Alonda Williams
Alonda Williams
SVP & Chief Experience Officer @ YMCA of Seattle
“We want you to know we’ve taken a pledge to be anti-racist, and you can be a part of it. So don’t be surprised when we stand up for something that we believe in.”
Action Prompts
// SELF REFLECTION
Alonda reminds us, “As a leader, when you step out and you're courageous, and you do the right thing, you don't always get the confirmation that yes, this is the right thing.”
Grab your journal & pen, and reflect on the following Qs:
What actions are you taking now that you know are inherently valuable, regardless of external validation and accolades?
What do you know you need to do, even if you don’t ever get recognition? Why?
• • •
// TEAM EXPLORATION
Liberating Objects (10-15 minutes)
Purpose: To promote divergent thinking by coming up with alternate uses for an object.
Rose Thorn Bud (20-30 minutes)
Purpose: To surface a healthy range of insights during a team check-in. This clears space for vulnerable personal sharing and team alignment around what's top of mind.
Team Dance Break (5-10 minutes)
Purpose: To have fun with a collective experience of embodied movement to get the energy flowing at the start or completion of your next team sync.
Resources
Play on Purpose is an awesome library of games you can use with your teams for icebreakers & creative connection, developed by the inspiring master facilitator Jenny Sauer-Klein & team.
Liberating Structures is one of our favorite guides to organize interactions and groups work for presentations, managed discussions, open discussions, status reports and brainstorm sessions.
Alonda Williams (she/her) and her team at the YMCA faced a huge challenge this year when COVID-19 hit and essentially shut down their operations. Alonda has led the team to be able to lean into the potential of the moment and have experienced some surprising benefits from the tumult of 2020.
Embracing virtual meetings has allowed teammates from disparate locations to get involved in shaping the organization’s vision in a way that would never have been possible before.
Backed by the power of their community who believe in the stand that the YMCA has taken against systemic injustice, the organization has been able to provide food and childcare to first responders and reduce barriers to access essential goods and services.
We love that Alonda’s leadership is rooted in a deep empathy and wisdom of what her community needs, based on her own lived experience of the connections between health and racial inequity.
She reminds us… “We can do this, we can handle it. After coming through 2020, we can handle anything.”
• • •
Disparate Impacts Of Health Inequities
We must understand the disparate impacts of health inequities as it intersects with systemic racism. What we're learning with COVID is that certain populations are absolutely more impacted by this and other illnesses. In many cases, it’s the precursors to those illnesses or the pre existing conditions that will make someone more susceptible.
I’m passionate about understanding how to eliminate some of those barriers that might be in between great healthcare access and poor access. Personally, I’ve lost three people in my family to COVID, and two of them didn't have any pre-existing conditions. I'm curious about what made them susceptible, so we've explored that as a family.
Health has a lot of dimensions to it, and it's a cycle. If someone doesn't have access to health care, or even if they do, they don’t go. Black men, in general, don't go to the doctor as often as they should. Getting our men to go to the doctor and check up on things is crucial. We’re dealing with generational trauma too. Being able to prioritize mental health just as much as we prioritize physical health, that's so important.
Leveling The Playing Field For Marginalized Communities
Organizationally, we have a responsibility to impact inequitable systems. That means leveling the playing field whenever we can for marginalized communities. With the programs that we develop, with the access that we create, with who we include in our programs, how do we eliminate barriers? It might be cost, or transportation, or lots of things.
Personally, the opportunity is to influence those in my circle. That includes driving awareness of the need to go get a checkup with those that I love in my circle, making sure that they're not a statistic and part of that problem, educating my children to make sure that I'm not creating a generational cycle that can lead to health inequities. That includes being vulnerable, and sharing my own story, including how I stay healthy mentally, because that's so important.
The Emotional Cost Of Raising A Black Young Man In The Face Of Police Brutality
Being a mother of two kids, and of a boy in particular, when the murder of George Floyd happened, and countless others -- I mean, it just happens so often -- the impact on me is my son can’t go out of the house without me worrying. I have GPS on his phone so I worry if he's not home when he's supposed to. He gets annoyed by it, because I'm always checking on him, “Are you okay? You said you were gonna be here and now you're not.” That’s my being a mother of a black boy, that’s just what we deal with. It never gets easy. You never don’t feel it. That’s so exhausting.
Even worse, trying to have empathy for people who have to deal with the horrible trauma and tragedy of their son not coming home, and being able to completely relate to that fear and that feeling and “that could have been me” is also exhausting.
