Changing the narrative - regreening a community | Lynn Wells

Lynn Wells, guest · [05:57]But at the same time, there was a, a crisis, brewing on the campus. First Nations University of Canada, which is a federated institution of the University of Regina, had gone through a challenging time in 2005, some critical matters around financial management and governance, and there was a report that was meant to address those, problems, but it was not acted on. and this led to a second crisis in early 2010, where the institution lost all of its funding and, faced, imminent collapse, really. It was a really dire situation. And in the midst of that, I ended up joining First Nations University of Canada as, the vice president of academics, so the senior academic officer, but also for a period as acting president.

Daniel Atlin, host · [06:53]That's such a defining moment in your leadership, stepping into an institution in pain and uncertainty. It sounds like where sensemaking becomes both a compass and at the same time a lifeline, and it's a recurring theme in your journey.

Lynn Wells, guest · [07:07]It was

Daniel Atlin, host · [07:07]a really,

Lynn Wells, guest · [07:09]unique challenge for me to, to take that on as a non-indigenous person, going into an institution that had experienced a great deal of trauma. Many people had lost their jobs. Many programs had been cut. There was, you know, great concern about the long-term stability of the institution. So joining that institution at that time really required me to get out of my comfort zone in a, in a big way, right? But also to learn. I did not know much about First Nations culture. I had spent a lot of time in ceremony, listening to elders, going out into communities. It was an enormous and deep learning experience for me. And, you know, I'm enormously grateful to have had that opportunity. so I spent seven years at that amazing institution, worked with, a newly reformed board, a new leadership team, really to, help bring the institution back to a, a point of stability. The enrollments increased, things were going well, and I knew it was time for me to move on. It was obviously very important to have First Nations leaders in those seats.

Lynn Wells, guest · [21:05]First of all, I think it really was experienced as, as a kind of shock. Very few people were aware of the depth of problems or the actions that were about to be taken. So I think it really was experienced as like a traumatic shock by people who worked in the institution, by the students, but I said by the whole community, right? It was, it was something felt by the whole community in a very sudden and alarming way. And the after effects of that, obviously people lost their employment and that's, you know, that's still really, really difficult for those people and, and for the people here who were colle, their colleagues and their friends. But for the people who remained here through the difficult times, you know, they were under enormous pressure and stress to keep going, often with, you know, very little capacity in their units. They, you know, they always kept focused on supporting and serving students, which is, is truly admirable under the circumstances. But, you know, they went through, a lot, and there was, I'm sure, always that, you know, kind of concern of, you know, is the institution really stable now, and so on. So, one of the pillars of our strategic plan is a bit unusual, I think, compared to other strategic plans, which is, it's called valuing our people, and it really speaks to the importance of helping people in the institution, to heal from that trauma, to, have an opportunity to speak about their experiences, to have access to resources, to help them in that recovery. but also to regain a sense of confidence and trust, in their leadership, in the board, you know, just in the whole project. So that's one of my daily preoccupations is what, what can I do as a president? What can we do as a leadership team to help people feel more grounded, more secure, more confident? And that's, you know, that's a, that's a daily exercise. We, you know, we keep at it every day. I try to really focus on, pride, on accomplishment, but, you know, I don't want to just, you know, Have rose-colored glasses or, you know, to be, you can put, what's that phrase, toxic positivity, someone to, is that with me? Is that comes across as, as insincere. You know, we are doing great things here, but we have challenges like everyone else. And one of the, the things that I think we need to work on the most is when something goes wrong, which it occasionally does, as it does in every university, it's not a sign of the apocalypse. It's just, you know, we have a problem, we have a challenge, we're going to get together as a team, we're going to look at our processes, we're going to look at our resources, we're going to draw on our supporters where we can, and move forward. Right? But with the understanding that it's not always going to be perfect. It's going to be great, but it's not going to be perfect.

Lynn Wells, guest · [24:52]this is the English professor in me coming out, but Laurentian, I think, became for a while at least a euphemism, right? A euphemism for, university dysfunction, right? And that's unfortunate. There were some of that when, when the First Nations University of Canada, crisis happened as well, that it became for a while a euphemism for dysfunction. And so one of the things I said during my job interview was that my most important job will be to change the narrative. And the only way you can change a narrative is by repeating it in a different way. So the narrative about Laurentian now, when I hear people, as often comes up, I'll be in a meeting and people will say, even without thinking, oh, well, we don't want to be another Laurentian, right? It's used as a noun, a collective noun there. And, you know, I will always pipe up and say, you know what, Laurentian is doing just great. We're building, our enrollments are growing, we're introducing new programming, we're hiring new faculty, we're making a huge impact in our community, our research is, you know, unparalleled in, in, in the fields where we excel. We need to stop using that euphemism in that way, because it is in fact untrue at this point, it's not an accurate euphemism, but it's also very hurtful to the people who work here. and the community that has supported this institution and the people who have graduated from this institution. So as we work every day here to, to shift the narrative, to remind people instead of that long history of this institution and a long history of successes, you know, in teaching, in graduating students, those students getting great jobs, in doing high-impact research, in supporting this community in many, many ways, changing that narrative is, is I think my most important job as president, so that we can, you know, people move forward, institutions move forward in a positive direction when they have a, a positive sense of their own identity, and that's really what we're working for here.

