Communicating In Crisis In Education

Welcome to the Future of Education. I'm intrigued and excited about this conversation that we're about to have with Heather Vega. Welcome, Heather, to the show first. But I'll say this is a conversation that I've been really excited to have because. And Heather reached out to me, actually, after hearing me talk about it on a podcast where I was talking about the importance of communicating well in times of crisis for really any leader, but particularly for educators, and particularly right now in Covid. And Heather is a communications professional who works with schools. And so, Heather first, welcome. And I'd love you to just talk about how you got into the field of communications and working with schools and education leaders in particular, just so people have a sense of your why and your background.

Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me, Michael. I'm really excited to be here. So I actually started with education kind of by accident. I think a lot of people do in some ways. I was a reporter who had these very big dreams about how I could only write about comedians. And it turns out that's not a successful path in life. But I was really fortunate to get an opportunity to be a reporter at a local Bay Area newspaper, and education was my main beat. By the time I decided it was time for me to leave for a variety of family reasons and other goals. And education was really important to me. I could see the importance of it. I could see the impact of it. It was helpful for me in reflecting on my own path with challenges that I didn't realize I had along the way. And I was really fortunate to find Larson Communications, which focuses on education. And we work exclusively with those in the nation who want to help and want to help students do better. And it's through schools, it's through nonprofits. It's through people, people trying to invoke change in a variety of ways. And so it was really lovely for me to be able to take that expertise in education and bring it to those who I think are doing impactful work in the nation.

Perfect. And to talk then about, actually, before we dive into sort of the advice that you give to folks in crisis, just talk about the types of education organizations that you're working with. What do your clients look like? Maybe list some of your favorites or things like that that are interesting to spotlight for people tuning in.

Yeah, absolutely. Our organization works with a variety of schools. We do work with a lot of charter schools, both single site as well as CMOs nationwide. We work with some nonprofits. We work with organizations who are really trying to politically change things. So that their students are central to everything happening. So it's a big spectrum within that. I personally work in a few different fields, so within my CMOs, Summit Public Schools is one of my longest clients. And also I was a reporter covering Summit. That's how I actually learned about Diane was a single site leader in my neck of the woods. So it's a long history there. But also organizations helping with teachers. So I happen to have. My specialty also includes a lot of teacher prep and teacher support with organizations like the California center on Teaching Careers and also really Graduate School of Education. So how do we. It's not only students, it's also our teachers. They make such a big impact. So I'm really excited about kind of having all of those aspects involved in my work.

Very cool. So that's. I think that's helpful for folks just to get a sense of where you spend your time with the folks you work with. And Summit is obviously a favorite of mine as well. So we have that in common too. So switching now to this conversation that I think is really important right now for so many education leaders across the country, both K12 and higher ed is communicating in crisis. And before we dive into the specifics of COVID and how maybe some of your advice has changed or been altered in that context, just from a sort of zoom out from a principal's perspective, when a school is in crisis, when crisis hits a community, when it impacts educators, what's your big pieces of. For leaders in education for them to think through as they're preparing their response?

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest challenges for educators, honestly, is this innate want to respond very quickly without taking a moment to really reflect and think about what you should be talking about and what is necessary. So things we think about a lot are building trust, speaking authentically, and also like how do you empower and collaborate with those you're communicating with? And I think those are really the big pillars of when you're talking about crisis. So what do people need to know? What can you share with them honestly? And. And sometimes just being comfortable saying you don't know yet. And those don't really change in our current context. It's just the details of them. Right. There's a lot of I don't know right now. And there's a lot of uncomfort with saying I don't know. And the frank reality is people are going to trust you, they're going to be more willing to partner with you, they're going to be more willing to go through These challenges with you when you are authentically and honestly saying I don't know but continuing to consistently communicate. And I think that's challenging for anybody in any situation. But that's very true right now.

It makes a lot of sense. And I'm glad you said the part about I don't know because there's so much we don't know right now and there's so much that people are hoping people in charge know right now and placing faith. But my experience is similar, which is when you go out and you start to make promises that you do know certain things that maybe you don't know, or the flip side, you ignore the area you know everyone wants to know X you don't know the answer, so you just sort of ignore it and gloss over it. It actually just leads to more questions often how does a leader learn to say I don't know confidently and sort of be able to enter into that conversation of how do we get more information together as a community or whatever the next steps are to fill in those voids, if you will.

That's a great question. I mean, part of it is just practice, right? And being confident in yourself and knowing we as a team will get through this. And I think that's so important in this moment. The school communities that are doing well are doing well because there is this authenticity of a leader saying I don't know, but I believe in us and I believe that if we work together, we're going to figure this out. And everything else is honestly things that you're going to be filling in the gaps as you go along. So if you are consistent, if you are honest and if you really are thinking about, if you're a K12 leader thinking about what do your teachers need to hear and what do your parents need to hear and having those mindsets when you're putting together anything you're going to communicate that will resonate with people, you're going to end up having people who are willing to sit in that uncomfort with you as long as you are consistently honest and they see as you do learn things, you're coming forward, you're showing that information like you're being forthcoming with it and you're being collaborative and inviting of ideas and that I don't see happening across everywhere. Right. I see small examples of schools that are, that are inviting parents in even though it's messy. And that's the other part of it. Right. Like we have a ton of stuff going on and it's scary to engage in something that you know is going to be messy and that anything in a crisis is messy. But to your point, if you gloss over it and you don't deal with it, it tends to only get worse.

So that I'm glad you just spoke to that because it's similar to my experience again, but. And it was a frustration of mine as a parent, frankly, over the last year, which is, I felt like, yeah, I know you don't know these things, but just open up on the decision making process even, or help us have a window into what are the sets of factors that you're thinking through. We're not going to think less of you right now. This is a really hard time. But if you can invite us in, we're going to be more sympathetic because we'll see it from your perspective as well. It seems, at least in my unscientific sort of looking across the landscape, that a lot of leaders have not done that or not been willing to open the doors and be super transparent. Is that unique to education or is that in your experience? That's, that's sort of writ large. That's just a very common reaction.

That's a great question. I, I don't know that it is unique to education, but I would say that it is exacerbated in education. And I think you and I are both young parents. We're parents of young children and should be in a different spot, honestly, this year with public schools than both of us are. If my podcast listening, yes, you're true in terms of your family decisions. But yeah, I mean, not having that transparency with parents is particularly problematic if, if anyone has ever had a chance to go to a city, a city council meeting, people are passionate. But if you go to a school board meeting, it is a different level of passion because you are talking about your child. That is a very different situation than a corporate leader. Right. You are talking about people's children. It's an emotional level that is different from any other organization. And so I do think that it's not unique in education, but it's unique because of the emotion that the rest of us bring into it because we are all ultimately invested in wanting the best for our children. And you want a partner in that who you believe wants the same thing. And really, if you think about the people that you trust in your life with your children, those honest moments are why you trust them. When you're able to be vulnerable, when you're able to say, I, I don't know this, but again, getting back to, okay, this is A mess, but we're going to figure it out together. And then when you get through that, that is really when you galvanize a community and bring them together. And I do think that that's part of the reason why. You see, for example, parents of young children this year nationwide, not trusting schools this year. They were an audience who was left out. That relationship wasn't there. And there probably wasn't bandwidth for a lot of leaders to try to build that in the middle of all of this, to be fair. But you see that result. The result is people with children who are 4, 5 and 6 are not enrolling their children because they don't have trust.

Yeah, no, it's a really good point. So let's go deeper then, into the COVID response and the particulars of the situation. Thinking about the decision to shut down schools up front, the decision over the summer of what will schools look like? What would. Where are places, like, places that did this? Well, what were the sets of moves that they made and what were things that you saw that education leaders did where you were like, oi, that is just. That's not going to help you in the long run.

