Episodes
-
Hey Changemakers,
I am so excited to keep this conversation series going here at Agents of Change, as it gives me an opportunity to bring in the insights and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen in museums and nonprofits.
And I want to extend my enormous thanks to those who have stepped up to become paid subscribers of the Agents of Change community — you are helping to support this work, grow this incredible change community, and help make positive change happen in organizations across the U.S. and beyond. I am so grateful for your support!
For today’s conversation, I am so excited to be joined again by Rebecca Shulman to talk about organizational culture in museums and research she is has been conducting with museum directors to help institutions work to improve workplace culture. Our previous conversation on this series revolved around the specific issue of workplace burnout, so I recommend you check out that episode, too.
Rebecca is a museum educator, evaluator, and strategic planner doing her work through Museum Questions Consulting. Rebecca has served as the Director of the Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum, Head of Education at the Noguchi Museum, and Senior Manager in the Learning Through Art Program at the Guggenheim Museum, and she writes at Museum Questions, where, by the way, you can find more about all things “organizational culture” that we’ll be talking about today.
In this episode, the conversation revolves around understanding and transforming organizational culture, especially museums. Rebecca shares insights from her research on identifying solvable problems within museums and how addressing these issues can lead to meaningful change.
Our discussion highlights the importance of doing the work now to build a better future, with a focus on practical steps to improve internal culture and foster growth. The conversation also points listeners to resources, including Rebecca's research report to help you dive deeper into the findings and strategies discussed.
Key questions raised in the episode include:
* What are the most pressing solvable problems within organizations today?
* How can organizations effectively address these issues to shift their culture in a positive direction?
* And why is it so important to focus on these changes now, rather than later?
Rebecca concludes our conversation by sharing more about her new Culture Shift professional development program that kicks off this fall.
Culture Shift is a dedicated, small group space for museum leaders who are committed to the real work of changing organizational culture. Over the course of eight 90-minute virtual sessions, the group will discuss both theory and practical tips for meaningful change. Each participant will be asked to conduct an internal assessment of their museum’s culture, and to design, implement, and evaluate strategies for shifting the needle and making lasting change.
You can find all the details about Culture Shift here at Museum Questions.
I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Rebecca for sharing her insights on organizational culture. Her research and practical approach to identifying solvable problems offer so much hope for positive transformation, not just in museums but in all types of organizations. I truly appreciate her time and expertise, and I know you will find this discussion as thought-provoking and inspiring as I did.
Thank you again, Rebecca—I look forward to continuing these important conversations in the future!
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers,
I am so excited to return to this series of conversations here at Agents of Change, after a bit of a break this summer. I always love this series, since it gives me an opportunity to bring in the insights and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen in museums and nonprofits.
Today, I am so thrilled to be joined by Margaret Kadoyama, a true shining light in the museum field. Margaret is the author of the pivotal book Museums Involving Communities: Authentic Connections that deeply examines the museum-community relationship, which as you know is something dear to my heart.
Margaret has more than 40 years of experience working in community involvement, program assessment, and program development for museums and cultural organizations, including teaching in the Museum Studies program at John F Kennedy University for 21 years. She has always been passionate about making museums more accessible, inclusive, and relevant to their communities.
For me, Margaret’s work and writing has been vital when it comes to museums and community engagement, and I cite her writings in my own book, Museum as Agents of Change. So I jumped at this opportunity to be in conversation with her as part of this series.
Our conversation hit on some key topics surround the career and life journey, including:
* Applying our personal core values beyond our career, and thinking about how our values apply to life after work.
* Transitioning from a career to retirement, including both the emotional challenges and practical steps involved in this complex transition.
* Embracing self-reflection for a meaningful retirement, and exploring how self-reflection can help us prepare for and find purpose during retirement (and any of the major life and career changes that happen).
* Valuing intergenerational knowledge and learning, and how we can do better when it comes to building bridges and creating deeper respect across generations.
In addition to diving into these important topics, Margaret shares her personal insights on navigating the transition into retirement, offering advice for others facing similar changes:
* Identify what is most important to you as you begin transitioning into retirement, or really at any major transition in your career or life. This provides you with that purposeful grounding.
* Reflect on what makes your days feel good: Think about what makes you happy and what brings you joy, and create more opportunities for those things to happen.
* Be willing to try something new. Even as we age and tend to appreciate the comfort of what we already know, we need to leave our comfort zones and try new things.
I am so extremely grateful for Margaret taking the time to share her personal reflections with the Agents of Change community. I hope you can take away valuable insights on how to approach retirement with a mindset of reflection and purpose, transforming this — and any life transition — into an opportunity for personal growth and fulfillment.
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Episodes manquant?
-
Hey Changemakers,
I am so excited to continue this series of conversations here at Agents of Change, which gives me an opportunity to bring in the insights and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen.
For this episode, I am joined by Stacey Garcia, an educator, leader, gatherer, and connector, currently serving as the Program Manager in Methodology and Practice with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Stacey has worked internationally in nonprofits, museums, and foundations to facilitate transformative changes toward social justice – most recently, as the Engagement Officer at the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. And prior to that, as Director of Community Engagement at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, where I first met Stacey and had the fortunate opportunity to see first-hand her incredible work connecting the museum with its communities.
