Why Congruence Matters
"To work congruently is to allow alignment between intent and action, between what we espouse and what we enact. It asks us to inhabit our values, not merely reference them."
This is a quote from an essay written by Bree Katsamangos, titled “The Problem of Congruence: Reclaiming the Relational Heart of Place-Based Work.”
I read this essay the day after I was talking with a friend and colleague about how our values can sometimes get squeezed out in the day-to-day, especially when funding is tight or pressure to quantify impact rises. The intentions remain, but they don't always show up in our decisions or actions.
For me, inhabiting relational values means designing meetings where the people involved genuinely shape the agenda. Or slowing down a process when efficiency would bypass those most affected. Participatory practices support these decisions. They offer a way to inhabit relational values, not just reference them.
This is the work I want to support: helping teams and communities make sense of things together and act on what matters most.
Thank you, Bree, for sharing this language of congruence and why it matters.
Image description: The centerpiece at an Art of Hosting event I attended. It contains a plant, rocks we wrote on with people we were thinking of in relation to our work, and a cup holding pens - all sitting on purple and fabric and encircled by pinecones.
