A good friend told me that he heard another friend whining about how he wished educational bloggers would get back to blogging from the heart. It struck a cord with me. While I am anything but a Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of blogger– (more emotion than substance in posts) I do think there is a place for emotional intelligence when addressing educational reform and change.
Michael Jansen, the first black person to serve as dean of the University of Pretoria in South Africa outlines seven themes that I think encompass leadership with a heart. I pulled these from Fullan’s new book, Motion Leadership (2010).
1. We must recognize the politics of emotions that energize behaviors.
2. The change strategy cannot create victims.
3. The problem must be named and confronted.
4. Leaders must exemplify the expected standards of behavior.
5. We must engage emotionally with students in their world.
6. Teachers and principals themselves are sometimes actors.
7. The environment must accommodate risk. (Jansen, 2009b, p.189)
The basic message Jansen gives and Fullan underscores is that we need to learn to combine love, trustworthiness, and empathic but firm handling of resistance, to quicken the pace of the change we wish to see.
In their book Switch, Heath and Heath (2010) suggest that for change to occur in behavior you have got to influence not only the environment but also hearts and minds. Direction and motivation together make the biggest impact, and motivation comes from the heart.
Seth Godin in Tribes says, “Leadership is very much an art, one that’s accomplished by people with authentic generosity and a visceral connection to their tribe” (2008, p121). Tribes is filled with emotion. In the first chapter he challenges us with – “All that is missing is you, and your vision and your passion” (Godin, p. 5).
I wonder if what my friend was longing for was passion. Maybe his own? Maybe that of others? I too have felt it. As the compelling case for change message has been repeated and repeated through many different voices, could it be that it has lost it’s effectiveness for some? With the fervor of Gregorian monks we all chant collectively … Connect– Commit– Collaborate with a constant hum of tools, tools, tools resonating in the background. But for what cause? To what end? We know the culture needs to shift– but to where? All that seems to be missing is leadership. Leadership that has a command of direction and motivation. Leadership that understands how to leverage- not only the wisdom of the crowd, but also the technologies needed to connect tribes and amplify their work. Which takes me to the real point of this post– my motivation, my passion, my blogging from the heart.
ISTE Revelation
While at ISTE several of the folks in my network suggested that Powerful Learning Practice had become too “vendor” like because we had a booth. Many snide remarks were made which I am sure were intended, at least in part, to be in good fun. However, many a truth was spoken in jest and to be honest the comments sort of floored me. Here is why.
PLP
1. PD as we know it (sit and get) with a tool focus is not shifting educational culture.
2. To provide the kind of job embedded, long term, team based PD that research suggests works in providing transformative change- you got to have strong leadership. The kind of leadership that requires time, commitment and a laser like focus (ie. a full time commitment). And to support full time commitment you have to have a funding model.
3. Schools require PD hours. Schools have a budget that is devoted to PD. The PD can be more of the same which we know doesn’t work or it can be something unique and built on what we know does work in providing change and shift in a world of fast pace change.
4. PLP enables teams of educators to connect, commit, collaborate and to understand the shifts needed. It helps educators from around the world to stay connected long after their PLP experience is over. It launches great ideas that result in substantial shift on the local level. PLP builds capacity. It provides leadership.
5. In order for PLP to provide that kind of PD we have to be visible. Not in a “step right up..buy our gadget” sort of way. But in a here we are- we want to build a relationship with you and help you leverage our network to build your own. We want to connect you together with others who share your passion in the hope that together you will create something more powerful than you could alone. And then we want to help you amplify the great things you are doing in your local context (schools & districts). Not to promote PLP, but to show others that this PD model works and if you need leadership in helping to build capacity for change and toward planning and applying your school improvement ideas through a 21st Century lens- we can help.
PLP is a brand that holds the potential to build a huge tribe. A collective of caring educators who get it and who understand the needs of the 21st Century learner. A tribe that empowers each other to carry on meaningful projects that relate to transformational change in education. I am changing PLP’s mission statement to It’s not about us. It’s about something bigger than us. It is about a collective us. We simply provide the leadership that Godin and others suggest is missing.
So there it is– my blogging from the heart. Yes, having a booth at ISTE to some may seem “so vendor” but if you stopped by, I think you you might understand why having a booth is actually a very positive thing for a company whose premise is building community, connections and helping school leaders manage change.
So I am curious- What’s your passion? Are you willing to share? PLP needs your ideas, your leadership, your commitment, your collaboration. We are all in this together. Let’s leave education better than we found it.
“A good company is one whose mission is to improve the lives of everyone in its footprint.” Tim Sanders
Hi, Sheryl! I have been thinking lately that I needed to connect back with you. Even though our school is no longer part of a PLP cohort, we are moving forward in major ways. So much so, that my time is taken-up with preparations for this fall which hasn’t left time for blogging.
PLP started us on our current course and I am super excited that great things are in store for our students. Thanks for the work you are doing to make a difference with education. Email me sometime.