For me, Stacey has been a leading voice and changemaker when it comes to museums and community engagement, and her work has influenced and informed much of my own practice. So I am so thrilled to be able to share this conversation.
I connected with Stacey in advance of my workshop that kicks off on April 10th on “Community-Centered Engagement,” and it was fantastic to be able to speak with her about her own insights and core practices when it comes to being more community-centered.
Our conversation hit on some key questions, including:
* How do we define community?
* What does it mean for a museum or organization to be “community-centered”?
* Who benefits from the work your organization is doing? And how can we center reciprocity and mutual power?
* How can we rethink some of the traditional structures and processes of museums that might not lend themselves to authentic partnership work?
* How can we begin to build a more community-centered practice one step at a time?
In addition to diving into these burning questions, Stacey also shared some closing thoughts on how we can begin to build meaningful community connections:
* IDENTIFY ONE PARTNER: Begin by identifying one partner you want to work with, and start there.
* GET TO KNOW THEM: Show up at their events, in their spaces, or experiences that are important to them. What are their strengths? What matters to them? Get to know your partners as human beings, and start by simply building a relationship (before you jump into any project).
I am so grateful for Stacey taking the time to share her work and practice with the Agents of Change community. I hope you find this conversation as meaningful as I did, and can take-away several key learnings and questions to bring to your own organization.
Get Started Now - Community-Centered Engagement workshop starts April 10
If you listened to this conversation with Stacey and you were interested in getting started in this work, then check out my “Community-Centered Engagement” Spring Intensive that begins on April 10th.
Through this 3-part virtual workshop, we will dive deeper into key aspects of community involvement, community partnerships, and audience engagement strategies at your organization. During this series of interactive, discussion-based online workshops (held on Zoom), we are going to:
* learn about a needs-based approach to community involvement and participation
* examine models of community involvement, audience participation, and co-creation, understanding how these models can help guide a community-centered practice
* engage in group working sessions geared to applying community-centered strategies to your organization
* develop strategies and actions that can be implemented as part of your institution’s ongoing planning and programming
One of my goals for this Spring Intensive is to create an online community where we can get to know each other and learn from one another, so the registration is capped at around 20. And there are still a few spots left!
I’m really excited to launch this workshop and bring together an incredible group for this first-ever Community-Centered Engagement Intensive.
If you are thinking about joining but have scheduling conflicts, or if you have any other questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected]!
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers,
I am excited to continue this series of conversations here at Agents of Change, which gives me an opportunity to bring in the insights and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen.
This episode is a little different.
Four years ago, just a week after the pandemic shut down most museums across the country, I joined the ranks of thousands of museum workers who were laid off from their jobs. I wrote a deeper reflection on my experience a couple years ago, in which I explore my own journey of healing, repair, radical forgiveness, and ultimately giving myself permission to move on.
And like so many people who have experienced any type of layoff, I still find myself thinking a lot about that experience and what I have learned (and keep learning) from it. So it was really good to connect with someone and have a shared conversation about our layoff experiences.
For this episode, I am joined by Joe Imholte, a leader in the field of museums with a career that now spans 30 years. Joe is currently the Executive Vice President at the Bakken Museum, a science, technology, and humanities museum in Minneapolis. Joe experienced his own layoff the year prior to the pandemic, leaving an institution he’d been with for many years. He reached out to me about sitting down for this conversation, and I gladly accepted. We both felt that we had more to share and open up about life after layoff.
And I should add that I’m familiar with Joe and the Bakken Museum for a couple reasons – first, they have been one of the few museums to carry “Museums Are Not Neutral” mugs in their gift shop. And second, Joe has been part of the team at the Bakken leading their efforts around pay equity. I’ll let Joe share more about his own background and work as we dive into the conversation.
This conversation is vulnerable and honest, and we hit on some commonalities of our experiences that we wanted to share.
First and foremost, we talk about how isolating it can feel to be laid off. The process itself is very distancing, and we can feel alone for so many reasons. But experiencing a layoff is not uncommon (as unfortunate as that is). Especially these past several years, so many of us have exited our jobs for various reasons, and it can be helpful to realize this and connect with others who have shared this experience.
Joe and I both share what it was like, not just to leave an institution, but to lose the community we had been so connected with for so long. These are the colleagues we’d worked with closely every day for years, and suddenly that connection is severed. It is an experience and feeling that I’ve not heard others talk about or write about, so I am glad we opened up about it here.
Finally, we discuss our own challenges with returning to our previous institutions—how hard it can be to walk through that door, reconnect with old colleagues, and even remember what it smells like in the buildings we used to work in. For me, this has been one of the most difficult things about being laid off, and I still struggle with making those return visits.
As we conclude our conversation, we both answered the question, “What would you tell someone who been laid off recently or might be in this transition right now?”
Joe reminds us that we’re not alone, and that we all have some form of a support network to connect with, whether that be family or friends. Reach out and find those connections. And I would say to remember that we are not are jobs, and that our identities are far greater than what we do at work and where we work.
These moments have a lot to teach us when we’re ready to listen (even if if it takes us a while to get to that place).
I am so grateful for this time speaking with Joe, and sharing these human experiences. We both hope that you find this conversation meaningful in some way.
