Building Equity-Based Summers (BEBS) Podcast
In this monthly podcast we talk about topics that help library staff and communities build services that are equitable. Learn more about the project on our site: https://equitybasedsummers.org
Building Equity-Based Summers (BEBS) Podcast
Episode #7: Balancing Thoughtful Progress with Equity Goals
In this episode we talk about the importance of taking a pause to reflect on the ways in which summer practices are and are not working towards equity.
You may also want to listen to our episode devoted to the topic of time as pausing and reflection require taking time for those activities.
Building Equity-Based Summers is funded in part through the Institute of Museum and Library Services..
Hi everybody, welcome to our seventh episode in the Building Equity-Based Summers podcast. I'm Linda Braun and I'm one of the co-hosts, and I am here with. Who am I here with?
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. Lakeisha Kimbrough, just part of the Building Equity-Based Summers team and Linda's co-host.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. Today we're talking about pausing and the importance of pausing and reflection and thinking about urgency and momentum and power, and so we just have this really equity-based conversation about those topics, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, some thinking and some wondering about what it might mean to pause and where some of the challenges might lie when we're thinking about pausing. So, like Linda, you and I often talk about pausing and slowing down like what's that mean and how can we do that in the midst of um, like when all the things are happening right, like your program's getting ready to start, you're trying to get vendor right forms filled out, you're trying to get things scheduled and calendared, and and then life is also happening in the library with you around the things.
Speaker 1:so I don't know, and well as Lakeisha, as you're talking about that, that made me think like if you're, you know, scheduling programs and doing this and doing that all for summer, is you need to pause? And you should have paused earlier to say am I do? Are these things helping me to build equitable summer services?
Speaker 1:right so if you stop and ask, go back to the why which we've talked about. Right, right, think about. Like I need to start by just figuring out if all these things I'm making myself crazy about doing are really supporting the why, because I guess maybe I don't know why I was clapping my hands, I guess maybe that a lot of those things people would realize, oh, this isn't supporting the why. So maybe we need to pause and reflect on really what we're trying to achieve and how we're going to do that right, yeah, and I think, I think, um remembering that it's okay to pivot.
Speaker 2:If, when you do slow down, when you do pause, you're like, oh, this isn't fitting right now, let me bring this, bring this to my team. If, if I don't have the sole decision making power in that, um, that it's okay to pivot and say, like, we're going to try this again another time, another way. Um, and if we are wanting to center the well-being of ourselves, of our team, if we're so frenzied, um, that may not. If there are ways to to, um, we're slowing down and pausing, allow us to see how to unfrenzy, and that might be one less program, or it might mean, um, you know, switching the time of a program. It might. Are we the best folks to take the lead on this program? Maybe we're supporting, you know, a community partner who is doing something similar, and we're reaching the same, the same outputs will happen, the same outcomes will happen. So I think, and then you know, you know, as I'm thinking, one of the things I thought of too is, uh, is there a stigma around the word pause?
Speaker 2:or what are people's felt experiences with pause? Because I think sometimes it's seen as stopping exactly and not coming back to right.
Speaker 1:So I'm wonder, linda, well, and pause means reflection, right, I mean, it's not the literal definition, but when we talk about pausing, we're talking about breathing and reflecting right right not like I'm not doing anything. You actually are doing something. It's just not like that hyper urgent. We got to do all this stuff right now and if you can allow yourself to pause and reflect, sometimes it takes practice, I think right because I do too.
Speaker 1:I think that, and if you can allow yourself to do that, I think not only will you um, you'll understand, like, what is working, what isn't working, what you need to like, rethink and fit your why. And I also think the other thing about pause is that colleagues might not think it's right, it's that you're doing something.
Speaker 2:So then how do you just talk with your colleagues about the value of pausing to reflect right, reimagine right, yeah, yeah, and I think so, and I think it's um, when we when, when we're talking about pause, we're talking about, as you said, reflection, and what are we centering here and are we moving some of the questions we might ask in that pause? Right, and that might literally be.
Speaker 2:I just need to pause for five minutes and catch my breath, or 30 seconds and catch my breath because I'm I feel like I'm being pulled in all these directions and I, if I just pause, right, what am I being asked to do right now? Right, right, and then use some of that pause to ask questions Is this centering our why? Is this centering equity? Is this am I taking on too much? Is there a partner that I can work with, whether that's a partner on my team or it's a community partner, or? But to ask ourselves right to, to give ourselves the permission of remembering that pausing actually can gift us so many things, and we can also ask in that pause is this urgency or momentum?
