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00:00:17 --> 00:00:23 Grundmeyer Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:27 Now, get ready to amplify your day with your morning boost.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:35 All right. Welcome back, listeners. Happy Friday, everybody.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:39 We've made it to the end of the week, and hopefully you've got an awesome weekend
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 planned ahead of you, because I know darn well you've earned it.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 I'm sure you've earned it all week long.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:47 But welcome back to your morning boost, And welcome back to our special guest.
00:00:48 --> 00:00:50 Shannon Watson has been here with us all week.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 She's the founder and executive director of Majority in the Middle.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:57 And we're going to wrap up our fifth question and wrap up this series this week
00:00:57 --> 00:01:03 as we've been diving into this practice of civil engagement and building bridges
00:01:03 --> 00:01:07 and doing all of the great stuff that we as school leaders have an awesome responsibility,
00:01:07 --> 00:01:11 but yet opportunity to do to help lead our communities.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:17 Have you listened to Control Shift Lead, the new podcast from AWB Education
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 and Inspired Edification?
00:01:19 --> 00:01:23 He stayed with the basics. He was never flashy. And I think that's one of the
00:01:23 --> 00:01:24 things that people like.
00:01:24 --> 00:01:30 If not, you are missing out. And I think of the word vulnerable comes to mind all the time.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:35 Every month, Jim and Adam bring you three things, something you can control,
00:01:35 --> 00:01:39 something that will shift your thinking, and something that can help you lead
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 your school district or building.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 I need our staff to be that.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:47 Search for Control Shift Lead wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 Shannon, welcome back. Are you ready for Friday's last question?
00:01:58 --> 00:01:59 I am always ready for Friday.
00:02:00 --> 00:02:03 Well, I would say that you're, you know, going to be challenged with any of
00:02:03 --> 00:02:07 these, but I haven't challenged you so far this week. You've been rocking these answers.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:12 Okay, bring on the easy question. That's right. So here we go to finish up Friday.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:19 How can busy administrators sustain the practice of civil engagement and bridge
00:02:19 --> 00:02:24 building to ensure that this work remains a constant leadership priority and
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 not just a crisis response.
00:02:26 --> 00:02:31 Okay, so you did not save the easy question for Friday. Yes,
00:02:31 --> 00:02:32 practice, practice, practice.
00:02:33 --> 00:02:39 So the more that you can sort of model and internalize some of these things, the better.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:44 And I will say that with a caveat, it takes a while because sort of navigating
00:02:44 --> 00:02:51 division all the time is not something that we've been having to do,
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 over, you know, the last 50 years or so.
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 Not in the way that we have to do it today.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:03 So I think, give yourself a break. It takes a minute to build some of these skills.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:09 But then as much as you can internalize them and model them, that helps.
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 So I have a sticky note.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 It's around here somewhere. It probably fell off the wall again.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:20 But so I, in my work life, had a tendency to...
00:03:21 --> 00:03:25 Deal with the work as being the tasks you
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 know is the powerpoint presentation done did i send these three
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 emails sure you know what's the
00:03:30 --> 00:03:34 is the agenda for the meeting you know written have
00:03:34 --> 00:03:40 i done the draft of whatever i was very lucky to be mentored later in my career
00:03:40 --> 00:03:44 than i that i would have liked man if this woman could have gotten a hold of
00:03:44 --> 00:03:50 me in my 20s that would have been awesome but the thing that she taught me is
00:03:50 --> 00:03:52 that the relationships are the work.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 That yes the things that you can cross off the to-do
00:03:56 --> 00:04:01 list are important but the relationships are
00:04:01 --> 00:04:07 the work and so the time that you take you know getting coffee with somebody
00:04:07 --> 00:04:13 or going to the professional development and instead of checking your phone
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 speaking to people next to the coffee machine or,
00:04:16 --> 00:04:20 you know, checking in with people. How was your weekend?
00:04:20 --> 00:04:25 It's so easy when we're busy to sort of toss those things aside,
00:04:25 --> 00:04:31 you know, ask about people's kids, ask them, you know, talk about what you saw on TV on the weekend.
00:04:31 --> 00:04:35 But those things are really the building blocks of relationships.
00:04:35 --> 00:04:41 And so the more things that you can identify that you have in common,
00:04:41 --> 00:04:48 the easier the big things are to navigate, because then you're much less likely
00:04:48 --> 00:04:53 to generalize or put somebody in a box in a way that makes relating to them difficult.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:58 So I think focusing on how the relationships are the work.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:05 I got the opportunity to do a TED Talk a while back, and one of the things that
00:05:05 --> 00:05:11 we were able to highlight in the TED Talk is that finding common ground is really important,
00:05:11 --> 00:05:16 but so is kindness and dealing with people with respect, whether or not you
00:05:16 --> 00:05:17 believe the same things.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:24 And I had somebody one time tell me that, you know, being kind to another parent
00:05:24 --> 00:05:29 at the PTA meeting, no matter what they're saying in the moment,
00:05:29 --> 00:05:30 you know, in the public comment part.
