Our workspaces may have changed, but the way we work really hasn’t. Seven months into working from home, we’re reflecting on the ways we’ve been able to stay connected and build relationships without in-person meetings and a physical office space. Client service is at the core of what we do at Tunheim, even if it looks a little different these days.

Throughout the spring and summer, growth has remained a priority and we’ve taken on quite a few new client relationships without ever meeting in person. A few clients and projects that we have fully onboarded virtually include the Minnesota Homeownership Center, Stay Home Minnesota (#StayHomeMN), Nature’s Way, and FOX 9’s Shine On MN (#ShineOnMN).

Team Tunheim has been working closely with the Minnesota Homeownership Center for months, and it’s hard to fathom that after months of weekly Zoom meetings and the launch of a second campaign wave we’ve never met face-to-face.

The Minnesota Homeownership Center came to us early on in the WFH era because they had a COVID-related problem to solve: the pandemic was causing an economic downturn that would lead to mass foreclosures, and they wanted to prevent as many as possible.

Since then, we have partnered with the Minnesota Homeownership Center on a two-part integrated digital, earned media and public affairs campaign aimed to drive Minnesotans at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure prevention resources.

We made it a priority to stay in close communication with this team due to the complex work and the fact that we were doing it all virtually. We started out with weekly hour-long Zoom calls and daily email updates on progress. As the relationship strengthened and we got to know each other and our work styles, meetings moved to bi-weekly and emails have moved to an as-needed basis. We’re proud of our work to connect Minnesotans with important resources during this time are looking forward to what’s next with this client, even if it will be months before our first-ever face-to-face meeting.

Tunheim had the opportunity to partner with the State of Minnesota and the office of Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan on the launch of the #StayHomeMN campaign, highlighting the importance of social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. This happened right after our office closed and we were all getting used to the world of Zoom and all things WFH. The campaign needed to launch quickly, and virtual communication tools immediately proved their value as we efficiently rolled out a statewide campaign.

This was a digital project, so it was natural for it to be an early project in our virtual world. The bulk of our work was outreach to influencers, and it was a great way to connect with other Minnesotans having the same experience we were – trying to find a sense of normalcy in their work in the time of COVID-19. The campaign was a success, ending with nearly 200 million impressions of the #StayHomeMN hashtag on Twitter, 12,000+ organic mentions on Instagram, a placement in the Star Tribune and excellent influencer participation from local foodies to coaches and athletes from Minnesota sports teams.

This past summer, we joined forces with vitamins and dietary supplements brand Nature’s Way to help launch their new product, Alive! Gummy Multivitamin for Teens. Our team—along with one of our IPREX partners, French West Vaughn—executed a multi-faceted media relations campaign that included the creation and distribution of media mailers, comprehensive press materials and more.

Although we never conducted any in-person communications with the Nature’s Way team, we felt consistent reinforcement and connection with the client through regular Zoom meetings and emails.

Our media relations campaign is still running, and we were successfully able to execute all aspects of the campaign from home—including assembling 50 media mailers! The key to our success was frequent and detailed communications. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Nature’s Way as we are embarking on another media relations project for their KiDS and Sambucus lines.

Early into the new “normal” of the COVID-19 pandemic, local FOX affiliate, FOX 9 (KMSP-TV), came to Tunheim to discuss an event that would bring Minnesotans together for a night of entertainment and giving back from home. The focus was to bring light to a tough situation for many and the challenge was to bring everyone together virtually. 

In April, we teamed up with FOX 9 to bring the first-ever Shine On Minnesota event – a local, star-studded evening of giving, to life. Our team worked closely with FOX 9 to build the event and a social media plan including the creation of a social media content and content calendar, the recruitment and management of local artists and talent, the creation of press materials and media outreach.