Speaker 1:right, I was just gonna say let's talk about urgency and momentum. Lakisha, talk about right, like momentum.
Speaker 2:I, for me, I always think about momentum as, um, things are moving along well, they're progressing, um, there's, there's a flow, um, we're, we're, we're on track with things. We might need to shift some things. Things are moving, they're flowing, they're going, they're working, and there may be pauses in the momentum. Right, urgency is I have to get this done right now. If I don't get this done, something's going to fall apart.
Speaker 2:In urgency, we often um are not slowing down and so we often what happens, not always, but often um, then we get into binary thinking more quickly. It's yes, no either, or right, because we have to make those hurry up quick decisions, um, for whatever reasons, are associated with the urgency in that moment. Urgency also supports burnout and supports overwhelm. Yeah, and this is not to say that there are not times where things are urgent and when we do need to move quickly or we need to react or respond quickly. However, giving ourselves the opportunity to just pause really quickly and ask what's the reason for the urgency is, this is what's the reason for the urgency, and being able to pause and reflect on that, because sometimes we will realize oh yeah, there's a deadline here, this has to happen and this is not a deadline, that.
Speaker 2:I have control over or you know somebody else like I can't shift this deadline um. So we do need to act. You know soon to get things done to meet this deadline. So we do need to act, you know soon to get things done to meet this deadline. Understandable. No, there should be no shame or guilt in that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think, when we move and when we move in momentum, we give ourselves opportunity to reflect. We give ourselves opportunity to really engage in power sharing with community, engage in power sharing with our staff, because maybe it's pausing, maybe along that momentum track and trail we're realizing oh, maybe it's one of our volunteers who actually has thoughts or insights that support this work, maybe it's a member of our custodial staff. If we're like, oh, I'm not even sure who to talk to in the community, when we're moving in momentum, we're able to have conversations with one another, we're able to lean in and see, I don't have to be the one who has all the answers or has to figure it out, because I'm allowing other things to come into the space and and help the flow and help the the movement of this yeah, you're the two things together the pause and the momentum.
Speaker 1:Momentum versus urgency are making me think that for each, you have to reflect and ask questions, right, you can't just go with pausing and sitting and not asking yourself questions right With urgency or momentum you just said. You need to ask yourself why is this urgent? Is this really urgent, what? Why am I feeling? And also I think a part of that is why am I feeling this sense of urgency?
Speaker 1:Right Because often it seems to me that we create urgency and we feel urgency right, like we, and for some reason I've done it many a time. I feel like, oh, this is, this is, and I feel it right, it's a part of my body, a part of the way I'm behaving, and so we create the urgency even in just sort of our active being, if that makes sense, right. And momentum, as if I'm thinking about how I'm feeling. Momentum is like oh right, it's a much calmer kind of thing, you're not all riled up.
Speaker 1:I keep thinking of like a guinea pig on a wheel or hamster on a wheel, whatever it is right, but momentum I just feel like, oh, I can be a little chill here, right, I it's, I'm moving with a moment, I'm asking questions, I'm thinking things through, but I don't have to be a wound up toy, right that?
Speaker 2:is just moving all around yeah, and and to be able to recognize in momentum. We're able to recognize oh, developments are happening, Things are still taking place. We're able to see yep, this is on track. That's great. This isn't on track. I'm curious, why not Like? And what does on track mean?
Speaker 1:for this.
Speaker 2:Because, maybe because sometimes I think that's where the urgency comes in the plan or the the um. The plans are happening as we thought it would happen, right? Um, we've sketched out our timeline, we have all the things and something impacts our timeline right and sometimes shifts us into this. Oh, oh, my gosh, the lack of sense of control.
Speaker 1:It is that's what you're describing, sorry, it's just like oh of course, right, go ahead keep going, no, and I'm so.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about that. I'm also thinking about, um, how we've been so taught to have our checklists for the day, our to-do lists, and, um, sometimes urgency, that sense of it has to get done, is because we're looking at our list, like I can't have too many things on my list carry over into the next day and we get, we start to feel urgency in our bodies which then, as you mentioned, causes us to react where, if we pause and say, okay, on this list, what does actually need to take place today versus it would be great if I could get through these things today, and the world is not going to stop if these five things on this list get pushed back right, um. So I think sometimes that the way we've been taught, trained, conditioned, um, you know, throughout the course of our lives, in a variety of ways, um also invites us into urgency and we sometimes forget to not accept that invitation yeah, yeah, you're, I'm wondering, uh, adding the equity piece to this, I mean, we're always talking about it, however, and I'm wondering.
