The top of the T gives way to....?!?

In our current climate, I have whimsically found a parallel with our recent change to the give way rule - where the top of the T now gives way - to someone?!?  How so? Well, we seem to be at a point in time with our public education system where suddenly performance pay, academic achievement results and what value is added to an individual student are being touted as the key drivers for change to a system that for too long has allowed mediocrity to survive and the failure of too many of our 'clients'.  We fly politicians to the states, where privatisation is championed, and employ English administrators (Secretary of Education and of the Treasury), who help espouse the sorting of 'the wheat from the chaff'!  Is our highly successful education system, which ranks in the top 10 of the OECD, about to have its give way rule changed?  Are we, as Scott McLeod ('Dangerously Irrelevant') says of America, seeing "...societal and political trust in schools and educators... on the decline. Educators face increasingly stringent demands to standardize what used to be a profession and to try and make error-proof what is by definition an enterprise fraught with uncertainty."

 

One of Scott's latest posts was entitled 'Making room for innovation' and is centred around one of his favorite books on leadership The Future of Management by Gary Hamel. Reading through his post has inspired me to order a little light reading, which hopefully will arrive during the term break, but if not I see a few late nights with the bedside light on! The essential premise of the book (and I quote Scott McLeod here) "...is that current management models, which are centered on control and efficiency, are extremely ill-suited for an era in which adaptability and creativity drive organizational success. This has major ramifications for how we think about leading schools and preparing school administrators, of course." 

I look forward to reflecting on this book and how it answers some of the key challenges that relate to the importance of my leadership position in our school to answer questions such as: How do I keep developing the right climate where innovation becomes a natural part of everyone's job and to keep a highly engaging work environment that inspires everyone to give the very best of themselves?  This at a time when the top of T is certainly not giving way to me!