I started my administration career back in 1991. I was 29 years old, had just completed my master’s degree and I was brash as hell. I moved from a strictly high school setting to a K-12 environment and from a middle to upper class socially economic school to a community facing significant poverty issues. Success had followed me around pretty well throughout my life, so I figured my learnedness seemed adequate to be a good educational leader. I wasn’t unsuccessful at that time, but I think had I started from a learning perspective rather than a learned perspective, I would have enjoyed even more gains. There were a couple of times in my career when I got stuck and satisfied with simply being learned. Fortunately, I was surrounded by some great people who helped me transition from a slightly arrogant learned leader to a committed learning leader.
I’m not sure when I came across this statement from Eric Hoffer, but it became one of my driving forces as a leader.
The changes in society in the 62 years of my life have been extreme. When I look back at my classroom of 1985 and the classrooms of today, those changes are magnified. Being learned as an educator or leader of even an average citizen is insufficient. Experts in any field become obsolete without a continual commitment to learning. You cannot continue to do the same thing, the same way and expect to get any better results. That ship will eventually sail.
Most of my work now as a retired superintendent and an education consultant is with school boards and divisions. My excitement comes from working with these school boards who have made the leap to becoming a learning organization. They’ve ignored the rhetoric told to them by many provincial organizations that they are so good and valuable and instead have focused on how they can improve their governance function and ultimately serve students better. The arrogance of being learned is being aptly replaced by a learner mentality. These are the boards who if not now, will eventually become high functioning, while others, who are content with simply being learned will remain replaceable and irrelevant.
My own learning has been impacted through this work too! This week I was asked to facilitate a conversation around consent agendas and also offer a couple of new workshops on governance principles and board norms. A cursory understanding of these topics is unacceptable to offer robust workshops and so I too, needed to delve into the learning arena.
Learning should be for everyone and quite honestly it is available for most. Bringing in a consultant like me is just one option. There are books to read and study guides to follow. There are programs to watch and podcasts (my new favourite) to listen to. Regardless of the mode of learning, we all must get on that journey. Teach and you will learn…learn and you will teach. It is that simple!
