Adaptive Leadership webinar

Andrew opened the webinar by referring to the article ‘What it takes to lead through a period of exponential change’ published by Harvard Business Review in 2020.

Key messages from Melanie Taylor, Principal of Golden Sands School:

The essential lessons that we took from our experience was that, as leaders we really needed to:

• get in and see what teachers were experiencing,
• not be too judgy,
• work together to try and find some solutions,
• enquire to build our knowledge i.e. everybody collecting information – finding research, reading and podcasts,
• co-design whole school systems from that learning so everyone at the school is on the same page.

The things that allow us to be adaptive and to pivot are:

1. A co-constructed vision – with a story behind it that everyone knows and that is regularly revisited. We attach that vision to anything new that we are doing and connect things back.
2. Developing a learning culture based on trust and aiming to improve learning not just for the kids but for everybody, including the staff.
3. Coaching practice – GROW model – has been instrumental in the way we address challenges and pivot together alongside the collaborative enquiry model to adapt to any changes that we need to.

“Completely new change is always like moving a rock. You’ve got this massive rock, and you start pushing and pushing. You don’t see any movement at all. Then you might get a tiny little inch. And then, all of a sudden, you’ve built momentum, and the rock starts taking off. Any big change is slow to start – and you have to keep your eye on the prize at the end.”

Key messages from Wendi Bains, Chief Health and Safety Officer of Fletcher Building :

Leading through change:

1. When you decide you need to lead change:
   1. build that compelling why, build the story – storytelling can be absolutely pivotal
   2. keep it simple
   3. stay the course – it takes time
2. Sometimes leaders get a bit frustrated with the change that is occurring around them. That can create quite a toxic effect underneath them, and they don’t realise it. If you are not being the ‘shit umbrella’ and protecting your people from the change – they feel that. If you’re using the language – ‘I’m doing it because I’m told to’ – you don’t get respected as a leader. It breaks down the trust with your team. As school leaders going through all this regulatory change, look for the nugget – the one compelling why behind the change, the positive change you can see coming out of it. Then double down on it otherwise, it will hurt your culture unintentionally.
3. Embed the change well. Whatever change you are making it has to withstand change in leadership because you are going to have leadership change.

“Be that shit umbrella for your team as you lead through some of this change.”

How do you take people with you through change?:

1. Hire the right people who are open and curious

2. Hold them to account – if they are not acting in a way that is consistent with the vision and values, you have to take action on that

3. Coach them:

a. Find your champions and give them oxygen, start telling their stories, start giving them a profile, parroting what they are doing and promoting them

b. Coach your laggards. We use GROW (great for goal-centered coaching conversations) and The Coaching Equation which simplifies things and means you can do coaching anytime anywhere. The coaching equation is plus + something positive, (find your 5 things – that are going well), minus – a challenge (something not going so well) and equals = what are we going to do about it? (commitment to action).

c. Listen honestly and curiously