April 19, 2020

Among many other things, history will record this as the week that Sioux Falls unveiled a new community brand.

The logo, meant to bring a shared visual identity to the city and related community organizations, debuted with the following message on the city government Facebook page:

“It’s all about collaboration and unity!”

The reference was to unifying the look of logos. But to me, it was a reminder that sometimes the universe delivers in unexpected ways.

Because this week and the ones that will follow are all about defining the Sioux Falls brand.

The way we collectively respond to the historic challenges we’re facing will define our community in powerful, maybe even permanent, ways.

“Brand” can be an overused word in marketing circles, but it’s really a way to describe what you’re all about. What you’re known for.

Sioux Falls already has shown what it’s all about in the past month.

This is a caring community; and in that spirit of caring, people have distanced themselves, often without being required to, to proactively protect the vulnerable.

This is a giving community; and in that spirit of giving, people banded together immediately to provide resources of all kinds to support those in need.

This is an innovative community; and in that spirit of innovation, businesses have found compelling ways to change their models fast so they can remain in business for all of us.

And this is an incredibly hardworking community that believes in doing what it takes to get the job done. That’s why our hospitals are as prepared as they are for what COVID-19 could bring. It’s why our banks helped our small businesses secure enough funding to cover 79 percent of eligible payroll in the first 13 days of a new federal program. And I’m guessing it’s at least in part why so many of the Smithfield workers kept going to work even if they didn’t feel good about it.

All those qualities that have built the Sioux Falls “brand” have been on full display.

But that doesn’t mean it has been easy. And, sadly, that doesn’t mean it’s over. I’m afraid the toughest part hasn’t started yet.

To emerge as unscathed as possible, physically and economically, this community has to unify more. And that word can and should be interpreted in a lot of different ways.

First, we have to unify behind our leaders – at all levels of government and all levels of business. We don’t have to agree with all their decisions, but we do have to expect and allow them to use the ever-evolving information available to them to become smarter today than they were yesterday. And when they do, we have to give them permission to use that new knowledge to adjust their decision-making. Digging in or sticking to a strategy because it made sense at one point when it doesn’t today is not how we want our leaders to manage this crisis.

But our leaders, public and private, also have to unify behind us. They have to think about the collective good, even if it’s in conflict with the popular opinion. They have to communicate and collaborate at the highest level possible at all levels of government and within their organizations. I think this is largely happening. It’s also improving. But it’s still not where it needs to be.

I felt Mayor Paul TenHaken’s frustration during Friday’s special City Council meeting when he spoke about what more might be done to ensure businesses comply with social distancing guidelines among staff and employees.

“I’ve had conference calls with the CEOs of probably the 50 biggest employers of this city and have begged, pleaded, done anything I can to get them to comply,” he said.

And he’s still getting emails from employees concerned about conditions in their workplace.

“I don’t know what else I can do,” TenHaken said. “And some whistle-blowers are at some pretty substantial companies that should know better. I’d love to figure that out with the council between now and Tuesday if there’s something we can agree on that would help us move the needle.”

Businesses, I do have some degree of understanding what you’re going through. I hear from you all day, nearly every day. I know that many of you upended your business models and still have been decimated financially by this already. I know others are overwhelmed with demand and trying to change your processes rapidly. I know that many of you are struggling to keep people employed and that you are struggling even more when you have to let them go. And I know that you really, really want some kind of certainty as to when you can start to move back to whatever your new version of normal is.

But we’re not there yet. We have to acknowledge this virus is moving and must move through our community but do it in a way that minimizes loss of life by protecting the capacity of our health care systems. And we’re doing well. But we can do better. As the places where most people gather, our businesses hold the key to that. Your efforts to move to remote work, space people far apart when they absolutely must work together and provide the safety procedures we all know are effective will make the difference. If you all want to be considered “essential businesses,” then this is what essential looks like.

Finally, we as a community have to unify even more strongly behind our neighbors. This virus is a great test of humanity in many ways, starting at a very individual level. Will you, who might not statistically be much at risk, assume a massive change in your lifestyle to protect someone who is?

I know many of you are doing all of this. On Monday, we will begin releasing results of a citywide survey that drew nearly 900 responses. The themes are easy to see and showed me a lot about how your lives have changed.

The overwhelming majority of you are taking this seriously.

Most of you only leave home to get food. Less than half of you leave home to go to work.

A lot of you are feeling insecure about your jobs. Even more of you have struggled with loneliness, anxiety or depression since this pandemic started.

And most of you don’t yet know someone who has COVID-19. But the numbers suggest it won’t be much longer before you will.

This will get more real. I hope we’re over-prepared. I hope we’re doing more than we need to be doing. I hope the models that suggest a lower rate of hospitalization from this virus prove right. I hope our reliably robust economy bounces right back eventually. I have no way of knowing any of this, nor does anyone else who is being honest with you.

“I don’t have all the answers,” Mayor TenHaken said in talking with the City Council on Friday about how the city might implement stronger mitigation efforts without a full stay-at-home ordinance.

Those are tough words for a leader – for anyone – to utter. But if we’re being honest, we can all say them right now.

All I really know is that we each hold at least some control over what will become the answers for our community. If we each cut back another 10 percent or 25 percent of our close contact with others on our own, we will make a collective difference. If we do our best to support our local businesses when we’re able, we will make a collective difference. If we wear a mask when we’re in public places, as we’ve been asked to do, and help others procure them who might need help, we will make a collective difference.

It is, as the city so fittingly said in announcing its logo, all about collaboration and unity. It’s time to define the Sioux Falls brand.