The Tensions Within

As we head into the 2019 school year I reflect back in order to move forward.

In many ways I will see 2018 as a year of tension. Some of that was external- there is always tension when as a leader you make decisions and take actions that not everyone will agree with or can live by.

But significantly for me, 2018 was a year of the tensions within myself. There are so many conflicting demands in my head as I work as a school leader.

Complacency vs commitment to something new.
I wrote an earlier post about this last year. My concerns that a drive for student agency and self determined learners gets mistaken for a culture of complacency where we allow learners to do anything with no systems of planning, reflection or accountability set up with them.

Collective practice vs individual empowerment
We all know the importance of vision, the importance of everyone in an institution moving the same way towards the same aspirations. Getting the balance right between creating school procedures and expectations and allowing the space for individual empowerment of individuals is a continual balancing act for anyone in any level of school leadership.

“What does a culture look like if it so values developing the capabilities of all its people that it seeks to fashion a space where everyone can bring their full, imperfect selves to work every day?” Robert Keegan et al Developing A Deliberately Developmental Organisation

Strategy vs Evolving
Again, we all know the importance of vision, but the importance of 5 and 10 year strategies are surely past their best use. To be responsive to the world around us and our learners continually evolving role in that surely our long term forecasting needs to be much more flexible and responsive. The tension between knowing this and being required to produce longer term strategies needs to be addressed.

“Collaborative teams typically make progress not by carefully executing an excellent plan to achieve agreed objectives, but by acting and learning from this acting. In stretch collaboration, therefore, we advance through processes that are primarily emergent rather than deliberate.” Adam Kohane- Collaborating With the Enemy

Expectation vs Wellbeing
Another continual tension for leaders. We all know the importance of wellbeing- more and more so in today’s world. Gone are the days, hopefully, of heroing the person who works endlessly, or the teacher who doesn’t sleep enough but instead works through the night. In past times that was worn by some as a badge of honour. Hopefully we’ve moved on from that. But teaching is still have complex job requiring many aspects of practice outside the hours of direct student contact. Getting that balance between expectations of practice and allowance of time and space for personal wellbeing is another leadership see saw. In addition there is the added tension of personal responsibility for well being rather than blaming others or the situations we find ourselves in for our lack of it. This is a post I wrote earlier in 2018 relating to that.

“What we really want is both freedom and safety, but they are strange bedfellows. Freedom gets confused with liberty (which means we are not oppressed). Freedom is not doing your own thing, but just the opposite. It means we are the authors of our own experience. It means we are accountable for the well being of all that is around us.” Peter Block- The Answer to How is Yes

Professional Practice vs Professional Learning
Something I hold close to my heart is professional learning. In all times, but particularly the times we are in today I absolutely believe we need everyone of our staff to be as much a learner as the young people they work with. The labels of teachers and learners in schools need to change. We all need to be learners, in order to continually evolve in these times of rapid change. For some the tension exists in taking time out of their daily practice- the marking and preparing for the next day in order to concentrate and give quality time to doing and processing our own learning. But for me, until all teachers see that as an absolute must part of their professional practice, not something extra to fit in if or when they have time we will continue to perpetuate the same things in schools we always have.

“Do you “exercise your learning”? Not just in terms of frequency or duration, but for example, do you allow distractions to get in the way of your learning? Do you think you need to address that in the future, and if so, how?....... How well can you articulate why learning is important to you? Does that impact the priority you have for your learning, and importantly for those around you- staff, colleagues, friends and family?” Bruce Dixon- Modern Learners Blog

Effectiveness vs Efficiency
Getting things done is important. Getting some things done on time is vital. But sometimes we are so busy getting everything done in a timely fashion that we fail to take the time to consider how effective that is. I’ve seen individual parents completely converted to what we are doing at Haeata by Andy, our Principal, taking the time to spend 60-90 minutes with them one on one touring and talking about the learning occurring. Not an efficient model- many people would say it’s much more efficient to get 100 parents in a room and talk at them, but so less effective. To take this approach means it will take a long time to work with a large range of parents, but how much more effective will the outcome be.


