Innovative leadership in 3 simple steps: Know, Show & Let Go

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Is our DNA evident across all we do? 

Along with another colleague on the senior leadership team, I am responsible for ensuring that leadership and innovation are embedded deeply and are part of the DNA of the school. These two elements are essential to our identity.

What is DNA? From a scientific perspective it is deoxyribonucleic acid, the carrier of genetic information. The term is also used metaphorically to describe the distinctive characteristics of an organisation’s culture and identity, yet unlike the body’s DNA that is set, this needs to be regularly communicated, reinforced and supported.

I have found the idea by futurist, Joel Barker a very useful description of what leaders need to do.

 We manage within a paradigm and lead between paradigms.

DNA

What is a paradigm? It’s a pattern, a model or a set of practices that define what we do, both now and into the future.

As leaders we need to simultaneously manage the current paradigm, getting ‘this’ job done, and lead our people toward a new paradigm. Both are essential:

  • Managing in present: organising people and resources within the current context

  • Leading to the future: taking people to a new ‘place’

We are usually very comfortable in the present, we know what needs to be done and how to get it done. Often our people are more than happy to stay where we are right now, it’s known and comfortable. If we are leaders, however, we also know we must be taking them somewhere. Whether it is their personal growth, or organisational progress. We are taking our teams, organisation or even our family to something better.

What is innovation? At the root of the word ‘innovation’ is ‘nova’, which means ‘new’. Innovation may be values, solution or practices that meet new and emerging requirements. To you and your team ‘innovation’ may mean growth, new markets or reinvention, whatever the context – people need good leaders.

So how do we practically lead our teams to this new paradigm of innovation?

Know, Show and Let Go

Know Show Let go

Know (not assume)

  • Your people

  • The job to be done

  • The values that shape us

Show (not just tell)

  • What’s to be done

  • How to do it

  • The attitudes and behaviours we expect

Let go (not control)

  • Release your team to do

  • Observe

  • Assess and plan

This is a cyclical process, once you let go, observe and assess. We soon see what people don’t know or now need to know and then repeat… ad infinitum.

@anneknock

 

There’s no *place* like *home* – why comfort and community matter when we work, learn, play & create

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This post is my presentation at the Education Future Forum, 15 March 2013

Slide02

There is no sense of ‘place’ that is greater than ‘home’.

Hugh Mackay, in What makes us tick? Ten desires that drive us  says

‘My place’ is partly an anchor, partly a refuge, partly a stable point in a world that seems kaleidoscopic in the complexity of shifting patterns…we need to know where we belong; we need to feel that some physical place stands as a symbol of our uniqueness and acceptance.

The places where we spend most time are home and work. The picture of the employee in isolation is changing, as we prefer to work in community with others. Yahoo recently banned working from how, because as CEO Melissa Mayer stated, “we are one Yahoo” and community and connection is essential to culture change.

The traditional office  isn’t  particularly inspiring either. People often like to just hang out, work in proximity with other like-minded people. This has led to  a happy medium between home and work.

Sometimes curing office doldrums is simply about a temporary change of scenery, whether that’s in a coffee shop, a co-working space or even a park bench. (Link)

Over the last couple of decades there has been a shift in the way people work and learn, breaking down barriers, enabling choice and recognising that ownership of time space and very work itself is a huge motivating factor. The term ‘third place’  was coined by Ray Oldenburg an urban sociologist. In his book The Great Good Place he writes about the importance of informal public gathering spaces. “Third places” are essential to community vitality.

The $8bn Green Square project in inner Sydney is an urban development will eventually be the home for more than 40,000 people by 2030.  A young architectural team came up with the winning plan for the library at Green Square:

Artist impression 1

Artist impression 2

The below-ground vision will include garden storytelling, rolling hills and a sunken garden for reading and relaxing. It features an amphitheatre, water play area and music rooms where residents can practise on their instruments without disturbing neighbours.

Did anyone mention books?

Today, the library is a third place where people come to meet, read, work and belong. The word ‘library’ was once only synonymous with the word ‘book’. Now it is a ‘place’. The architects described this library as the ‘community living room’, a third place where people can be comfortable and productive at the same time. The library that feels like home.

The Hub ”Where change goes to work”  is a non-profit communal movement across the globe that is recreating the work environment.

The Hub

HUBs are uniquely designed spaces that provide a creative environment as well as a professional infrastructure to work, meet, learn and connect. Individuals rent spaces to work with other  entrepreneurs or project space with their team. The spaces are comfortable, with a variety of furnishings, a cafe and a kitchen.

We believe physical spaces are key to our impact  - for work, collaboration, inspiration, community, vibrant spaces, tools, connection, innovation. Why work from home when you can co-locate with other like-minded people at The Hub?

