Sometimes thinking about what we want for the future can help us make sense of the past. One of the calls to action in Laying the Foundation for Transformational Change in Education is to “Turn Down the Noise.”
This call to action suggests that:
Education leaders and innovators are uniquely positioned to champion critical thinking and transparency in a divided environment where facts can be difficult to find. You can be the first to turn down the noise, showing learners, colleagues and community members what it looks like to stay student-focused in a chaotic environment, to slow down and navigate complexity with intention and to make discerning decisions.
Moving toward goals means letting go of perfection
As a teacher and team leader, I always aimed to demonstrate those behaviors. However, I have also carried an unspoken belief that I could do all of that “right.”
“Model and encourage transparency, critical thinking and mission focus” sounds like something that can be perfected. Some part of me believed that, if I thought about them in the right way or said the exact right thing, I could plot out a path to honesty, to empathy, to finding common ground, engineering any difficulty out of the process. But it’s messy and vulnerable to forge true connections, to be accountable, and to grapple with difference; once we try to do those things perfectly, we are already moving further from the goal. Modeling skills generally means showing others our competence. Ironically, modeling these skills requires letting go of the need to be an expert and instead embracing discomfort and uncertainty.
Modeling human-centered leadership in the classroom
When I think about how I might have approached developing and modeling those skills differently, a few questions that I could have asked myself come to mind.
- Where do I prioritize knowing over curiosity? Am I letting my desire for certainty and order get in the way of transparency or learning?
- What kind of culture will allow us to be human beings together and to have time and space to really know one another?
- How can I ensure that everyone is safe, treated with respect and can ask for what they need? How will we handle it when we cause harm to one another?
- How do I model honesty and vulnerability with colleagues, young people and other partners while setting and maintaining boundaries?
These questions clearly do not have easy answers, and the ways we approach them will shift over time. But we can use them as reminders of the elusive truth that finding connection and shared truth in a chaotic environment are not destinations to reach but rather ever-evolving explorations. We will grow and learn imperfectly, and that’s how we’ll know we are on our way.
Further resources
“Let’s Rumble” by Brené Brown
Portrait of a Leader by KnowledgeWorks