From Shine On Minnesota’s inception to the full execution of the virtual broadcast event on May 10, all team onboarding, planning, coordination and execution occurred digitally. The key to success for the event was a strong team collaboration each day with daily team calls, organized emails, clear deliverables and to-dos, and a strong timing and action. Overall, the two-hour Shine On MN broadcast was a great success and featured local bands, artists and musicians, including Yam Haus, Soul Asylum, Dessa, the Minnesota Opera and more, and raised $140,000 that was given to local non-profits including Second Harvest Heartland, Springboard for the Arts and Minnesota Central Kitchen.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 99.7% of companies in the U.S. are small businesses; as recently as last year, almost 50% of employees in this country worked for small businesses (with most of those at less than 100 employees). And while it has generally been true that a growing economy lifts all of us, the ravages of 2020 have hit small businesses much harder than large companies – and the recovery is going to be very uneven. While the stock market enables large public companies to navigate and finance their way through the disruption of the pandemic, the reality for most small businesses is that uncertainty and limited financial flexibility are going to keep taking a steep toll.

So, to all those fellow entrepreneurs and small business leaders out there: keep faith in your capacity to innovate, transform and emerge from this challenging period with perhaps new businesses, renewed energy and bright futures. And if you work for a small business: find ways to be part of that innovation! From small distilleries that became manufacturers of hand sanitizer to restaurant workers who became the backbone of feeding first responders and health care workers, our collective capacity to figure out what needs to be done and then quickly determine how to get it done has been amazing.

We also need to be taking steps to better protect small business sectors in the future: we need to take careful note of what kinds of support weren’t available in 2020 and ensure that we build those tools for the next economically challenging time. What have we learned and how shall we apply those lessons? A few have already started to get some attention:

Fixed costs don’t go away when business turns down: a restaurant with no customers still has to pay rent or mortgage costs; a professional services firm that now has all employees working from home must still make payments for the office space left behind, or risk litigation from the landlord. Business interruption insurance, in most cases, won’t cover the circumstances that led to 2020’s calamities (a virus), so finding new ways to work with both insurance and financial lenders is a high priority for the future. So too, is thinking differently about the decision to build a business with fixed costs no higher than absolutely necessary. Will some companies ever go back to a traditional office?

There are some rules that really limit small businesses’ abilities to innovate – and may be worth challenging in the future. Two very different examples spring to mind: in my hometown, local government officials quickly changed zoning rules to enable restaurants and retailers to keep operating. Side streets connected to main thoroughfares were closed to drivers so serving tables and pop-up stores could occupy those spaces. For a town heavily dependent on ‘day trippers,’ it made the difference between lights on or lights off for dozens of small businesses. At the federal level: Dodd Frank legislation was designed to check the lending and leveraging strategies of the largest financial services companies in the country – but it has been applied to all banks, creating costly compliance operations for even the smallest B2B lenders. Their capacity to stay flexible and focused on supporting small business clients through challenging times would be a potentially game-changing idea to explore.

Protecting employees is the most challenging aspect of navigating these times for small businesses: until access to health care and tools for preparing for retirement are more universally available, small businesses are at significant financial disadvantage to large employers in attracting and retaining talent. Given the reality that most small businesses comprise people who all know each other well, creating a strong sense of shared fate is essential. And, being creative about benefits may be an important area of focus.

So that is the start of my list. If you have more ideas, please share. I have spent most of my career proving the point that some ideas can ONLY be successful coming from small businesses, where the distance between the customer and the company is short. If you have the same passion, join the conversation!

I am a working parent and I am in the boat with all the working parents trying to paddle upstream and navigate in this unforeseen time. I am imaginative and capable of worrying about things outside my control and even I could not have imagined this situation. But then, who could have when we looked ahead at what we hoped to accomplish in 2020?

Tunheim has been operating from our homes since the middle of March. We had the technology and the processes in place – it is a priority of our culture to allow our employees to work where they want – so fortunately that part of the transition was seamless. For me, and I know for many parents with school age kids at home, the biggest challenge has been navigating my roles as a parent and a high performing colleague.

There are parts of this year that I have appreciated – being home more, forcing a slowdown and increasing family time. I love these things! But navigating work and my child’s needs as we start the school year is no joke. I’m just going to be honest: Preparing for school felt like a mess. Our school and district communicated a lot and we prepared our family for whichever learning approach we would have (in-person, hybrid, distance). The problem was not communications, it was not being able to answer basic questions about the year ahead (sound familiar?).

