Striving for Harmony:
What I Have Learned about Balance and Equity as a Leader
Kathryn Redhorse
Photo by Greg Rakozy, Unsplash
Movies have always been my go to escape. For two hours, I could be adventuring in the lands beyond The Shire or be in a silly romantic comedy where life is a simple fairytale. I do not know anyone who doesn't love Star Wars or the superhero Marvel movies (at least in my circle of friends). These stories exemplify the dynamic of “good versus evil.” Heroes versus villains. In these scenarios, we know which side is the “right” side. We know who we want to win and who should lose in order for the goodness of humankind. As I grow older, I can observe the complexities of the superhero/villain world; why one chooses to become a superhero (or perhaps how one is thrown into the role) and how a villain believes he is following through with the injustices of society. Take the last Avengers movie, Avengers: Endgame. The villain across multiple Marvel movies was Thanos, a villain whose mission is to bring balance to the universe by randomly killing half of the universe’s population. Balance.
Bringing Balance to COVID-19 Decisions
This word is used over and over again. In our professional team meetings, in the governor’s speeches and in one on one conversations with our friends. Achieving work/life balance is cumbersome in the best of times, let alone during times of a global pandemic. We have often questioned how we balance taking care of our families and spending quality time with them while striving for professional success. Now our questions are transformed into how do we support our children learning and complete work at home during “stay at home” or “safer at home” orders? The questions of balance become even more striking when we consider communities and systems: How can we balance the safety of public health while opening up the state’s economy so people can pay for their mortgages and rent during this COVID-19 pandemic? These questions are asked of ourselves, within our workplace and sent from leadership teams at all levels. The answer to these questions is a process. We have to take active measurements to achieve balance and set boundaries in place, such as agreements to not look at work emails after 6pm. Or for example how the City of Denver placed a mandate for everyone to wear masks when in public. These decisions are made by yourself, your workplace or other leadership teams. And in response there have been several protests for the governor of Colorado to open our economy in its entirety to operate as it once did before the pandemic, stating that it is one’s own choice whether to eat at restaurants or to stay at home.
These decisions are based on what you may think, or your organization and other leadership teams deem to be best for yourself and the community. However, when you examine a little further, you will find that everyone does not agree on the path on how to achieve balance.
People have different opinions on what balance is and how to accomplish it. We differ on how we can accomplish our own and/or our community's goals. When we look at how to vote on state statutes, who to vote for in our city, county and state government, hopefully, we all have the same goals to strengthen our communities, to encourage our children to become successful members of the community and for families to be self reliant. But there are so many different paths to accomplish such goals.
These decisions are based on what you may think, or your organization and other leadership teams deem to be best for yourself and the community. However, when you examine a little further, you will find that everyone does not agree on the path on how to achieve balance.
People have different opinions on what balance is and how to accomplish it. We differ on how we can accomplish our own and/or our community's goals. When we look at how to vote on state statutes, who to vote for in our city, county and state government, hopefully, we all have the same goals to strengthen our communities, to encourage our children to become successful members of the community and for families to be self reliant. But there are so many different paths to accomplish such goals.
Balance with Equity?
Currently, I find myself often wondering how to effectively create social justice change within systems, especially when working with the American Indian/Alaska Native communities and respective tribes. Working within all levels of agencies from nonprofits to government, I have confirmed that all involved desire the same goals though the paths on accomplishing such goals may differ. After heavy contemplation, engaging in conversations around equity, leadership and decision making, it has only reinforced how critical it is knowing oneself, our biases, self reflection and truly understanding how equity plays a role in our decisions.
We need to all start with cultural humility conversations and self reflection. Through listening, reading and conversing, we have learned how important it is to critically self reflect. If we have not learned how our own biases and beliefs influence our leadership decisions, then we cannot achieve equity because we are not acknowledging others perspectives. If, perse, we have biases around any communities that we serve, it may affect what funding they receive, how much organizations are willing to share and what culturally responsive services and education they receive. These types of conversations eventually lead to the difference between equity and equality. Decisions from those who do not understand this essential difference, make inequitable decisions, most recently like the one regarding the amount of Personal Protective Equipment community clinics receive. They would all receive the same amount without any acknowledgement of the existence of health disparities among communities of color. The Navajo Nation has recently surpassed the city of New York in having the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rates in their population. If one ever visited the Navajo reservation, one would wonder how infections can rise so high with homes being so physically far from each other. It is believed that having multi generations living in one household, the lack of running water, and the history of inequitable health care access generate overall poor health within communities of color.
We need to all start with cultural humility conversations and self reflection. Through listening, reading and conversing, we have learned how important it is to critically self reflect. If we have not learned how our own biases and beliefs influence our leadership decisions, then we cannot achieve equity because we are not acknowledging others perspectives. If, perse, we have biases around any communities that we serve, it may affect what funding they receive, how much organizations are willing to share and what culturally responsive services and education they receive. These types of conversations eventually lead to the difference between equity and equality. Decisions from those who do not understand this essential difference, make inequitable decisions, most recently like the one regarding the amount of Personal Protective Equipment community clinics receive. They would all receive the same amount without any acknowledgement of the existence of health disparities among communities of color. The Navajo Nation has recently surpassed the city of New York in having the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rates in their population. If one ever visited the Navajo reservation, one would wonder how infections can rise so high with homes being so physically far from each other. It is believed that having multi generations living in one household, the lack of running water, and the history of inequitable health care access generate overall poor health within communities of color.
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If they were to understand equity, then they would know that priority should be given to those community clinics and providers that serve communities with the highest health disparities.
Unbalancing in 2020
Health disparities have been a known concern and this COVID-19 pandemic has only exasperated those disparities. When we deconstruct those disparities, we recognize the socio economic factors but we also know race and ethnicity play a role in those disparities as well. Any disparity becomes greater when we factor in race. I pondered about the term race. I found it interesting that there are two main definitions for race: a competition or a specific group of humankind. I do not believe this is a coincidence that the concept of “human race” has the implication of a hierarchy embedded in the definition.
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Among my ponderings, I was also reflecting on this year thus far. We are halfway through it and we are in the middle of a pandemic and race relations have escalated to the point of thousands in several cities across the nation protesting for the system to recognize police brutality targeted towards people of color. The year 2020 is truly providing a vision of our world today: showing how fragile humans are against the fight of a new virus and how people of color continue to fight for social justice. When I was asked what my leadership song was, I chose, “A Change is Gonna Come” written by Sam Cooke, sung by Otis Redding. Written in the 60’s, this song still is true to this day for the hope of social justice within our country. Once we accomplish social justice, we can then strive for harmony.
Finding HarmonyEquality versus equity. Balance versus harmony. The more internal reflection I had on the dynamics of the world, the more I struggled with accomplishing only balance. The more I examined the word “balance” and all its implications of determining one side to be equal the other side, the more I want to strive for a harmonious life and a harmonious world. To live in harmony means that we live respecting cultures other than our own; we acknowledge and address the inequities of the systems and societies. We respect all living creatures in the world and the earth itself. To find harmony, every individual has to first complete critical self reflection. According to Shakti Butler from the World Trust Organization, only then can we truly understand what we bring to the table in terms of implicit biases, understanding how cultures are only different and not inferior or superior.
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Perhaps, if Thanos understood equity and cultural humility, instead of equality and balance, then we could all learn how to live in harmony.
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Photo (scale) by Elen Mozhvib, Unsplash
Photo (marble) by Louis Maniquet, Unsplash Photo (“I can’t breathe”) by Josh Hild, Unsplash Photo (Grout)by Anton Titov, Unsplash Equality vs Equity graphic by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation |
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