The Wellbeing Perfect Storm
A few months ago I was invited to be a guest on one of my favourite podcasts ‘Changing Conversations’.
I was asked to speak about the issue of wellbeing.
As a leader in education, wellbeing has always been high on the agenda but as a result of the pandemic almost every conversation I was having with colleagues, parents and members of the community seemed to be about wellbeing: their own, their colleagues’ and their family’s.
It was becoming clearer day by day as we moved through the most arduous of academic years that what we were facing was a ‘Wellbeing Perfect Storm’.
So in preparing for the podcast I did what Heifitz and Linsky suggested in their model of Adaptive Leadership and moved from the dance floor to the balcony to look at the bigger picture of what was really behind this sudden surge of anxiety, stress and fatigue for children, families and educators and what we could do about it.
The Causes
Let’s start with the obvious. We were in the midst of a once in a century, global pandemic which had posed a continual threat to our lives, our freedoms and our normal way of life. Or as Thomas Jefferson might have put it, covid literally threatened our life, liberty and our pursuit of happiness.
The pandemic in its various iterations also completely threw off the normal rhythms of the school year which provide an emotional and mental anchor for children and staff in schools.
An ever changing picture of expectations and requirements fractured our normal loci of control which made many feel unstable and disempowered.
On top of this, these extraordinary times called upon children, educators and parents to undertake extraordinary tasks which they weren’t trained for and felt uneasy taking on.
Like many other people, educators and parents suffered the result of blurred boundaries between home and work, longer working hours and the exhausting cycles of lockdown and release.
So it was inevitable that such a seismic event would impact our wellbeing but were there other factors which exacerbated the already intense impact of Covid-19?
The simple answer is yes.
Big, macro issues such as political and social polarisation in the wake of a last decade which had included (in Scotland) an independence referendum, the torturous process of Brexit, the rise of Trumpism and a concerning authoritarian trend across Western societies definitely impacted on how parents and educators viewed the pandemic with extreme views on both sides of issues such as school closures, online learning, mask mandates and the qualification process.
The impact of increased social isolation lit a fire of social media discussions on all of these issues with many taking on the ‘mantle of the expert’ on complex epidemiological, public health and educational issues which ramped up pressure on and conflict within the education system.
All of this combined has come together to create this Wellbeing Perfect Storm which many are still so furiously paddling to navigate.
The Solutions
I wish I had a simple set of solutions to offer but none of this is easy, especially when the pandemic continues to rage even after the highly successful roll out of the vaccination programme in Scotland.
I do however have a range of suggested approaches and ideas which may help equip those who are still battling this ongoing wellbeing storm in education and beyond.
Metrics
‘We measure what we value’ is an aphorism which many in our education system will recognise so how do we apply this to our wellbeing?
The American entrepreneur and academic Prof. Scott Galloway has created his own personal wellbeing acronym (SCAFA) which elucidates his personal wellbeing metrics. These are intended to link the drivers of his wellbeing issues to the corresponding actions he can take to eg the second ‘A’ stands for Affection- so when he is feeling disconnected or isolated he knows he needs to quickly seek out affection from his partner, his kids or his dog (not sure if that is in ascending or descending order!)
We need to know what the main drivers of our wellbeing are so we can measure how we are feeling in these areas and know the specific actions we can take to help us address these issues in a way which is uniquely effective for each of us.
Authentic Self Care
The growth of the ‘Self Care Industrial Complex’ has increased exponentially over the course of the pandemic.
Based on the last eighteen months many people would think that your wellbeing was doomed unless you were regularly jumping in the icy sea, meditating or submerging yourself in daily candlelit baths.
This recent conflation of relaxation and self-care has resulted in an almost competitive market of self-care activities and products which has (as always) been accelerated and distorted by social media increasing pressure on those not participating and further fracturing people’s already fragile self perception.
So what is self care really?
I align most closely with the writer and activist Brittany Packnett-Cunningham’s definition of authentic self care. Her definition includes important aspects such as meeting your basic needs like food, sleep, exercise and health care, forming and maintaining healthy relationships, being your true self, cultivating moments of joy and having clear and firm boundaries.
Self care can also have a wider societal dimension. The civil rights activist Audre Lorde defined self care as not mere self indulgence but as a political act of self preservation.
Lorde’s point underlines the importance of seeing self care and wellbeing more generally, through an equity lens.
Capacity to engage in self care is massively influenced by factors such as economic status, race, gender and sexual identity. Scottish health data has explicitly demonstrated the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the mental wellbeing of those living in poverty.
Wellbeing is a social justice issue.
Organisational Wellbeing
So even if we become self-care experts and boost our wellbeing using some of the ideas shared above our wellbeing is often not of our own choosing.
Most of us spend a majority of our week in paid employment. Our wellbeing is massively impacted by the working practices of our organisation.
Organisations like individuals have been under a great deal of strain over the course of the pandemic but what can they really do to improve the wellbeing of individuals?
Firstly, they can address the root causes of the wellbeing issues their employees face rather than taking a self-care sticking plaster approach. (How many times did we hear in lockdown that our problems would be solved if we just got outside and took a nice, long walk in the woods!)
The famous quote from Desmond Tutu applies here: ‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in”.
Organisations need to urgently address the workload, expectations and working conditions their employees are facing. There are not enough slices of cake, given in gratitude, which can make up for having unmanageable workloads, unreasonable expectations and unsafe working conditions.
Secondly, organisations have to avoid the positive psychology traps which many are currently falling into. By constantly insisting people remain positive and ‘on message’ organisations create what Dr Susan David calls ‘Toxic Positivity’ cultures in which hard and honest conversations cannot take place. Such cultures choose comfort and preserving the status quo over acknowledging people’s reality and making a realistic and sustainable plan for change and improvement.
Thirdly, we need organisations with truly humble leaders who are reflective and honest about how their decisions and actions can negatively impact their employees. By constantly interrogating the importance and value of the work they are asking their teams to undertake then weighing the related impact of these ‘asks’ on their employee’s wellbeing, leaders can measure just how essential this work is.
Lastly, we can’t go back to ‘business as usual’.
McDonalds still has a restricted menu and so should other organisations. We must strip away the unnecessary and the non essential to focus on our core business which in the education sphere is the learning and wellbeing of young people.
Organisations must tame the change monster and re-focus on strengthening the essential elements of their work. Unpicking workload issues and incentivising a reduction in bureaucracy are the key enablers of this mission.
Surviving the Storm
It is my hope that through the podcast I discussed earlier and this post I can help leaders and others, particularly in education, to re-think their approach to wellbeing at individual and organisational level.
With the ever-sharpening grip of Brexit becoming evident in empty supermarket shelves, a looming energy crisis and the chill winds of Autumn creeping under the door there has never been a better time to make a plan for how you and your organisation will weather this Wellbeing Perfect Storm and come out stronger once we get to dry land.
