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Leading  For  the  Future  Annual  Conference  Spotlight  By:  Holly  Chesser,  SAIS  Published:  November  2012    “Innovate  or  die,”  summarized  one  attendee,  characterizing  the  salient  message  from  keynotes  to  breakout  sessions  at  this  year’s  2012  SAIS  MISBO  Annual  Conference.  Everyone  is  feeling  it:  an  urgency  to  compete,  the  need  to  remain  relevant,  an  end  to  business  as  usual.  Leaders  can  no  longer  sit  on  the  sidelines,  taking  note  of  the  changing  rules  of  the  game;  now,  there’s  a  bias  toward  action.      Bob  Johansen,  author  of  Leaders  Make  the  Future,  argues  that  this  brave  new  VUCA  world  defined  by  volatility,  complexity,  uncertainty,  and  ambiguity  will  challenge  and  ultimately  permanently  disrupt  our  traditional  social,  business,  and  organizational  systems.  Certainly,  the  demographics  of  our  nation’s  recent  election  offered  a  portent  of  that  future.    However,  according  to  Johansen,  

leaders  must  discover  the  opportunities  that  lie  even  in  dramatic  change.    Developing  forecasting  skills,  leaders  must  provoke  the  future  they  wish  to  see,  not  predict  the  future  that  awaits  them.      At  the  SAIS  MISBO  Annual  Conference  in  October,  a  keynote  panel  of  SAIS  school  leaders  presented  Johansen’s  ten  critical  leadership  skills,  offered  as  a  new  leadership  profile  for  the  future.  Called  “skills”  because  they  can  be  learned,  the  ten  move  in  order  from  “instinctive  to  transformative.”    Beginning  with  the  

“maker  instinct,”  the  most  basic  of  the  skills  and  essential  to  the  development  of  the  others,  and  ending  with  the  “commons  creating”  skill,  dependent  on  connectivity  and  collective  action,  Johansen  outlines  a  way  forward  to  meet  the  VUCA  world  head-­‐on  with  preparedness,  anticipation,  intervention,  and  advancement.  

   

Maker  Instinct  At  the  heart  of  the  human  experience  is  the  desire  to  create  and  construct.    Leaders  who  recognize  this  fundamental  impulse  “can  choose  whether  or  not  to  encourage  people  in  their  organizations  to  express  their  maker  instinct.”  Reggie  Nichols  became  Piney  Wood’s  Head  of  School  (MS)  in  2006,  joining  a  venerable  leadership  team  whose  members  each  averaged  twelve  years  with  the  organization.  Despite  having  been  with  the  school  for  fourteen  years,  the  Director  of  Presidential  Affairs,  although  equipped  with  a  master’s  degree,  had  only  been  asked  to  file  and  type.  

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Acknowledging  and  honoring  her  maker  instinct,  Nichols  challenged  her  to  grow.  She  now  coordinates  the  school’s  master  calendar  and  writes  the  popular  weekly  e-­‐magazine.  Nichols  asserts  that  the  greatest  capitalization  of  the  maker  instinct  occurs  when  leaders  build  networks  of  makers,  each  kindling  the  maker  energy  in  themselves  and  others.    Clarity  In  a  hazy,  contradictory  VUCA  world,  clarity  is  the  ability  to  envision  a  future  that  others  cannot  yet  see.    Distinct  from  certainty,  which  is  expressed  in  rules,  clarity  is  communicated  through  narratives  and  stories,  through  helping  others  participate  in  and  uphold  the  vision  of  the  school.  Doreen  Kelly,  Head  of  Ravenscroft  School  (NC),  highlights  the  need  for  personal  clarity  fostered  through  reflection,  prayer,  personal  wellness,  and  gratitude  as  well  as  institutional  clarity  developed  through  strict  adherence  to  the  school’s  mission  statement.  Laminating  the  mission  on  cards,  she  and  her  leadership  team  guard  against  creep  or  leak,  recognizing  the  wisdom  in  Johansen’s  words,  “We  need  great  clarity  about  direction  but  great  flexibility  about  the  details.”    Dilemma  Flipping  Future  leaders  will  need  to  thrive  in  a  world  defined  by  dilemmas:  messy,  unpredictable,  complex,  demanding,  unsolvable  dilemmas.  Where  others  see  limitations  and  experience  crippling  anxiety,  future  leaders  will  discover  opportunities  and  pose  transformative  alternatives.  As  Director  of  Instructional  Technology  at  The  Westminster  Schools  (GA),  Colleen  Glaude,  a  veteran  math  teacher,  found  herself  frustrated  with  her  students  who  seemed  unable  to  keep  up  with  their  work  due  to  absences,  apathy,  or  lack  of  skill.  Resolved  to  flip  that  age-­‐old  dilemma,  she  literally  “flipped  her  classroom.”    Today,  homework  is  done  in  class  under  her  guidance,  students  are  actively  engaged  in  projects,  and  all  learning  is  individualized  to  meet  the  specific  needs  of  each  student.  Likewise,  in  her  role  as  Dean  of  IT,  she  was  overwhelmed  with  students’  damaged  mobile  devices.  Flipping  this  dilemma,  she  created  a  technology  program  allowing  students  to  obtain  tech  certification  and  the  opportunity  to  engage  in  an  apprenticeship  with  a  local  Apple  store.  Outlining  the  route  to  dilemma  flipping,  she  advises  first  to  accept  and  realize  you’re  faced  with  a  dilemma;  second,  listen,  look,  and  learn  and  familiarize  yourself  with  the  problem;  third,  focus  and  find  opportunities  to  transform  the  dilemma  into  a  net  positive.  The  key,  she  explains,  is  to  love  the  process  of  puzzling,  not  just  putting  the  final  piece  in  place.    Immersive  Learning  Ability  As  Head  of  The  Pine  Crest  School  (FL),  Dr.  Dana  Markham  travels  a  predictable  route  each  day,  fifty  steps  to  her  office  where  “she  manages  the  operating  budget,  identifies  development  opportunities,  and  protects  the  integrity  of  the  curriculum,  all  while  supporting  the  strategic  plan  and  vision  of  the  school.”    However,  an  experience  this  summer  contemplating  a  student’s  photos  of  her  travel  abroad  helped  her  recognize  the  limitations  of  her  prescribed  path.    Leaders,  she  contends,  must  frequently  immerse  themselves  in  the  currents  to  break  down  the  barriers  of  rigid  thinking  and  to  appreciate  the  validity  in  other  perspectives.  Encouraging  her  faculty  and  staff  to  walk  in  multiple  sets  of  shoes,  Markham  argues  that  we  cannot  insist  that  our  students  take  risks  if  

