Humans of Old Trinity #9 - Lisa Williams
/in conversation with Denis Curnow
What is your involvement with Trinity?
At the moment, I’m the Senior School class rep coordinator, and I’ve always been a class rep. When Dan (OTG 2019) started in 2014, that was our first year at Trinity, and I got involved with that from the get go. I’m also on the Parents Association Committee and had just short of 18 months on School Council.
What is class rep?
Class rep is really just a way of having representatives from each year level, then working as a group to be a conduit of information to parents and in organising social events. In some year levels, there’s a couple of other things - for example the Yr 7 Mother’s Day breakfast. And, of course, in Yr 12 if you’re a class rep you’re mightily involved in all the functions that the Yr 12s have. I joined it because we didn’t really know any people at all in Dan’s year level – he was one of only three boys from his primary school to go to Trinity, I believe. I was thinking it would be a great way to meet other parents and start to get involved and contribute to Trinity life.
And you mentioned you’re now the class rep co-ordinator?
That’s right. Now I basically just coordinate the information that goes out to all of the Senior School Class Reps to make sure they’re able to go out to their parent groups and provide information or organise events. So my whole thing with being the co-ordinator, together with the Junior School Coordinator Mel Gallace, is we want to make it feel inclusive – we want more parents to think they can come along, contribute, and bring back that sense that this is something for everyone, not just a few people.
How did you come to be involved with Trinity?
It’s actually an interesting story, because we have an older daughter. I had this fantasy that all the kids would go to one co-ed school and it would be nice and easy, but that didn’t eventuate. Trinity was actually our second choice, behind the local nearby neighbour co-ed school which has a very high reputation.
Don’t worry, we can name them.
I actually had a joke with Phil de Young last year about how we didn’t get the offer. He said, “Oh, that would have been in my time, I don’t know what happened.” But I have to say, even though Alister (OTG 1980), my husband, is an old boy, that wasn’t part of our decision making, because Trinity was a very different type of school in the 80s. But we went along the information gathering and heard so many people say such really positive things about Trinity that really resonated for us – that it was a school that didn’t take itself too seriously, that it was a school that could really offer a wide range of boys the opportunity to get involved in things, that it wasn’t a huge school and it wasn’t a small school. So that was the start of it, and for both Dan and Roy. Dan’s finished his journey and had an amazing six years, and Roy’s halfway through and having a fantastic time too.
Lisa (Centre) and Husband Alister (OTG 1980, right) with cecilia (JS chaplain, left) at the 2018 carols service
You joined the School Council during one of the most tumultuous periods of the school’s history. Why was that? Wasn’t that daunting?
It’s a really interesting question. A lot of people said to me during that time that it’d be a period of a huge amount of work, it’d be challenging. There were a few people connected to other schools whose opinion I sought out, and they made out to me the pros and the cons of doing it. It’s hard to describe, but I always felt this sort of invisible thread pulling me forward to get involved and be part of the solution, and it just felt like it was the right thing to do. There was a very strong purpose attached to getting involved at that time, and I also thought that there was a really strong group of other people on council at the same time, and collectively we would be able to do some good things.
There was also a lot of conflict during that time, and a lot of strong opinions on either side. How did you manage that?
I think the most important thing in any situation where there’s been turmoil or difficulty is to hear what people have to say. I drew a lot on the work I do both with an HR background and also as an executive coach, where you have to really listen to people to understand what their perspective is. There are always situations where you’re not going to be able to agree with that person’s perspective, but you’ve got to be able to understand it. And what guided me, particularly as a Parents Association nominee, was what are parents saying? And like any situation, there was a really wide range of views and you had to respect that people had different views, but how would we able to pull them together? I think John [Gillam] and the interim Council last year, and the current Council have done and continue to do an amazing job in being able to build a consulting committee, hear different perspectives, and ensure people feel respected.
You mention your HR background – what work do you do outside of Trinity?
My most recent full-time job was as an HR director for a fund manager, I did that for about 7 years. I found the thing I enjoyed the most was coaching others. So I went off and did my masters in coaching and set up my own business, which I’ve been doing for about 5 and a half years now. I love what I do for work, so I’m pretty lucky in that way. I call it leadership and executive coaching, they’re two different things – I don’t just work with CEOs and senior executives, I work with quite a range of people, from mid-management through, really just with anyone who wants to be better at leading others.
What led you to get involved in that?
When I was an HR director, I trained as an internal coach. I was working with my colleagues and became accredited in a particular diagnostic tool which allowed you to understand what people’s work styles and preferences and behaviours were. Then you could help them understand the way they were working from that tool, then work with them to say what do you want to do differently, what is not working? From there, you’d work out the how – how to do that differently, how to get better results.
