Nine people are dead in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Population 2,700. The kind of town where the mayor says he probably knows every one of the victims by name. Parents dropped their kids off at school. Some of those kids didn’t come home.<\/p>\n
There’s nothing adequate to say about that. There shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n
What I know from experience is what happens in the hours and days that follow, beyond the immediate tragedy. There are people in leadership roles right now who barely slept. Not because they were in Tumbler Ridge. Because they’re responsible for schools, campuses, public spaces, and communities of their own. And this morning their phone is ringing.<\/p>\n
School superintendents are hearing from terrified parents: could this happen here? What are you doing about it? Principals are trying to find the right words for Monday, knowing there aren’t any. Security directors are being asked to explain protocols to boards and executives who are suddenly, urgently paying attention. Municipal leaders are being asked ‘what’s our plan?’ and not being sure they have one.<\/p>\n
These people aren’t in crisis. But they’re standing at the edge of one. And most of them are navigating it alone.<\/p>\n
The challenge of being adjacent to a tragedy \u2014 of leading an organization that isn’t the story but is now being asked to respond to it \u2014 is one of the most underappreciated leadership situations there is. You can’t claim the grief of those directly affected. You can’t be dismissive of legitimate fear in your own community. You have to walk a line that requires genuine empathy and genuine competence at the same time.<\/p>\n
What people on that edge need is someone who has been there before. Not a binder. Not a protocol. A person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nine people are dead in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Population 2,700. The kind of town where the mayor says he probably knows every one of the victims by name. Parents dropped their kids off at school. Some of those kids didn’t come home. There’s nothing adequate to say about that. There shouldn’t be. What I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/checkmatepublicaffairs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}