Education Leaders Forum 2010: Theme

Register your interest now for ELF 2010

Theme

Cultivating Learning
A living systems approach to growing education professionals

"To create better health in a living system, connect it to more of itself." Margaret Wheatley1

Our dominant metaphors influence how we approach our critically important work as education leaders.

At all levels teaching is often a solitary pursuit for individual practitioners. Educators teach in a largely autonomous if not atomized environment. In order to be part of the mainstream, islands of practice need bridges and knowledge navigators to connect them to the mainland.

"An ecology is basically an open, complex adaptive system comprising elements that are dynamic and interdependent." John Seely Brown

Ecology, as a systems thinking metaphor, deals with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.

A learning ecology involves the active (re)creation of knowledge in an environment that fosters and supports the creation of overlapping learning communities which are constantly evolving, largely self- organizing and which cross-pollinate with each other.

Each learning community must learn to respond in its own way to the challenge of adapting and evolving in the light of local and national needs and imperatives.

The appropriate metaphor is not engineering but cultivation, linked to better reticulated professional wellsprings which nurture the energy and creativity of education professionals and link to simple sustainable strategies for complex adaptive learning systems.

1 Leadership and the New Science:Discovering Order in a Chaotic World - Margaret J. Wheatley Third Edition Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.; 2006

Leadership Impact on Student Outcomes

"...the leader doesn't stop at supporting or sponsoring their staff in their learning; they actually participate...as leader, learner or both." 2

As an education leader how do you positively engage the best capacities of your colleagues to learn and adapt?

The recently published BES survey on School Leadership and Student Outcomes summarizes the relative impact of five leadership dimensions on student outcomes.

The most significant impact, with an effect size of 0.84, is Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development. As the authors point out, the key word is "participating"-active involvement as a leader or a learner or both. This large effect provides empirical support for calls for education leaders to be actively involved in teacher learning and development.

If we know that this works why don't we do more of it? The answer may be that we are not sure how to best initiate high energy learning and development strategies which bring about positive changes that stick.

2 School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying what Works and Why - Viviane Robinson et al BES 2009 p101

Engaging your colleagues 3

"People will support what they help to create." Marvin Weisbord

At a time of merging media and emerging change the status quo is not an option.

Guru-inspired change management initiatives led by external consultants often do not stick: when the consultants go so does the energy.

Ensuring the active engagement of your people in a change process is the key to its success. The art of securing sustainable change outcomes is engaging, mobilising and empowering your people. Human dynamics need to be foremost in the change process. Developing the learning organization means developing the individuals and teams within it.

An overly left brain planning approach is too limited. Positive change often emerges as a by-product of the change process.

The key is to create ownership of the change process and encourage people to willingly implement the solutions. This approach takes time and involves connecting, engaging and participating and adopting, adapting, and improving.

Effective education leadership is distributive and the approach is decentralized, nurtured, and connected rather than centralized, managed, and isolated.

3 Based on Organisational developments in a downturn - Linda Holbeche, CPID and Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge Issue 27 Impact

Key organisation change principles:

1. Be clear about the nature of change required -internally driven change based on diagnostic data

2. Secure the engagement of people - tap into the energy available for the change agenda via the people likely to be affected by it

3. Use high-leverage change methodologies - dialogue based, whole system based, engages multiple perspectives and change methodology such as Appreciative Inquiry, which incorporates these principles and is a positive relational approach to change will secure implementation outcomes faster than change methodologies which are expert-led or formula based.

Registration of Interest

Contact Lyall Lukey at SmartNet on (03) 3667 874 or email: lyall@smartnet.co.nz for more information or to register interest in participating.

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Register your interest now for ELF 2010
Theme

*Cultivating Learning* A living systems approach to growing education professionals "To create better health in a living system, connect it to more of itself." Margaret Wheatley1 Our dominant metaphors influence how we approach our critically important work as education leaders. At all levels teaching is often a solitary pursuit for individual practitioners. Educators teach in a largely autonomous if not atomized environment. In order to be part of the mainstream, islands of practice need bridges and knowledge navigators to connect them to the mainland. "An ecology is basically an open, complex adaptive system comprising elements that are dynamic and interdependent." John Seely Brown
Ecology, as a systems thinking metaphor, deals with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms. A learning ecology involves the active (re)creation of knowledge in an environment that fosters and supports the creation of overlapping learning communities which are constantly evolving, largely self- organizing and which cross-pollinate with each other. Each learning community must learn to respond in its own way to the challenge of adapting and evolving in the light of local and national needs and imperatives. The appropriate metaphor is not engineering but cultivation, linked to better reticulated professional wellsprings which nurture the energy and creativity of education professionals and link to simple sustainable strategies for complex adaptive learning systems. 1 Leadership and the New Science:Discovering Order in a Chaotic World - Margaret J. Wheatley Third Edition Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.; 2006

Leadership Impact on Student Outcomes
"...the leader doesn't stop at supporting or sponsoring their staff in their learning; they actually participate...as leader, learner or both." 2 As an education leader how do you positively engage the best capacities of your colleagues to learn and adapt? The recently published BES survey on School Leadership and Student Outcomes summarizes the relative impact of five leadership dimensions on student outcomes. The most significant impact, with an effect size of 0.84, is Promoting and participating in teacher learning and development. As the authors point out, the key word is "participating"-active involvement as a leader or a learner or both. This large effect provides empirical support for calls for education leaders to be actively involved in teacher learning and development. If we know that this works why don't we do more of it? The answer may be that we are not sure how to best initiate high energy learning and development strategies which bring about positive changes that stick. 2 School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying what Works and Why - Viviane Robinson et al BES 2009 p101

Engaging your colleagues 3
"People will support what they help to create." Marvin Weisbord At a time of merging media and emerging change the status quo is not an option. Guru-inspired change management initiatives led by external consultants often do not stick: when the consultants go so does the energy. Ensuring the active engagement of your people in a change process is the key to its success. The art of securing sustainable change outcomes is engaging, mobilising and empowering your people. Human dynamics need to be foremost in the change process. Developing the learning organization means developing the individuals and teams within it. An overly left brain planning approach is too limited. Positive change often emerges as a by-product of the change process. The key is to create ownership of the change process and encourage people to willingly implement the solutions. This approach takes time and involves connecting, engaging and participating and adopting, adapting, and improving. Effective education leadership is distributive and the approach is decentralized, nurtured, and connected rather than centralized, managed, and isolated. 3 Based on Organisational developments in a downturn - Linda Holbeche, CPID and Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge Issue 27 Impact

Key organisation change principles:
1. Be clear about the nature of change required -internally driven change based on diagnostic data 2. Secure the engagement of people - tap into the energy available for the change agenda via the people likely to be affected by it 3. Use high-leverage change methodologies - dialogue based, whole system based, engages multiple perspectives and change methodology such as Appreciative Inquiry, which incorporates these principles and is a positive relational approach to change will secure implementation outcomes faster than change methodologies which are expert-led or formula based.


Registration of Interest

Contact Lyall Lukey at SmartNet on (03) 3667 874 or email: lyall@smartnet.co.nz for more information or to register interest in participating.