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.
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.
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