Community Development
Resilience Revisited: A Construct to Navigate Challenges and Develop Your Resiliency
Earlier in this pandemic experience I wrote about resilience, inspired by front line health care workers, teachers and Olympians. Almost six months later, I am renewing my reflections on the topic. For individuals, for organizations, for societies: we are needing to ensure resiliency in ways I don’t believe have been tested in my lifetime. We…
Read MoreDemocracy Confirmed
…it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government – except for all those other forms that have been tried… Winston Churchill, 1947 November 2nd, 2021 was an important day in the United States of America. People across the country headed to polling stations to cast their ballots for school board elections,…
Read MoreSchool Lessons That Last
My granddaughter reported that her first day of second grade last week was “the best school day ever.” Since I know that she was wearing a mask and observing social distancing, I’m pretty sure it was not, in fact, the best-ever for her, for her classmates or for the teachers and administrators at her school.…
Read MoreReflection on 9/11
In every generation, I suppose there are defining moments: those events or experiences that create shared milestones and common definitions of ‘before X’ and ‘post X’ realities. For most of us over the age of, let’s arbitrarily say 30, September 11, 2001 is one of those defining moments. For those young enough to have no…
Read MoreChange and Attitude
All of the truisms and catch phrases about change and how it is good for us come rushing in when I am dealing with a particularly unwelcome change for our organization. None more so than when we lose a talented colleague. But as life in pandemic has dragged on, we cannot really be surprised that…
Read MoreWho Are We? Where Do We Belong?
It seems we are entering a very challenging time, in terms of understanding where we fit in the world. The identities that guided our life navigation in recent years are coming under extraordinary pressure and the signs are increasing that at least some of those identities will not survive. For those leading organizations or communities,…
Read MoreHappy Juneteenth!
Happy Juneteenth! Tomorrow, our team will be taking time off to commemorate the holiday marking the emancipation of people who were enslaved in the United States. We will be (virtually) closing our office doors to take time to reflect on the progress that has been made and the long road ahead in combating the long…
Read MoreObserving Juneteenth
I learned about the history of Juneteenth more than twenty years ago, when it was first recognized in Minnesota, and was respectful of the idea that it was an important day for some of us. I honestly was not sure how to think about my own relationship with it: was my ‘celebrating it’ appropriate? Or…
Read MoreLake Street Council: One Year Later
One year ago, more than 400 Lake Street businesses were damaged or destroyed in the civil unrest that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. During this time, the Tunheim team was privileged to support Lake Street Council as it grappled with communication challenges including hundreds of local, national and international media requests and…
Read MoreSocial support & healing for those suffering from long COVID: A Q&A with CaringBridge
With COVID-19 vaccination numbers growing daily and COVID-19 restrictions starting to be lifted, many see the pandemic as nearing its end. However, for those suffering from long-term effects of COVID-19, the end seems nowhere in sight. The symptoms some people are experiencing for weeks or months after recovering from the disease is a syndrome called…
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