My mom spent her career in management and then moved on to teach management at both Penn State and Cornell. One of the questions she would ask on exams is “what is the name of the janitor?” Students would be frustrated that they didn’t know and tell her it wasn’t fair, and she would tell them that every job was equally important and you couldn’t manage well without understanding that.
My mom always knew the names of everyone – her favorite people were the dishwashers because it was the job she liked the least. She loved her employees and they loved her.
This really hit home for me when I was severely mistreated by someone in leadership who I trusted. During the course of (unsuccessfully) trying to find some kind of resolution, several people had encouraged me to start a new co-op. I spent a lot of time thinking about how even the smallest amounts of power seem to change people and how it seems relatively easy for those in leadership positions to be unkind.
I wanted to remember to manage like my mom, so I named it Grace. I wanted to ALWAYS remember how I felt during that time, and to do our best, as a community, to treat people with kindness and grace.
We didn’t know at the time that people would have such a strong association with the word being religious. For us it was about bringing people together regardless of their worldview while remembering to always treat each other with grace.
Are we perfect? Of course not. But we are doing out best to create a warm, welcoming, worldview neutral community!