Thanks for sharing this honest, emotional post. PLP does have the capacity to change people’s lives, one of the reasons I wanted to work for the organization (full disclosure here). Your analogy to chanting monks resonates, as I, too, grow tired of all the voices. Some may call having a vendor’s booth selling. If the end result is more people learning about PLP and possibilities for educational transformation (see #4 above), then let the “booth” serve as the meeting place of the tribe. Onward.
Two ideas come to mind.
We’re all selling something. Whether we’re in a vendor hall, in a classroom, in a church, at a store or having a cup of coffee with a friend, we’re selling. Selling ideas and and ourselves. The venue is less important the ever but we shouldn’t be worried about geography so much.
Secondly, if the selling part is embedded in care, concern, honesty and some thought I’ll listen to almost anyone.
Those are clearly the foundation of PLP and indeed the work of many educators around the world. We get hung up on things like “vendor booth” because we associate it with negative experiences. That’s unfortunate but it certainly doesn’t mean that those venues can’t be used to promote and prosper change that helps kids. I would venture that speaking to many of the vendors of products there would be a number who are trying to sell change and a better world for our kids as well. At the same time, it’s not that hard to see through those who’s interests are primarily in $$ and less about kids. It can take time to short the “good” from the “evil” but in the end we know it’s about motive, not venue.
Even the word “selling” has some icky connotations since it usually refers to commerce. Some won’t use the term with reference to educational reform but I’m okay with it. Change and reform must come with equal parts good, sound, research based practice and a genuine, caring spirit. You need both. I’d say PLP hits those.
Julia,
I would love to catch up and hear about all the awesome things your school is doing. They arre very fortunate to have you there helping to lead them forward.
Susan,
Yeah, this idea of education being so opposed to selling and yet providing budgets intended to buy products and services that help kids is confusing. Emotion, like selling, is also a turn off at times. And yet- teaching is really all about heart and being other minded on behalf of kids. Not sure what I am trying to put my finger on except that the current culture and thoughts about purchasing PD is confusing.
Glad you are with us. You are right– Onward.
Dean,
I love your response. Especially this- Even the word “selling” has some icky connotations since it usually refers to commerce. Some won’t use the term with reference to educational reform but I’m okay with it. Change and reform must come with equal parts good, sound, research based practice and a genuine, caring spirit. You need both. I’d say PLP hits those.”
It is an interesting concept isn’t it? Educators can’t do it all nor should they. I mean some services, products and such have to be bought. I think we should look at ROI return on investment. Is what we are spending opur PD budget on enabling our teachers and leaders to be self-directed and empowered? If yes, then that is money well spent.
It seems to me that “matters of the heart blogging”, of which your post is such a good example, lead us to reflect and reconnect deeply with our visions and our passions—the very cores of our being. It is from those reflections and reconnections that we can derive the motivation and energy to work collectively to make a difference in the lives of others, especially our students. That you live your passion (it’s about a collective us), that you created in PLP a model that facilitates all who are interested in developing and scaling habits of leadership as Jansen proposes (his ideas truly resonate with me), and that you generously share all you’ve learned within the PLP communities and here on your blog, has resulted in a caring, evergrowing tribe that looks to you, to each other and then is able to move forward.
The combination of “love, trustworthiness, and empathic but firm handling of resistance” that is PLP, the PLP focus on developing meaningful relationships to grapple with the shifts inherent in teaching and learning, the PLP relighting of passion in those who light has been dimmed with current trends in policies — all within community— initially attracted me to this “tribe”. I’ve followed my passion for learning about learning and teaching as I’ve had the privilege to serve in the role of community leader and taken that passion to new levels.
That others at ISTE who previously were unaware of the opportunities for learning and leading in PLP had greater occasion to come to know of the possibilities and potential for connecting, collaborating, and collective action through a passionate conversation with you or Will can only be a good thing—
Sheryl, a truly from the heart post. PLP has been a truly, and I mean truly trans formative experience for me. Without it, I would not have the connections, the learning, or even be here reading this post.
What I have learned through PLP and the network that i built since then has helped to shape my vision and led me to continue to learn and grow as a leader.
Sheryl, I can say that PLP and the Administrator Bootcamp that I attended last summer was the transformative experience of my life, so if your selling, I’m buying. I still remember one of the first conversations you and I ever had. In the midst of telling me about PLP you said, “Will and I are trying to change the world.” I politely chuckled, you stopped and said, “No. We are.” That passion, that level of authenticity isn’t found in just “vendors”.
You know, I once worked for Merrill Lynch as a Financial Consultant. A job that promised of huge salaries and a similar lifestyle, and while they said it wasn’t about sales, it was most definitely about sales. I floundered. Within 2 years I moved on, not having found success or riches in the meantime.
I look back on that now and I realize that I wasn’t going to be successful because I wasn’t passionate about what I was selling. I didn’t wake up every morning with a insatiable urge to sell stocks and bonds and make ungodly amounts of money.