Slide14Slide16

Another example of the third space is The Design Factory at Aalto University in Helsinki. This is a cross-disciplinary project space furnished in the same way as the hub, catering for different ways of working and placing shipping containers to create a variety of working areas – spaces within spaces.

Slide19

Importantly, the kitchen provides a focal point and an opportunity for “planned coincidences”. It houses the only coffee machine in the building, so people must come to the kitchen to connect.

Design Factory

So what happens when school feels like home?

For generations, educationally, we’ve been polishing the chrome on the Holden Kingswood (or Edsel or Cortina), without seeing the need to reinvent in the hybrid-vehicle era. For generations the physical place of school has remained the same, when all around people are working and learning in markedly different ways. Think about the hospital/medical services, the way we communicate, how we access music and purchase goods – yet there is a constancy to the way schools look – for decades.

Slide23

The physical environment does matter. This was identified by a pilot study by the University of Salford and architects, Nightingale Associates. This study  found that the classroom environment can affect a child’s academic progress over a year by as much as 25%.

 Slide26  GM23

Schools we have visited in Scandinavia, and in particular Denmark and Sweden,  the design definitely feels like home. There are communal living rooms with soft furnishings and kitchens within the learning space, especially for primary and middle years.

There are, of course, other spaces for instructional sessions, but there were no rigid rows, but coworking tables. These spaces are generally kept small, because they aren’t spaces to stay in all day.

Slide29

I witnessed a ‘school feels like home’ moment last year.  

The teacher brought the young boy over to the kitchen, took a plate, put some crackers with cheese together for him and then sat at the ‘kitchen table’ to work with him on his maths problems.

Slide30

Kunskapsskolan is a system of more than 30 free schools across Sweden. The schools have a specific replicable design that is evident at each site.

Slide34

 

A new Kunskapsskolan school is not built on fresh greenfield site, but a disused factory, warehouse, shop or hospital that can accommodate the design and way of working – one characterised by light, visibility and flexibility.

Slide33

Every space is a learning space.

The starting point for design is to think of the entire space available as a potential learning area, not defaulting to “dividing space into static classrooms with connecting corridors”

Most areas have multiple functions …the cafeteria doubles up as a space for collaboration.

Visitors to Kunskapsskolan often remark that our schools look more like the site of a modern, creative knowledge industry, rather than a traditional school.

How do we make school feel like home? 

Slide37

Test every assumption about school - just because we have always have classrooms, desks, chairs and a teacher at the front, it doesn’t mean they are the necessary elements.

Identify what is actually necessary – begin with the end in mind.

Observe the times – how do your students connect, learn and communicate?

Ditch those things that don’t matter any more – how much of what we do is due to what has always been done?

Focus on relationships – at all levels, and at every nexus.

…And be brave.

@anneknock

 


Will this be in the test, My Pyne? Old school is not way to go #weneedvision

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Christopher Pyne is the Australian Education Minister in-waiting, with an election due in September this year. We have been waiting for a clear vision for the students in our nation and are yet to receive it. The current government hasn’t delivered. This piece appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald this week.

Old School is way to go, says Pyne (emphasis mine – see below)

Child-centred learning should be abandoned for a return to more explicit instruction driven by teachers, the Liberal education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, says.

Mr Pyne on Wednesday advocated ”more practical teaching methods based on more didactic teaching methods, more traditional methods rather than the child-centred learning that has dominated the system for the past 20, 30 or 40 years’‘.

”In other words, mounting evidence suggests that primary school children or students with particular types of disadvantage would be better off being taught this way,” he said. ”Unfortunately this research has been ignored by most teacher training and in many instances attempts to return to explicit instruction pedagogy have been blocked by state education departments.”

Dear Mr Pyne,

The world has changed significantly from when I was at school. I’m not sure who’s advising you, so maybe I can help. In 2013 it is not feasible to look to the so-called good old days and say, “it didn’t do me any harm”. Rather than appeal to the voting public (parents) with seemingly reassuring words about getting back to the past, we need an Education Minister who can look forward and see the amazing opportunities our children have before them.

I’m sure as a student you knuckled down and worked hard to get where you are today. But learning is personal, and I wonder if there were peers in your classes who were like a ‘fish out of water’ at your school.

Today I want an education system where there are no more of these ‘fishes’ at school, that we are able to personalise the learning for the success of all students – with a curriculum that is deep, engaging, rigorous and purposeful. Not a policy that will just win votes.

