systems leadership is never a solo act

treating the change you're working on as intergenerational, something to add your part to rather than complete

today we opened with the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address — the words that come before all else, offered as a gift to the world and meant to be shared. from that place of gratitude, we turned to each other.

we began by sitting with the contexts we're each working in — asking what does this space need right now, and what can i offer it. this discussion was informed by our collectively developed codes of care. codes not exclusive to our program, but for all the places where care is needed and might be gently woven in.

we turned to what we hold collectively: the wisdom, experience, and ways of seeing that each person carries — and began making it visible as a shared resource.

then we moved to our threads. they'd arrived in the post a few weeks ago — small, physical things tucked into packages. today they came to life in our hands.

we watched a Ngarrindjeri elder speak about her weaving practice .the patience of it. the preparation. the picking of the right reeds, the shaking of seeds back into soil. the way weaving carries stories across generations — and the way it asks us to keep going, to pass it on.

then we wove. fingers working through the braiding, and the session's threads coming together too: the collective wisdom already present in this group of 19, across sectors, roles, and histories. the question of what it means to lead not as a solo act, but as part of something woven over time. this is the third and final community building session before we move into the frameworks that will carry us through the year. we closed with a braid on each person's lap. a small, physical reminder of the three levels of systems leadership: the individual, the context, the system we're working toward.

a question for reflection: what would it mean to treat the change work you're doing as intergenerational — something to weave your part into, rather than complete?