Kendrick’s emerging research centering the low-morale experiences of formal library leaders confirms previous research and highlights additional impact factors for this group. Formal leaders who experience long-term exposure to workplace abuse and neglect often find themselves navigating Positional Isolation and Legacy Toxicity. This session will define and clarify these two impact factors and share a powerful countermeasure: mutual care dialogue.
Mutual care dialogue is modeled on Dean Spade’s conception of mutual aid and the idea that crises are caused and augmented by systems. Mutual aid focuses on connecting people to the solutions they need in-the-moment while continuing work to dismantle the direct causes of these crises. Likewise, mutual care dialogue builds upon the principles of community care and a commitment to change, rather than individualistic self-care. It is a practice of intentional relationship-building that goes beyond traditional leadership development, networking, and formal mentoring -- all of which tend to privilege individualistic goals and many of the values that contribute to low-morale experiences. Mutual care dialogue is a form of critical reflective practice, a tool to support one another’s needs and change the Enabling Systems and impact factors that create low morale work environments.
In addition to gaining clarity in how low-morale experiences impact formal library leaders, session attendees will be able to: Examine connections between mutual aid and the cultivation of inclusive and trauma-informed leadership styles; apply the concept of mutual care dialogue as a countermeasure for lived experiences of workplace abuse and neglect while in a formal leadership role.
