Living the Work: Practising What We Know

Oct 27

Oct 27 Living the Work: Practising What We Know

“I don’t really care about this industry,” a friend recently told me. “What matters is helping people do the right thing.”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it means to build a career that honours knowledge of something and practice for something.

For many of us, both matter. Subject expertise gives depth and context; it grounds us in a field of knowledge.

But the methods we bring, how we listen, lead, inquire, and act, are what make that expertise able to live in the world. They are what enable us to close the gap between our values and our actions when it matters most, when it’s life or death, not just when it is easy to talk about or uncontested.

We often assume professional communities share a stable identity and purpose and exist in a community of practice, such as doctors, teachers, or engineers, all united by industry. But recent national and international events remind us that these professional communities can fracture when core values are tested. In those moments, belonging is not defined by job title or training but by what people choose to say and do.

That’s why I am increasingly interested in communities where people come together not because they share an industry, but because they share a way of working in the world toward equity, justice, care, or dignity across contexts.

This feels particularly resonant during Black History Month, as we honour lineages of people remembered not just for their expertise, but for how they practised solidarity, led with courage, resisted oppression, spoke truth to power, and reimagined what was possible for their communities. Their methods endured. Their practice travelled.