Geraldine Coy
‘Author Porch Thoughts’
Whether you travel by train to the city or walk past a busy café, it’s highly likely someone nearby is playing a downloaded game on an electronic device.
Online ‘app’ versions of many popular traditional board games (such as Scrabble) may challenge and entertain us, but nothing achieves the personal interaction of bringing people together in the same space.
When I heard the news (via my Iphone app) that leading social commentator Geraldine Coy was set to launch her new book entitled, Brave Truth in Melbourne, complemented by her new Brave Truth board game, I simply had to applaud her refreshing return to a traditional game during this digital age of ‘game apps’.
As I researched Geraldine’s story, I discovered her exemplary reputation for rising above fear, having overcome confronting experiences in a most challenging environment in post-apartheid South Africa, before fleeing the country and settling in Australia fourteen years ago.
Amid Commission enquiries in which she identified many powerful perpetrators, her life and the safety of her family were threatened. The risks she has taken with frank, open discussion in the business world pale in comparison with the life-threatening conditions she has faced in her pursuit of truth.
The resulting sense of proportion and resilience in dealing with conflict is evident in her coaching and consulting work with her ‘Red Tin Shed’ organisation, situated at home in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley.
With my iPhone switched off, in between her scheduled radio interview, collecting her daughter from school and writing a speech for her upcoming book launch, Geraldine explained, ‘I do my most productive thinking on my Porch (around the block) with a 5km walk with my two dogs, admiring the view of the Warburton Ranges before returning home to work with these thoughts.’
Does the Red Tin Shed reflect your philosophy?
Our Red Tin Shed was where my husband and I made the first bottle of wine from vines we planted in 2002. The realisation of this dream came about through hard work, and real learning through self-reflection. Self-awareness and truthfulness take courage, tenacity and constant work to develop our strengths and achieve genuine leadership, and I believe everyone needs to work in their shed regularly!
What was the inspiration and key message in your new book?
Brave Truth was inspired by my work with the Commission. The key messages are of courage and tenacity in the telling of the Truth. These are fundamental to authentic leadership.
The Board Game was inspired by my work with Youth Leaders in South Africa, and aims to educate and enlighten people, helping them to identify and address fundamental issues and improve their effectiveness in both their work and personal lives.
Brave Truth implies a need for improved ‘honesty and respect for others’ in business and communities. How prevalent do you believe are the challenges to integrity, when ‘only in Truth can we Trust’?
In the Australian organisations with which I have worked, I’ve found a huge need for genuine leadership and greater honesty, with increased urgency for accountability in business, government and the wider community. I have seen too much protection of individual interests, at the expense of organisational (and broader community) interests. Recent political leadership has evidenced this, and if we can’t trust our country’s leadership, why would business (and sport) need to do any better?
Who will enjoy and benefit from Brave Truth?
It’s suitable for anyone wanting to explore the human psyche: both its positives and negatives. It imparts wisdom for business and community leadership and development, and is well placed to prepare young adults for a challenging but hopeful future. It has wonderful messages for resilience and faith in a world of opportunity.
How have your experiences in South Africa been embodied in your Brave Truth executive consulting programs?
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is one of the most unrecognised miracles of the world today. Principles and processes of truth were developed to allow for recognition of fact, acknowledgement of events, and ultimately the surrender of hatred. The resulting determination that these things should never happen again is remarkable, and underpins the concept of freedom in truth.
How do you believe the Brave Truth board game enhances the experience for your readers – is it confronting in any way?
Designed as non-judgemental and reciprocal, the game fosters authentic, values-driven conversation, as a basis for developing trust in relationships. Once trust is established, people have a much better chance of achieving success in their endeavours. Everyone has a story, and a belief system with many unconscious biases. Recognition and awareness of this can only help, with a forward-looking approach and regular feedback.
Confronting and thought-provoking, the board game can be rewarding, but also quite deep and serious. Is there any fun involved?
The experience is rewarding for everyone: half the fun of this game is the ‘I never realised I had that view, and I don’t know where it came from’ moment. It’s refreshing to realise that a false belief from a long-forgotten memory may be affecting one’s achievements. In truth we can find freedom, and then we have a choice to make a change: a healthier outcome than the alternative of continued suffering. And yes, in the safety of a trusting relationships, we can all laugh at ourselves. It’s the best fun!
One of the quotes from your book is ‘People don’t necessarily lie, but they often do not tell the truth.’ How would you characterise the ‘masks’ people wear and how they affect their relationships, both at home and at work?’
We all have various masks we wear when we present to different people, as protective images projected to the world in the different scenarios of our lives. For example, our masks differ between our professional and personal relationships, our parents and teachers, and from those we wear with our friends. They give us confidence to survive daily challenges in different situations. We build natural ‘truths’ around us like walls to protect these images, and will sometimes ‘spin’ the truth to convey our world view.
You’ve quoted profound words from world leaders such as Nelson Mandela – what is your favourite quote from Brave Truth?
My favourite opening quote is from Nelson Mandela; ‘To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.’ This simple but profound demonstration of empathy and compassion recognises our complete lack of entitlement to hold others down or back in life. It speaks of the privilege (not the right) of leadership, as a gift to be treated with the respect, in role-modelling behaviour.
What is your Porch Thought For The Day?
“Accountable leadership has to be courageous: be brave, be true, be happy!”