Upcoming Workshops: Filling Up Fast!
I have two big workshops coming up in April, and I’d love have you as a part of them. “Community-Centered Engagement,” starts on April 10, and it already three-fourths filled, so I encourage you to register soon.
This workshop is an in-depth three-part online intensive designed to help you build a stronger community-centered practice and advocate for more meaningful community involvement and partnerships at your organization.
Meanwhile, the next “Making Change Happen” work is happening very soon — next week on Wednesday, April 3!
We had our first “Making Change Happen” workshop last week and we had such meaningful conversations about our comfort with change, the different kinds of challenges we have in larger vs smaller organizations, and ways to combat negative stories we might tell ourselves. I’m really looking forward to exploring these themes again next week.
I’d love to have you join us for this fun, engaging workshop that explores how to be an effective changemaker in your work. And as a reminder, all students should register with the code STUDENT for a discount.
Did you know that Agents of Change has a paid subscription option? Paid subscribing gives you access to additional posts. It’s also a way to support the work it takes to create this Substack (thank you!!).
And if you are curious to know more about some of the different kinds of services I do - including the creative work I do with nature and place-based arts nonprofits, have a look at my project page and services page.
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers,
I am so excited to continue this new series of conversations here at Agents of Change, which gives me an opportunity to bring in the insights and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen.
Don’t miss our first conversation in this series with Alex Hatcher where we talk all about the importance of developing and living organizational values.
For this episode, I am joined by Rebecca Shulman, a museum educator, evaluator, and strategic planner doing her work through Museum Questions Consulting. Rebecca has served as the Director of the Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum, Head of Education at the Noguchi Museum, and Senior Manager in the Learning Through Art Program at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She also wrote the book Looking at Art in the Classroom.
I first connected with Rebecca many years ago through our mutual work as museum educators, and also through our connection as museum bloggers (Rebecca writes Museum Questions, which she started over 10 years ago!). Yet it is her current dive into museum worker burnout that brings us into conversation for this episode.
If addressing workplace burnout is something you’re interested in learning more about, check out my previous posts here at Agents of Change related to this important issue:
* “Why We Need to Talk about Burnout”
* “You Can’t Do Everything Everywhere All at Once”
* “Join the ‘Slow the F*ck Down’ Movement”
Rebecca’s recent post “What Is Burnout?” on Museum Questions does an excellent job of pulling together some of the important research and resources around burnout and museum workplace culture, including the work of Christina Maslach. She cites Maslach’s research and writings on burnout, and include her list of six causes of burnout: Unsustainable workload, perceived lack of control, insufficient rewards for effort, lack of a supportive community, lack of fairness, and mismatched values and skills.
Our conversation hit on some key ideas, including:
* Workplace burnout is an issue of organizational culture
* One of the major causes of burnout isn’t workload, but rather lack of staff engagement
* Leaders have a role to play in addressing burnout by working with their staff to set clear goals, aligned values, and a sense of direction.
In addition to diving into these vital topics, Rebecca also shared some closing thoughts on how we can take action steps right now to address burnout:
* BE TRANSPARENT: Try to be open and transparent about the details of your feeling of burnout with your manager, and consider asking for help when it comes to solving workload issues. Is there a way to streamline these tasks, or better prioritize them?
* TALK & PROBLEM SOLVE TOGETHER: Overall, Rebecca highlights the need for us to simply talk with each other more about burnout, and work together to find solutions.
I am thrilled I could reconnect with Rebecca, and get her thoughts on workplace burnout. I am grateful she could take the time to share her work and practice with the Agents of Change community.
If you want to connect with Rebecca Shulman and learn more about her work, here is the best way to do that:
* Museum Questions
Share Your Story
Do you have a story about burnout in the museum workplace?
Please consider sharing your story with Rebecca (use this link). She is looking for personal stories which illustrate any of the six causes of burnout (see above or Rebecca’s blog post), OR something your museum is doing that is a positive example of limiting workload, offering employees control, rewarding individuals for effort, supporting staff, demonstrating fairness, or aligning staff and institutional values and skills.
Did you know that Agents of Change has a paid subscription option? Paid subscribing gives you access to additional posts. It’s also a way to support the work it takes to create this Substack (thank you!!).
And if you are curious to know more about some of the different kinds of services I do - including the creative work I do with nature and place-based arts nonprofits, have a look at my project page and services page.
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers,
I am so excited to kick off a new series of conversations here at Agents of Change, which gives me an opportunity to bring in the voices, insights, and perspectives of some incredible thinkers doing the work of making change happen. This series of conversations is a great way to celebrate changemakers in action, and learn from the deep experiences of those working in a wide range of organizations and communities.
To kick things off, I’m sharing my recent conversation with Alex Hatcher, an arts & culture consultant with more than 25 years of experience working in community museums, art galleries, and the government sector.
Alex is a Founding Partner with the Hatlie Group, an arts & culture consulting firm based in Edmonton and Calgary, Canada, focusing on strategic planning, project management, and organizational assessment and design. Alex has previously served as the Director of the Musée Héritage Museum in St. Albert, Executive Director of the Alberta Museums Association, and Director of Site Operations for Alberta Culture and Tourism’s Historic Sites and Museums division.
