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…

Aside from being the place that I often meet with people to talk about education, leadership, kids & life – I’ve also been learning a whole lot from Starbucks Coffee lately.

Starbucks Corporation puts out a Corporate Social Responsibility Annual Report, complete with a summary brochure that they put out in each location, right behind the sugar/milk/lids/napkins…

The first time I noticed this brochure was in 2003 and it was the best mission/guiding principles document I had ever seen!!

• It started with a clear mission statement that explained WHY this company was in existence.
• It included six guiding principles that directly related to HOW they were going to focus their efforts in order to deliver on the mission statement.
• The inside of the brochure then went into detail for each of the six guiding principles – saying WHAT things they were doing and how they would tell they were succeeding.

What was so powerful to me was the fact that the mission was translated right down to what each person in the organization was doing on a day-to-day basis in order to contribute to that mission. Every person in that company, from the CEO all the way through stores all over the world, knows what they’re supposed to be doing, how they’re doing it and why they’re doing it – which translates into a sense of purpose that is incredibly inspiring.

This is what we all talk about doing – in project management seminars, in leadership training, all over the place on websites and in books. But it’s so darned HARD TO DO successfully!! I can’t say I knew how to achieve that clarity of vision for a team or organization, but I certainly recognized the power & possibilities.

So often, a mission or vision statement is too complex or so high level that it leaves everyone in the company thinking “well, that’s great but what does that mean?? What am I supposed to do? How does that relate to the work I do every day??”

I’ve watched Starbucks over the years to see if they walk their talk. Everything I’ve seen and heard has been completely consistent. Their staff are enthusiastic and committed. Their stores are definitely making money (which is, in fact, one of their guiding principles), but they’re also giving back to their communities, working to protect our environment, providing amazing customer service, and supporting diverse and sustainable coffee farmers.

I get a sense sometimes that educators dismiss the “corporate” world – thinking that “things are different” in education. Perhaps there is a sense that educators are serving a higher moral purpose than business – after all, schools are educating our next generation, not just making money like those big corporations.

But we don’t have to judge the global relevance of their purpose or even like the coffee in order to appreciate the lessons that we can learn from Starbucks! And there is so much knowledge out there that we can apply to education’s challenges. In fact, I think that this kind of diversity and open-minded thinking is what will allow education to move forward most effectively.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

The current Starbucks brochure caught my eye again, right with the first paragraph:

“It began as many good things do, with some heartfelt conversations. Sincere, forthright, perhaps a bit idealistic. We took a good hard look at our most cherished values and asked ourselves just how we’d integrate them into this new company we were about to create.”

As Pete Reilly mentioned recently, these passionate, slightly idealistic conversations are happening more and more in education these days. These are exciting times!