Number 49 of 52 Compelling Communicators: Jackson Katz
December 09, 2013
At first, I did not know
what to make of Jackson Katz. As I watched his TED Talk, I was caught up in the
visual of a man who looked like a sports coach versus someone who would speak
about gender issues.
Surprise can be an
effective communication tool. I sense that element of disbelief when I do
social media workshops – people don’t expect me to be savvy in that arena
purely because of my age.
Jackson Katz surprises and
provokes a different way of thinking throughout his entire talk.
He builds a great case for
leadership training to deal with violence and gender issues. As he says it is
not about sensitivity training, it is about leadership. He makes an important
distinction between the two. He talks about a bystander approach where people
speak up when hearing or witnessing inappropriate language or violence.
Check out how he uses a
simple sentence on a flip chart to demonstrate victim blaming.
Quoting Martin Luther
King, he reinforces the need to speak up “In the end, (what hurts the most) we will remember not the
words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” He repeats this quote so we really hear it but adds his
own twist – with “what hurts the most”.
The communication lessons from
this man come from his great ability to continually bring in real life examples
and analogies throughout his speech.
On his website he
distills effective ways to gender violence prevention into a 10 step poster.
This is a complex subject
and ambitious campaign to get people to take action. I think he does it well.
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