It Started With One Thank You

It started with one thank you, from an operational staff member during one of the workshops I was leading while conducting a wellbeing audit at an international school. Thank you for including me. I don't really get professional learning opportunities, and never with the rest of the staff.

Then came another one. And another, both from operational staff members, both during the same kind of work. Roles didn't matter in those rooms. I brought together people who wanted to do better, together. And the operational staff, the citizen staff, any staff who felt on the fringes of the community, kept thanking me for including them.

As founder of Kirsten Pontius Wellbeing, I work with international schools, embassies, and globally mobile professionals on improving wellbeing, building the frameworks and shared language that allow an entire community, not just individuals, to actually shift how it functions. It's work grounded in having lived that same messy, cross-cultural life myself, across Japan, the Republic of Georgia, Cambodia, Romania, Côte d'Ivoire, and now Zambia.

When my business expanded to offering leadership training on wellbeing, the courses I ran through Sea Change Mentoring gave leaders hope, but also left them worried. They finally had the framework, they had the language for it. But they were the only ones on their staff who did. How do you shift the wellbeing of an entire school when you're the only one who understands it?

I continued to experience that gap. All the staff desperately wanted to be involved. Leaders needed them to be.

And nothing was connecting the two.

Then came the school that requested I conduct my Wellbeing Audit during their staff orientation week. I was skeptical. Would I gather the right data without the buzz of students and the hustle of daily life? But I did it. And I had their focus. Not just small pockets of individuals who could find time, but Every. Single. Staff. Member. Four-hundred at one all-school session. They attended from every corner of the school. Sitting side by side. There was uninterrupted time with smaller groups and individuals. They were into it. They had the space to be.

I kept those conversations and experiences in mind, and made sure to prioritize what mattered most. Everyone in the building goes through it together, not just faculty, not just leadership, everyone. Leadership finally gets an entire staff that understands the language, instead of being the only ones fluent in it. And it runs at the very start of the year, before the pace of the school year takes over: before after school activities start, before report writing is on the mind, before assemblies pop up.

The facilitators who run the in-person sessions are trained members of the community. That's deliberate.

Ownership of this work belongs to the school.

I was able to observe the program coming to life at The American International School of Lusaka who championed it. One-hundred staff strong: teachers, TAs, IT, the nurse, leadership, administration, HR, maintenance, drivers, and more. All learning the same thing. All discussing in the same room. All contributing their perspectives. Molly Elverson and Caitlin Johnson, both AISL community members and graduates of the Transformative Wellbeing Certificate program, facilitated the in-person sessions and ran it like they'd done it a dozen times before. In between live sessions, staff completed short online learning modules covering the basics, the shared language, and the research, before diving into conversations that connected it all to their own experiences and their school community.

When the program finished, we asked what they planned to actually do differently, at work or at home, because of it:

“Use time wisely at work so I can spend time with family at home as well as prioritize my exercise routine."

"Take deliberate and structured time to shut down from work."

"Better manage my use of technology and screen time outside of work."

"Think more about how I contribute to the wellbeing of my colleagues."

The open feedback expanded on the positivity and optimism that was coming out of the survey responses:

"It strengthened the bond I have with my colleagues."

"I've really enjoyed the inclusion of Molly and Cailin as presenters, they've done a fantastic job."

"I'm really optimistic about this course and looking forward to how I can impart this on even my family."

And then, the comment that summarized it all.

"I think this is more of a shift in perspective, thinking of myself as part of the wellness of the school on all fronts, rather than just focusing on my own wellbeing. For example, how can I more actively participate in things that come from an institutional perspective? How can I support the collective wellbeing of the school rather than just letting the collective wellbeing affect me? I hope to be more intentional about how I can help work on the things that impact the collective wellbeing in a positive way."

One hundred people.

Every role on campus, at the same table, saying it out loud: this affects all of us, and it's on all of us.

What a powerful way to start the school year!