Building Together: Reflections from Battle Creek
“I am saying that a journey is called that because you cannot know what you will discover on the journey, what you will do with what you find, or what you find will do to you.”
— James Baldwin
Meeting the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex and interconnected world requires a new leadership journey, one which connects and equips diverse local leaders to be effective agents of collective community-led change. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network with the Center for Creative Leadership® has responded to this need with its innovative fellowship for leaders in local communities and the national child- and family-serving ecosystem to connect, grow and lead collaborative transformational change on behalf of children, families and communities.
As the fourth class of the 18-month fellowship got underway in Battle Creek, Mich., home of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), president and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron shared that, “We do this work by building trust among ourselves, within our communities and with those who we serve. There is no hero in the work. It is the steady work of collective action, of people who know how to move people to action.” She noted that Mr. W.K. Kellogg, who established WKKF in 1930, personally believed in cooperative planning, collective study and group action. A natural extension of the foundation’s 96-year commitment to leadership development, this fellowship engages fellows with diverse lived experience from communities across the country.
Tabron concluded that, “We need to find our own humility and stand side-by-side with those who we are working with. Find your strength in others. Don’t try to do this work alone. Trust building is also key to the journey; it’s what attracts and keeps people connected to the vision.”
The stories of the five fellows that follow illuminate the path to self-discovery and the power of working together on behalf of children, families and communities. Expressing the enthusiasm of the WKKF and Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) team that will support the fellows throughout the program, Shera Clark, program director and global solutions faculty at CCL, captured the spirit of the fellowship and called for the fellows to step into this work with intention and purpose: “As you begin this journey, I invite you to lead with courage, lead with curiosity, lead with humility and lead with hope. The work of improving lives, especially the lives of children, demands leaders who believe that change is possible and who are willing to do the work to make it real.”
Chelsea Bellon is a member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota Oyate (Yankton Sioux Tribe) who now lives in Washington after spending the last 15 years serving Tribal Nations in Montana. She is dedicated to strengthening Indigenous birthing sovereignty and advancing community-rooted maternal health.
Reflecting on the program activities, Chelsea noted the beauty in learning other people’s stories, active listening and the collaborative energy that both create. “In the last two days, I have found myself with my mouth open in shock when someone shares about their personal journey or facts about themselves. As cliché as it is, it really reminded me that you can’t assume or judge somebody based on just a quick 30-second introduction. There’s so much more to a person’s story and what brings them to the leadership space.”
She observed that, “When we’re in a space with other leaders there’s this collaborative energy around us that we’re sharing. It naturally and unintentionally becomes a space where you’re being a thought partner and there’s a lot of exchange. I’m finding that, with active listening, sometimes people don’t want unsolicited advice or comments. We can just listen, which creates energy in the room.”
One tip Chelsea will remember and use in her future leadership work is on giving and receiving feedback: “When you give feedback, provide four positive items and, rather than one negative, instead offer something that you can support in the development of your staff or your team,” she said.
“Respecting the space between a statement and just letting it be has been a really beautiful lesson.” — Chelsea Bellon, WKKF Community Leadership Network fellow
Tatiana Bustos is a community psychologist and systems change leader who currently works in Washington state as a research scientist at RTI International where she directs transformative research projects and engagement strategies to lead with “people-first” science.
The Direction + Alignment + Commitment (DAC) Model for Leadership® , which captures the outcomes of leadership and how the whole system is involved in making leadership happen, immediately resonated with Tatiana. “It helped me make sense of why there is chaos in team dynamics and when there’s an imbalance in harmony,” she said. When something is going wrong, I have to go back to those three core components of the model and think about whether we are misaligned, if there is conflict in our values system, or if I’m not communicating direction clearly enough.”
Tatiana said, “As I’m listening, I’m often calculating. I’m processing information very quickly, maybe boxing it in a framework. At times, it’s important to just actively hear what the other person is sharing—to be in the moment with intention and absorb the information, as opposed to calculating and making it fit with all the other things going on in my head.”
She also observed that: “I think the model will greatly impact my community work. A lot of my role is to listen with intention to communities in order to translate what they share into research projects, program designs, metrics or whatever the ‘product’ is in a given case. Whatever I’m working on, I’m trying to center the community’s priorities, voices and needs.”