I have realized as I have processed each day just how massive a lesson in change management this is. We are collectively and individually navigating without a compass, bombarded by a plethora of misinformation and opinions about going back to school, not to mention forced election propaganda about it. It is no wonder I feel stressed.

I have good days where I tell myself “I’ve got this!” but then there are an equal number of days where I feel like a mom who is not able to meet my child’s needs for engagement and a co-worker who isn’t able to contribute at my level of expectation. And that just feels bad. My child deserves to be engaged. My colleagues and clients need my time and attention. I lead growth efforts, so I need to drive that work, so we deliver for our whole team and business. That is a lot of expectations on one imperfect human.

Now that we are a few days into distance learning, I can say that our school did a wonderful job planning over the summer because the approach is keeping my child engaged through most of the school day and I am hoping to settle into a new normal (until hybrid starts in October and we will shift again). This school year will continue to bring twists and turns as we navigate this time individually and collectively.

At the end of the day, “this too shall pass.” We will be part of history when we look back and talk about how we managed through 2020. At Tunheim, we are working hard to deliver as a team, have each other’s backs and give grace when one of us needs time and space to figure things out. I feel supported to have good days and bad days and give the same to my colleagues. I am so very grateful right now to be a part of Team Tunheim and hope others feel a similar support from their own colleagues. How are you navigating this time? Please share in the comments.

Full disclosure, I made up the term ‘versatility score,’ but I’m thinking one will be invented soon. As we all move into the next phase of life in a pandemic, we’re not doing anything the way we used to do it, and it doesn’t seem that we will be ‘going back to normal’ – ever. However good you had gotten at whatever you do, you need to be adapting and assessing your capacity to keep adapting. This is true on a personal, individual level – but also on organizational and systemic levels.

Some things will have changed forever because the opportune moment has passed: the number of unrealized 2020 moments for achievements in business, sports, entertainment and arts cannot be calculated. We have to just let go of those aspirations. Sad, but true.

Some things will change forever because we’ve discovered, in the midst of this pandemic, that there are better ways to do some of the things we’ve always done: meetings that were a waste of time can now be accomplished with a fraction of the waste – there’s a silver lining!

Some things will change forever because the agile among us have already started innovating, feeding our insatiable appetites for ‘new and improved.’ As one who has long agreed with the notion that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, I applaud the capacity of people – and the organizations they lead – to navigate through this very unusual time and create competitive advantage for the future. So, I raise the question: What are the attributes that lead to a high versatility score? Courage, curiosity and grounded in values; these all seem likely and well-understood concepts. But here are a few more I’m thinking about.

Throughout the length of careers, people balance the pros and cons of ‘specialization’ versus broad ‘generalization’ of their skills and their organizations. There is a level of differentiation that comes with specialization; whether in sports or business, gaining a reputation for doing one specific thing very well can be valuable. But when the game changes or the business shifts priorities, the need to adapt can sometimes trap a specialist into a dead-end. Being good at something no longer highly valued happens over and over again in work life and in the marketplace. So, we balance the pros and cons – balance is probably a key attribute of versatility.

Situational awareness is another attribute that seems essential for these times. Even as organizations and markets are reeling in the context of the pandemic’s impacts, introducing ‘change’ is as fraught an exercise as in calmer times. For all the great commentary on change management, I still like to go way back to Machiavelli’s observation in the early 16^th century: “… there is no more delicate matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor more doubtful in its success, than to set up as a leader in the introduction of changes. For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only lukewarm supporters in those who might be better off under the new.” Understanding when and how to bring an organization’s people along to a future of new realities is another bump in the versatility score, I’m thinking.

Finally, I’ll throw out a perhaps surprising one: malleability. In ‘normal times’ we think about this as a person probably lacking in confidence: their thinking can be altered by persistent advocacy of their colleagues. But the notion that even the most accomplished and confident leaders might need to be willing and capable of ‘re-thinking’ core beliefs and strategies strikes me as essential in times like these. The speed, scale and scope of transformations in our lives seems to me to be deserving of such leadership humility.