This feature coincides with International Women’s Day. There’s been a fair bit of media focus recently on sexism, particularly in private boys’ schools. How do you think Trinity does in this regard?
Nicely topical question, Denis! There’s certainly been a lot of discussion since that 4Corners item about the relevance of single sex, and particularly boys’, schools. I have a lot of friends whose sons and daughters are in co-ed schools, and that’s led to some very interesting discussions in social circles. The one thing that I have observed at Trinity is that, like most boys’ schools, there may be times where things kind of verge on that line, but I don’t see them as prevalently as I’ve seen them in other schools. I think one of the factors is there seem to be a lot of female teachers at Trinity, and there seems to be a culture of building respect to both male and female, so that when boys progress into their more senior years, it just becomes a way of operating. It also seems to be reinforced at the right times – I think that the Ruyton coordinate program is extremely helpful, because the boys in Yr 11 participate a respectful relationships program and that probably comes at exactly the right time.
I’ve also seen the reinforcement of that in programs like Learning Journeys in Yr 8 and some of the Personal Development programs in Yr 9. Its something that we’re constantly reinforcing as parents and the school seems in concert with families and parents to reinforce it at the right time too.
What is the best way to approach the issue for Trinity?
I know last year that the Yr 12s had the White Ribbon event, which brought together as many local schools as possible. One of the things I find is most effective is when it comes from within. When you have a group of students or leaders within a particular cohort who want to do something like that, that for me is one of the most effective and authentic ways.
Lisa (second from right) with fellow council members at adrian farrer’s commissioning as headmaster
I digress a bit, but in my first job outside of Uni, I worked for a financial services organisation, and the men could all call the general manager and the deputy by their first names, but the women had to call them ‘mister’. To me that doesn’t feel like a long time ago, and that sexism in the workplace was certainly there when I started in the 80s. I do feel like my kids’ generation won’t ever experience that level of sexism. They will see the world so differently from what we had to endure, and I hope that means that the issue will become so much less as time goes on. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it definitely feels different.
Was that sexism just accepted back then? Was it frustrating, and was there a fight back against it?
I couldn’t believe that I had to do it. I was completely frustrated by it. I only lasted a year. But we couldn’t argue with it, we didn’t have the voice or the means to argue with it, we just had to continue to call them Mister so and so.
When and how did it change?
I think it began to change probably within a five-year period from that time. Once we hit the 90’s, things had really started to change. I must say, I took a lot of notice of the women who were ten or fifteen years older than me who had to fight really, really hard to get senior roles. I always felt they had to really pave the way for people like me, then I’ve had to help pave the way for others behind us. It’s been a passing of the baton. Through the work I do now in coaching, I can see, particularly for women but also everyone, that it’s a much different workplace. People have a voice, and are allowed to express their views. And their views are more respected.
What was the White Ribbon event you mentioned earlier?
It was a BBQ at Trinity with a number of schools who were invited by Trinity to join them, they had a Speaker on violence against women . It was fundraiser, but that wasn’t the primary purpose, it was about bringing Yr 11s and 12s together to start the conversation in a united way for that particular cause. I think they were about nine schools who participated, about 180 students, which seemed to be pretty good.
Where to from here for you?
Four more years at Trinity with Roy, and I’m really looking forward to being able to participate. I love the idea too that after those four years, there’s the Women of Trinity group, which started up last year, which I think is a fantastic way for women to maintain their connection to the school in a different way after they leave. I know from talking to a couple of women in that group that they’re looking to help with the bushfire relief to put some women’s packs together to send to affected areas. I can’t imagine a time where I am not having something to do with Trinity in some form. I’m certainly looking forward to that.
What is the Women of Trinity group?
A couple of years ago, it was discussed between a couple of women ahead of me that their boys were starting to finish, and they’d had 3 or 4 boys go through. So leaving Trinity could potentially be such a monumental moment, because you’ve been doing these things and involved with the school for so long. They’re amazing women who contributed and ran so many groups like the uniform shop and the cafeteria and all sorts of things. So the idea came about to create a group so that when your youngest son left, you were automatically invited to join, and the purpose was primarily social but also to keep involved in something – for example the bushfire relief. I think they meet four times a year and they’ve had a couple speakers at dinners.
That’s great. It’s funny, you usually think of the boys leaving school, but you sometimes forget about the parents leaving too. It’s almost like they’re leaving school again.
That group’s really a way to keep connected, because, especially if you’ve had a couple of sons go through, Trinity’s a really big chunk of your life.
Lisa (r) at the 2018 cake stall with phil de young (cr), vicki mastras (cl, mother of dean (otg 2017) and Harris (otg 2019)) and visanthi savundra (l, mother of nathan (otg 2018))