In no other profession do we yearn for the past. For those of us over 40, think back to our childhood. Would we want to go back to the way it was for a visit to the dentist or the hospital? I wouldn’t. Similarly, the world of education and learning has significantly shifted and we are looking to the leaders, like yourself, as alternate Education Minister, not to turn back the clock based on your own experience, but gain a greater understanding of the world we are preparing our young people for, especially the opportunities that technology bring.

Just to ge things straight

Child-centred learning that has dominated the system for the past 20, 30 or 40 years This term was used when I started my career in education 30 years ago. In 1979 I started my pre-service teacher education and it seemed that in the right conditions learning would happen, as if by osmosis.

Rather, I think today forward thinking educators would say that the curriculum needs to be learner-driven, not putting the student in charge of the content, but the teacher. ‘Learner-driven’ is more about the students as engaged and passionate learners, who actively pursue learning as a lifelong endeavour.

Return to more explicit instruction, driven by teachers. Now I’m really confused. We now know that quality teachers are more important than ever. I see many passionate teachers that are taking responsibility for the ‘stickiness’ of their students’ learning. Back-in-the-day it was a simple blame game – if students didn’t learn it was their fault or problem, with associated punishment. I am impressed with the education professionals in my world who are constantly assessing students and evaluating their own practice, thus seeking to ensure that they provide the conditions for students to learn.

This may also include instructional teaching, as part of the tool kit, but this can be done in a variety of ways that frees up the teacher from the one-to-many approach, allowing more quality time with students.

Mounting evidence suggests that primary school children or students with particular types of disadvantage would be better off being taught this way. Does this mean that because these students require a particular approach, then there needs to be a blanket rule for all students? There is no one size fits all education. Let’s aim to give all students the approach they need to realise their potential and achieve success in life.

In many instances attempts to return to explicit instruction pedagogy have been blocked by state education departments. I can only speak from the NSW perspective, perhaps one of the most prescriptive curriculum jurisdictions across Australia. I am very familiar with the requirements for the registration and accreditation of schools and I am not aware of any such blockage. The breadth of outcomes to be met in NSW actually lends itself to explicit instruction, as this is the only way that many teachers feel they can meet the statutory requirements.

I am currently reading social researcher, Hugh Mackay’s book, What makes us tick? The ten desires that drive us. In the chapter, ‘The Desire to be Taken Seriously’, Mackay talks about the need to focus on intrinsic motivation. Rewards and punishments come from extrinsic sources, says Mackay, then we focus on control. This is very evident in school:

Students who become obsessed by the marks they are getting tend to be less engaged learners – in the richest sense of ‘learning’ – than those who are not driven by the extrinsic reward of marks. Marks become the goal. Learning, questioning, exploring ideas, making mistakes – all the hallmarks of an engaged student – tend to diminish in the pursuit of rewards.

In one secondary school famous for high marks achieved by its students, teachers reported that the students’ focus on marks was distorting their approach to learning: ‘Will this be in the exam?’ students would ask, whenever a teacher introduced a topic or mentioned a book worth reading. The clear implication was that if there were no marks in it the students wouldn’t bother paying attention to it.

I don’t know about you, but I would like to provide the conditions for rich and engaged learners. I definitely don’t want these young people to face school as I experienced it.

Be the change, Mr Pyne, if you become the new school Education Minister for Australia

PS… Please don’t take counsel from Mr Gove. Instead, watch the TED talks by Sir Ken Robinson and Sugata Mitra.

We live by different rules. One woman’s attempt at navigating them (um, that would be me)

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An interesting Twitter exchange developed. I made an unusual comment, as I don’t normally jump into the political discourse. Our female Prime Minister announced the date of the election, with an unprecedented eight month lead in. I tweeted:

“in the 2010 election the PM wore pearls (credibility) and is wearing glasses (this time I mean business)”

The question came back from a person in my feed, “Do we talk about male politicians and what they are wearing as a mark of business or not?” A valid point, to which I added, “We really live by different rules”

A few others leapt into the discussion about comments made about other politicians (from the other side). I also recalled reading that in the 2012 US election campaign, Mitt Romney always had his shirt sleeves rolled up “ready to get working” was the message it sent.

In 2012 a well-known international feminist commentator and writer on Q&A, said about our PM “What I want her to do is get rid of those bloody jackets.”  If the sisterhood can’t seem to get it right, what hope is there?

My Kitchen Rules is a cooking competition by couples, who may be spouses, family members and friends. They are seeking to outdo one another and impress the judges.

Who knows what the audition process was looking for and then what was actually said across the evening of filming, but the editing guidelines seem to say,

“portray the women, especially the all-female pairs, as critical with a quick and cutting mouth. That will definitely get the viewers.”