What’s your versatility score?

There’s no doubt the 2020 pandemic has disrupted organizations around the globe and fundamentally changed the way we work, and the communications industry is no exception. Following Labor Day and entering the launch of the traditional political season, how do we as organizations reconsider public affairs in this newly distanced and uncertain environment? Here are seven key strategies to consider:

By now, many of us have transitioned to an entirely digital space and recognize that digital communications can provide many of the tools we need. Yet instead of simply moving our work from in-person to online, how can we use this opportunity to reconsider not only when we use these digital tools, but how.

Take the traditional office meetings that transitioned to video conferencing overnight with relative ease. How else can your organization incorporate new video techniques into public affairs strategies? Hosting virtual speaker events, webinars, panels or reporter desk-sides are some ways to rethink the new tools at our fingertips.

While major changes are happening in the digital landscape, there is no replacing the importance of networks and relationships. While you may not be running into contacts at events or at the Capitol, you can still be a credible, reliable, go-to resource in an entirely digital space. The same rules apply – if you are consistently informed, relevant and consider what stakeholders need when they need it, you will stay top-of-mind.

In a crowded public discourse filled with short attention spans and generation-defining events, it is important to define your organization’s fundamental priorities and set achievable goals. Focus on simplifying the messaging and plans around this ‘North Star’ and consider how your priorities speak to some of the larger issues of the moment like public health, the economy and racial justice.

Expand your organization’s vision to consider how Grassroots stakeholders, in addition to the Grasstops, can help make progress towards your goals. Instead of only focusing on reaching top-level leaders like governors and legislators, consider how to activate community level influencers and decision-makers to create a powerful groundswell of support.

One of the many lessons of the pandemic is that we are stronger when we work together. Now more than ever is the time to engage your community and networks, identify shared goals and form timely coalitions and partnerships to unite efforts.

With mass work-from-home setups, many stakeholders are working on smaller laptop screens and smart phones, so put some consideration into how your emails, digital events and designed materials will be received and viewed. Writing clearly and concisely is as important as ever, and so is communications frequency to keep your information on the ‘front page’ of the inbox.

2020 is not business as usual, and it’s important to acknowledge that fact. It’s true that we are all in this together. Empathy, active listening, understanding and considering the ‘big picture’ in communications is critical to being effective and successful. These are important communications qualities and skills in any era, and especially now.

The truth is, we don’t know how long the pandemic will last or how much more disruption we are in for. While pivoting in the short term, try to anticipate changes and challenges on the horizon and begin to plan accordingly. It’s becoming clear that while some parts of our lives and industries will return to pre-COVID operations, many things have changed forever. Keep track of learnings, opportunities and new ways of thinking and consider what might be useful in whatever the new normal looks like. Taking time for reflection on these experiences will help your organization evolve for whatever is next.

In my last post, I attempted to help organizational leaders prepare for the annual planning work to be done in the weeks ahead – even in the midst of such uncertainty and disruption. Today, I’m thinking about employees at every level, and wondering how prepared we are for the consequences of the upcoming election – whichever way things go. And prepared, mentally and emotionally, for the next phase of the fight against the COVID-19 virus – for we are certainly not through that fight. It seems important to pause and reflect on our individual readiness. So here we go.

First, regarding the election. Given the extraordinary polarization of our society, the reality is that there will be a big group of ‘winners’ and an almost equally sized group of ‘losers.’ The breakdown in civility around politics also makes certain that there will likely be outsized gloating by the first group and predictions of doom by the second group. And from that discord, we are somehow going to need to move ahead as a nation, an economy and a people. It would be a miracle – and a welcome one – if mass media rose to the occasion and helped create a renewed sense of connective tissue between groups.  But it would be a miracle, and we probably shouldn’t bank on that. So how do we, as communities, as groups of employees, as families, prepare ourselves?

It sounds simplistic, but first we must reinforce the extent to which we are, in fact, all on the same team.  As Americans, as residents of the planet earth. As stewards for the children and grandchildren that will come after us. They deserve at least what we have inherited, in terms of resources and opportunity.  Can we organize around that? Fact is, those who came before us did for us (correction: they did it for some of us. We have that restorative justice work yet to do, as well).

