Turmoil and Tumult
Some links to articles, podcast and a movie that made me think over the past week, a few words on leadership communications and a final thought on belonging
Happy July 4th weekend, everyone! Here’s a post a day early for the holiday weekend.
By the time I post this, my life will be in boxes and on its way to my new home on the Connecticut shoreline. And of course, when you have a million and six other things to get done, it feels overpoweringly urgent to sit down and do some writing. (And conversely, vacuuming feels urgent when you have a writing deadline staring you in the face…)
Like most people I know, I have been grappling with the implications for our country on the Supreme Courts’ recent decisions on abortion and to a lesser extent, concealed weapons. What perhaps makes me the most deeply anxious is that despite overwhelming evidence that the American public is in favor of legal abortion access (in some form) and gun control, a minority has decided to firmly exercise the power it has at its disposal without care for the guaranteed dire consequences for our society and especially - and once again - for those fellow citizens who most need the powerful to advocate for their interests.
I will get to some links below that have helped me process this anxiety, but I first wanted to take the opportunity to touch on what I think of as leadership communications. This is a term my Chief of Staff and advancement communication leader Lauren Castagnola and I started using to replace crisis communications, since responding to turmoil had become a routine part of our jobs as school leaders.
If this were a year ago, I guarantee that as soon as I heard about the Supreme Court’s Roe reversal, I would have been quickly meeting with Lauren to discuss:
1) If we needed a statement and then, if we decided we did…
2) What did the community need to hear to feel even a little bit “seen” and more connected, to see their own thoughts and feelings reflected back to know they were not alone
3) Which constituencies needed to hear this - everyone, including kids? The internal adult community? Parents? Trustees? Alums? Etc.
4) How to communicate this - email blast, include in the next regular community communication (we did them 2x per week), announcement at assembly, if during the school year,
And then the most important step was drafting the communication. Often Lauren will give me a draft and then I would edit or rewrite. And then, as a leader, I have to have spend time figuring out how to weave together the following:
What the community needs to hear to feel seen in this moment.
My personal, authentic insights into the issue and how I can genuinely communicate empathy and promote connection while staying true to my own values and principles.
This is not easy but after writing what feels like hundreds of these communications since March, 2020, on all kinds of deeply political, potentially divisive, usually sensitive topics, it is crucial for leaders to spend time figuring out your particular point of view in order to lead your communities to the best of your ability. Just one example is that on the evening of January 6, 2020, as a leader, you really did not want to be in a place where you hadn’t already thought long and hard about the state of American democracy.
I look forward to exploring all of the above in future posts. We are in a period where these moments of tumult will just keep coming and leaders will continually be asked to step into their moral authority through their communications to keep the community glued together and to move it forward.
First Friday Reading, Watching and Listening Recs:
On the Roe reversal:
In my opinion, a beautifully done institutional statement by Sian Beilock, President of Barnard College - it goes high, it ties in with the mission of the institution, and it describes next steps for the community.
https://barnard.edu/news/supreme-courts-dobbs-decision
Rebecca Traister on The Necessity of Hope - NY Magazine article
This has been making the rounds - it is short but excellent and feels like it has universal application right now in the world.
https://www.thecut.com/2022/06/rebecca-traister-on-the-necessity-of-hope.html
Dahlia Lithwick on The Ezra Klein Show podcast (transcript if you want to skim) NY Times
This includes an extensive conversation on the legal concept of court decisions impacted by precedent, stare decisis, and while Chief Justice John Roberts has been an adherent (anyone else remember when his vote saved the basis for Obamacare?) the court’s majority has decided to throw it out the window. There is a transcript at the link below and you can find it on your favorite podcast app. Bonus - Lithwick shares reading recs about hope at the end and mentions one book I’ve thought about a lot this year - Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I read it in my high school psych class, so teachers - stuff does stick!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/26/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dahlia-lithwick.html
On the history of the modern anti-abortion movement:
Jon Ronson - 1-1000 dolls - Episode 1 - Things Fell Apart podcast
I guarantee this part of the history of this movement will surprise you. Jon Ronson is brilliant and I recommend everything by him, in all media forms.
Other content that made me think - two more from New York Magazine, and a movie - and really, the connecting tissue is that they all touch on the human struggle to belong in one way or another.
A personal essay on the navigation of pronouns as a non-binary person
https://www.thecut.com/article/brock-colyar-pronouns-nonbinary-essay.html
A reporter follows the aftermath of an incident at an undisclosed high school - it could be called, “The Kids Are Not All Right.” Do any of these kids feel like they belong? How do we even begin to address all the different aspects of what is going on here?
https://www.thecut.com/article/cancel-culture-high-school-teens.html
I rewatched the documentary Roadrunner, about Anthony Bourdain, because we didn’t get enough of him before his untimely death in 2018. During this viewing, I saw someone struggling to feel as if he belonged, despite adulation and success.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14512538/
I am beginning to wonder if the central conundrum of our time is this unmet yearning to belong. Part of life is figuring out how to navigate those times when you don’t feel like you belong - and perhaps a definition of integrity is “choices we make in the face of not belonging.” Finding friends and loved ones who really see you is one of the great joys of life - but isn’t it partly a joy because not everyone does see you? Navigating belonging can be a powerful push towards developing an empathetic outlook and connections with others and in its highest form, the tension produces an impetus to create evocative art and expression. So is it even possible to create an entire culture of belonging, as so many of our schools are now trying to do? I have so many questions!
More on belonging at a future time.
I would love to hear what you’re reading, watching and listening to if you want to contribute in the comments!
Until next week, enjoy your BBQs and fireworks and look after your furry friends who think the apocalypse is upon us when those lights burst in the sky. And partake of hope. It’s a non-negotiable for sanity.
Peace and love -
Julie