“You can see the seeds of what could be when you start listening with intention.” — Tatiana Bustos, WKKF Community Leadership Network fellow
Ronald Marshall is dedicated to breaking barriers for formerly incarcerated people and helping families and children heal from generational trauma. He serves as the chief policy analyst for Voice of the Experienced in New Orleans where he works at the crossroads of justice lobbying, trauma healing and civic power building.
“I do this work because of the aftereffect: the impact it has on the families and children I serve. If I wasn’t getting a paycheck, my commitment level would still be there. I was once that 12-year-old kid in a cell, so my commitment is not tied to a paycheck, it’s tied to my lived experience.”
Reflecting on the importance of taking a holistic approach to building relationships, Ronald shared that, “Love and care cannot happen at first sight, they only happen when people go through something together, when you overcome something together. You have to show up and listen with intent—listen with your whole body—that’s how you hear a person’s humanity. You have to tune into the dimension a person is speaking from. Heart is their passion. Spirit is their legacy. Mind is their education. Body is their labor. In relationships, and when we’re going through interpersonal things, we always need to tune into these dimensions, otherwise a relationship has a high risk of failing.”
He noted that, “I don’t draft a piece of legislation if I’m not hearing from the incarcerated brothers and sisters who are impacted by it. I’m a conduit to do whatever it is they need to get done—that’s active listening in my community.”
“Listen with your whole body.” — Ronald Marshall, WKKF Community Leadership Network fellow
Nathana Bird is an Indigenous community advocate and co-director of a Native women-led organization in the Española Valley of New Mexico. She works to advance environmental, reproductive and gender justice through programs that uplift youth and families.
“Working at the nexus of education policy and Native communities is a space that requires deep relational trust,” Nathana said. “I keep thinking in terms of a garden: How are we tending the environment we create with folks? Everybody has a gift—something that they are coming with. How are we nurturing each of the folks on our team and nurturing ourselves to create a healthy environment so everyone can thrive, and so we’re able to really move forward in a way that is helpful and in alignment with the cause?”
On learning new ways of giving and receiving feedback and what she’ll take with her, Nathana shared that, “There are three things we ask for when we give feedback: to stop something, to start something or to continue something and I have to remember those things so that I am very clear in what I’m asking for and also allowing space for a reciprocal relationship. I’ll also remember that how I perceive myself may not be how others perceive me; I really need to sit and do my own internal work. I need to remember that I can be a little quiet and there are areas where, maybe, I need to either step in more or see that as a strength. I need to consider how it impacts me as a leader.”
She said, “I’m also aware of the value of building a network and being in this space with other people who know the language and the landscape—people who have a true investment in the well-being of their community and its children. It’s really powerful to know that I can rely on people like my accountability partner to provide a perspective that I may not be seeing.”
“How are we tending to the garden?” — Nathana Bird, WKKF Community Leadership Network fellow
Cindy Eggleton often says that she is living her purpose as co-founder and CEO of Brilliant Cities. Her role focuses on connecting people and communities to envision Kid Success Cities, which engage people to self-determine what matters most for themselves and their families.
“Often, I see that people are not totally clear on what problem they’re solving for—or they think they are clear but there is not consensus—everyone is solving for something a little different,” Cindy said. “These roadblocks happen both on the alignment and the commitment side, which is why I feel like the Direction + Alignment + Commitment (DAC) framework helps to clarify the where and the how.”
Something that stood out to Cindy during the gathering was the importance of active listening to truly understand. “At this point in life, I’ve learned it’s not what you know or what you present, it’s how well you listen. Hearing others’ stories is a way that we can see where people struggle and seeing the struggle is always the strength. If you can understand that and get through it, it propels you to something new. In our organization, we have a set of principles and one of them is ‘with, by and for,’ which means that we trust people to know what is best for them. We walk alongside others’ power, which you can’t do without listening and learning who someone is without judgement.”
Cindy observed that,“Developing relationships is vulnerable. First, you have to remember that people are sharing something they wouldn’t normally share. Second, you are not only getting to know a person, but understanding their world and what they are experiencing. Third, it’s remembering that it is both inspiring and an honor to hear other people’s stories.”
“The struggle is always the strength.” — Cindy Eggleton, WKKF Community Leadership Network fellow
During the gathering, Paul Martinez, the chief leadership and human capital officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, shared the story of his migrant farmworker father, noting that had circumstances been different, he personally might have benefited from the foundation’s grants and programs, rather than now be working at the foundation. He encouraged the fellows to work together, honor diverse perspectives and do the deep inner work of leadership development, and he ended with a simple invitation: “Lean in, my friends, lean in.”