My second thought is to look to history: as cataclysmic as these times seem, the world has survived even more peril, though honestly it sometimes comes at tremendous cost. Much analysis has focused on the destabilizing time of power shifts across Eurasia that led to World War I and, with some of the imbalances still smoldering, the second World War. And as much as some might like to suggest that what happens in the rest of the world doesn’t matter: the U.S. economy is absolutely dependent on the rest of the world buying the food we grow, the products we manufacture, the entertainment we create, etc. Everyone out there matters for our own country’s economy to thrive.

It is even more humbling to put our current circumstance into the context of historical periods like the decades following the invention of the printing press, but it is instructive. Enlightenment and the rise of science were fueled by the printed word being shared; so was the Reformation, and the bloodshed across Europe that it caused. A comparison to the impact of the digital revolution is not a stretch. As the human race exhibits potential to discover and create remarkable progress, we also have ruthless capacity to become tribal and protect only those in our nearest circles. We really, really have to guard against that instinct. Put into those contexts, we as citizens and residents of the United States have much in common, and much to protect.

Which brings me to the next tranche of time we must live with COVID-19. I’ve been reading more about the last pandemic, which spread around the world over two years, much aided by the battles of World War I still raging. We don’t have ground wars putting soldiers in harms way to spread the virus – but we do have a global economy that relies on people, goods and services crossing borders thousands of times a day. Our interdependence is, to borrow a phrase, “an inconvenient truth” to some. But it is in fact undeniable. And in the face of that reality, each community on the planet has a responsibility to do its part to shut down the spread. None of us can know where the virus is, where it has been or how it has been carried. We must each accept the responsibility as a human being, caring for others around us.

So put yourself, your family, your employer, your community, your country into the context of history.  Read about it, reflect on it. We can and will emerge from this challenging time. Let’s do it in ways that those who come after us can celebrate and feel pride in their forefathers.

Ok, folks, it is time for some unprecedented thinking about these unprecedented times we are living through. Labor Day is just around the corner and our colleagues – all of our colleagues – are experiencing levels of anxiety that will impact everything: their personal lives, their workplace performance, their community engagement…and their long-term outlook. As most business organizations move into the final third of their fiscal year, which in any other year would be a time of forecasting yearend and beginning plans for 2021, we instead are facing mostly uncertainty.

If your colleagues have school-age children or students in college, they are managing a level of disruption that cannot be underestimated. If you have ‘essential employees’ on the front lines of health care or service industry sectors, they are operating on fumes – and likely have been contacted about efforts to organize to give them more leverage and support in the workplace of the future. Beyond the pandemic, we have a consequential election in two months, likely impacting the direction of our nation on issues from race relations to health care access to how the United States is viewed around the world. And living in Minnesota, I was just reading an article about the emerging dread with which people are anticipating colder weather, when using nature as the balm for these stressful times will be less compelling (that is putting it diplomatically). And as one woman was quoted: “I’ve already told my elderly parents that we probably can’t celebrate the holidays together.” Ugh.

In summary, the need for leadership in our workplaces has never been more complicated or so essential. And the planning processes of ‘normal times’ are really not relevant. How to approach organizational leadership in this next tranche of the pandemic’s hold on our lives? A few key elements come to mind:

We really can’t know how the stresses of these circumstances are impacting our colleagues. So, optimizing flexibility will continue to be essential, as will creating safe spaces for them to share concerns with colleagues and find support from each other.

Much as people are needing to cope with personal realities, they also want to survive, if not thrive, in this time professionally. So, laying out priorities, ensuring that team members can understand how the organization will define success during this experience, is critical. Stressing WHAT needs to be accomplished, while challenging colleagues to help define the HOW, may be a useful construct to keep in mind.

No organizational leader wants to stand up (virtually) in front of their teams and acknowledge that we don’t know what is going to happen next. But honestly, we don’t know what is coming next, so get prepared for that humble confession. We all need to adjust to the notion that plans are tentative and will be adapted to evolving realities. That means changing how we think about risks and reward-systems, too.

