Operating in the Purple: Environmental Awareness in Action

There are moments when the theory you teach gets pulled out of the classroom, out of the woods, and dropped directly into the complexity of real life. This past week has been exactly that. A living, breathing application of the Compass of Awareness, specifically through the lens of contextual and environmental awareness.

From attending a gubernatorial candidate panel hosted by the Wisconsin Partnership for Kids, to presenting at the Community-University Conference at the invitation of Mary Beth Collins, to walking through South Madison with Leadership Greater Madison, each space carried its own rhythm, its own truths, and its own tensions.

All of it happened within days of each other.

And layered into that was another reality. I was invited to attend ACA Camp Hill Days 2026, an opportunity to engage in advocacy work at a different level. Due to prior commitments, I was not able to fully step into that space.

That tension mattered.

The Reality of Limited Bandwidth

There were moments this week where I felt it. The pull to be in two places at once. The conversations I wanted to stay in longer. The sessions I could not fully commit to. The opportunities I had to pass on.

FOMO showed up.

Not in a distracted way, but in a very real, human way. The awareness that every space held value, and that I could not fully immerse myself in all of them at once.

Choosing to attend the conference, to present, and to stay engaged locally was a decision rooted in both commitment and awareness. It also required self-regulation. Knowing where I could be most present. Knowing where I could add value. Knowing when not to overextend.

That in itself became part of the lesson.

Environmental awareness is not just about reading the room. It is also about understanding your own limits within it.

The Environment is Always Speaking

Environmental awareness isn’t just about reading the woods, the weather, or the terrain, though that’s often where I start with youth. It’s about understanding the systems, relationships, power dynamics, and lived experiences that shape any space you step into.

At the gubernatorial panel, I observed how leaders communicate vision and how policy, identity, and strategy intersect in real time. At the conference, I had the opportunity to contribute while also learning from others doing deeply embedded community work. That experience was made even more meaningful by the invitation from a former professor, a reminder of how relationships shape the environments we move through. In South Madison, guided by Leadership Greater Madison, I saw the physical manifestation of both challenge and resilience through organizations showing up every day to meet needs that do not make headlines.

Each environment asked something different of me:

• When do you speak?

• When do you listen?

• When do you move on, even when you would rather stay?

Even Within One Color, There Are Many Shades

It would be easy to label the gubernatorial panel as one side of the aisle. And technically, it was a space made up of Democratic candidates.

What stood out was not uniformity. It was variation.

Different lived experiences.

Different priorities.

Different levels of specificity.

Different ways of talking about the same challenges facing young people.

Some spoke in vision. Others in policy. Others in lived experience.

That is where environmental awareness deepens.

Operating in the purple does not just mean navigating between red and blue. It also means recognizing that even within a single color, there are gradients, tensions, and competing ideas.

If you walk into that space assuming alignment, you miss the nuance.

If you walk in curious, you start to see the ecosystem.

Operating in the Purple

It is easy to fall into binaries. Red vs. blue. Right vs. wrong. Theory vs. practice.

Real awareness lives in the grey. Or what I often call the purple.

Operating in the purple is not about avoiding sides. It is about understanding the full landscape, even when you are standing within one part of it.

This is not about neutrality. It is about fluidity.

When you operate this way, you can:

• Build bridges where others see walls

• Translate between perspectives that do not often meet

• Identify gaps that need filling and step into them

Stay Liquid

One of the core ideas I emphasize in environmental awareness is the ability to stay liquid. To adapt your shape without losing your substance.

This past week, that also meant adapting in how I moved between spaces and making intentional decisions about where to engage.

In practice, that looked like:

• Listening deeply before offering input

• Adjusting language depending on the audience

• Recognizing when expertise was needed and when presence mattered more

• Regulating my own capacity to stay effective across multiple environments

Being liquid does not mean being passive. It means being intentional about how you show up.

Listening as a Strategic Skill

Across every space I entered, one truth kept surfacing. Listening is one of the most underutilized and undervalued skills in leadership.

Not performative listening. Not waiting to respond. But active, curious, grounded listening.

The kind that asks:

• What is actually being said here?

• What is not being said?

• What context am I missing?

• What can I take with me, even if I cannot stay?

When you listen this way, the environment reveals itself more clearly. Patterns emerge. Even in brief moments, insight can stick.

Bringing It Back to the Compass

The Compass of Awareness is not just a framework. It is a practice. Environmental awareness is one of its most dynamic components because environments are always shifting.

This past week reinforced something I try to instill in every program, every camp experience, and every leadership conversation:

You do not need to capture everything.

But you do need to be intentional in how you show up within what you can access.

And more importantly, you need to decide where your presence creates the most value.

Final Reflection

Whether you are in the woods at sunrise, in a policy discussion, or moving between multiple spaces in a single week, the same principle applies:

Pay attention. Stay curious. Stay adaptable.

You will not catch everything.

You are not meant to.

Operate in the grey.

Move in the purple.

And when you are there, even briefly, be the one who fills the gap.