Letting go of day to day Teaching
There will always lie a tension within me for wanting to spend time day to day teaching. Although I believe all effective school leaders should spend time in classrooms and working with young people in order to remain in touch with the realities, I know it is no longer the significant component of my job and thus creates a tension not just within me myself but when looking at the bigger concept of school leadership. Too often we are lining up our most effective practitioners and then pulling them out of classrooms to lead. I guess it happens in all professions but it remains a tension for me.

Letting go of day to day Learning Design
Over the last couple of years much of my day to day work has been occupied with leading the design of learning on a longer term and shorter term basis. Its a real passion and joy area for me, yet I know our middle leaders are now more than capable of continuing this development with their teams themselves and my role needs to move to one of empowering and coaching them rather than direct involvement with the ongoing design on a day to day basis.

“In a daring leadership role, it’s time to lift up our teams and help them shine. This is one of the most difficult hurdles of advancement, particularly for those of us who are used to hustling, or don’t know exactly where we contribute value once the areas where we contributed value before are delegated to those coming up behind us.” Brenē Brown- Dare to Lead

I guess that’s the tension I feel the most- the continual need to re-set where my priorities and passions lie. An ongoing challenge yet a joy in itself. The opportunity to keep being a learner and help others to do so themselves.

References:
Block, P. (2003). The answer to how is yes: Stop looking for help in all the wrong places. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work, tough conversations, whole hearts. New York: Random House.

Dixon, Bruce (2019) It's Time for your Professional Learning Check Up Retrieved from https://modernlearners.com/learning-checkup/

Kegan, R., Lahey, L. L., Miller, M. L., Fleming, A. T., & Helsing, D. (2016). An everyone culture: Becoming a deliberately developmental organization. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kahane, A., & Barnum, J. (2017). Collaborating with the enemy: How to work with people you don’t agree with or like or trust. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

One Word 2019

2019 is all about sustain for me. 

Ensuring the practices we have set up at Haeata are sustainable for any staff looking into the future. 

Ensuring that all staff are empowered to continue the development and refinement of those practices.

The continued development of all of our developing leaders- current middle leaders, emerging leaders, and even discovering those who don't yet know that they want leadership in their future. Helping leadership at all levels develop in order to preserve real sustainability in the school

On a personal note I know I need to sustain my personal motivation. In the second half of last year I took part on Change School with Modern Learners and subsequently did a huge amount of reading as well as took part on online conversations. This was incredibly motivating to continue wiht the work we are doing, and I intend to carve out time to sustain this as we move through 2019.

Personal health is always a complex one. I need to eat well and I need to get fit. I start every year off well but then as things et either busy and/or stressful it tapers off. My focus on sustain means I am determined to sustain these efforts throughout the year this time.

My Fave Picks of my 2018 Reading

During 2018 I read some powerful books that really provoked some great thinking.
Some of my top picks for those looking for recommendations:

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
 -Brené Brown

I’ve been a Brene fan for years, read every book and watched ted talks etc. Although I’ve read all the books Daring Greatly was my first read and has always been my favourite. However this one comes close to taking that place.
The book talked a lot about hustling in leadership and in teams- and differentiated between good hustling and not so good hustling.
I loved the clarity in the book around values- especially around clarifying no more than three priorities in your values and specifically translating your values from ideals to specific behaviours and articulating those.
“We walk our talk—we are clear about what we believe and hold important, and we take care that our intentions, words, thoughts, and behaviors align with those beliefs.”
There is a section on not choosing silence over comfort which really resonated with me.
“Regardless of the values you pick, daring leaders who live into their values are never silent about hard things.”“Don’t choose silence over what is right. It’s not my job to make others more comfortable or to be liked by everyone.”
“Silence is not brave leadership, and silence is not a component of brave cultures."
"A brave leader is not someone who is armed with all the answers. A brave leader is not someone who can facilitate a flawless discussion on hard topics. A brave leader is someone who says I see you. I hear you. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m going to keep listening and asking questions.”