We all need to be open to possibilities that might have seemed too risky or too extreme in another time. Undertaking a transformative change or a dramatic shift in approach can have the benefit of feeling back ‘on offense,’ rather than the defensive posture most businesses have had to adopt in the early months of this pandemic and economic meltdown.

Finally, a word on ‘self-care’ for organizational leaders: It is instinctive to show optimism in a leadership role, and your colleagues count on you to bring it. But use some caution in these next planning weeks and months. There is more outside of your control than perhaps any time in your career. So, yes to reflecting those things you can confidently assess; but acknowledge the uncertainties and prepare your colleagues for more challenges ahead. Good luck!

The co-existence of the centennial anniversary of passage of the 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with the continuing calls for the dismantling of systemic racism creates a new level of consciousness for me about how long the arc of progress is toward equality of people in this country. I truly believe the ultimate destination is not in question: we ARE all created equal in the eyes of our Maker, and for millions of us, in each other’s eyes. But the road is l-o-n-g and it is tempting to get frustrated or worse, cynical. We are making progress and it seems important to celebrate what we can, as fuel for the continued march ahead.

I graduated from high school in 1974, so mostly experienced the late ‘60s as a young adolescent: too young to be into much of the activism, but old enough to have very vivid memories of the sense of struggle for the ‘soul of our nation,’ much as we sense today. My mother was a working professional – as one of my friend’s mother called her, a ‘superwoman,’ though the significance of that didn’t register with me until years later. Even my grandmothers had worked outside the home as young adults (teachers), so I grew up with a clear understanding that we females had capacity to follow whatever life’s work called to us. I was a young adult before I realized that my experience wasn’t universal.

Many years later my own adolescent daughter told her grandmother, “I don’t really think I’m a feminist…,” to which my mother lovingly replied, “that’s because you don’t have to be, sweetheart.”  [NOTE: I think my daughter might characterize her view differently today!]. That exchange is a powerful memory for me, because it captures the reality of this progress: strides toward equality are made and energy is consumed processing those strides, institutionalizing gains. And then resistance is reasserted (not always hostilely – sometimes just as a response to change) and progress slows. In a nation as prosperous as ours, it is a reality that revolution seems too high a price to pay for progress. Even evolution is too much for some, but honestly feels like the preferred trajectory for the majority of Americans: of course we want to march toward full equality of each and every person…we just don’t want the process to mess up our family, our neighborhood, our job, our community. I find myself imagining the dinner conversations for those early suffragists: were their husbands okay if the ladies had a protest march, as long as dinner was on the table?

Our patience – or lack of it – is directly correlated to what is at stake for us as individuals and families, right? Systemic racism becomes intolerable when a young person of color confronts the disadvantages that distort or destroy their potential and undermines the contribution they can make to society.  Because of the exposure I had to professional women as a child, I didn’t understand the realities of workplace discrimination until I was IN IT. Then the lessons came in waves: Sexually harassed? Yes. Humiliated by derogatory comments in meetings? Sure. Ignored in discussions and hearing men repeat my ideas verbatim, only to have them lauded as valuable? You bet. I so vividly remember one exchange:  a senior executive at the corporation asked me to come to his office; he wanted to ask my advice on how to help his young professional daughter, who was working in a ‘male-dominated culture’ and finding it hard to take. Nothing in his life experience had awakened him to the reality that my life was exactly the same as his daughter’s – he had never had to be inconvenienced or moved to explore it before. I was honored that he asked, and I truly believe we each gained wonderful perspective from what became an ongoing relationship – a professional friendship.

And for most of us, most of the time, that is the way change happens: our personal experiences help evolve our thinking, and what once seemed unfamiliar becomes the ‘new normal.’  The suffragists, the civil rights activists, the young people pushing us to think about climate change – they are the ones who push us to evolve our thinking faster. Some of us appreciate the push, and some of us really don’t.  That is the nature of political discourse. There are even some who work hard – often out of the public view – to undermine or slow down this evolution of the public’s thinking. But in the long arc of history, we are on the right path: not smooth or direct enough for some, too steep and inconvenient for others. I have deep appreciation for the impatient among us, who push. I have empathy for those among us who struggle with anxiety about change, who stall. My own faith in the goodness of people requires me to focus on ensuring that we all have access to good information, to facts, to personal experiences that are the fuel for positive change.

“If you can’t fly, then run.
If you can’t run, then walk.
If you can’t walk, then crawl,
But whatever you do
You have to keep moving forward.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I will warn you that this column is inspired by some pretty raw and personal feelings – I’ve had an unsettling few days. But I believe my experience is reflective of many others’, so here’s hoping that it reveals learnings for leadership communication that can serve us all.

As we move through the sixth month of this pandemic and approach a national election more consequential than some, most of us are struggling with both fatigue and an increasingly challenging call to action. It is not our nature – as a nation or as civic leaders – to retreat from problems or just hope they will ‘go away.’ That trait of stepping up to do something is a remarkable element of the fabric of our national history and our evolving culture, whether it is volunteering for military service or founding a local nonprofit to meet the needs of neighbors.  That we are presently experiencing so much ‘together, but apart,’ is creating new – and not particularly welcome – aspects of the journey. We are living through a massive social experiment: What happens when ‘personal responsibility’ becomes a national call to action, and it turns out we don’t have common understanding of the term, or universal acceptance of the call? 

My sister-in-law got married two days ago and we were part of a wonderful celebration. Rescheduled from earlier in the pandemic, and both smaller in scale and relocated mostly outdoors, we did everything we could think of to minimize risks (my contribution was customized ‘celebrate’ face masks). Over the next few weeks, we’ll all learn whether we did enough. I hope so but must honestly say I have no idea. We know we can’t party like it’s 1999, but can we party at all?

My friend’s 88-year-old father passed away the same day. Mostly isolated for safety’s sake, this beloved father was luckier than some in terms of being able to see family. But foregone is the opportunity to celebrate his life in the full-honors way his impact on so many should be recognized. My own parents are also 88 years old, living carefully and I can only hope that they continue to do so until we have a vaccine. We can’t say goodbye the way we’d like to, either.

This morning, an even tougher blow: the husband of a friend across the country died suddenly last night. The instinct to drop everything and fly to be there in support must be checked by pandemic realities. We cannot be demonstrably supportive of those in need as we wish, or the way they might most need.

The students and the teachers in my family are all preparing to go back to school – sort of. The irony of all the years’ fights about how to improve educational outcomes and who knows best is that the current crisis has most just wanting some authority figure to declare ‘the right thing to do,’ while knowing that the real answer is no one knows. Ditto for restaurants and other service-sector places with front line employees enabling economic activity.

The activity in the streets triggered by the murder of George Floyd and fueled by the widely expanding acknowledgement of institutional racism baked into our nation, added another plot line to the uniqueness of this time in our history. And to the challenge of coalescing on a consensus definition of ‘personal responsibility.’ For some, the call is to the streets; for others, pandemic realities put a check on the lengths to which we should uphold freedom of expression.

And now we add the challenges of meeting our obligations as citizens: not only must we prepare to vote differently: either by mail or waiting in socially distanced lines with masks and lots of patience; we must also lean into our citizenship to protect…the Post Office?  It is in the Constitution; it is part of the bedrock of our institutional system of connections as a country. We all get mail, magically arriving from distant places, usually remarkably quickly and affordably. It is true we’ve known for a long time that the USPS “business model” was broken, but we’re going to tackle that NOW?

The physical, psychological and emotional exhaustion is increasingly apparent – individually and collectively. How to lead in such times? What messages support the journey to our shared fate? Here are my fundamental guidelines:

So ‘suit up’ as my coach/father says and be prepared to do your part. The fact is, many of us have had a pretty sweet ride for a long time in the U.S.A. and the time has arrived to ensure those who come after us have the same. Meet your personal responsibility and encourage the same by all those you influence. If most of the 328 million of us do that, we can accomplish anything.