Buh-byeeee 2020

2020, a year of pauses, interruptions, recalculations.

Honesty, vulnerability. Change.

What can I say about 2020 that hasn’t already been said in a year in review or a meme?

This year meant very different things for each of us. And probably very different things at different moments. But one thing common across nearly every person I know, every industry I observe, every nation I read about - is that 2020 was a year of reckoning.

Because of the nature of our work and how it is funded, our reckoning may not come until next year, or the year after. So how are we preparing, if at all? It’s as if we’re in the rarified position of having a heads up about 2020 before it happens.

I have a few ideas…

I’m willing to bet 2020 forced you to be more flexible and - dare I say - human with not only your team, but perhaps your grantees or partners (if you have them). And I wonder if that hurt as much as you thought it would. If not, what’s preventing you from institutionalizing that flexibility? Baking it into the proposals you’re no doubt working on, or have in the pipeline? Isn’t now the chance to blame the ‘Rona for everything and actually change the structure of our work, starting with how it’s funded?

If your team/grantee/partner abuses that flexibility, perhaps it’s time to let go. And if they don’t, perhaps you’ll all grow into a relationship that opens the door for more meaningful work, based in more equitable power dynamics.

And on that note…can 2021 be the year we actually hand the reins over to the people affected by our work? No more meetings/projects/events about them without them. I’m not trying to be cute. I really mean this. Haven’t we seen the grim consequence of neocolonial, top-down aid work in the daily reveal of ever widening inequality, and how it costs lives each and every day (and did so long before the pandemic)?

Part of this means saying goodbye to the era of nonstop travel from [insert major U.S./European city here] to “the field.” We’ve all be stuck at home for nearly a year now, and the world has continued to turn. The work has gone on. And you’ve probably saved a boatload in your budget’s travel line. Did we really need to be bopping around at that rate in the first place? I didn’t think so before Covid, and I definitely don’t think so now. I know we all loathe virtual meetings by now, but who said this work was supposed to be fun all or even most of the time? We’re not here to sightsee or (god forbid) feel important by having access to “beneficiaries" or awkwardly sitting in on project-funded events, we’re here to effect positive social change.

I don’t know about you, but 2020 reminded me time and again to give people the benefit of the doubt. Even if I was wrong, and the people I was working with weren’t trying their hardest or doing their best work, I found it actually helped me to start from the assumption that they were. And to remember that I had no idea what they were dealing with outside of work. On a number of occasions I found that people who were underperforming were actually nursing sick parents or grieving departed loved ones, or were just plain depressed. And once those challenges were put on the table, 9 times out of 10 the person was able to recalibrate and get back in gear.

Ok, I know. These are in no way novel, or even specific to the democracy, rights and governance field. I suppose that was a lesson this year, as well - it’s all connected. Any illusions of work-life separation have fully dissolved, at least for me. And I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.