I connected with Alex in connection to my work on core values and the upcoming workshop that begins next week, and it was fantastic to be able to speak with her about her own research and practice on this issue.
Our conversation hit on some key ideas, including:
* How core values can be a foundation for building a sustainable organization.
* Why it is so important to involve staff, board members, and volunteers in the process of developing an organization’s core values.
* How we can put our values into action and bring them into our organizational practice.
* The importance of developing a values-based hiring process for your organization.
In addition to diving into these vital topics, Alex also shared some very practical tools and strategies that I think are key for our work as changemakers:
* SHIFT Card Deck: Alex has worked to develop a simple, effective deck of cards that outlines an integrated system of 81 values. This provides managers and team leaders with a concrete tool they can use to begin a process of exploring and clarifying organizational values. There are also many other similar tools available that can help you get started.
* REFLECTION: For those just beginning this values journey, Alex invites you to think about times in your work when you felt really good, or remember an amazing program or project. What was at the core of that? What made it so amazing? Keep a list when you have these experiences, and see what themes and commonalities emerge. This can tell you a lot about your values and the values you have within your organization.
I am thrilled I could kick off this conversation series with such an incredible leader in the arts and culture field. I am grateful for Alex taking the time to share her work and practice with the Agents of Change community.
If you want to connect with Alex Hatcher and learn more about her work, here are the best ways to do that:
* Hatlie Group website
* Alexandra Hatcher website
Get Started Now - Values Workshop
If you listened to this conversation with Alex and you were interested in getting started in this values work, then check out my upcoming workshop, “The Value Blueprint: Mapping Your Path to Meaningful Work.” Through this 3-part virtual workshop, we’re going to engage in strategies to define and clarify your own personal core values and build a strategic roadmap for the year ahead that aligns with those values. We’ll also explore ways that this values-based work can help address burnout and overwork.
The workshop series begins on February 15, and registration is still open. We have an amazing group of changemakers already signed up, but we have a few slots still open!
If you are interested in joining but can’t make one of the sessions, please feel free to email me at [email protected]. The workshop will include asynchronous components, but I’m also open to organizing an online check in as needed, for those who have to miss a session. I understand how busy work life can be!
Did you know that Agents of Change has a paid subscription option? Paid subscribing gives you access to additional posts. It’s also a way to support the work it takes to create this Substack (thank you!!).
And if you are curious to know more about some of the different kinds of services I do - including the creative work I do with nature and place-based arts nonprofits, have a look at my project page and services page.
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers!
As we get ready for our upcoming workshop “The Value Blueprint: Mapping Your Path to Meaningful Work,” I’ve been reflecting a lot on this idea of core values — both our own personal values as well as how this all affects institutional values.
And I’ve decided to re-publish and share with everyone one of the first paid-subscriber-only podcast episodes I recorded, which was entirely about values (first published in its original form here).
In this 25-minute episode, I help frame the importance of doing this values-based self-inquiry and reflection. For me, at the end of the day, being an effective changemakers is essentially all about:
* being keenly aware of your core values, and
* sticking to those values.
Included in this episode are key questions to ask ourselves about our personal values, a set of questions to ask about our institution’s values, and several resources and ideas to support your own work in this area.
All in all, it boils down to one powerful question:
“How can I bravely and consistently align my own practice and work with my core values?”
Here are the self inquiry reflection questions I mention in this episode:
* Above all else, what matters most to me?
* What are some ideas, people, and communities that have shaped my core values and beliefs?
* How are these values reflected in the work I do within my organization?
* How might I be complicit in the very thing that I want so desperately to change?
And the institutional inquiry questions I mention:
* Is my current institution aligned with my own personal values and commitments?
* If my institution could create an environment based on deeper human values, what would that look like? What changes would need to happen?
* How can I bravely and consistently align my own practice and work with my core values?
And finally, here are a few of the books, resources, and organizations I refer to:
* Jerry Colonna, Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up
* Steve Patty, Moving Icebergs: Leading People to Lasting Change
* “How Your Institutional Core Values Can Guide Your Response to Covid-19,” about the Five Oaks Museum core values
* Fractured Atlas core values
* Laundromat Project core values
Note: If you’d like to access a transcript of this episode, you can find the “Transcript” tab at the top of this post.
Interested in Taking a Deeper Dive?
If you find these questions and ideas helpful as you work to bring purpose and intention to your own work, you might want to join us for next month’s workshop: “The Value Blueprint: Mapping Your Path to Meaningful Work.”
Beginning February 15, this will be a 3-week virtual workshop where you will uncover and articulate your own personal core values, and leverage those values to strategically plan your year ahead.
The workshop will include individual reflection, small group breakout rooms, and large group discussions with exercises designed to:
* Gain clarity on what truly matters to you.
* Create a strategic blueprint for the year ahead aligned with your values.
* Gain strategies for integrating your core values into your daily work.
* Learn to prevent workplace burnout that often comes with values misalignment.
* Connect with like-minded professionals, share insights, and build a supportive community committed to growth.
Your registration also includes:
* reflection prompts, practical tools, and ongoing resources to support your values-driven practice beyond the workshop.
Each session in this series will be 90 minutes long and hosted through Zoom.
