefore have me feeling like I’ve got to work twice as hard 00:11:01.570 --> 00:11:03.379 to prove I’m qualified. 00:11:03.379 --> 00:11:06.453 Or I can easily find mentors of my race at all levels 00:11:06.453 --> 00:11:08.597 in most organizations. 00:11:08.597 --> 00:11:11.823 Or I can buy pictures, postcards, greeting cards 00:11:11.823 --> 00:11:14.754 featuring people of my race, easily. 00:11:14.754 --> 00:11:18.290 Or I don’t have to have the talk with my white kids 00:11:18.290 --> 00:11:22.332 about how to literally stay alive if stopped by the police. 00:11:22.332 --> 00:11:25.325 So for me, the layers of privilege go on and on. 00:11:25.905 --> 00:11:29.348 Being able-bodied or, I might say, temporarily able-bodied, 00:11:29.348 --> 00:11:30.652 I didn’t have to figure out 00:11:30.652 --> 00:11:34.602 how to negotiate my way through this facility to give this talk. 00:11:35.322 --> 00:11:39.954 Being Christian, people know my holidays, and they align with time off. 00:11:40.751 --> 00:11:43.971 So privilege is stuff that I don’t have to deal with. 00:11:43.971 --> 00:11:47.003 It’s not having to navigate or deal with some of those things. 00:11:47.003 --> 00:11:49.169 It’s not something I chose. 00:11:49.169 --> 00:11:53.344 And what happens is others assume 00:11:53.344 --> 00:11:56.331 we, as white men, know about our privilege, 00:11:56.331 --> 00:11:58.160 and that we see it. 00:11:58.160 --> 00:12:02.613 And they assume we just don’t care or want to hoard our privilege. 00:12:02.613 --> 00:12:05.953 So they attribute negative intent on to that privilege. 00:12:05.953 --> 00:12:09.470 When we start to see our privilege and own our privilege, 00:12:09.470 --> 00:12:11.247 it removes the burden from others 00:12:11.247 --> 00:12:15.920 to have to educate and prove to us their different realities are real. 00:12:15.920 --> 00:12:18.343 I can use my privilege honorably. 00:12:18.343 --> 00:12:19.987 For instance, if I’m in a meeting, 00:12:19.987 --> 00:12:23.546 and a woman shares an idea and it’s ignored, 00:12:23.546 --> 00:12:26.324 and a few minutes later a man repeats that, 00:12:26.994 --> 00:12:29.659 I can use my privilege to point out to my male colleagues 00:12:29.659 --> 00:12:32.140 that, hey, that was originally her idea. 00:12:32.140 --> 00:12:35.738 If she was to do that, she might be seen as having a chip on her shoulder 00:12:35.738 --> 00:12:37.494 around men. 00:12:38.972 --> 00:12:42.968 When we acknowledge other people's experiences as valid 00:12:42.968 --> 00:12:47.292 and let our hearts be impacted by their experience, 00:12:47.292 --> 00:12:50.548 we create more trust and more openness. 00:12:50.548 --> 00:12:54.808 I saw this happen in South Africa, and I've seen it happen around the world. 00:12:54.808 --> 00:12:59.110 It's a shift from a partnership that's based partly on fear 00:12:59.110 --> 00:13:01.490 to a partnership based more on love. 00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:05.733 Which brings me to the third thing that most white men don't know. 00:13:05.733 --> 00:13:10.279 We think diversity is about helping other people with their issues. 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:13.339 We don't realize the process of learning about our culture 00:13:13.339 --> 00:13:15.635 and that others are having a different experience 00:13:15.635 --> 00:13:19.862 actually is life-changing for us and gives us many insights. 00:13:20.592 --> 00:13:24.184 For instance, when I discover my cultural box, 00:13:24.184 --> 00:13:27.856 I can continue to use the strengths of that culture 00:13:27.856 --> 00:13:30.960 and I have the choice to step out of that culture 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.562 when it would serve me and others more. 00:13:33.562 --> 00:13:37.759 For instance, maybe I want to be in my head and my heart at the same time. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:39.930 Maybe I want to be able to ask for directions, 00:13:39.930 --> 00:13:42.099 or ask for help or say, "I don't know." 00:13:42.099 --> 00:13:43.836 Maybe I want to be able to slow down 00:13:43.836 --> 00:13:46.525 and not try to fix something I don't understand. 00:13:50.195 --> 00:13:54.399 When I show that I'm willing to validate other people's experiences, 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:56.922 it opens up space for new partnership. 00:13:57.622 --> 00:14:01.978 One white man went back to a black man at work 00:14:01.978 --> 00:14:03.672 and shared his learning. 00:14:04.122 --> 00:14:06.707 Initially, the black man wasn't open, 00:14:06.707 --> 00:14:09.456 but a week later, the black man came at to the white man, 00:14:10.796 --> 00:14:13.340 closed the door, talked for two hours, 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:14.741 and he said, 00:14:14.741 --> 00:14:17.238 "In 20 years, no white man has ever asked me 00:14:17.238 --> 00:14:20.162 what it's like to be black in this corporation." 00:14:22.189 --> 00:14:26.574 Another white man went back to his son and apologized. 00:14:27.764 --> 00:14:30.006 The week before the caucus, 00:14:30.006 --> 00:14:32.972 his son had come from school bullied, 00:14:32.972 --> 00:14:36.516 and he'd told his son, "Don't cry and suck it up." 00:14:36.996 --> 00:14:39.244 Well, during the caucus, 00:14:39.244 --> 00:14:41.626 the white man learned he was just training his son 00:14:41.626 --> 00:14:43.261 to be in that white male box. 00:14:43.261 --> 00:14:44.655 So he came home and he said, 00:14:44.655 --> 00:14:47.277 "I'm sorry I told you to suck it up and [not] cry. 00:14:47.277 --> 00:14:50.487 It's okay to feel what you feel, and you don't have to do it alone. 00:14:50.487 --> 00:14:53.591 You can come to me and I'll be there for you." 00:14:54.591 --> 00:14:57.045 We can have other kinds of partnerships at work too. 00:14:57.045 --> 00:15:01.208 If I offend somebody, which is going to happen eventually, 00:15:01.208 --> 00:15:03.918 I don't have to spend time defending that I'm a good guy. 00:15:03.918 --> 00:15:06.511 I can shift, using humility and inquiry, and say, 00:15:06.511 --> 00:15:08.743 "How did I just impact you?" 00:15:08.743 --> 00:15:11.988 That shifts me from a stance of "it's not my fault" 00:15:11.988 --> 00:15:14.530 to a stance of "I'm responsible." 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:20.190 So white men, what can you do when you leave here today? 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:23.822 One, you can remember and realize that you have a culture, 00:15:23.822 --> 00:15:25.494 and you can start to see it. 00:15:25.494 --> 00:15:28.159 You can step outside of it when that serves you, 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:31.194 and you can notice more when you impose it on others. 00:15:31.194 --> 00:15:35.446 Second, remember that others are having a different experience than you. 00:15:35.446 --> 00:15:38.297 So use inquiry and curiosity 00:15:38.297 --> 00:15:41.892 to get their world and broaden your perspective. 00:15:42.522 --> 00:15:46.836 Three years before Nelson Mandela died, I wrote him a letter. 00:15:47.246 --> 00:15:49.127 In it, I said, 00:15:49.127 --> 00:15:54.382 "I was astonished to see you emerge from 27 years in prison 00:15:54.382 --> 00:15:59.802 and embrace, from a place of love, the white men who imprisoned you. 00:15:59.802 --> 00:16:03.511 You showed that love is the greatest force for change, 00:16:03.511 --> 00:16:05.059 and I want you to know 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.515 that it's the same thread of love that I carry 00:16:07.515 --> 00:16:10.431 that you passed on to the white men in South Africa." 00:16:11.521 --> 00:16:15.821 I ask all of us today to carry that same thread to others 00:16:15.821 --> 00:16:19.718 as you create extraordinary partnerships with people around the planet. 00:16:19.718 --> 00:16:20.964 Thank you. 00:16:20.964 --> 00:16:23.655 (Applause) (Cheering)