Read Suzanne St. John-Crane’s Keynote address from our 2020 Exemplary Leadership Celebration on September 1, 2020. You can also watch the keynote in its entirety here.
I received a lovely email from our founder Ann Debusk a couple of weeks ago. She said, “Suzanne, how are you? This pandemic was not in your job description!” True statement, Ann. And yet, as leaders, we are called to navigate the best and worst of times, the unexpected and sometimes, the unimaginable.
First – I want first to thank the ALF staff, my shelter in place partners in crime, Board, and the six committees that continue ALF’s work, in particular NEC, that helps with this event each year… here they are, faithfully meeting.
I want to briefly share a few highlights from this last year and a half, but really focus on looking forward and what our collective call to action is as Fellows and Senior Fellows.
Let’s start with the two Fellows classes who are practicing our mantra this year of Grace, Empathy, and Flexibility: Class XXXVII, you didn’t get a chance to finish your year in person and have a proper graduation. Your day is coming, my friends. And it will be a party. Please give a shout out in the chat, offer some well wishes to ALF’s most recent graduates, Class 37 (Class 37 pic).
And our COVID Class XXXIX. You convened in person for the first time on March 13, 2020, at MHP, engaging in our signature drumming exercise & circles… as the world was beginning to shut down around us.
You convene in homegroups and as buddies in backyards. You check-in, meditate, and dialogue on zoom. You’ve shared 7-minute stories and explored the history of racism and our role as leaders in this moment.
It’s no accident that months before COVID hit, four healthcare administrators, the COO of SCC, the CEO of the SVCF, and the Superintendent for SCCOE all said yes to the Fellows experience this year. … along with 17 other rockstars. Imagine being in a Fellows class, at a time like this, with leaders like that.
Please help me in welcoming to the network the resilient, courageous, and persistent Fellows of Class XXXIX.
Our Senior Fellow engagement work has been off the charts. During my tenure as National ALF Board Chair, we’ve produced the first national zoom dialogues with Senior Fellows from across the county.
We are on track to facilitate more convenings this year than we have in the last two years combined. Since shelter in place began, Network Weaver Akemi Flynn and Chief Impact Officer Jenny Niklaus have facilitated 114 convenings; from Foundation leaders who committed to recenter their focus on communities of color in response to the current economic crisis—to law enforcement and civil rights leaders courageously reimagining public safety – listening to each other and learning together. To Arts organizations who’ve worked in collaboration to secure funding. Our now three cohorts of thirty non-profit CEOs – thanks to the Hewlett and Packard Foundations – who are diving deep into how they integrate and operationalize their DEI values from the Board to front line staff. The impacts of these deep dialogues have a ripple effect that is simply immeasurable.
Our new strategic plan took effect on May 1. We’re focusing on four pillars:
- PILLAR ONE: Offering a Best in Class Regional Fellows Program. We’re tailoring the Fellows experience to the unique leaders in each class, welcoming San Francisco and East Bay Fellows as we deepen our focus on regional problem-solving.
- PILLAR TWO: Continuing to Add Value to the Senior Fellow Experience: Doubling down on dialogues and network weaving tools, like Weavr and WIWOW.org – the brainchild of our own Greg Ranstrom – a network mapping tool that helps track “Who is working on What.”
- PILLAR THREE: Becoming the go-to organization for facilitating difficult conversations: Last month we formally launched ALF Insights: Facilitation and convening the ALF way, for teams looking to bring ALF elements to difficult dialogues and offsites.
- PILLAR FOUR: Strengthening and scaling the ALF Movement. Our call to show up in the world as our best and highest selves for the good of our entire community.
As we stare down one of the most consequential elections in our lifetimes, during a global pandemic that is particularly debilitating and deadly for those on the margins, as the band-aids of systemic racism are ripped off on city streets, twitter pages, and national newscasts, we cannot – as leaders – wait for this moment to pass and sink back into the status quo. We cannot point fingers, pass judgments, donate to a worthy cause, and call it a day. That is the opposite of “being in.” Being a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum calls on all of us to do something bigger.
I’m going to ask you tonight to take these ALF Senior Fellow commitments to a whole new level.
1. Take the call and make the call: Turn to the network as a resource to learn, to engage and to make your community better.
2. Dialogue first: Come into conversations with curiosity and a beginner’s mind. We cannot come up with big solutions if we don’t immerse ourselves in knowing the problem, from perspectives other than our own.
3. Educate, Innovate, and Donate: Educate yourselves on why social systems are broken instead of making assumptions. Be a part of or seek out innovative systems change efforts that solve problems instead of perpetuating them. Donate your time, talent and treasure to these efforts because it’s our role as Senior Fellows to get off of the sidelines and get in the game.
4. Get engaged in ALF! Your participation makes the entire network stronger. You’ve hit that out of the park this year! Keep going.
Friends, we are in an all hands on deck fight for the soul and survival of Silicon Valley right now. One zip code in East San Jose – with 61k residents– has more COVID positive cases than do the cities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, and Saratoga COMBINED. Santa Clara County schools are 38,000 computers short for their students, with kids sitting outside Starbucks and in parking lots, trying to get wifi because their neighborhoods were redlined out of high-speed internet or they can’t afford it. 30% of Silicon Valley households are living in poverty and below self-sufficiency standards.
We can throw up our hands, make assumptions and point fingers, or we can ask ourselves: Do my actions or inactions play a role in solving these problems or perpetuating them?
The many fine doctors in our network will tell us that you can’t cure a disease with band-aids. You must root out the whole infection in order to heal. In order to remedy the consequences of decades of systemic injustices – we too must address root causes. And that takes courage. Those of us with privilege have had a choice to engage in the conversation about racism and poverty when convenient, leave when we’re uncomfortable, or not engage at all. Many of our network members have never had that choice. They battle the disease of racism every single day.
I’ve learned so much from you. I’m moved by our common humanity. I learned that you’re afraid to let your adult son go jogging in your neighborhood of Menlo park because he’s black. I learned that white supremacists vandalized your health clinic because of its name. I learned that you’re a closet conservative, and as a woman of color, you get attacked when talking about your beliefs. I also witnessed, repeatedly – ALF circles of empathy and vulnerability break down barriers and build bridges.
ALF Board Member David Yarnold said recently, “Being a good leader means being mindful, practicing dialogue and being an anti-racist.” My call to all of you today is to stay in the dialogue. ALF taught us how to listen. To suspend judgment and be curious. But the ALF principals and relationships we gain through the Fellows program mean nothing unless we put them into action.
Instead of only collecting cans for Second Harvest food bank, ask the question – why is there food insecurity in Silicon Valley? Instead of lamenting a diversity pipeline problem, ask the question – where is my company not recruiting from? Instead of only making annual donations to the homeless shelter, ask the question – how is homelessness morally acceptable in Silicon Valley?
Imagine senior fellows – if we from the public and the private, and the non-profit sectors – embrace ownership over the health of our entire community and have the courage to move towards solutions rooted in liberty, opportunity, and justice for all.
I dare you to listen. I dare you to be uncomfortable. I challenge you to be a part of changing systems that for decades, have produced outcomes that have left so many behind.
Inspire us with your pledges tonight. How will you be a part of leading for the “we,” not the “me.” As Senior Fellows, it is our responsibility and a beautiful honor to lead with love in our hearts and courage in our actions.
I dare you, Senior Fellows.
