Be the Bridge: Ripples from NWAIS at Alderbrook

It’s been a minute since I had the privilege of spending a few days with Heads of School from the Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS) at the Alderbrook Resort on the Puget Sound and I’m still thinking about it.

First, a standing ovation for Emily McGrath, Chris Watson, and the entire NWAIS team. What they created was more than a conference. It was a gathering of people who have made this work — supporting children, families, and communities — their life’s purpose. The stories shared, the honesty in the rooms, the way people wove the personal and the professional together with such grace: it was something.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — Seneca

That’s how this trip felt. I’ve done the work to show up for school leaders, and moments like this remind me why. I get to support these extraordinary humans with their day-to-day, their vision, their legacy and help them tell the stories that resonate. I never imagined that could be a job, my job, when I was “growing up.” That’s not a job. That’s luck.

The theme that stayed with me showed up in the language people reached for when they were trying to describe something important: water. “Be the water,” from the incomparable Jason Craige Harris from Pollyanna. And especially when the currents get rough, remember to “be the bridge,” especially like I saw on the Drake Passage, Antarctica, from the captains on the bridge during the “Drake Shake.” Lastly, those who braved the cold plunge remind us to love the water, even when it’s not so warm.

It was language that was interesting not obvious. There’s something powerful about that metaphor for school leaders right now. School leaders are the bridge between vision and reality, between your board and your faculty, between the world your students were born into and the one they’re heading toward. That’s not a small thing to carry. But you carry it with remarkable intention.

The conference started for me with a morning hike, cougar warnings and all, and somehow that felt exactly right. This work requires that kind of alertness. That willingness to move through uncertainty, stay present, and keep going.

You are all stars. And I am so grateful to be in the glow of it all.

Barbara Egan

Market researcher · Brand strategist · Active listener · Storyteller

(and proudly “moto-curious”)