I am so disgusted by the promos, that I won’t watch the program. But millions are.

We live by different rules. Once we can accept that, work with it.

So as a woman who is seeking to make a mark on the world how do I navigate this? A few things to accept:

  • My public comments are (and should be) under scrutiny.
  • The sisterhood won’t necessarily back us up.
  • The media prefer to present women in ways that pit us against one another (while the men passively observe)

We are all wired differently. When my children were small I wasn’t the stay-at-home-mum-type and went back to work fairly quickly and now, in my early 50s I enjoy work and am not looking toward retirement, as I find work to be energizing and engaging.

Again, part of me wants to clarify: there’s nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home-mum nor is there anything wrong with wanting to retire and play golf (or whatever they do). But, I don’t actually need to clarify, because when I talk about what’s good for me, I’m not criticising another.

What are my rules?

  • Be comfortable with who I am, not other people’s expectations of who I should be
  • Equally, be respectful, don’t put my expectations onto others, allow them to be themselves
  • Live to serve and encourage others, especially with my words
  • Know enough about what’s happening in the world, including sport, to communicate and engage with a broad range of people
  • Go with my strengths and identify (and fill) areas where I need help
  • Find creative outlets that fit me
  • Find a clothing style that makes me feel positive about myself
  • Understand the diversity of maleness
  • My opinion is an opinion, not what another person should or must do
  • Listen more and talk less

15 of my 17 years teaching were in boys’ schools and my husband and I have raised two sons. I think that this baptism into the male-world has helped me to navigate it relatively effectively, yet far from perfectly. I quickly learnt that I just need to say something once and then I need to give time to think about it. I have learnt a lot from the young boys I taught, and my husband and sons.

My desire is that I want to see women in places of leadership and influence in the breadth of spheres open to them. But our expectations need to be real. Considering ‘life’s big moments’, our career growth can be both incremental and successful, with the necessary pauses. Most importantly, relationships and especially those closest take priority.

We live by different rules. Work yours out.

@anneknock

Dogfooding: Would you send your own kids to your school?

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Dogfooding…
It’s a curious term that I came across in the business section of my newspaper this morning. In business ‘eating your own dogfood’ refers to the scenario in which a company uses it’s own product to demonstrate its quality and capabilities.

Of course, there are many extenuating circumstances in the decisions we make for our own children (present company included) – but in principle, is your school the kind of school that you would like your own children to attend? When I had my own sons at school with me it hit my hip-pocket. Not so much in the cost of fees, but the regular question  as I crossed the playground… “Mum, can I have some money?”

In business, and in particular for business leaders, this speaks of corporate loyalty. The article makes reference to a question put to Melinda Gates about i-devices, to which she answered, “The wealth from our family came from Microsoft, so why would I invest in the competitor?”.

As a child I used to wonder if the employees from a TV channel were only allowed to watch their own station at home.

The former chief executive of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, recently admitted on radio that his zeal for Britain’s biggest supermarket stretched to the contents of the family’s fridge. Asked if his wife Alison had ever shopped at rival Waitrose, he said: “Occasionally, but I would complain so much that she wouldn’t bother.”

He even bribed his kids to inform if his wife popped into Waitrose (the competitor). You can’t say the man’s not passionate about his supermarkets.

While this sounds a little extreme,  the principle remains, would you send your own kids to your school? Great school leaders would, almost with a parent-heart, want to create a learning community within which their own children would thrive.

So hypothetically, and even if you don’t have your own kids, how would your school stack up as first choice for your family?

Is the learning personalised so that your children would be engaged and stimulated?

Are there high quality relationships that would make your children feel part of a community?

Would the professional practice provide the best quality of education you would want for your kids?

Would they recognise you as the person at home?

I’m sure that there are other questions, but it comes down to passion for your school, and making it the best, so that even your kids would love it and thrive there.

So how passionate are you?

@anneknock

Agreed @TomWhitby – The education conference needs to be re-invented “focus the conversations on big ideas”

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I read with interest Tom Whitby’s reflections on the value of education conferences in his blog My Island View

As a person who organises professional learning experiences for educators I struggle with the notion of the traditional conference. When I attend big events the irony is not lost. Big names talk about new learning paradigms, the role of technology and the new skills required for the 21stC in the context where we all sit in ordered rows as passive learners, with no voice, no collaboration and if the wifi for the venue is too expensive, no connectivity.

I am now observing that commercial conference organisers have identified a gap in the market and have jumped in, with both feet. They have the commercial acuity and financial backing to get the international top name speakers – and I mean the biggest names going around, that will attract both the registrations and the sponsorship – but the suspicious side of me thinks that the motive is not about improving the quality of education for the children in this country.