Speaker 1:So, when people are working in urgency and you mentioned that you go to the binaries and those kinds of things and if you have a to-do list, I wonder how many times people are like, oh yeah, I should be building these equitable practices. I mean, this is a little and oh, sorry, I don't have time, right? So, like what we're talking about with BEBS and ways to reimagine, rethink that when you've got your urgency and your to-do list those things we've even had people tell us this, right, you?
Speaker 1:just don't do them because you're urgently doing something else that might not be so urgent, right and so. I think that the equity piece often falls by the wayside because it means you have to pause, you have to think, you have to reflect.
Speaker 2:Right, we have to reflect, yeah, and so I wonder. That makes me too wonder, like, how do we create when we're building processes, how do we create the process or build into the process reflection, and how will we center? How will we continue to center equity even when, right, like even when, because we know it's not as if we're going to get to some magical place where we're never going to experience urgency again?
Speaker 2:yeah, right, and sometimes, sometimes it's not us, sometimes it's someone else that's operating in a place of urgency and it comes right, yeah, um, and we might not always feel like so I do want to acknowledge this we might not always feel like we can say to that person hey, I wonder why this is so urgent. Maybe we don't feel like we have agency to ask that question of that person, and so then we get pulled in right to that that urgency vacuum. And so where is our agency in that space? And our agency in that space is to pause ourselves and to be aware that this is not our urgency, it's someone else's urgency. And how? How then do I move forward If I don't feel like I can ask that question to slow that person down or what have you? And coming back to with equity, how do we build in? Because we know that that urgency is going to creep in, we know that there will actually be moments of urgent things that need urgent attention, um, so how do we build in? How we will respond?
Speaker 1:right, right and how do we practice that response so that it becomes just part of exactly our nature? You know the other thing when you were talking about. You know, sometimes you can't say to someone why is this urgent, is this urgent, etc. And it made me think about about power dynamics, right?
Speaker 1:yes wonder how much that happens, not when it's someone you know, colleague, who is on the same, you know, whatever scale. What do you call that? Um, yeah, whatever, um. Or you know someone you have a relationship with. If it's someone who you feel or and or does hold power over you, then you're more likely to get sucked into that urgency and really thinking about how the power dynamics are having a play in how you respond and how you plan to respond, because you were talking about you know what being prepared for those situations. I think, if it is, someone in power.
Speaker 2:It even puts more whatever, exactly Right, yeah, yeah. And then that makes me to think about for folks who are in positions of power and in decision making spaces, how can we build that in um, the opportunity for um building having that be part of our culture of care in our spaces where we are able um to ask those types of questions or um, you know, is there a way?
Speaker 2:I know I've been in spaces where, um, it's, it's agreed that if someone starts going off on a, on a tangent or a trail, um, that yay is is a great one. Um, however, we need to kind of come back to where we are. Uh, I've been in spaces where there's like a picture of a squirrel in the corner and the agreed upon thing is like to point to the squirrel, right, like you're squirreling, yeah, let's go. Um, so is there a way? Um, maybe it is just being able to ask that question, or maybe it's being able to say oh, I wonder what it would feel like to catch a breath in this moment, like what is that thing or that, that way to help us notice that that's happening and if we're be able to confront power in that way whether it's your own power, right you can right own power right somebody else having power over you and and taking some responsibility and working to find ways to, yeah, circumvent urgency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's super interesting, yeah curious, linda.
Speaker 2:As we think about pausing, sometimes it might be helpful to give ourselves something to try on and um, and then a time that we will try that on. So I have been, as we're talking, thinking about what's my invitation to myself, um, something that I want to try on that will support me in being able to embrace the gift of pause, and I'm not quite sure how long I'll. I'll do that, but I'm wondering if that's that's something that, um, that maybe our listeners might be interested in thinking about, like, what is something that I might do that allows me to embrace pause?
Speaker 1:right and thinking about all the things we talked about. We gave some different ideas, right of questions to ask and ways to go about it?
Speaker 2:how will you accept and embrace the gift of pause?
Speaker 1:yeah, I love that. Thank you, lake Lakeisha. Thanks Linda. See you next month.
