The world is changing around us, and in response to that change, we don’t just need to teach differently, we need to lead differently. The business world, driven by a market imperative, has changed its leadership structures and processes to encourage creativity and enable innovation…they have made the transition to an innovation driven economy.
In schools there is less pressure for the unwilling to make any significant change. We are still driven by the incremental changes that result from an efficiency driven culture…increased test scores, counting face to face minutes, etc… We can, and need to change this. Today’s post is inspired by John Spencer’s reflections after reading the book “Creativity, Inc”, the story of how one company has worked to create a creativity driven, innovation culture as opposed to efficiency culture.
The need to design teaching and learning programs that enable students to develop their creativity has been a recurring theme in education since Sir Ken Robinson told everyone that “schools kill creativity.” The Pixar story reminds us that:
Creativity like leadership, is not something that people are born with, but something that can be learned and developed.
Recent reports such as the FYA New work order report and the Deloitte Redefining Education highlight the “mismatch between the perceived purpose and role of education, and the demands of the modern worker.”
“Today’s employees are increasingly focused externally, intent on creating new opportunities rather than optimising internal operations.” (Redefining Education, Deloitte, 2015)
As lead learners in our schools, we need to recognise that whilst we have a responsibility to ensure that our students develop the skills, knowledge and abilities to engage in the modern workforce, we have an obligation to ensure the same for our co-workers. Here are some thoughts on how you might build a culture of creativity and inspire innovation in your learning teams.
Creativity isn’t a solitary endeavor.
How many times (particularly in High School) do we see teachers planning in isolation? John states that “ the best creative ideas are often solved by teams”, and I couldn’t agree more. This year, I worked with my History and Social Sciences (HASS) team to collaboratively plan and deliver a Civics & Citizenship unit of work on Micronations. The enthusiasm and energy that infected those sessions was empowering. Collaborative planning led to collaborative teaching, and reflection — the resulting learning experiences connected students to the learning outcomes in a deeper way than was previously possible.
Create opportunities and find time to empower your learning teams to create together. The time is easy to find — Check out Amy Arbogash’s post on “5 Challenges we overcame moving to a flipped staff meeting” for some tips on how to free up time for staff to actively collaborate on stuff that matters.
Critical feedback doesn’t have to crush creativity.
As educators, we live in a “High Stakes” environment. What we do matters! In fact it really matters, it can, and does change the trajectory of people’s lives. In order to enable critical feedback, we have to de-privatise our practice…and this is particularly scary for educators who are used to teaching within their own four walls. We also have to build structures that enable teachers to develop trust and transparency.
The teacher coach model for professional learning is critical in developing a culture where teachers can use “robust, respectful, professional dialogue to share their learning and bring out the best in each other while also building the quality of their relationship”. As with students, unless teachers “own” their professional learning, it will continue to be something that is “done unto them” not something that is done with them. It’s on my development plan for 2016…check it out at Growth Coaching.
Play Matters
Some of Pixar’s best innovations came from their sandboxed short film environment. Cameron Paterson in his post on “Unlearning to Teach” highlights the extent to which creativity, and innovation is a crucial product of play:
“Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society — our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value” (Kane, 2005)”
In education we’ve always had “trials” and “narrowly focussed initiatives”, but this is bigger than that. We need to create environments where teachers are encouraged to “play” with their pedagogy and learning design. Think Google 30% time. The freedom that comes from playing with an idea and jumping in feet first leads to the development of the “Growth” and “Fail-Fast” mindsets we need in our students and teachers. It removes the “high stakes” component, and sets teachers free.
Try devoting one meeting a month to a “Teach Meet” style celebration. Teachers are called on to present 3 or 7 minute sessions on what they are “playing with” in their classroom. The informal, inclusive nature of these sessions will ensure everyone can contribute. You’ll be amazed at the results.
Trust the Process
Pixar has clear and effective processes to support their teams to collaborate, create and innovate. When working with your teams, be intentional about the purpose for your collaboration, and harness proven processes to ensure that everyone has a voice.
Check out the Field Guide to Human Centred Design from IDEO and the myriad of posts from Cale Birk on the Learning Nation….seriously the stuff that Cale shares about the processes he implements at his school is incredible. This is one of my favourite posts, with so many great processes to adapt for use with your learning teams.
People are more important than ideas
Out of all the points that John raises, this is the most important.
“Ideas come from people. Therefore, people are more important than ideas”
All of the structures / processes described above are designed to generate idea’s, but they can’t work without trust and relationships. The art of leadership is building those to the point that the team can abandon ideas without taking things personally.
Communication protocols are essential in enabling this environment…I’ve used the High Tech High tuning protocol’s here, and found them to be fantastic at ensuring the focus on the idea’s, not the people.
I’d be interested in seeing how you are building a culture of creativity in your learning teams. I’d love to hear your comments and feedback.
