Trust, Connect, Then Lead

As I spent time learning this summer about how to become an architect for leading, I have discovered that this is one path I really want to travel.  I take with me some great ideas that will help me establish a collaborative culture within my school. setting up networks that build capacity.

Perhaps one of the most important elements I have learned in this process revolves around the idea of establishing trust. Building relationships and trusting in each other is such an important part of establishing these strong connections.

This concept of trust was clearly evident this summer working with my cohort.  We were able to freely express our opinions, look hard at issues, work together on finding solutions trusting that we would have each other’s backs. We were able to learn and share from each other establishing stronger connections weaving tightly together our network of practice.

I will take these experiences and knowledge back to my practice with the aspiration that building a collaborative cultural will start with trust among co-workers.

Establishing trust will be  a priority as I work on my leadership  skills giving careful consideration given to:

• Converging toward a purpose and establishing a common goal among peers.  
• Focusing on the generative capacity to enable adaptation allowing networks to grow.
• Working toward unified identity across boundaries but realizing that diversity can create change and inspire new ideas allowing us grow in our practice. (Kowach, 2013)

Trust would allow for developing supportive system that is fair and consistent where decisions are made around the needs of the students. With technology we have to ask ourselves when and what is the right tool to use in the classroom for the betterment of student learning.

Fullan’s (2008) 2nd Secret of Change encourages the connection with peers to be purposeful. After establishing  trust working toward a common goal is possible. This will set the conditions for collaboration among teachers.

In the end, I wonder if leaders fail because they have not done enough work to establish  the trust of the people they work with. But I am confident that over time networks can become strong if they trust in themselves and in the abilities and diversity of others.

“Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net”

Fullan, M. (2008). The six secrets of change: What the best leaders do to help their

            organizations survive and thrive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Kowch, E.G. (2013). Towards leading diverse, smarter and more adaptable

           organizations that learn. In J.Lewis, A.Green & Daniel Surry Editor (Eds.),

           Technology as a tool for diversity leadership: Implementation and future implications

            (11-34). Hershy, PA: IGI Global.

On the Path to Leadership

Leadership has gone through some dramatic changes over the last 50 years but I do feel like we are on a pathway to change.

As I journey on this path in learning how to become an effective leader, there are questions I hope to find answers to. Are we as leaders working towards an adaptable model for change for our students in our school systems? Can we or do we see this change in leadership “across” our organization? What is the shift in leadership and what role are we to take to ensure we are being effective leaders? Through various discussions with colleagues I have been enlightened to the workings of both effective systems and ineffective systems and I begin to ask myself how can I contribute to this climate of change within such a complex system.

Complex systems however are “important because learning and adaptability are connected ideas”  and that these systems look at the conditions and qualities such as diversity, specialization and redundancy as (Kowch, 2013).

Diversity allows for individual differences in our thinking. Diversity will bring new, innovative ideas to the table opening up new connections and new pathways.

Specialization allows leaders to contribute their expertise and  knowledge to the collective whole eliminating the need to” know it all” taking off the pressure for people and allowing them to flourish in some areas and then taking these ideas and  connecting them together with others.

Redundancy, sometimes viewed as being a negative term, actually focus on the positive commonalities that we share. This redundancy “knits” us together as we make these connections with others.

There is needs to be a balance between redundancy and diversity that will push us to improve, innovate, move forward, adapt. Both of these need to work together in order for a new model of change to emerge successfully. If there is enough redundancy in an organization it will be more efficient for someone to stand in or  fill in the gaps when needed (Kowch, 2013). This balance needs to be maintained in order for organizations to move forward.

As I move forward I look toward Kowch (2013) characteristics for leading and ask myself what can I contribute to this complex system?

• a clear concept of role- how do I define my role in this complex system?
• a supporting value system – what are the values of the school system and will they support me in and through a leadership position?
• a shared paradigm/view/belief/ethics about your field – Do you share the same vision?
• ability to generate information internally
• to maintain cohesion – Collaboration with peers.
• to organize and manage complex tasks – solving the problem at hand
• and the ability to rise above self-interest/ego – to work cohesively together as part of a network that works for the good of the community.

Recognizing my own diversity and redundancy is a place to start building capacity within the  networking allowing opportunity to build my own and other’s capacity which will undoubtedly “connects peers with purpose” (Fullan, 2008, 2010).

“Image courtesy of digitalart/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.

Fullan, M. (2008). The six secrets of change: What the best leaders do to help their organizations survive and thrive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Fullan, M. (2010). Motion leadership: The skinny on becoming change savvy.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Kowch, E.G. (2013). Towards leading diverse, smarter and more adaptable organizations that     learn. In J.Lewis, A.Green & Daniel Surry Editor (Eds.), Technology as a tool for diversity leadership: Implementation and future implications (11-34). Hershy, PA: IGI Global.

 

Educational Leadership – Technology Trends

Being part of a leadership group involves bringing what you know and what you can contribute to others learning in educational technology. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to know all the answers but rather that you can contribute your answers to a networking group that will work on problem solving together. It will take trust and shared knowledge between people in order for education to keep moving forward.

The NMC Horizon Report: 2014 K-12 Edition discusses new trends and technologies that have discussed and agreed upon by experts belonging to a networking group. The bring their experience and knowledge together and decide which technologies will have a major impact on students learning within the next five years. This information can be used to help guide leaders in educational technology towards making informed decisions about the pros and cons of the latest trends and the challenges related to the issues of technology in education.

The NMC Horizon Report – http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf