How Might We Lead: Trying To Form New Habits

 

You might not connect with the following metaphor but it works for me.

I've been running 'competitively' for 50+ years. I don't think a lot about the 'how' of running; I reckon I know how to do it and I just get out and run. If someone asked me to describe how to run I'd have to stop and think because, for me, I just put one foot in front of the other and lean forward. The way I run is habitual and just happens.

I've recently discovered, though, that how I run has become not fit-for-purpose. As I've aged, my non-running muscles have weakened and I've discovered I've developed, unconsciously, a bent over shuffle type gait. Up until now it hasn't been too much of a problem as I shuffle along the roads and trails and accept the increasing and more-early-arriving pain is just part of the game.

However, I now want to run a 100 miler which brings a whole different purpose to why I'm running. This means I need to adopt a different 'how' as I won't make the 100 miles doing what I'm currently doing. The pain will be too much.

So, I've done some research and have adopted a different gait - one that has me running taller and making use of my glutes rather than focusing on my quads and hamstrings. Because this style has not yet become habitual I have to concentrate on my gait almost every single step to prevent myself falling back to old habits.

The new gait brings different issues. Pain and discomfort is emerging in new areas as I transition to a new way of running. I fully expect that things will get better with this. Also, to maintain the gait and the efficiency I expect, I need to do strength and flexibility exercises, especially to my core and in my hip area. I don't have a high level of motivation for this so it is something I need to really commit to and hold myself accountable.

While I'm confident that if I stick to my plans I will gain huge benefit I fully expect there to be problems on the way. I'll develop new niggles and new pains and I'll fall back into bad or previous habits. I have developed strategies to support me to stick to the new path.

I've realised the body was getting a bit creaky. This, along with my new 'why' (100  miler) has meant I need to develop a new 'how' with a new set of principles/guidelines (include strength and flexibility work in my training, be open to changing life-long habits etc), which will result in a different set of practices (the 'what') which I need to work on to become habitual (yoga at home, attend a gym, adopt a particular running technique).

I think sometimes schools are a bit like that. The institution has become a bit creaky while we persist with our habitual practices. This can lead to pain and niggles in the system. In my view, the 'why' of schooling has also changed as our world is changing dramatically with a range of global existential crises such as climate, pandemics, biodiversity reduction, increasing inequity, mis- and dis-information and conflict and issues in relation to AI etc.

We need to engage with these issues and understand our new 'why' and think about how we are going to respond and reposition schools and from there adopt new ways of doing 'schooling'.

The work to reposition schools can seem so daunting that we are tempted to stay with our habitual practices. While it is tough and demanding work it is certainly doable.

I am more and more convinced that how we do this work is to really focus on what it is that we know that creates the conditions for the best teaching and learning that is required today. We need to start with understanding and agreeing on how students learn best. From there we need to develop a set of core beliefs for which we are ready to "die in the ditch" and design our schools based on those core beliefs.

As part of my own professional learning I'm drilling into the work carried out by organisations such as Modern Learners, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (OECD), Michael Fullan and Chris Leadbetter and their work with the Centre for Strategic Education, Valerie Hannon and her work with the Innovation Unit and Russell Bishop's Teaching/Leading to the North-east.

For the sake of my own country-boy mind I want to hone in on what they are all saying and see if I can make sense of the essence of it all. The aim is to settle on a set of core beliefs that could determine some guiding principles that could drive some different and more appropriate practices which we could try to make habitual.

I hope the outcome could support us when we ponder the questions about how might we lead in our schools. I'll most probably post what I come across.

How Might We Lead: What Might Be Possible

 

2 posts ago I wrote about the importance of making sure your big hairy goals are put out there for others to see. I think this gives some accountability and impetus when things start to drag or halt. I used the example of my goal to run 100 miles (160k) at the Tarawera Ultramarathon in February. I noted that I had been given advice to really establish my 'why' for doing such a crazy thing.

I've run more than 30 marathons, entered countless multi-sport races and full-day adventure races, run a 50k ultra, a 70k ultra and two 100k ultras. Every one was tough and after every one I swore, usually briefly, that that would be my last!

So why 100 miles? I have thought a lot about this and I think it's because I want to really test my limits, to test what I might be truly capable of. The risk of failure is very high (more than 50/50 I'd say): I might get injured by the intensity of the training, I might arrive at the start line carrying some niggles and not be able to finish, I might arrive at the start line feeling 100% and might not be able to finish OR I might arrive at the start line and complete it. All of those are possibilities. 

One thing is certain, between now and then and during the event, I'll be called upon to solve problems that emerge, many expected, some unexpected. And, of course, when you set out to really test what might be possible, it takes time. This will end up being a year-long project. It began with research and planning, some implementation, then some revisiting of the plan as problems emerged, and this will continue. All the time, there will be no guarantee of success. Even failure, though, will have me in a better place than I am today. I would have learned so much about myself which will be useful as I live out my life.

This is always the case when we think about what might be possible and we set out to find out.

I think this is how I have approached school leadership.

At Opotiki College after 10 years of being DP in charge of discipline in which I oversaw 50 suspensions a year (that's 500 over those ten years) and up to 10 exclusions per year (that's 100) I began to wonder what else might be possible. On appointment as principal I stopped all suspensions as we set out on a journey to explore if the principles of restorative practice might offer us a different way.

Like with the 100 miler, it involved research, planning, implementation and revisiting, overcoming hurdles and solving problems. As it was we were hugely successful with only 1 suspension in the next 10 years. The best outcomes were a creation of a culture of mutual respect, a change in pedagogy to one based on relationships and a massive lift in student achievement (Decile 1 school with achievement levels at NCEA Levels 1 -3 equal to the average of Decile 8-10 schools).

Instead of being curious about what might be possible we could have not taken the risks and stayed with the status quo. Instead in the following 10 years 500 kids weren't suspended and 100 kids weren't excluded, teaching improved and student engagement and achievement went through the roof. It was worth it.

At Hobsonville Point Secondary School we wondered what might be possible if we set out to design a schooling experience based on what evidence stated was more appropriate for what young people needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. Like with the 100 miler and the work at Opotiki, it involved research, planning, implementation and revisiting, overcoming hurdles and solving problems. All of these also required courage.

All of this work has led me to this model of leadership based on having a moral purpose that requires you to wonder about what might be possible, to have the courage to set out to explore and implement what might be possible, while always being open to the idea that you might be wrong and will need to amend.

This has formed the basis of all of the work I am now doing with HMWLead. Whether it has been working with governance facilitators, boards to support principal development, SLTs to investigate curriculum and pedagogy review or to think about new ways of schooling, or with individual principals to consider what might be possible in relation to how they lead it has always focused on clarifying core beliefs and values that drive us, which in turn gives us the courage to take action and lead.

When schools start thinking about what might be possible, rather than focusing on what they are doing now, that's when we see the beginnings of transformation.

In the wake of the election result all school leaders are going to have to be very clear about their moral purpose and what they are going to die in the ditch for so that they lead in the ways best for their school community.

What might be possible? Sing out if you think I can help in this space.