Yeah. I mean, I think what is. It really does come back to, in some ways being overly optimistic and in other ways, just not being honest. Right. Like, we saw a number of schools, I know here in California, we had, you know, the first school that shut down for a week right before everybody shut down, and we all thought it's going to go back, and it did. And then you're shutting down again. And I think we're seeing that pattern repeat itself now where we're opening in New York and then we're shutting back down. And it really gets back to being honest about the fact that getting back to whatever normal becomes for us is going to perhaps be two steps forward, one step back. And what we've instead been talking about are these, like, very black and whites. We're going to reopen. And the reality is, like, we need to actually say we're going to try this and we need to all be on board with learning as we go along, is going to be part of it. Right. So some of the. I happen to be on a school board and it's a single side school. But one of the things I really loved about the planning process that I got to watch from afar was how the school leader created this insane, insanely phased plan. And the thing that has never wavered for the parents got to weigh in on it. But what didn't waver was they didn't set any timelines. Like, I still don't know when we're gonna get to this full phase of all the kids being back because they're like, look, we're gonna do this and we're gonna see how it goes and we're not gonna commit to something we can't actually commit to. And I think that's what's been challenging. And that's coupled with families wanting consistency for their kids. Right. So the honest answer is to not give that black and white response. But at the same time, there's that challenge for parents like you and I who want consistency for our children, for them to be successful. So that push pull isn't going to go away as we figure out what new normal is like, that's going to continue to be a challenge for everybody until we get back to whatever that becomes.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I've been struck actually at the higher ed level by the California State universities writ large because they made a very early call that we are not going to be in person next year. We're going all virtual. I think a lot of college presidents at the time said, oh my gosh, they've just destroyed their enrollments for the next year. And what we actually saw was that enrollments have gone up across the system. Not every single campus, but up across the system writ large. And my sense is that's because they were transparent and made an early decision with very clear communication that people said, well, I might not like it, but it's not going to change.

And there's trickle down effects for that in education for your whole family. Right. I mean, my family happened to choose to stay within our daycare provider where we have already entrusted our kids. I don't have any plans of changing that. My child is happy, he's safe. All of these things are in place and I'm so fortunate that that is the case. Right. And I think you're right. That's exactly what's happen within higher ed where you see people being very clear in an opportunity to be consistent, create that opportunity and say, like, how do we get better within what we have? And in some ways I think that's been missing broadly. Right. There's a. There are a lot of challenging adult conversations, but not always thinking about what's best for students that are happening in some of these things. Really what's best for students is how do we help them learn and how do we give them consistency so that they are in a safe learning environment. And that's at all age levels. And that's what you're seeing within our state, our state college system benefited from that.

Yeah, no, I think that's right. And it sounds like to me that what you're talking about also shows how critical communications is to the strategy making process and the decisions that you're making. It's not something that you. It's sort of like the afterthought. Right? Okay, now we gotta go communicate it. So. So this is embedded as you're talking in the strategy and decision making that you're doing real time. Right. Because it's part of the inclusivity, the transparency that I suspect is a big shift from how a lot of people think about communications. If I'm picking up correctly, your vibe there it is.

But what's crazy is it shouldn't be, right? I mean, you see people that have done some great work and having their community come along with them is because that's not something that they started in the crisis, it's something that they had continually already built and were able to build upon because then they already, they weren't starting with, hey guys, we can get through this together. They were like, hey guys, we always get through things. This is another thing for us to get through together. Here we go, right? Those are different starting points. And that is a real challenge that happened this spring because some people already had that. We're going to work together, we're going to figure out solutions. It might not look like it always does, but we are going to do it together. And other people really had to start with, well, this is what we want it to look like. And there was a struggle to get away from whatever that vision was for school, a teacher or a parent or a student. Those embedded what school should look like. Those were where you saw the bigger challenges, was getting people to just open up their mindset of what it could look like and to trust in change. That's a hard. That's a hard pivot to make for.

So. So I'm actually really curious about that because I think it goes a little bit to also how schools see their brands, right? So just to take an example, like Summit, which you know, has an entrepreneurial, innovative brand, lean startup, right? Like, we try things, we know that they don't all work. We learn from them, we make changes based on the data and we improve. Right. That that's sort of their brand, if you will. There's a lot of schools that I think the brand is much more what you started to lay out as that second, like this is what school looks like it's pristine and we have the image, and we have to uphold that image, and we're wed to it. Is that a predictor? If you like, how hard is it, if that's your brand, to then all of a sudden become this? We're going to build it together, we're going to work through it together, we're going to be transparent, and we're not always going to know, because that does feel like all of a sudden, a very different standpoint on the communications process. How hard is it for a school that maybe didn't have that in place to move to that place?

