Technical and Adaptive Leadership

Tony's board work.

I began thinking about 'Technical' and 'Adaptive' challenges in a reflection last term.  Truth be told
though, I didn't really make the connection to leadership though until today during our session with Tony Burkin. I realised that part of being in a new school, much of the adaptive stuff we are doing requires a technical solution and I guess that defined for me why I have struggled with the move from pipeline 2 to pipeline 3 of leadership. 

Much of my previous work as an educator has been adaptive and built on iterative inquiries. While I am still adaptive in my role, much of my day is filled with drafting and implementing technical solutions. 

I believe my biggest area of growth so far this year has been in my ability to lead coaching conversations. I have also become far more comfortable with the unknown. How can I ensure that the people I am with feel similarly comfortable with the unknown? 

My main take-away from this part of our leadership day was that if the team is truly comfortable with the unknown, I need to ensure that I:

• give voice which will subsequently lead to choice,
• maintain a productive zone of disturbance, we're a new school - we need to work hard and smart but keeping focus is key.
• maintain engagement with minimal distractions, our mentors just need to be able to teach, collaborate with each other.... they do not need to spend unnecessary time on administrative tasks... I need to buffer them from stuff that will actually distract them from doing the best job they can in the habitat.
• develop a collective responsibility of our evolution - I do not profess to have the answers and it is important that we are able to look to each other to move forward..