Don't be the best. Be this instead.

Our family spent the last week at an all-family violin camp in the Blue Ridge mountains, and it brought us some much needed peace, joy, and community in these tumultuous times.

It was our 8 year old's first time playing in an orchestra (the beginning orchestra teacher introduced them to "Monsieur Baton", and all kinds of antics ensued, with the kids learning many lessons about following the conductor and playing together without even realizing it).

It really made me think about something our daughters' violin teacher said in a group class last month, as she was teaching these little kiddos to play in an ensemble - "It's not look at me, I play the loudest, look at me, I play the best, it's look at us, we play together."

Look at us, we play together.

How powerful, how beautiful, how RIGHT.

This is how I want you to think about your coalitions.

As any one organization or member of your coalition, the goal is not to be the best.

Instead, embrace your interdependence and engage in collective action.

In a world that values independence and finishing first, this is where the value of a coalition lies: interdependence and collective action.

It goes beyond simply being together to playing together.

It’s not just convening partners on a regular basis to share information - it’s planning and taking intentional, strategic, collective ACTION. We spend half our meeting providing updates (peak “this could have been an email” vibes, right?). Instead, let’s think about what infrastructure we can jointly build for meaningfully aligning work across organizations.

It’s not just having multisector partners around the table - it’s actually working across sectors. We keep doing what we’ve always done in our own siloes. Instead, let’s consider how to finance the work of our coalition and work in our communities in ways that allow for integrated and sustainable action. Let’s consider the power dynamics at play within our coalition and the broader community so we can shift power and transform oppressive systems that underlie all our sectors.

And let’s do it all with joy and music and community.

What are your plans for joy and music and community this summer? Whether it’s coalition work or your own summer vacation, I want to hear about it! Drop me a note.

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