This led into a reminder of Brene’s Feedback charter which I’ve always liked right from reading about it in Daring greatly when I read that years ago.
I liked the acronym Brene used “Living BIG (boundaries, integrity, and generosity).”
And my most favourite quote is the closing statement in the book;

“As you think about your own path to daring leadership, remember Joseph Campbell’s wisdom: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” Own the fear, find the cave, and write a new ending for yourself, for the people you’re meant to serve and support, and for your culture. Choose courage over comfort. Choose whole hearts over armor. And choose the great adventure of being brave and afraid. At the exact same time.”




The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters 

 -Peter Block

I read this book after a recommendation within Change School- a powerful online programme run by Modern Learners.
I loved this book for its relentless push to take the reader back to they why
We often avoid the question of whether something is worth doing by going straight to the question “How do we do it?“
The book encourages readers to have much longer discussions relating to purpose- about what is worth doing, before focussing on the how.
It discussed how not doing can be an acceptable starte to be in and I loved this quote taken directly from the book: “real service and contribution come more from the choice of a worthy destination than from limiting ourselves to engaging in what we know will work.”
There was a lot of time spent on pursuing the right question, making sure we are asking the right questions.
The right questions are about values, purpose, aesthetics, human connection, and deeper philosophical inquiry. When we ask How? we limit ourselves to questions for which there is likely to be an answer, and this has major implications for all that we care about.
I loved the reframing of questions. How long will it take? becomes What commitment am I willing to make? How much does it cost? becomes What is the price I am willing to pay?
There was a great section for helping to understand some people's responses when leading them through change. "There are times when leaders ask us to make a change and we respond by acting confused. We continue to ask How? when we do not really mean it; the confusion is just a measure of our discontent. We act like we are confused, like we don’t understand. The reality is that we do understand—we get it, but we don’t like it. The effect of the effort to eliminate “confusion” is simply to delay the change."
Lots of this book had similar themes to Brene Brown focussing on values and clear articulation of those.
"Acting on what matters is the act of making change in the world through a set of personal values that define who we are. Acting on what matters means that we will consistently find ourselves feeling like we are living on the margin of our institutions and our culture.The dominant culture will never fully appreciate the choice we make."
We talk a lot about transforming practice. I loved this statement: It is the act of learning that is transforming.
"If you think you don’t have time, or love totally what you are doing, or can’t keep up with what you are into now, think again." I think it was in change school that I heard the statement “Im not asking you to change, I’m asking you to learn.” How powerful.
I’ve spent a lot of leadership time over the years exploring the nuances between coaching and mentoring. I really enjoyed reading the following statements on mentoring.
"Mentoring is an act of love, of care, of willingness to bear witness for another human being. To be authentic, it must be chosen by both parties.Find a mentor on your own. There is unquestionable value in mentoring, but we get into trouble when it becomes a program and our bosses are trained and expected to do it.
Just find a person, whether you know them or not, and make them a mentor, even if you never meet them. I have mentors whom I have never met, but I follow everything they write, do, and say. If you do meet, it is a bonus, but be sure the relationship is reciprocal. You need to have something to offer your mentor in return for learning from them. If there is no balance, the relationship will become unstable, even a little oppressive. Mentoring has meaning when we take on for ourselves the task of learning. And we do it in the face of all the help sent our way."

The section on learning culminated with my favourite quote form this book: "My freedom, my purpose, my learning, are all faces of the same intention: living out my own destiny and bringing this into the world with all the worth and generosity I can muster."

Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change School.  

-Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff

Another change school recommendation that is both a remarkable and an enjoyable read.

Everything in this book highlighted the practice we are implementing at Haeata. A number of our staff have gone on to red this book after we have highlighted it in some of our professional learning settings. I loved it for the multiple quotes I took from it that helped us articulate and affirm the work we are doing. The focus on innovation and on meaningful learning were invaluable,and the stories to illustrate these prove they are possible. Other stories illustrate the ludicrosity of continuing with practices in a system designed for another time. The distinct focus on designing learning to be timeless and to considering the vexed question of time in completely different ways is something that truly struck and is something I’ve been saving myself for a long time. When people say they don't have enough time, my response is usually you need to re design how you are using time. We can’t expect innovative practice in schools by using time in the same way we always have. I have over 20 pages of notes and highlights from this book. These are a few of my top highlights:

How will the children born into this century learn what they need to not just survive but thrive in a world defined by accelerating technologies?

Tinkering won't, in our opinion, get us to the education that children need to find success in 2040, 2050, or 2060. We must take more significant action to ensure children are ready for their life's journey, one that we can't imagine or bring into focus with any clarity.

We believe in scaling great ideas, theories, and strategies across our schools rather than trying to scale up programs.The specifics don't matter. What matters is that when kids do that kind of work, they build on each other's ideas and sustain creativity together. They naturally become more in‐depth, deeper critical thinkers. They learn to share expertise and how to find expertise.

Time is a learning trap. The system sends that message to kids at home and in school: “If you finish faster, you get free time at the end of class” or “Finish your homework, then you can watch Netflix.”....sacrificed opportunities to slow down and allow learners to explore their world

We have spent a lot of time thinking about the changes needed in pre teacher education This quote particularly struck a chord: Think about the way most schools of education work – people are almost taught to be afraid of students and to control their every movement and word. Educators have to change that paradigm.

And to end with my favourite set of quotes that really could be an introduction into the handbook for teachers for learning we are designing at Haeata Community campus:

When children construct their own world, no matter how fleeting that seems in adult time, they discover a personal power that carries them forward in pursuit of curiosity and interests. This is the intrinsic motivation of learning agency we most want our children to harness. It extends control over their own lives and futures.

And, it is the exact opposite of the extrinsic rewards system created by the existing grammar of schooling, a rewards system created to entice students to comply with adult control of when, what, where, and how to learn.

Learning is, of course, timeless. But school is all about the clock. Learning becomes timeless when we trust in childhood and relinquish control to children. If we let them lead, they explore, widely and wildly. When we create spaces in which children can choose to extend their learning, their investigations, for as long as they desire, we breed empowerment and ownership.

Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust
-Adam Kahane

Early in the year I read this book after a strong recommendation. I was initially reluctant and was encouraged to move past the word enemy in the title. I’m glad i did. It was a very quick and easy but at the same time really profound read.

The book talked about collaboration being something you need to choose.
We do not understand how to collaborate until we understand when to collaborate.
Collaboration is only one of four ways that we can approach situations we find problematic.
Collaboration is not always our best option.THERE ARE THREE ALTERNATIVES TO COLLABORATION. We Adapt, We Force, We Exit or We Collaborate,
We try adapting when we think that we cannot change our situation and so we need to find a way to live with it. We try forcing when we think that we ought to and may be able to change our situation without working with others (unilaterally).We try exiting when we think we cannot change our situation and we are no longer willing to live with it. We can exit through quitting, divorcing, or walking away.
We try collaborating when we want to change the situation we are in and think that we can do so only if we work with others (multilaterally).

The main focus in this book is on the increasingly complexity required for collaboration. It teachers about some new kinds of collaboration referred to as stretch collaboration.

Conventional, Constricted Collaboration Is Becoming Obsolete The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. Conventional collaboration works only in simple, controlled situations. In other situations we need to stretch. Conventional collaboration assumes that we can control the focus, the goal, the plan to reach this goal, and what each person must do to implement this plan (like a team following a road map).
Stretch collaboration, by contrast, offers a way to move forward without being in control (like multiple teams rafting a river).

The book talks about three kinds of stretches needed in stretch collaboration.
The First Stretch Is to Embrace Conflict and Connection
The Second Stretch Is to Experiment a Way Forward.
The Third Stretch Is to Step into the Game

I could write a different post about each of these stretches
Stretch collaboration requires that we see ourselves as part of, rather than apart from, the situation we are trying to address.