00:05:31 --> 00:05:36 Being kind to those people does not mean that you automatically endorse their
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 public policy position.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:44 Or talking about fishing with the guy in the next cubicle over who has a tendency
00:05:44 --> 00:05:45 to espouse conspiracy theories.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 That doesn't mean you also espouse the conspiracy theories.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:54 You are not endorsing anything that anybody else is saying just by being in
00:05:54 --> 00:05:55 relationship with them.
00:05:55 --> 00:06:00 And I think that's actually something that has become novel because a lot of
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 primarily advocacy organizations have been pushing these things that, you know,
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 okay, being in relationship with people who believe things that are different
00:06:07 --> 00:06:13 than you is harmful and that, you know, you should just exit those relationships.
00:06:13 --> 00:06:18 But I can tell you, exiting a relationship never changed anybody's mind.
00:06:18 --> 00:06:24 But being in relationship and being the model of something that might change
00:06:24 --> 00:06:29 somebody's mind, those are actually much more effective in the long run.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 Cutting somebody out of your life feels good in the
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 moment but a lot of us don't have the option
00:06:34 --> 00:06:39 particularly with co-workers to just not deal with people so i think that's
00:06:39 --> 00:06:43 the thing focusing on the relationships and and kind of walking that civility
00:06:43 --> 00:06:48 around even when it doesn't look like civility it looks like kindness that can
00:06:48 --> 00:06:52 be a good way to to incorporate that into all of your day.
00:07:00 --> 00:07:04 So take advantage of them. You've got hallway check-ins. You have that moment
00:07:04 --> 00:07:08 where you're in line at the concession stand at the game and you see a parent
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 next to you getting popcorn, too.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:14 I mean, you're right. It's all of those little moments that all add up in the end.
00:07:14 --> 00:07:19 That's great advice. And I'm not going to lie. I've already circled on my notes here.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24 Relationships are the work. That might end up on a staff T-shirt here really
00:07:24 --> 00:07:25 shortly. That would be amazing.
00:07:26 --> 00:07:29 Yeah, I was going to say, if you don't have that phrase coined already,
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 get busy. because that was a good one.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:35 That should be some, that should be some majority in the middle swag coming
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 out that people can get their hands on. That's awesome.
00:07:38 --> 00:07:42 So speaking of majority of the middle, how can people get to know more about
00:07:42 --> 00:07:46 you and your mission and your, your group? How can they get in touch with you?
00:07:46 --> 00:07:51 Okay. So our, our website is majority middle.org.
00:07:51 --> 00:07:54 It's not majority in the middle. Somebody else owns majority in the middle.
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 I'm waiting for them to let their, their registration lapse i don't want to
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 tell them like hey can i have this can i buy this from you i don't want them
00:08:01 --> 00:08:05 to think it's valuable so i'm just waiting it out so in the meantime we are
00:08:05 --> 00:08:11 majority middle.org the best thing to do we encourage people who are just getting you,
00:08:12 --> 00:08:16 exposed to the group sign up for the newsletter we have a rule about the newsletter
00:08:16 --> 00:08:20 i send three or less emails per month Mm-hmm.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 I sometimes fight with my communications committee about that.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 That's a good one. Yeah, right.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:30 Yeah, there's too much email. There's too much email. And then just to note
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 that we are headquartered in Minnesota.
00:08:33 --> 00:08:38 Our focus is on Minnesota right now because it's a good place to study bipartisanship.
00:08:38 --> 00:08:43 But what our sort of long-term strategy is to figure out what works here when
00:08:43 --> 00:08:47 it comes to structural partisanship and the bridging and the getting along and
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 creating some systems that encourage people to work together.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:55 And then hopefully bring that to other states and have a replicable model.
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 So we'll see. That's awesome. Yeah.
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 That's awesome. Shannon, this has been a wonderful week. What a positive tone
00:09:01 --> 00:09:04 and some great advice for us to,
00:09:04 --> 00:09:09 yeah, it's part of the job, but it can certainly be an area that we can help
00:09:09 --> 00:09:13 push forward and get our students what they need to be successful every day.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:14 So that is really awesome.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:18 Awesome. Thanks for joining us. Absolutely. I really had a good time this week.
00:09:18 --> 00:09:19 Thanks so much for including me.
00:09:20 --> 00:09:23 You bet. Well, listeners, thank you for joining us as always.
00:09:23 --> 00:09:27 Have a wonderful Friday and have an even better weekend because like I said,
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 I know you have earned it.
00:09:29 --> 00:09:33 Thank you. We will be back again next week with more on your morning boost.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:37 So until that time, thank you for listening. We will talk with you again next week.
00:09:50 --> 00:09:55 Your Morning Boost is an AWB education production brought to you with the generous
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 support of Grundmeyer Leader Services.
00:09:58 --> 00:10:03 Join us again tomorrow for more. Until then, keep boosting your impact.