But for many of these speakers, their presentations are available on YouTube, and they are often speaking about the same stuff.

So why do people go in their multiple hundreds or even thousands?

Will there be a return on investment – translated back into changed attitudes and practice at their school?

Or is it the equivalent of going to a rock concert to see the favourite band in-person?

Conferences are expensive and for many not-for-profits the annual event is the injection of funds that can keep their other activities going for another year. But just as school education is being shaken up, in a parallel way, professional learning must be re-assessed. It is so often “do as I say, not as I do.”

Here are a few of my guiding principles for organising professional learning events. 

There is value in the expert – There are people who through study or experience are notable experts and are worth listening to. These people should be able to offer something beyond their regular spiel and know how to engage and connect with the audience.

Give participants a voice - Every person who attends a professional learning event comes with something to contribute. We need to create time and space for this to occur.

The content and activity should lead to changed and/or enhanced practice – Why do we come? Not to be entertained, although engaging speakers will also do that, but hopefully to be changed or lead change. 

There are opportunities for active learning – I have a mantra that runs around my head:

We can’t change the way teachers teach, unless we change the way teachers learn

If we want to challenge mindsets about learning, then we must model active learning for educators. 

Participants have choice – following from the previous point, what we hope to facilitate are learning environments that model new paradigm thinking. So how do professional learning opportunities incorporate choice and allowing educators to pursue ideas they are interested in?

There is value in the ‘gathering of the clan’ – I think one of the most important reasons for conferences is the connecting with the community. It is often said that the best part about a conference is the conversations over the lunch and tea breaks. 

Social media enhances when used strategically – Reliable wifi is essential and provides connection and dialogue. It also enables those back at school to follow the action.

The images here are from our two-day workshop, Making it Mobile that incorporates each of these elements. It was a great success and the 70 participants walked away with tools and programs that can be used with their own students.

@anneknock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Kicking off the new school year. Never “same old, same old” here at Northern Beaches Christian School

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In Australia the end of January is the start of the new academic year. Within a few days of getting back into it I usually gaze out the window, trying to recall the vacation and thinking to myself that perhaps it was just a dream?

(No, I really did have Christmas in Paris with my family)

Like many schools, Northern Beaches Christian School started the new year with a couple of days for professional learning activities with the staff. I have been the Director of Development at SCIL* for a few years and for the staff, each start to the new school year is always different from the previous year. Professional learning experiences are shaped around the key elements of the vision, reflecting the priorities of the year ahead.

This year, the priorities are GLO – Growth, Leadership, Opportunities. When the principal, Stephen Harris starts each year he outlines the priorities that will be the focus of the year, each of these areas are the further advancement to the vision:

Exceed Expectations.

Stephen expressed this further as he articulated the SCIL Learning Model

At its simplest form the SCIL Learning Model is essentially about learning and opportunity. On the one hand, there is a recurrent focus on developing a strong culture of self-directed learning, with an emphasis on critical and applied deep thinking. Project-based learning supports this approach well. On the other hand, we wish all students to recognise, have access to and take up opportunities that will grow them as pro-active compassionate leaders with integrity and moral strength, as they journey through their learning.

Central to the priorities is embedding project-based learning as a consistent element across the learning culture of the school, in every faculty, at each grade level.

1Like many schools, the first few days before the students return provide a valuable opportunity for professional learning and growth. This year it started with a session by an external facilitator, outlining the Apple model of challenge-based learning.

After some initial input and guidance, teaching teams set about developing their own interest projects that were then shared with their peers at the conclusion of the day. Embedded into the project was the use of an app or other element that may have been new to them.

The following day was set aside for the teams to critically analyse and develop how PBL can become a normal part of the teaching and learning at a faculty level.

In previous years teams have embarked on an ‘amazing race’ stye adventure around the city, imagining spaces for learning in all sorts of non-school contexts, or working on Bloom/Gardner’s matrix with like-minded peers to create a project that would improve a learning space within the school.

Do you see a pattern here with the professional learning?

  • Directly linked to the school’s priorities.
  • Immerses the teachers in the learning environment that we want for the students.
  • Teachers need work in teams.
  • ‘Facilitator talk’ is capped to the necessary 
  • Opportunity to pursue a passion or interest area
  • Challenge of using new technology as part of the project
  • Learn new skills necessary to complete the project

The professional learning opportunities gives the teacher the first hand learning experiences that we seek for our students.

If we want to change the way teachers teach, we need to change the way teachers learn.

Happy 2013!

@anneknock

*SCIL is the innovation and professional services focus within Northern Beaches Christian School. The SCIL Learning Model is currently being developed as a resource and will be available this year.