My favourite quote from this book:
Stretching requires you to move toward rather than away from different others.
You will learn the most in those situations you find most difficult

What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America 

- Ted Dintersmith  

Another change school recommendation that was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

In this book Ted visited schools across every state in America looking for stories of innovation. I’m often negative about my perception of the education system in America but there are obviously some great things happening in pockets throughout the country. Reading this book re motivated me to get over there and visit some of these spots of innovation at some stage in my future.

My pick of some of my highlighted statements would be:

“You’re in this because of your passion for helping young kids. Don’t let anyone dampen your commitment. These kids need you now more than ever.”’

“Education should prepare our children for life, but we have it backward. We prepare children’s lives for education.”

If a goal of education is to get students excited about literature’s great works, an essential question is how to spark such passion. Should we require students to read classics and expect fervor to erupt?

Make teenagers read King Lear and expect them to love a piece that Shakespeare intended audiences to see, not read? ….. Far too often, our well-intentioned efforts backfire, and assignments actually turn kids off to the greatness of nature and human accomplishment.

“We don’t need schools that make kids memorize the names of planets. We need schools that inspire kids to find new planets.”

When people are ordered to do something they don’t believe in, they go through the motions. When they take ownership of their goal, they blow you away. Agency and purpose.

For starters, no one—and I mean no one—defends the status quo. People realize that our schools need to change. Every community has teachers, parents, citizen volunteers, and philanthropists working tirelessly on behalf of their children. Today, most think it’s a matter of execution—do the same old things better. But a growing number recognize that we need to do better things. They can be an unstoppable force.

The problem is, we listen to the wrong experts. Our innovative teachers, not those at the top of the education pyramid, are the ones who know. They’re creating classrooms where children thrive, where students are building purpose, essential skills, agency, and authentic knowledge. 

They’re willing to stand up to those eight damaging words: “We have to be able to measure it.”

Disobedient Teaching: Surviving and Creating Change in Education -Welby Ings
This was a bit of a re read late in the year.

I love this book because of the message, it's a message I totally agree with and have been trying to live for years as a teacher and a leader. But I also love it for its readability, for its easy access to the thinking through the medium of storytelling. And I especially relate to those stories because I recognise a lot of the places and schools Welby talks about- especially in the earlier part of the book. In the later part of the book I can easily relate the schools and institutions Welby talks about to ones I know. Re reading this book has inspired me to write my own one day. Over the years many people have encouraged me to share some of my stories and the learning I’ve done from them. One day soon I’m going to start on that!

Some of my favourite highlighted statements from Disobedient Teaching:

Disobedient teaching is what happens when you close the door on your classroom or office and try unconventional things because your professional compass tells you that it is right.

Disobedient teaching is rooted in the belief that you can influence things right now, from where you are.

At its most damaging, however, professional jealousy causes people in hierarchical systems to protect their position. In doing this they can impede others who they feel may threaten their station or expose limitations in their level of competence.

This becomes particularly evident when talented people begin demonstrating skills and usefulness that someone higher up the ladder doesn’t possess. Such displays of ability can be seen as dangerous. As a result, the threatened individual may bully, disparage or undermine.

Popularity, effectiveness, initiative and talent are very threatening to people who hold hierarchical positions through ambition rather than talent. So is disobedience.


Two statements are the absolute highlights for me:

You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are.

Question bravely and constructively. Stand up for ideas. Be tenacious. Take courage. Disobey. To do this you have to believe in yourself. Really believe in yourself. You are your own source of power to make things better. You are the font of tenacity and wonder, the wellspring of ideas and the origin of strength. Never, never let people convince you otherwise.

Some other books I’ve read in 2018 that came close to my top six

• The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems -Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin 
• Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations -Thomas L. Friedman 
• The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You and Your Greatness -Lolly Daskal 
• Raising Children Who Refuse to Be Raised: Parenting Skills and Therapy Interventions for the Most Difficult Children -Dave Ziegler 
• An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization - Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, Matthew L Miller, Andy Fleming, and Deborah Helsing 
• Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success (Revised Edition) -Carolyn Taylor 
• Flourish- Martin Seligman