The Wake Up Closing the Gap Between Good Intentions and Real Change

by Kim, Michelle MiJung

• ISBN13: 9780306847202
• ISBN10: 0306847205
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2021-09-28
• Publisher: Hachette Go

Summary

This informative guide helps allies who want to go beyond rigid Diversity and Inclusion best practices, with real tools to go from good intentions to making meaningful change in any situation or venue.

2022 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARDS GOLD WINNER
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2021 PORCHLIGHT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & HUMAN BEHAVIOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
 

As we become more aware of various social injustices in the world, many of us want to be part of the movement toward positive change. But sometimes our best intentions cause unintended harm, and we fumble. We might feel afraid to say the wrong thing and feel guilt for not doing or knowing enough. Sometimes we might engage in performative allyship rather than thoughtful solidarity, leaving those already marginalized further burdened and exhausted. The feelings of fear, insecurity, inadequacy are all too common among a wide spectrum of changemakers, and they put many at a crossroads between feeling stuck and giving up, or staying grounded to keep going. So how can we go beyond performative allyship to creating real change in ourselves and in the world, together?
 
In The Wake Up, Michelle MiJung Kim shares foundational principles often missing in today’s mainstream conversations around “diversity and inclusion,” inviting readers to deep dive into the challenging and nuanced work of pursuing equity and justice, while exploring various complexities, contradictions, and conflicts inherent in our imperfect world. With a mix of in-the-trenches narrative and accessible unpacking of hot button issues—from inclusive language to representation to "cancel culture"—Michelle offers sustainable frameworks that guide us how to think, approach, and be in the journey as thoughtfully and powerfully as possible. 
 
The Wake Up is divided into four key parts:

• Grounding: begin by moving beyond good intentions to interrogating our deeper “why” for committing to social justice and uncovering our "hidden stories."
• Orienting: establish a shared understanding around our historical and current context and issues we are trying to solve, starting with dismantling white supremacy.
• Showing Up: learn critical principles to approach any situation with clarity and build our capacity to work through complexity, nuance, conflict, and imperfections.
• Moving Together: remember the core of this work is about human lives, and commit to prioritizing humanity, healing, and community.

 
The Wake Up is an urgent call for us to move together while seeing each other’s full and expansive humanity that is at the core of our movement toward justice, healing, and freedom.

Author Biography

Michelle MiJung Kim is CEO and co-founder of Awaken, a leading provider of interactive diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs, where she has consulted hundreds of organizations and top executives from Fortune 500 to tech giants to spark meaningful change. Prior to co-founding Awaken, Michelle had a successful career in both tech and management consulting, working with C-/VP-level executives to build high performing organizations around the world As an immigrant queer woman of color, Michelle has been a lifelong social justice activist and a community organizer, serving on a variety of organizations such as the San Francisco LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, UC LGBTIQ Association Steering Committee (commissioned by the UC system's Office of the President), San Francisco Human Rights Commission's Advisory Committee, and LYRIC youth nonprofit's Board of Directors.

 

A graduate of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Michelle lives in Oakland, California causing good trouble in her neighborhood and continuing to amass an obscene number of plants as a proud millennial.