Thank goodness the world is such a small place!

Last week we finally met Eric Sheninger face to face, held our second #dk2digihub Digital Leadership Conversation at Canterbury PS and trekked to sunny Mildura to meet the school leaders who had enrolled for the BastowLSDA course up there in our first face to face workshop.

It was a huge week...but one which I am reflecting on now was full on connections and synergies - connecting with leaders during the lunchtime conversation at Canterbury PS, connecting with our mentors, meeting Eric and feeling like we had been friends for ages talking the same talk with shared philosophies and values about education, leadership, change and the place of digital technologies.  And then, the icing on the cake was meeting the Mildura group!

We were met with educators keen to know more, with open minded growth mindsets and an eagerness to connect with each other.

When we flew home that night, I felt inspired...by my mentor colleagues; my dk2 mates; by Eric; by the leaders we met that day. 

I felt inspired because we're on the same journey - we want our schools to be better and different. We want our students to connect authentically with learning that doesn't just engage them but that empowers them to be discriminating, informed, active, responsible and ethical global citizens.

On Thursday when I was talking with Michelle Costa (Principal of Melton West PS), we talked about this not just being a course - it's a process of winning over hearts and minds, shifting thinking.....perhaps it's a movement.

Why school leaders need to be good learners

In 2012 Michael Fullan said "the degree to which the principal participates as a learner  is twice as impactful as any other factor" in achieving school change.

So that's why we need school leaders in our school change teams. They need to help articulate the vision, and model risk taking, willingness to fail and demonstrate their own learning transparently, honestly and with candour. They need to lead from within and empower others to act, build ownership, interest and  draw on the intrinsic motivation of their staff.

So, as a start, let's have a think - as a school leader, how good are you at:

• listening to others
• being creative
• articulating your educational vision concisely
• demonstrating a positive attitude and a growth mindset
• coaching others
• motivating yourself to change
• motivating your staff
• showing your learning side, not just your leading side
• persevering
• being self-directed and accountable for your learning
• working in teams
• delegating and empowering others to act
• loving and valuing your employees
• authentically connecting with your school community
• celebrating successes
• acknowledging and owning failures
• evaluating initiatives
• articulating your moral purpose
• giving others license to try
• building leadership capacity - formal and informal - across your staff
• managing your time
• being organised
• adapting to change
• creating an environment in which great ideas can happen
• moonshot thinking
• handling criticism
• having critical conversations with staff when needed
• being resilient 
• prioritising
• collaborating and connecting with others not just in your school but across networks, locally and globally
• showing empathy
• critical thinking
• divergent thinking
• taking risks
• being willing to fail
• modelling all of the above?

The Teeter Totter Change Principle

Change isn't easy for everyone.

Some of us embrace it and run with it, and wonder why others struggle with it. But we are the ones who need to build our empathy for those who think differently...just because change is easy for us, doesn't mean what we do is better, it's just different.

And here's where the 'teeter totter' principle comes into play - our colleagues struggling with change can manifest a range of responses that we might find perplexing, but which are both justifiable and understandable if we give ourselves some time to reflect:

• change-readiness doesn't come naturally to everyone
• some colleagues may fear change, or be uncomfortable about it because they truly value the status quo, they care about where they are at now and may be untrusting about the motives for why we are advocating a particular change
• our peers may want change, but just not know how to achieve it
• there may be a prevailing ambivalence towards change manifested by up and down, push and pull responses that can be unpredictable and frustrating for those of us already fully invested in the change journey.

When leading change in schools, we can sometimes become frustrated by the 'teeter totters' who one minute are agreeing with us and then the next day blocking the ideas they appeared to like the day before. It can feel like 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

Yes there are the natural resistors - those who don't like any new idea that's not their own. But I would hazard a guess and say they're probably in the minority.

The others who teeter on the brink of joining in your change journey need your love and support. They need you to stretch a warm and comforting arm around their shoulders and gently but firmly help them to shift.

They need you to help them build momentum and get off the teeter totter and you can do this by seeking to understand them and empathise with their struggles so you can build the direction of your journey together.

Image source: http://www.sodahead.com/fun/swings-are-the-coolest-things-on-the-playground/question-403685/ 

Don't be an armchair traveller

I liken this Bastow LSDA experience to a journey of the heart and mind.

It's not like the type of "journey" you hear politicians and political apparatchiks talking about - the platitude for "do as I say but not as I do"...

Instead, I see #BastowLSDA as a personal quest for meaning and relevance, contextualised and interpreted differently by everyone who joins the course.

This journey can be taken in a myriad of ways:

• through armchair travel where one watches from the sidelines and feels like they are learning vicariously via osmosis simply by being enrolled in the course (and thus having the 'ticket' to show for their involvement);
• as part of a guided tour group where all the decisions are made by the leaders, but the tour highlights are experienced at some level (opting in and out of those optional extras depending on needs, wants and enthusiasm);
• as an independent traveller eager to grasp meaning and memories from every second of the experience; 
• as a reluctant traveller, sitting with arms folded, closed, unreceptive saying "I've seen this all before"; or
• as an extreme traveller, seeking extreme experiences, stretching thinking and adrenalin to their limits and taking the virtual bungy jumps into the unknown.

I'm going to stretch the metaphor a bit further here, so bear with me... 

How we travel is completely up to us.

What we take from this experience is dependent on what we want out of it, and what we are able or keen to put into it.

And, finally, the destination we reach relies heavily on the hard yards we've put in to get there.

(Image source with thx: http://www.blogher.com/armchair-travel-living-vicariously-through-others )