Working Better Together Amidst The Waves Of Change
Our team has actually been working incredibly well, probably better than in person, and that is due to our choice of technology - we use Microsoft Teams. During COVID it’s been a game changer that we can stay connected with people, and collaboration has increased exponentially. We have teams that didn't work together before in disparate locations as the Y has branches all over the place.
We have a team called Project Blue Sky, helping to define what virtual membership will be in the future. It’s made up of people that would never normally work together. In fact, I have an aquatics director who’s leading the value proposition of our virtual product. That would never happen in a physical world, we wouldn't think to include him. He expressed some interest, he had some background, and he's doing great.
We're really embracing virtual and know it's here to stay. So we’re asking, how do we continue to add value for our members over time?
Setting The Rhythm For Team Connection
We used to meet weekly, and now we meet daily. These stand ups have really set our rhythm. Everyday we cover hot topics, but on Wednesday, we go deep on a particular topic, and usually someone on the team will present. On Thursday, we do team building. We started out with fun games like Zoom Pictionary, and Guess the Desk.
Right after the murder of George Floyd, we used this time as a healing session. We use another tool called Klaxoon for brainstorming around becoming an anti-racist organization. Our organization has made that decision, so what does that mean for our team? Klaxoon allowed the introverts to really get involved because they can contribute in an anonymous way, but feel heard.
So now we have all these really good ideas from people on the team about ways that we can improve our ability to make people feel welcomed and bring their full selves to work.
Shifting Strategies Sustainably
One of the things many leaders are thinking about if your revenue’s been impacted by COVID, is sustainability and how to move forward. As a non-profit, we have earned income and contributed income. Membership is the largest line item for earned income, which goes to help support our operations.
We quickly had to consider that we can't charge people if they're not coming in, so how do we give them an opportunity to support us and continue the work that we're doing?
We were able to crowdsource a large amount of ideas to sort and process to determine what's viable. We determined what had high business value,what would be hard to do, where the low hanging fruit was, and implemented those. Then we built on the ideas that are next in the queue.
It has to do with this cross section of people that really wouldn't have even been invited to the meeting in the first place. I think the ideas are exponentially better, because we were able to get so many different people and voices to be heard. That wouldn’t have happened before.
Many of our members decided to stay with us and convert their dues to donations. So we were able to use that to provide that emergency childcare for free to first responders. We also partnered with some corporations to deliver meals to low income housing units, for all these kids from marginalized communities who were getting free lunch and various snacks and meals before and after school. We had our vans for transportation, so we were able to work with companies like Microsoft, for example, here in Bellevue. Their kitchens continued to cook meals, but the employees weren't coming in. So they partnered with us to deliver those meals to families. Our members helped us continue to support that great work.
Attracting People Aligned With What We Stand For
At the Y, we want to attract people who are really bought into our mission. Our mission is about being here for the community. Yes, when you’re part of the Y you can come and work out, but we also want you to volunteer and we also want you to make a friend. We also don't want you to just come in and sit on your bike and just do what you're doing.
We want you to be a part of the community and sit in the lounge and enjoy some coffee, and when we're doing a community event, we want you to participate. We also want you to participate in our journey to be anti racist. We want you to know that that's the pledge we've taken, and you can be a part of it. So don't be surprised when we stand up for something that we believe in.
Adapting For Resilience And Empathy
We can do this, we can handle it. After coming through 2020, we can handle anything.
My vision for my team is that we'll come out of this stronger, more resilient and more capable of innovating. In the face of complexity and chaos, we’ll be finding the beauty in the ashes, finding the opportunities, and we won’t be afraid to push ourselves to innovate.
I really hope we continue to rely on collaboration, and know that we can crowdsource ideas quickly, and come up with solutions. We’re increasing our capacity for empathy, and for each other.
We've discussed social justice not just within my team, but across our organization, and we've encouraged employees to go on their own journey. As the team experiences personal growth, we can move forward in a way that's much more compassionate, and much more connected to each other. Even virtually, we can feel more connected to people, allowing people to be more vulnerable, sharing our stories and allowing others to feel heard. That's a beautiful thing.
This takes courage to stand up and advocate for change. We’re trying to eliminate systemic barriers and identify that people are negatively impacted by these social determinants of health. We get a lot of backlash.
As a leader, when you step out and you're courageous, and you do the right thing, you don't always get the confirmation that yes, this is the right thing. You have to really be centered in that and know that. Regardless of what comes, I’m centered, and I can feel comfortable knowing that whether I get any accolades or not, I can lay my head down at night, knowing that we did the right thing.
• • •
Join The Tour & Get Your Free Guide Book!
Use this collection of 28 self reflection prompts and team activities. Each one is designed to support you in exploring empathy, and building a work culture in alignment with your values and vision.