Chair’s Column: The Life of the SAA

A characteristic of the SAA community is that we are life-long learners. Our Aspirational Code of Ethics states, “As members, we demonstrate responsibility for our own personal and professional development by making a commitment to life-long learning.” We choose to continually improve our personal and professional capabilities to better serve our students, to be better colleagues, to move that which we can affect ever closer to Suzuki’s vision of a world in which all children, indeed, all people, may realize their finest potential.

In addition to those personal and professional growth areas we choose, we are also challenged to grow in ways we do not anticipate: growth as a response to discomfort or stress. Finding a healthy response to events and situations that could threaten our well-being requires resilience. This character trait allows us to be stretched like a rubber band, which, when released, can spring back to its shape and retain its function. Beyond resilience is renewal: the ability to grow, adjust, and adapt as the discomfort or stress requires, moving toward our best selves.

We do this with and for our students, for our families, for ourselves, and for each other as members of the SAA.

The SAA itself, as an organization, is similarly in a process of growth, recognizing and fulfilling its potential. The organization has moments of growth that it chooses, and also those motivated by discomfort or stress.

It is commonly recognized that organizations—including not-for-profits like the SAA—have a life cycle too. Most of the models of evolutionary life stages in an organization can be described as start-up, growth, maturity, decline, and crisis. One perspective on the life cycle of organizations (Greiner 1972) identifies relatively smooth “evolutionary” growth phases in organizational life punctuated by tumultuous “revolutionary” phases: seasons of growth punctuated by seasons of calm.

A model of organizational life which identifies the five stages, while recognizing repeated growth phases (Stevens 2001) offers an alternative to decline: rejuvenation. 

Rejuvenation loops an organization back to a new growth stage, averting the decline and crisis stages. Healthy organizations repeat the cycle of growth, maturity, and rejuvenation. They are resilient in the face of stress and conflict, welcoming growth rather than stasis. 

There is much hope for the SAA in its current growth phase. Our organization is resilient, growing, mature, and rejuvenating. We are Suzuki.

References

Greiner, Larry. “Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow.” Harvard Business Review, 1972. https://hbr.org/1998/05/evolution-and-revolution-as-organizations-grow. 

Stevens, Susan Kenny. Nonprofit Lifecycles: Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity. Wayzata, MN: Stagewise Enterprises, 2001.