Growing the Elephant: Increasing Earned Advantage for All

 Privilege? Social injustice? Equal opportunity? What does 'equal opportunity' mean when the opportunities to earn it are impacted by who you are or where you come from? Who has these advantages? Why are they so hard to talk about? What can anyone DO about it?
   
   If you find discussions of inequality painful, aggravating, exhausting, or even scary, it’s time to explore the elephant. Growing the Elephant is the story of Advantage - Earned and Unearned. Earned Advantage is the part of the Elephant we know. Work hard – get rewarded; form relationships - get opportunities. But while anyone can earn Advantage, some have more opportunities than others. That's the story of Unearned Advantage.
   
   Unearned Advantage is the part of the Elephant we avoid. It is so hard to talk or even think about that those with it ignore or deny it while those without it are exhausted or incensed by it. Unearned Advantage is about more than race or color – it includes gender, identity, age, upbringing, origin, disability, even physical appearance and personality. It’s all of who you are and where you’re from - whoever you are and wherever you’re from.
   
   Readers meet a team working together and striving to recognize, work with, and expand Earned Advantage for themselves and each other. Applying contemplative practices of intention, reflection, and compassion, readers learn to recognize and work with Advantage. With practice, they begin Growing the Elephant by expanding opportunities for earned Advantage - for everyone.
   
   Growing the Elephant is for anyone in business, academia, and community who is working to increase innovation, performance, and inclusion. Unlike most diversity approaches, it aims to build skills, practices, and mindset to meet and stay with what’s difficult. It is for leaders and followers and those who help them build and sustain inclusion, diversity, and equity.
   
   Growing the Elephant is published by Practical Inspiration Publishing. Coauthor Chris Altizer, Columbia MBA '00, MA consults and coaches executives and lectures on business, management. and inclusive leadership. His research and work have been published in journals and covered by Forbes Magazine. Chris practices and teaches mindfulness, yoga, and martial arts.
   
   Coauthor Gloria Johnson-Cusack is a servant leader and consultant, regularly lectures at the graduate School of Professional Studies, Columbia University in New York and serves as Board Chair of the Firelight Foundation supporting communities in Africa. She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from American University and Columbia University.
   

www.growingtheelephant.com