Solutions Start With Listening

It's not easy to be a leader today. Whether you run a business, company, corporation, large institution, nonprofit organization, classroom, or household, leadership presents unique challenges in the 21st century.?

Listening is a good way to turn those challenges into opportunities.

I get my fair share of opportunities to turn challenges into opportunities as a parent, a journalism teacher for middle school students, and the executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation , a nonprofit youth and community development organization.

??Listening as a Parent

As the father of three kids (ages 16, 12, and 9), I am getting better at balancing work and life. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I was doing some work. My 9-year-old son asked me if I could help him make pancakes.?

At first, I said, "Give me a minute." He wasn't happy. But I wasn't going to disappoint him.?

I took a break, and he pulled up a recipe on his iPad for pancakes with water (since we were out of milk). We made a quick batter, heated up the griddle, and flipped some pancakes together. I fried up some bacon, and 15 minutes later, my son had a belly full of pancakes and bacon.?

Then, I went back to work. He was happy because I listened.

?? Listening as a Teacher

A few weeks ago, I started teaching a journalism class as an after-school program at Ella Baker School in Minneapolis. The students are in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. One of the seventh graders, a 13-year-old, has a lot of energy. He is a bright and talented kid, but sometimes his energy can be misguided.

At his first class, during our break, he asked if he could go outside and play basketball.

I said no, not this time. He didn't like that response and started grumbling about it. When we got back to class, he started being disrespectful and disruptive, cussing and throwing papers around the room. I told him to stop.?

That didn't work.?

We had a guest speaker on Zoom scheduled, and he continued to be disruptive. This encouraged other students to be disruptive.

The class did not end well.?

After all the disruptive students had left, one student remained. I know this student through our youth development program. He is a great kid, and we have built a level of trust and mutual respect. I asked him about the disruptive and disrespectful behavior. He said the disruptive and disrespectful behavior was normal. That's how it is with most students in every class every day.

After that class, I thought about how I could engage the disruptive student and get him to stop being disruptive in future classes.

The next time I saw him in class, I changed my approach.?

"Welcome back," I said.

"Is it going to be boring like last time?" he asked.

"We have a lot of fun stuff planned today," I said.

He still didn't seem interested. I asked him what interested him. He said sports.

He told me he had just been at the girls flag football practice before joining us for journalism class. He told me there wasn't a boys flag football team.?

"If there was a boys flag football team, would you play on it?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

I told him we could do a story in our journalism class on why the school doesn't have a boys flag football team. We could use the story to create change and get a boys flag football team at the school. It could be a collaborative story with the class, and he could lead the team in producing the story.?

"Would that interest you?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

I explained how we would do the story.

Talk to the male students at Ella Baker and determine how many of them would be interested in playing on a boys flag football team.

Talk to teachers, administrators, and parents to determine how many adults in the school community would support a boys flag team.

Find out why there isn't a boys flag football team at the school. Talk to the athletic director, girls flag football coach, the principal, and anyone else at the school who would know. Ask them how the school could have a boys flag football and who the decision-makers are.

Talk to other school communities (students, faculty, parents) to see if they would be interested in having boys flag football teams at their schools and we could start a league.

Once we have the support of students and school communities, talk to the decision-makers in the school district, let them know about the community support for a boys flag football team, and see what steps need to be taken to get a boys flag football team at Ella Baker and other schools.

After building the social capital, you (the students) can write the story. We can publish the story on the Ella Baker News website, and we can share it with other local news sites to amplify the story and bring the issue to the attention of more decision-makers.

If the decision-makers are good leaders, they will listen to the community and respond with a decision that meets the needs of the community. The ideal outcome is that Ella Baker gets a boys flag football team along with other Minneapolis Public Schools.

This is the power of community-centered journalism and the foundation of our youth journalism program.

? Identify the local issue

? Investigate

? Mobilize social capital

? Propose solutions

? Hold power accountable

? Create change

This type of journalism has created change with MPS before thanks to a local news reporter and organization serving their community and creating solutions for the community. Becky Dernbach is the education reporter at Sahan Journal , and her work helped get Minneapolis Public Schools to reverse proposed cuts to Somali and Hmong language programs. A week after MPS proposed extensive cuts to its heritage language programs, Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams announced the reversal at the school board meeting and apologized.

A big reason for the turn of events was Dernbach's connections with Minnesota parents, students, and communities. She explained the story in a Sahan Journal Sunday newsletter:

"Many factors went into her decision—two community petitions, parental pressure at school board meetings, and her conversations with people affected by the proposed cuts. But one of my sources told me that the district’s response also seemed to be a result of the questions I was asking."

There are many things to celebrate with this story.

? Parents standing up for the education of their kids

? Immigrant parents and communities of color advocating for culturally relevant education, a top priority for many parents and students

? An education leader (Sayles-Adams) listening to the community and responding with a decision that meets the needs of the community

? A journalist (Dernbach) amplifying the voices of the community and asking the right questions to create positive community change

? A news organization (Sahan Journal) explaining the backstory of a story in a newsletter to show how journalism is done and why journalism matters

Our story with our youth journalism program at Ella Baker can be another powerful example of how local news reporters (students in this case) can use journalism to serve their community and create solutions for the community.

It all starts with listening.

By listening, I learned how to channel the energy of a young student in a positive direction. Now, that student is a leader in our journalism class and on his way to becoming a changemaker.