Lynn Wells, guest · [30:17]favorite metaphors for, what we're doing at Laurentian is this idea of re-greening. and so for people who don't know, you know, the city of Greater Sudbury, you know, years ago, decades ago, as you say, looked like the face of the moon, right? And in fact, the, I, I gather they would actually do training for lunar landings in, Sudbury because it looked so much like the surface of the moon, and this was because of the, you know, sulfur rain from the, mining operations. But, you know, thirty years ago, there was an effort to, re-green the city, and that effort was led by people here at Laurentian, by Dr. John Gunn, who's just retired, one of our, Canada Research Chairs, who is really a, a, an environmental pioneer, Dr. Peter Beckett, you know, there are many others who led an initiative to bring this region back to life. But before they could do that, they had to, restore the landscape by, you know, by sprinkling certain compounds that counteracted the, the sulfur. And the final tree was planted by Dr. Jane Goodall, whom we unfortunately we just lost a week ago, but she was a great friend of Sudbury and often came here. And if you, ever watch her film, Reasons for Hope, the first story she tells is about the re-regreening of Sudbury and how this is a, a story about how a place that seemed to have been, you know, dead and, and not able to be resuscitated was brought back to life by a community that cared about it and who put in the effort to, bring it back to life.

Lynn Wells, guest · [33:22]The most important thing for me is that I realize it is not about me. you know, I'm, I'm a temporary passer through, in this institution. My, my job is to be here for a period of time and to work with this community, but it's not about me or my ego or my career or, you know, whatever laurels will come from that. It really is about working with the people here and, and building up the strengths of the people here, helping them, as I said, regain their confidence to be bold, to be entrepreneurial, to have vision for the future, to feel optimism and excitement. You know, for me, that's the, the real kick in these jobs is being able to, work with the community and be part of that community to provide leadership. But certainly not leadership from in front. It's, it's leadership alongside with, you know, everyone in the institution, with the understanding that people are at different places, right, in their recovery from CCAA or their confidence in the institution or whatever, you know, and I, I try to really accept people where they're at, to understand that their experience of this institution, no doubt in many cases, is very different from mine, right? There've been people here who have been here for thirty years, right? I've been here for a year and a half. You know, what they know about this institution far outstrips anything that I will know, and I can learn from that, right? So that, that's the first thing is, is I don't make it about me. you know, I, I try to be, a very approachable leader and, you know, just a you know, a, a person in the institution who has a, a role and an important role, but is, is a member of that community. I would say the other thing, I do is I, I don't take things personally. You know, my, as I said, my job is to, to come here every day, to work with people, to listen, I said, to follow a good process, to try to build a future. When I go home at the end of the day, I turn it off. I am a person who, I don't take my stress home with me, and I think that's very important.

Lynn Wells, guest · [47:10]one of the, the best things you can do is to build that experience. As I said, I've been very fortunate over a number of jobs. in a number of jurisdictions, you know, to, to have learned a great deal. As I said, I learned a great deal at First Nations University about indigenous education and reconciliation. I learned lots at MacEwan about what it means to be a student-centered leader. I learned lots at, at Grok about, you know, program development, academic restructuring. I learned a lot as an associate dean research about supporting the research mission. So every job has taught me something. And I think, you know, kind of building your reservoir of knowledge and experience is really important. It helps, it helps me every day to navigate, you know, when I hit a, a difficult situation, I think, okay, well, you know, how, how did we deal with this in another institution? How does the sector deal with this? I would say, I said it's very important, to give yourself the time to develop as a leader, to take that journey, to take the time to build some Experience to not try to race to the end, but to actually give yourself the time to grow as a leader and, and to get some, some mentorship. You know, one of the things that I, I wish I had done more in my career was seek out mentorship around my own leadership development, to have a, you know, an executive coach, to have, you know, people around me who were kind of advising me on, you know, where are you trying to get and why. If, you know, if you haven't taken that step and you're interested in leadership, do, you know, don't, don't go on the journey by yourself. It's, it's, it's lonely and it's really hard, to do it on yourself, by yourself. And if you face, you know, a failure or rejection, you feel it very much more intensely because you don't have a, a team around you to help buck you up and keep you going.