Registration for this workshop is limited to a small group, so that this time can include lots of discussion, reflection, sharing, and asking questions that are immediately relevant to each participant’s experiences and challenges.
Share Your Thoughts and Questions
I’d love to hear where you are in this values conversation and journey in your own work, so I invite you to share some of your thoughts and questions in the Comments below.
What challenges are you facing? Where is your organization in terms of this values work? Do you feel a gap between your values and the values of your workplace?
Thanks for sharing, and I hope you can be part of the amazing group coming together for The Value Blueprint workshop.
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive additional posts, podcast episodes (like this one!) and discussion threads.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hey Changemakers!
I am so excited to be kicking off a new weekly podcast series here at Agents of Change.
In a follow-up from my post last week on addressing burnout and overwork, this first episode focuses around one single, powerful principle from writer, healer, and activist adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy:
“What we pay attention to grows.”
How are we spending or directing our attention? How can we begin to interrupt our current pattern of attention and use of time? What are some ways we can pause and reflect on our own relationship with time?
This episode also includes some easy, practical strategies to unpack our relationship with time, and see how working through this can make us a stronger agent of change in our work. So listen, give them a try, and let us know how it goes (by sharing in the Comments below).
IMPORTANT NOTE: After this week, this new weekly podcast series is going to be available only to my paid subscribers here at Agents of Change. To listen to future episodes, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, and supporting this publication, this community, and my work here.
Just to be clear — there are not going to be any changes to the existing FREE Agents of Change newsletter — so no worries if you are not currently interested in becoming a paid subscriber.
I already have an amazing, dedicated group of changemakers who have begun to help support this Substack publication, and I want to be able to offer them more content, resources, and offerings in an expanded way. So I’m starting with this weekly podcast, and will add more creative ways to further support this group as we move forward.
For those who would love to support my work here and begin receiving additional content and resources (like this weekly podcast), I invite you to sign up to become a paid subscriber through Substack. And huge gratitude to you for being a part of making this change community possible!
Agents of Change is a reader-supported publication. To receive additional content (including the new weekly podcast) and to support my work, become a paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
This week marks four years since my accident that led to a severe concussion and brain injury — and while most (not all) of the physical affects of that injury have gone, the lessons of that moment have stuck with me.
Up until this accident, I had been working at breakneck speed, and stress and anxiety had just become an accepted part of the daily grind. In terms of work, many of my priorities and projects came to a grinding halt during my recovery. Not only was I out of the office for a while healing from my injuries, but my slow recovery forced me to put on the breaks, slow down, and meaningfully reflect on the ways I was working—and how I wanted to work going forward.
Everyone around me was telling me to “take care of myself,” but what did that really mean in a broader sense. Was I taking care of myself before these accidents forced me to slow down? Would I quickly return to the same pattern of overwhelm and overwork as soon as my physical body had healed from my injuries?
During my recovery, I took slow walks in nature with my wife (who was my grounding during my recovery, for sure), I began to practice yoga more regularly, I listened to audio books, and I read when I was able to – reflecting on what it meant to slow down, and not just because I had to, but as a new way of working, a new life practice.
I became connected with authors, thinkers, and spiritual teachers like Pema Chodron, Lama Rod Owens, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rev. angel Kyodo williams – and I’m now sitting here at my desk with a copy of Katherine May’s book Wintering as well as Tricia Hersey’s amazing new book Rest is Resistance.
Putting these four words into action
For me, “slowing down” has meant so much more than just these words – it has been about putting this into action in deep and meaningful ways. And that’s hard, I get it. I’m far from perfect when it comes to slowing down. Look, it took a major injury for me to step into action in the first place. But it’s been a regular practice and value for me, and for my family.
Slowing down is not just simply taking a break or saying “ok, I’ll just take it easy this weekend.” It is adopting a life practice that starts with interrupting everything we’ve learned. It goes against so much that our society and culture teaches us, against so many of the ideas of “success” and “productivity” that are ingrained in our brains.
Even just unpacking those inner beliefs can be a key part of slowing down. Ask yourself:
* Where does your “need for speed” come from?
* When did you first feel that pressure to go fast, do it all?
We’ve got to take some time to unlearn these internalized everyday behaviors, habits, and beliefs. There are so many harmful and self-sabotaging stories that we’re telling ourselves day in and day out, and we can replace those stories with positive and powerful stories of slowing down and taking care of ourselves.
Our greatest barrier to slowing down
Whether you’ve realized it yet or not, one of our greatest barriers to slowing down is ourselves. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey writes, “We are grind culture.” She continues, “we push ourselves and each other under the guise of being hyperproductive and efficient.” We have internalized the capitalist, white supremacist, ableist, patriarchal systems that we live in, and we often act in ways that align with the values and pressures of those oppressive systems.
We are in control of our own behaviors, how we show up in our work and in our lives. So it’s up to us to make the decision to resist the toxic culture of “productivity” and to embrace the practice of slowing down.
A few invitations to slow down
If you’re feeling like things are a bit out of control, like life is going like a runaway train, here are some ways to reel it back in and become more grounded:
* Breathe: Take a moment (now, after a meeting, before making a decision, anytime) and just connect with your breathing. Slow your body down, slow your breathing down, and re-ground yourself.
