Learning Conversations

I’ve started working on a new project recently – and I’m darned excited about it too!

We’ve got a fairly major technology change to deal with and we want to minimize the stress of such a change by putting ease of use and high value at the center of all we do. But we’ve also got a core group of leaders that understand the possibilities inherent in disruption…

I feel like we have an opportunity here to create solutions that support a breadth and depth of benefits including community engagement, including parents in learning, empowering students, supporting relationships, creating shared learning, making learning visible, supporting leadership, etc…

And the project team is on board to model all that we believe – open and transparent communication, shared leadership, collaborative problem solving, listening without judgment, seeking positive exemplars, etc…

You can see why I’m excited, right?

So this is where all of the conversations I have on Twitter (and with anyone who will engage with me on a day to day basis!!) hit the reality of having to DO what we’ve talked about. The values I believe in are lofty and probably more than a little idealistic.

I sat in a meeting yesterday, talking about approaches and next steps. There is no clear leadership hierarchy. We have many strong personalities involved. The project sponsor has purposefully brought us all together as “thought leaders” in different ways. This is growing into a great team…

Yet I caught myself falling into old paradigms. I started noticing the voice in my head…

Listening and looking around the room, I thought “Ok, I thought I was the project manager on this – why are there all these conversations that have been going on that I haven’t been included in?” Deep breath… I had to talk myself through it. “This isn’t a big deal – people have to feel free to collaborate without limitation – no one’s trying to exclude you…”

That made me think… I’ve struggled a bit during the team-forming phase of this project – trying to figure out what role I’m supposed to be in and what’s expected of me. I’ve sat back at times, unsure whether I’m “supposed” to be speaking up (to the frustration of the sponsor!!)

And it finally drilled home today – this is the discomfort of doing things differently than I have before. In previous projects, I’ve wanted to know it all, to have a “handle” on everything that’s going on (read “control”…) – not in a malicious way, but because that was the way I’d always been successful before.

It was a great big “ah-ha” moment! This is what shared leadership looks like! No one’s “in charge” here, we’re making decisions together, we have to rely on each other, we have to learn to trust each other, we’re allowing each other not to know it all. In order to allow each person to bring their individual strengths and perspectives to the table, I also have to acknowledge that I can’t do everything – and therefore I shouldn’t control everything either!

Wow! It’s incredibly freeing and incredibly frightening, all at the same time!

I like this journey…

Having been a project manager for many years, I’ve long believed in and experienced the power of diverse-group decision making.

Inevitably, teams of people, each bringing their unique perspectives to the table, come up with better, more complete, more creative and more successful solutions.

Here’s a video from YouTube that talks about this phenomenon:

In the educational realm, I think everyone has been off trying to come up with solutions by themselves – educators, administrators, District management, Government Ministries.

Why is it that we don’t talk to each other as much as we could? From the outside, I get the sense that there’s a bit of that “leave it to the professionals” attitude.

Is it too much effort to try to coordinate schedules? Are we worried that it takes too much effort to include people uninvolved in the day-to-day operations of our schools? And then they can’t add value anyways? After all, what do parents know about what it takes to run a school? Or a District? And what do students know about what they really need from education?

And it’s hard to have completely open conversations and doors – because that might expose your weaknesses, or open things up for criticism. We are, often by nature, defensive – we want to put our best foot forward, not parade our challenges and weaknesses out for all to see! Do we really want the world to know that we don’t know how to solve a problem? Doesn’t everyone expect the “experts” to have all the answers? And really, doesn’t everyone have enough to do without opening another can of worms by asking people their opinion??

But are we sure that external partners don’t add value? Why would we think that kids are incapable of contributing to solutions about their own education? Another quote from Starbucks is that “the person who sweeps the floor should pick the broom!”

How much effort is it worth to come up with solutions that work? What if we had increased odds of finding successful ideas that everyone is invested in and working together on?

What if it resulted in kids engaged in their own learning? What if they were excited to come to school – to learn and create and work together?

What if parents felt involved and knowledgeable about what was going on in classrooms? What if they were passionate about supporting their children’s teachers? What if they could support and reinforce at home what their kids are learning in school?

What if teachers felt trusted and safe to make mistakes in their own learning and change efforts? What if they felt supported and valued by the parents instead of judged and attacked? What if they already had relationships with all the parents in their class and could easily call one up to discuss their child’s learning – without it feeling like “cold calling” someone you don’t even know (and who doesn’t want to hear from you!)?

What if Principals had time to build the team and the learning community relationships instead of being overwhelmed by the myriad of administrative tasks that swamp their days? What if they could do the same thing that they used to do with their classrooms (encourage, support each child’s learning, coach, bring out the best in everyone)?

How much more powerful would that make our education system?

And, as a result, how would that change education (having something taught TO you) into learning (participating in the learning process and learning WITH you)?

The way I see it, we can keep complaining about how the Government just doesn’t get the whole picture.

We can complain about how they just don’t understand that you can’t measure successful education using standardized tests.

We can gripe about how the teacher’s not helping MY child and nobody cares.

We can shake our heads at all the parents who never even come to parent-teacher interviews.

We can work all hours just trying to get all the forms filled out, the lockers assigned, the reports completed, the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed.

Or we can choose another way and actually TALK TO EACH OTHER!  BUILD RELATIONSHIPS!  COLLABORATE! AND LISTEN TO EACH OTHER!

It takes more effort, but isn’t it worth it?
For them?

I came across a guest post on the SocialMediaMom blog by Jonathon Fields - talking about how his daughter’s interest in Twitter inspired him to ponder “what if there were a secret internet for kids?”

He writes:

“The whole experience makes me wonder how powerful it might be to have a twitter that was devoted exclusively to fostering conversation among kids around the world in a safe, monitored environment.

Imagine the impact.

Millions of kids, forming impressions, bonds and experiences not through information filtered and colored by the grown-ups who provide access, but rather by their own, direct experience. Imagine them simply having the ability to invite friends from all over the world to hang out and chat. To ask questions about life, relationships, values or even simple daily activities.

To me, if there is a killer application for social media, it doesn’t lie in the realm of grown-ups. It’s not about business or marketing or content-sharing. It’s in the opportunity to allow kids from radically different cultures around the world to connect, to form their own opinions and break down barriers that have created artificial separations for decades or even centuries.

How different, I wonder, might the next generation be if we could foster such an experience?”

That’s some pretty powerful stuff to imagine, isn’t it? It’s easy to poke holes in the idea – like how would make sure only kids can sign up (not predators pretending to be nine years old!), or how would we make sure they weren’t bullying each other and the experiences were positive?

But I’m more interested in how we COULD make this work?

Could we learn something from Zoey’s Room? They’ve figured out a process of verifying who you are (which is why only American’s can sign up there – they don’t have access to the same verification methods for Canadians, so we’re just not allowed).

Or what about the amazing work that NotSchool.net has done? They’ve found ways of empowering the teenagers – including them in hiring of staff and much more!

What would you do to create a safe, open environment for kids to share and learn?