Harvard Graduate School of Education - Leadership: an Evolving Vision 2007

Yesterday I moved very definitely into my “stretch zone” when I volunteered, in front of over 140 delegates, to participate in a role-play situation with Barry Jentz.

Barry asked me to engage in one of those “difficult conversations” we sometimes have to conduct as leaders. The scenario, in brief, was that I, as the leader, had to share with Barry, the new teacher to the school, that I was unhappy about his conduct in a recent staff meeting.

At the end of the role-play I thought I had done a fairly good job in that I was “cool, calm and collected” and I had also managed to give Barry the bad news.

However I was making these conclusions based on my reflexive thinking i.e. I gave Barry the information I had to share with him BUT I conducted the conversation in a “closed” manner.

With some input from Barry I was able to see that I need to move to a much higher level of engagement and shift my thinking from this reflexive mode to the more open, reflective mode where one is entering into a two way, problem-solving approach.

This reflective mode has far more intellectual rigour and also it is something we ask the people around us to engage in regularly so if we are asking them to do this we must show that we, as leaders, are ready and able to engage in this too.

A reflective skill set is about giving good data i.e. sharing accurate information AND listening. The outcome of this is that we can decrease the amount of defensiveness from the person with whom we are speaking which in turn increases the openness to change. This in turn leads to more opportunities to improve performance.

I found yesterday that, as Jentz says,

“Any information that helps improve your performance will make you sting inside.” 

However I can now see that

“A Reflective Mind is a Learning Mind.”

A challenging day!

Today one of the delegates described this summer school as a united nations of school principals and it certainly fees like that with delegates from many countries across the globe as well as the United States. Understandably the audience is predominantly American as are the speakers. Their work is based on some of the excellent research being undertaken in this country. Despite this, many of the issues raised so far have proven to be common across the world. This has been a unifying factor realising that it doesn’t matter whether you are Head teacher of a small primary school in Scotland, Principal of a large international school in India or Principal of an American high school of 4000 pupils we all face the same leadership challenges. However at times for the international delegates where some difficulties have arisen is in understanding the American school system and the culture within which American schools operate. For some international delegates there has been a feeling that not enough cognisance has been taken of the fact that we may not all have a complete understanding of the American system.

With this in mind I was delighted yesterday afternoon when we went into our discussion groups (mine has 4 international delegates out of 11) and our group leader, Marilynne Smith Quarco a School Principal from Massachusetts acknowledged the international delegates and raised the issue that we may not fully understand some of the issues raised with out having greater information on American school systems. She had handouts for us all on specific American issues and we spent some time discussing these. She then invited the international delegates (1 Scot, 1 Indian and 2 Australians) to share something of the education systems in our countries, the cultures within which we operate and the major issues we are facing.

By doing so we were better able as a group to understand each other, to get a greater understanding of each others perspectives and to look at education in a truly international context. From this discussion came a greater openness and realisation that we can all learn from each other and can all make significant contributions to educational debate. Marilynne truly made us feel valued and gave us all that sense of belonging Norman Kunc spoke of on Saturday.

How to communicate to improve performance – Barry Jentz

How well do you listen?
Do you operate an open agenda?
Do you believe in sharing information or during confrontational conversations do you withhold information?
Do you show tolerance and understanding particularly under pressure?
Are you aware that these discrepancies in your practise exist?
Are you blind to what others see?

Barry Jentz has been trying to help us improve our communication skills today by making us more aware of how we listen and react to what we hear.

He suggests that most people listen reflexively in that they react automatically and go directly to a solution. However by listening and acting reflectively performance is improved.

Reflective skills:
· Give good data
· Listen
· Are tolerant of confusion
· Use confusion as an opportunity to skilfully inquire
· Facilitate the capacity to improve through interaction
· Improve performance

In trying to bring about transformational change this method provides a vehicle to enhance transform relationships.

A reflective mind is a learning mind!