* Wintering: As we head into the winter season (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere), embrace it rather than resisting it. Light some candles, make a cup of tea, and find a book to read that feels like guilt pleasure (something that isn’t related to work at all – something you might not normally read but that will bring you joy).
* Give yourself permission to slow down: Adopt a type of mantra or repeated message for yourself that affirms the idea of slowing down and taking care of yourself & others. You might even write “slow the f**k down” on a sticky note, and put it next to your computer or somewhere that will regularly remind you of this personal call to action.
* Ask yourself: What is the worst thing that will happen if you slow down? Better yet, what might you discover about yourself if you slow down?
I hope you are reading this and listening to my voice note above at a moment that can spark you to reflect, rethink, and reset – and, as hard as it might be, to hold on to that. Don’t let your embrace of slowing down fade in a couple days, a week, or a month. Stay with it, and keep practicing it.
I’d love to hear from you. Add your thoughts in the Comments below:
* What does slowing down mean to you?
* What are some challenges you’re having with slowing down?
* What are some ways you’re finding to bring this into your life in new and powerful ways?
“Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Hello Agents of Change Community!
I am very excited to share something with you that I’ve been working on for a while!
On Tuesday, May 24, from 5-6:30 pm Pacific time (8-9:30 Eastern), I am going to be running a special online workshop with my Super Nature Adventures partner and co-creator Bryna Campbell focusing on nature, wellness, and self-care.
If you've been following me in any capacity—especially my Instagram or Twitter accounts—you probably know by now that connecting with nature is something incredibly meaningful to me. In fact, it’s the major reason I started working on Super Nature Adventures and have been focusing much of my energies there since leaving my museum job.
And as I opened up about in my previous post “It’s Been Two Years Since…,” this mode of care has been a core tool for helping my spouse and I manage the ups and downs of the past couple years. I have grown my own practice of spending time outdoors through daily walks, regular hikes in nearby parks, and even gardening.
Immersing oneself in the natural environment can be one of the most powerful and effective strategies for care and healing. Through these experiences, we also build a deeper connection between ourselves and the natural world.
In this way, as author M. Amos Clifford writes in his Guide to Forest Bathing:
"we come to relate to our shared earth in a fundamentally different way."
When we connect in slow and intimate ways, engage our senses, and get in touch with our creative side, we are restoring connections that have been interrupted though the culture of stress and overwork.
In our Nature as Self Care workshop, we will guide you through a series of exercises designed to help you slow down and connect to nature in ways that can help create calm, reduce stress, and combat burnout.
You’ll learn more about how and why these exercises can be effective, and be introduced to some basic philosophies and research behind nature and self-care.
And in true Super Nature Adventures fashion, you’ll also receive an illustrated handout with additional prompts, activities, and resources to help you adapt these strategies for your own daily life.
We encourage everyone who signs up to to bring an object from nature with them (such as a plant, leaf, cone, flower, or even just a beloved house plant) for some of the activities, and to have some pencils, markers, or crayons as well as paper or a notebook for journaling and drawing.
NOTE: The cost to register is $25. Spaces are limited. We have decided to keep the workshop small because we envision this space as intimate and conversational to explore these ideas, practices, and activities together.
As part of my process of bringing together my work for museums & nonprofits with my work in nature education, place-based learning, and design, Agents of Change is partnering with Super Nature Adventures to offer this workshop. It draws on our work with Super Nature Adventures, as well as my experiences running workshops on forest bathing, creating change from within, and from the chapter in my book Museums as Agents of Change on healing and care.
We are opening these tickets up first to the Agents of Change community as well as those who currently subscribe to Super Nature Adventures packets, so if you are interested, it's a good idea to nab your ticket soon, before we share this event more widely.
“We don’t have to scale mountains or ride rapids to benefit from being outside. Being outside for a few minutes, looking at a tree, and observing the light filtering through leaves can regulate your nervous system and allow you to be more present.” -Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, founder of the Trauma Stewardship Institute
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Greetings Changemakers!
I’m so excited to share some new strategies and tools today in this post, as well as a brand new project that I’m piloting that builds on the ideas I share through this newsletter.
I am often asked about the single most important thing we can do to make real, meaningful change happen within institutions such as museums. And I always think back to these words from writer and activist adrienne maree brown from her pivotal book Emergent Strategy:
“Relationships are everything.”
This concept of deep relational work has grounded my own practice for many years. It has been central to my writing about how museums and nonprofits can be more human-centered and community-centered. When we focus on people and take the time to engage in meaningful, slow, and intentional processes of building and sustaining relationships, we can shape a better future for the institutions, organizations, and communities we work in.
In their book The Relationship Is the Project, a collective of community-based artists and activists from Australia really tackle this idea through their own practice.
“It seems simple to say that ‘the relationship is the project,’” writes cultural consultant Jade Lillie, “but it’s often the thing that gets lost amongst the deadlines, egos, lack of experience, shame, bias, time, external expectations and our busy lives.”
We are doing our best work when we’re developing and nurturing our relationships—it’s as simple as that.
But how can we keep this focus on relationships front and center in our practice? How can we stay grounded in a more people-centered approach to our work, and not let it get lost amidst everything we are trying to balance?