?? Listening as an Executive Director

I love surveys and feedback. Information and data can help make things better. After every Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation community event, we send out a survey to the participants. I enjoy reading all of our survey results.?

For our fourth and most recent intergenerational community solutions with youth workshop, we took a focus issue chosen by youth at our third session — disengagement in school — and we dove into taking action by activating prior knowledge, learning about types of action, and facilitating youth-driven actions. Leaning on conversation and integrating elder strengths and knowledge about action with youth-focused outcomes worked well.

This workshop focused on putting solution ideas into action and had a little different format than our previous workshops. Those earlier workshops helped us generate solution ideas, but we struggled to put those ideas into action. As a result, after our latest workshop, we were able to get some great feedback.

All of the participants enjoyed the workshop. One of the team leaders had a great recommendation on how we could future workshops better.

"I think there need to be more concrete steps to support students in deveoping and enacting their Knowledge to Action ideas. At the middle school level, this can take a lot of support at least the first few times as students build their understanding and skills. If we continue to do these types of workshops I think it would be beneficial to map a full cycle before we launch so that we have clear steps and supports in place for each workshop that build to action. We're learning a lot as we do each workshop and it would be nice to think about what a full K2A cycle might look like in terms of how many sessions and plan what each session entails so that the students have clear expectations and time to gather after they've taken action to celebrate."

We use a Knowledge to Action process as a framework for the goals of our community solutions work. This work is aligned with this K2A focus, which started at Ella Baker in collaboration with World Savvy , a national education organization headquartered in Minneapolis. World Savvy partners with educators and community leaders to help teach students how to be responsible global citizens. With our diverse country, interconnected global economy, and complex collective challenges, World Savvy recognizes the education system requires a new kind of teaching and learning experience to prepare the next generation.

Knowledge to Action (K2A) is part of that reimagining. K2A is a multistep process where youth learn about an issue, research potential solutions to address the root causes, think about how they can impact the issue, and devise an action plan to create positive change.

This knowledge to action approach is similar to the DECIDE framework designed by Professor Kristina Guo, which was created in 2008 to help healthcare managers make the right decisions.?

The DECIDE process consists of six steps:

D = Define the problem.

E = Establish the criteria.

C = Consider the alternatives.

I = Identify the best alternative.

D = Develop and implement a plan of action.

E = Evaluate the solution.

The objective is to find practical solutions and minimize mistakes.?

Being good at problem-solving is an important skill to have. We want to help young people sharpen this skill and gain confidence to share and implement their ideas. They have good ideas (sometimes great), and we can learn from them and grow.?

That is why the focus of our community solutions work is putting children first. Youth are a vital part of our community solutions team. We give them the training, tools, and opportunity to be community problem-solvers and create positive change in the communities where they live, work, and play.?

As Ella Baker, the civil rights and human rights activist, said, "Give light, and people will find the way."

Now, it is time to listen to our team's feedback and make our program stronger.

?? Listening to the Whole Community

We are living in highly polarized times and can build bridges through better listening. This is what MPR is doing with a new initiative called Talking Sense. Launched in February, during this divisive election year in the United States, Talking Sense is a partnership between MPR News and nonprofit organization Braver Angels to create "an online and in-person platform to help Minnesotans have hard conversations, better."

"Talking Sense will teach Minnesotans how to think through these challenging political conversations in advance, without letting the need to 'win' and change minds stand in the way of preserving important relationships."

As Duchesne Drew , senior vice president of American Public Media Group and president of Minnesota Public Radio, explains: "MPR News and Braver Angels share a common goal: to foster meaningful connection and conversation among Minnesotans who differ politically. We believe a diversity of perspectives enriches our communities and that civic engagement strengthens our country."

We need to listen to the whole community and give all voices the opportunity to be heard, even if we disagree with them. We are not seeing that. Vigorous debate might be uncomfortable, but it is essential to the public's ability to reach informed and sound conclusions.?

Look at the pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses in the United States and USC's unprecedented decision to cancel valedictorian Asna Tabassum's commencement speech, followed by the cancellation of all commencement speakers.?

?As USC professors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Karen Tongson wrote in the Daily Trojan, "This is a teachable moment."

It starts by listening. According to the British Heart Foundation, anyone can practice active listening to help more people feel more valued, reduce conflicts, and create solutions.

Here are 10 tips on how to practice active listening.

1. Face the speaker and have eye contact.
2. "Listen" to non-verbal cues. These can be facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.
3. Do not interrupt.
4. Listen without judging, or jumping to conclusions.
5. Do not start planning what to say next.
6. Show that you are listening. You can do this by nodding, smiling, or making small noises like "yes" or "uh huh." Do not fidget or be distracted.
7. Do not impose your ideas or solutions. If you have to share your brilliant solution, ask first if they want to hear it: "Would you like to hear my suggestions?"
8. Stay focused. Repeat their words in your head if you are having trouble concentrating.
9. Ask questions.
10. Paraphrase and summarize. Repeating what has been said shows you've been paying attention, and allows the speaker to correct you if you haven't understood.

Change is the only constant. This idea goes back to the days of Greek philosopher Heraclitus over 2,500 years ago, and it's still true in every aspect of life. From personal relationships to business to global affairs, things either get better or worse. Nothing stays the same.

We cannot be afraid to lead with empathy and listen. This is where progress starts.