Now that I have found my passion, I love telling its story and why it is so important to me. I love making others think hard about education, its past, present, future and why this need for change is so compelling. I suppose, I do “sell” my message, but its what I am passionate about. I offer all this to say the following, if one is “selling” that which they are passionate about, it’s not sales, it’s leadership and its the type of leadership that causes change.
Keep “selling” PLP, because you are igniting passions all across the world.
My emotions are showing, and I loved this post. The idea that we “need to learn to combine love, trustworthiness, and empathic but firm handling of resistance, to quicken the pace of the change” resonates with one word – respect. Emotions are needed and valued in order to connect with our students and colleagues.
Recently, when you wrote about PLP, you described the process as having to “work your butt off”. No “tech tool” found at any trade show is so brutally honest, nor requires such frank commitment. In our community of learners, we need leaders to validate what we’re doing. Thank-you for doing just that. Reminds me of that great line in Windsor – rocks don’t need to be watered!
As a young child, I possessed a deep understanding of what it meant to be a passionate learner. By the time I was a teenager, however, that passion was sucked out of me by an educational system that only understood learning as a one-size fits all endeavor. I spent the next 30+ years walking through a life devoid of any passion for learning; it wasn’t until the ripe, young age of 47 that I rediscovered the joy of learning, when I was introduced to Powerful Learning Practice. It was there that I found a group of people like me who believed we could re-imagine what authentic, passion-based learning really looked like. Let the naysayers say what they will, Sheryl; it is your passion and the passion of those around you that will ultimately shine a light on the true meaning of what it means to be a learner. Keep on keeping on, friend.
During the time I spent in the exhibit hall at ISTE I found booths like PLP to be oasis in the midst of the desert. I am grateful you all were willing to dedicate yourselves to that space for that time to share your message. It needs to be out there in any way possible. There should be more vendors like you all.
Lani,
You write so deeply, I love it. Thanks for the kind things you said. Jansen’s words resonate with me as well. WE need to have a discussion about them in community sometime. But for now, was there one thing in particular that stood out for you?
Ed,
I would love to hear an example of how your leadership has changed because of networking and community. Do you have a story to share?
Tony,
I read your comment and stood and shouted. Literally. This paragraph is one of the most wise I have read in awhile. It is worth repeating.
“Now that I have found my passion, I love telling its story and why it is so important to me. I love making others think hard about education, its past, present, future and why this need for change is so compelling. I suppose, I do “sell” my message, but its what I am passionate about. I offer all this to say the following, if one is “selling” that which they are passionate about, it’s not sales, it’s leadership and its the type of leadership that causes change.”
- Tony Baldasaro
Heather,
That is a disconnect isn’t it? In a quick fix world PLP offers hard work as a path to take to improve education. hmmm. Thanks for adding such value to my learning through our community with Ontario International.
Cary,
You are a passionate, caring woman who has so much to give to your vision and mission. I can’t wait to see how you change the world. Lead me- I will follow.
Jenny,
It is through teachers like you that our children will become who they need to be and change the world into a better place. “The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.’” -Lincoln
So many thoughts running through my mind, Sheryl….and so little time before dinner! Here’s a few, though:
1. I’m personally glad that PLP had a booth at ISTE. As you mention in your post, the PD dollars that were flowing in that room are going to be spent somewhere—and from what I know about you and what I’ve read about PLP, every one of those dollars should be dropped on the services that you can provide.
2. I’m also glad that you had a booth at ISTE because it’s high time that the people who have decision-making power over the spending decisions in schools started to see that there is more to restructuring schools for tomorrow than buying from the used car salesmen shucking IWBs. As Jenny mentioned, you are the oasis in the middle of the desert.
3. Like Dean, I think that “selling” has negative connotations in education—and honestly, that bugs me. It’s high time that we looked carefully at the damage being done because of our high-and-mighty hold on altruism. Rick DuFour speaks of “the mythology of teaching.” That mythology prevents teachers from ever being seen as intelligent contributors to a professional marketplace.
The counterpoint to the “everybody’s selling” argument is that “everybody’s buying” too. There isn’t a school leader in America who isn’t looking for the right advice, guidance, tools and resources to move their buildings forward.
I’m just hopeful that more and more people will buy from motivated, intelligent and capable people like you.
Rock right on,
Bill
This post really moved me to deep thinking. I agree that educational bloggers should go back to “blogging from the heart” . With substance and not just mere emotion. To be objective rather than being subjective.
@Cary — nice words of wisdom.
Your post spoke to me. I especially like the change to your mission statement: “It’s about a collective us.” As I have been delving into Web 2.0 tools, and doing some of the pre-game activities to get ready for the Dublin group on Oct. 1, I am struck time and time again by the words: contribute, communicate, create, and collaborate. If those words don’t move us as educators to a more collective us, I’m not sure what will.
And the word passion – I know that personally my best blog posts about books or things that were happening in my classroom came about because I felt passionate about that topic. When I read my own blog posts and I read others, you know when the passion is there.
So much to think about and ponder. I’m very excited to continue this thinking with you in the near future!