It begins with reimagining our work and simply bringing a focus to the human connections around us.
Mapping and Growing Our Relationships
Shining some light on these human connections was at the center of a series of mini-workshops I facilitated recently for the Museum Division Preconference of the National Art Education Association. Each of these workshops brought together a very small group of museum educators for a fast-paced session focused on our work as changemakers.
We discussed our varying comfort levels with change, and then I introduced one of my favorite strategies for building support for change: Mapping Relationships.
“Relational mapping,” as it is often called, is a form of rethinking our working structures.
It’s an exercise that helps us to reframe the way we think about our work to go beyond the traditional organizational charts. It pushes us to notice the connections, relationships, and communities we have formed with other people, regardless of the rigid reporting structures and silos within our organizations.
When we work to move away from our emphasis on traditional org charts based in oppressive hierarchies and power inequities, and instead focus on the human relationships we have in our work, we can begin to transform institutions and the existing power dynamics.
In the voice note available at the top of this post, I walk you through the exercise step by step.
Listen to the voice note, give the Mapping Relationships exercise a try, and share your experience with me and the Agents of Change community in the comments.
Here are some questions to think about as you work through it on your own.
* What does it feel like to map out the relationships and human connections in your work?
* What are some ways this practice might help you identify and develop new connections and relationships?
* What impact might this focus on relationships have on your work? What about your organization’s broader work with local communities?
As you leave your comment, read and respond to those of others. Let’s learn together and strengthen our collective practice.
One final inspiring thought from adrienne maree brown:
“in community, our potential is truly realized. what we have to offer to each other is not merely critique, anger, commentary, ownership and false power. we have the capacity to hold each other, serve each other, heal each other, create for and with each other, forgive each other, and liberate ourselves and each other.”
We can all actively work to be in deeper relationship with others, be more vulnerable, and treat each other as the full, complete, and complex human beings we are.
Resources
Here are just a few resources for those interested in extending their learning and growth when it comes to relational work. Let me know if you find these useful.
“The Relationship Work of Systems Change,” Stanford Social Innovation Review
* In this recent article, Katherine Milligan, Juanita Zerda, and John Kania of Collective Change Lab write about various key aspects of relational work for collective impact. In it, they state: “Sometimes we lose sight of a simple truth about systems: They are made up of people.”
Emergent Strategy, by adrienne maree brown
* For me, this has been an essential resource when it comes to social justice practice and community organizing work. Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, brown’s book is a radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help guide designed to shape the futures we want to live.
The Relationship Is the Project, edited by Jade Lillie, Kate Larsen, Cara Kirkwood, and Jax Jacki Brown
* This collection of essays and case studies by a group of Australian artists, curators, and cultural activists offers a great set of strategies for community-engaged practitioners in the arts. And I could not pass up a book with a title like this.
in relationship with others, adrienne maree brown
* This short piece by brown offers some inspiring insights into the value of relationships and what beloved community means. She begins with these words: “the most important personal and political skill to develop is how to be in relationship to others.” Yes!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Through all the conversations I have with people about change, one issue that comes up again and again is the feeling of being alone in our work to advocate for change. Many of the comments on previous posts here in this publication suggest that many people feel isolated, alone, disconnected from others, and even singled out as they push for necessary change and institutional transformation.
Last year, during a workshop and presentation I led for about 300 people, I asked (through a poll) if people ever felt alone in their role as a changemaker, and 90% said “yes.” Even this week, I asked the same question to a smaller group of museum/nonprofit professionals, and nearly two-thirds said that they have felt alone when advocating for change in their organization. A vast majority of us feel a bit untethered when doing the important work of making change happen. We frequently feel like we just don’t have the colleagues and leaders who share our purpose and values as we struggle to make positive changes in our organizations and workplaces.
Some New Ways to Define Loneliness
In a 2021 essay in Harvard Magazine entitled “The Loneliness Pandemic,” author Jacob Sweet shares that social psychologists commonly define loneliness as “the gap between the social connections you would like to have and those you feel you experience”—a definition that made me pause and think about all the times I have felt lonely, wishing that there were more people around me supporting the same changes I wanted to see happen. The essay also highlights some of the research on loneliness and health, including one study which shows that being lonely has the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day (yikes!).
Our feelings of loneliness and isolation have certainly been accentuated through the pandemic as we live through lockdowns and quarantines, and as our work moved online to platforms like Zoom. We’ve all experienced so much distancing, and it’s certainly going to take some time to feel connected (truly connected) again.
In his recent book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy defines several forms of loneliness, including collective loneliness, or “the hunger for a network or community of people who share our sense of purpose.” Throughout the pandemic, so many of us have been reflecting on our values, what matters most to us, and what type of work aligns most closely with our personal values—and so many people (in nonprofits, museums, and many sectors) have changed the type of work we do to connect with others around a shared purpose.
Building Our Relationships with Others
As we dive deeper into our relationship with change, I think we should also be reflecting on our relationships with others.
How can we work to build connections with others as we advocate for meaningful change within our organizations? How can we lean in to forming communities of changemakers? For me, this is so much of what this Agents of Change publication is about—bringing people together, learning from each other, and equipping ourselves with the tools we need to fight for positive change. I’m leading several workshops later this week called “POWER UP for Change,” and they are not only designed to offer strategies to better advocate for change, but they are also about bringing together small groups of changemakers to be champions for each other.
None of us are alone in this work!
We know that others are doing this work, and we’ve got to be intentional about reaching out, finding them, and recognizing our collective work together.
Let’s Share with Each Other
As part of this process of building our relationships with others, I invite you to share your responses to the following questions with the Agents of Change community:
* How can each of us work to build connection and community as we work toward making change happen?
* What is one small, practical step you might take right now to begin a more intentional process of building relationships with others as you advocate for change?
* What is one way you might already be powerfully connecting with others and advancing collective action around change?
Leave a comment here, responding with as few or as many thoughts, questions, and ideas as you’d like to share. Yes, short responses are very welcome – and so are long ones. And I’ll share my gratitude in advance for your honesty and vulnerability (both superpowers we need more of in this world).
Please consider reading each other’s comments and have an exchange via this platform. After all, I don’t see “Agents of Change” as just another passive monologue, but rather a more dynamic dialogue where we can be in conversation and connection with each other. That’s how we learn together and strengthen our collective practice.
One final thought from Murthy’s book Together. In it, he writes:
“being connected to others gives us a stake in more than our own interests. It expands those interests to include our whole community and thus increases our motivation to work together.”
We can all be agents of change, even in these lonely and challenging moments, and we can do this work together!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe -
Uncertainty and change are here to stay, that’s just a fact of life. So I’m always interested in exploring our relationship with these forces and giving ourselves some space and kindness to unpack that relationship.
For this issue of the newsletter, I ‘m experimenting with a new format – a voice note. I am hoping it helps to bring that extra feeling of human connection to this newsletter that I don’t think we get from just reading text on a screen. The voice note is not an audio version of this writing; it’s kind of a companion to this text. So I invite you to read this post and listen to the short voice note. You can access the voice note by hitting the play button at the top of this post.
Let’s Breathe Together
I don’t know about you, but as I make my way through transitions and changes in life or work, I just feel the weight of everything pushing down on me. Whenever I feel like this, I try my best to remember to just breathe and connect with how my body feels as I breathe. It’s a simple yet powerful human strategy for all of us changemakers.
Years ago, I heard visionary dance activist Shamell Bell talk about how the word ‘conspire’ actually means ‘to breathe together.’ With a group of museum professionals and nonprofit leaders, she led us through some very simple breathing exercises – and I remember how good it felt to connect with my own breath and to breathe with others. This has resonated with me ever since.
Let’s all just take a moment here, and breathe together. Connect with what it feels like for the air to come into our lungs – and then slowly exhale and feel the air leaving our lungs. Our breathe is life-giving and, yet we tend to just let it happen in the background. What happens if we bring it to the foreground more often, and simply feel the movement and rhythms of our breathing?
Our Relationship with Change
I have been spending time these past few weeks diving into Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and at the same time listening to Octavia's Parables, a phenomenal podcast hosted by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon. While a dystopian novel about the future might sound like grim reading, I assure you it is not. Not only does Butler bring forth a shining vision of hope and change, but brown and Reagon’s podcast places Butler’s writings in a context for those intending to change the world through activism and community organizing work.
The podcast goes through Butler’s novels chapter by chapter, providing insights and key questions that bring additional layers of meaning to the writing (which, by the way, is already jam-packed full of some powerful meaning). I have found this to be the perfect pairing during uncertain times, allowing me to more fully engage with the complexities and challenges of the present moment and my own role (as an individual and as part of collective efforts) in proactively shaping the future.
Early in the podcast, adrienne maree brown poses the question: “What is your relationship with change?” Are we comfortable with change? Or not? In what ways are we changing the world around us, and how are we changing in response (even in the smallest ways)?
With everything always changing around us so rapidly, it can feel quite challenging to then be an advocate and agent for change in any aspect of your work or life. Right? Why on earth would we want more change? This is why I think it can be so important to hold space for our relationship to change, and be kind to ourselves as we navigate our struggles with change.
Let’s Share with Each Other
As part of this process of envisioning change, I invite you to share your responses to one or more of these questions with the “Agents of Change” community. These questions are also perfect for self-reflection as well as for sparking a conversation among your team or with people at all levels of your organization:
* What is your relationship with change – right now, in this moment?
* What are you struggling with the most?
* What change might be challenging or difficult?
* What changes are bringing you joy?
* What are you most proud of right now?
Leave a comment here, responding with as few or as many thoughts, questions, and ideas as you’d like to share. Yes, short responses are very welcome – and so are long ones. And I’ll share my gratitude in advance for your honesty and vulnerability (both superpowers we need more of in this world).
Please consider reading each other’s comments and have an exchange via this platform. After all, I don’t see “Agents of Change” as just another passive monologue, but rather a more dynamic dialogue where we can be in conversation and connection with each other. That’s how we learn together, build relationships, and strengthen our collective practice. We can all be agents of change, even in difficult and challenging moments, and we can do this together!
I close this message with the opening words of Chapter 1, which adrienne maree brown has tattooed on her left arm:
"All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change."
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit agentsofchange.substack.com/subscribe