It's certainly hard. But I would actually say there's a couple things to think about in there that I've seen that might be outliers on it. So one, I would say some of the bigger challenges with that is actually, do you have the pieces set up? So in your summit example, for example, to use that further, they already had the technology in place. So for a lot of schools, it wasn't just, we're going to do this together. There was like some very basic logistical challenges that they didn't have in place because that wasn't part of their brand. Right. That they couldn't build on and they had to figure out. But then you have schools like we've had. I had an opportunity this spring to work with a leader of a Waldorf school, which is historically not tech friendly. And I even. I was like, help me out here. What does this look like? Because they feel like this goes against everything you stand for. And how do you even reconcile that within if this is what you believe is best? Because you're ultimately saying, we believe no to technology, but yes to video classrooms right now. And it was a really fascinating conversation because they said, at the end of the day, the idea is about how are we doing what's best for kids? And if we can create the engaging environment, but use this as the tool, that's the goal. And I was able to see the ways that they were creative with how. And in that instance, we're talking about little ones. It was in elementary school, but how do we just be creative with it? It's not a lecture situation. How do we use the same principles over this? What does that look like? And I think where people were successful was it wasn't necessarily their brand, but maybe their mindset. And I do think those can be intertwined, but I don't think they have to be. And in that mindset, right, like, their brand was like, not technology focused but they were successful because their brand also was what's best for kids. And like, what in this parameters can we do? And they used it as a creative challenge. So. So it's interesting because I can see what you're saying, and I do think that that's true in some instances, but it wasn't universally true.

And that's helpful. Right. I think separating the brand from mindset and purpose is what I hear in that is really an important step to being able to both be strategically nimble during these times, but then communicating right. And having that transparent disposition to bring people into the community to solve this together and make the communications part of your strategy is incredibly helpful. And as someone, we have a wonderful Waldorf school very nearby us and our kids want went there for the. For two years for preschool. It was interesting watching them struggle through, you know, through this moment as well. And so I can clearly see how that could play itself out in either direction. But the way you just articulated that is incredibly helpful. And I think a lot of folks that listen to this will find it so too. Last thoughts from you. I guess as we sort of wind up here, which is, you know, there's going to be a lot more challenges coming down the pipeline. We can't predict them. We're recording this, you know, a week before the election. There's going to be some change there and turmoil that is going to impact kids and schools in ways that we don't even know right now. Right. There's going to be more health events that occur. There's going to be lots of things that. That occur over the next week, over the next six months, over the next year and a half. I think that continue to throw this over big parting advice that you would give to someone who's thinking about how to communicate well as this continues to play out and continues to be a.

Dynamic situation, I would say always coming to the table with the first thought of students are central to everything we do. Right. No matter what grade level students are, why we're here and making sure that they're successful is why we're here. So as you're building trust, as you're being transparent, as you're thinking through what to communicate and why it should all be through the lens of what do students need to be successful and how are we going to be able to work together as a community to bridge those gaps. And again, just being brave enough to say we don't have all of the answers sometimes, because frankly, I think people need to hear that sometimes from a leader to be willing to engage. If they see that you are invested in the students and that you are committed to change and you are consistently showing up for that, people will support you and they're going to be part of the solution. And I think that that is true now, but I think that's true in almost any crisis.

That's terrific advice, I think, and it resonates with what I've seen working, and not just in education, frankly, but in a lot of arenas. And really appreciate your expertise and. And coming on and talking us through this to help us see a way forward amidst all the madness, but also seeing that importance of being vulnerable and honest as actually part of the strategy, if you will, to invite people to be on your team and help create what will ultimately be the plan. So, Heather, really appreciate it. And for those listening, how can they follow you and Larson PR and stay on top of all the work you're doing?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we're LarsonPR.com and all of our handles are. So I think those would be the best ways. Thank you for the opportunity.

Well, thanks so much. And thanks to everyone for tuning in to this episode of the Future of Education.