The Innovator's Mindset...It's Only the Beginning

This is the final blog post inspired by my participation in IMMOOC 2, a Massive Open Online Course inspired by the The Innovator's Mindset and facilitated by the author of that book, George Couros. A colleague of mine encouraged me to read the book when I let her know I was applying for a new job: Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Innovation. I think it was no coincidence that the day I ordered the book, I came across a tweet announcing the beginning of IMMOOC 2. Being a passionate learner and educator, and wanting to prepare for a possible job interview, I joined the group.

Participating in IMMOOC 2 has been an innovative experience for me in and of itself. I had never done an online course. When I saw that part of the MOOC would be weekly blogging, I knew it was the push I needed to make this practice more consistent. Putting myself out there in the weekly Twitter chat was another opportunity to share. As expected, it has been an amazing experience! I have learned so much more than I would have if I had just read the book on my own. Reflecting, listening to others' thoughts, writing about my own ideas are all practices that have deepened my learning about developing an innovator's mindset.

In the last few weeks of the IMMOOC, my participation slowed, and then came to a stop. This is not because I lost interest or didn't see the point. It's because I got an interview for the new job. And then I got another interview and another and another. I had lots of preparation to do for each of these. After this last interview, I was unanimously appointed to the position of Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Innovation. What a cool title to have, right? I'm not saying that the book and IMMOOC got me the job, but I'm sure that the ideas about which I was reading, reflecting, and writing combined with my previous experience and passion as an educator helped me form responses to questions that led me to the job of my dreams.

Thanks to you, George Couros, and to all of my fellow IMMOOCers for an enlightening experience that has literally set me on a new path in a position where I am a leader of innovation, something I know our students will love and already need.

Strengths-Based Leadership

Can you imagine asking your staff at the end of the school year, "If you could describe your dream position next year, what would it be?" What would response would you get? What could you learn? How would people feel about being asked? What would you do with the information you learn?

I have a few ideas...

• You would go a long way to build relationships with your staff just be showing interest in what they think and how they feel;
• You would be able to personalize PD for your staff by searching out resources that could help them grow in their areas of interest;
• You would help staff reflect on their practice and lead them to a focus area for the year;
• You could provide support that would help and encourage them to pursue a goal;
• You might make staff adjustments to help people do what they want to do;
• You might develop new courses of study, clubs, or PLCs based on interests.

One thing about which I am sure is this: if you ask staff to share their passions and goals and you work to help them engage in those passions and reach those goals, you will have a staff that is invested in their school and willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Core Values

Recently I have struggled with productivity. It seemed that my day-to-day management responsibilities had completely dominated my schedule leaving no time for the big picture work of fostering positive school climate and improving teaching and learning. This focus on management leaves me uninspired, yet I know how important it is and certainly must get done. Staff need to know who is covering lunch on an early dismissal day, students who misbehave on the bus need to be spoken to and their parents need to be called, and intervention meetings need to be scheduled. However if this is all I do, then I'm not truly helping to improve my school, which is always my goal.

Then I stumbled upon an organization that provided me with some guidance. It's called Asian Efficiency, and it was mentioned in a Tweet I read a few weeks ago. I followed the link and discovered a series of podcasts called The Productivity Show. Each week the podcast focuses on a different aspect of making your life better and more productive. I scrolled through the archived podcasts and discovered shows about core values, morning rituals, and getting to inbox zero, to name just a few. What I have realized is that reflecting on and writing down both my personal and professional core values as well as goals, is where I need to start in order to become more productive.

If I can clearly identify the core values upon which I operate, I can make better decisions about which activities are most inspiring for me. If I can also clearly identify my personal and professional goals, I can then prioritize which activities should get most of my time. Of course my management responsibilities will never go away, but perhaps I can get better at eliminating, automating, or delegating those tasks that fall low on my priority list. I've only just begun this process but I'm feeling more inspired already. Daily reflection on my core values and goals is helping me stay focused on the most important parts of my life and my job which deserve most of my time. Getting to inbox zero will be icing on the cake.