   

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we  only  seek  safety.    Recognizing  the  need  to  understand  fully  all  the  components,  demands,  and  perspectives  that  enliven  her  school,  she  now  takes  the  long  way  to  her  office.    Bio-­‐Empathy  Life  on  our  planet  has  endured  for  billions  of  years.    As  a  result,  it  has  lessons  to  teach  us.    Bio-­‐empathy,  according  to  Johansen,  “is  grounded  in  the  ability  to  empathize  with  nature  and  understand  its  ways,  its  connectivity,  and  its  resilience.”  Related  to  immersive  learning  ability,  bio-­‐empathy  involves  the  capacity  to  see  things  from  nature’s  point  of  view.  It  demands  the  employment  of  system  thinking  to  understand  the  connectivity  of  nature’s  parts  and  its  cycles  of  change.  Damian  Kavanagh,  SAIS’s  Vice  President  of  Accreditation  &  Membership,  credits  member  schools  with  recognizing  the  link  between  environment  and  student  learning,  noting  many  schools  are  employing  natural  light  in  classrooms,  emphasizing  sustainability  through  recycling  efforts  and  the  construction  of  roof  top  gardens,  and  sourcing  cafeteria  foods  more  locally.  However,  he  underscores  one  aspect  of  nature  that  independent  schools  should  model:  nature  doesn’t  keep  secrets.  Independent  schools  have  long  believed  that  their  competition  is  another  private  school  down  the  street  when  in  fact  it’s  the  false  perceptions  the  general  public  and  our  families  have  about  what  we  do  as  educators.        Constructive  Depolarization  In  the  uncertain  world  of  the  future,  individuals  will  naturally  desire  certainty  and  reassurance,  which  they  will  seek  at  any  cost.    Johansen  believes  that  “zealous  and  self-­‐righteous  leaders”  who  will  be  “clear,  certain  and  wrong”  will  attempt  to  fill  the  vacuum.    In  these  VUCA  times,  schools  will  need  leaders  to  employ  “the  skill  of  constructive  depolarization  in  order  to  redirect  the  energy  of  conflict  and  bring  the  stakeholders  toward  constructive  engagement  and  dialogue.”  As  Suzanna  Jemsby,  Headmaster  of  The  Galloway  School  (GA),  translates,  “Grace  is  what  Bob  Johansen  is  asking  us  to  master.”  Leaders  must  listen  to,  respect,  and  honor  divergent  perspectives  within  their  organizations;  they  must  “tease  out  voices”  that  are  often  not  heard.    They  must  recognize  the  inherent  richness  in  diversity,  globalization,  and  even  conflict.  Most  importantly  though,  they  must  find  something  they  can  place  in  the  middle,  a  commonality,  that  will  help  all  to  move  forward.    Quiet  Transparency  Which  characteristic  do  you  value  more  in  a  leader:  the  ability  to  speak  well  or  the  capacity  to  listen  carefully?    When  you  hear  the  word  “vulnerable,”  do  you  think  “weakness”?    Johansen  contends  that  we’ve  got  to  readjust  our  way  of  thinking  in  the  VUCA  world  of  the  future  to  recognize  that  “quiet  leaders  have  the  ability  to  listen  …  are  vulnerable  yet  self-­‐confident.”    Cliff  Kling,  Chief  Financial  Officer  of  Jackson  Academy  (MS),  argues  that  the  days  of  the  “rock  star”  school  leader  are  over.    In  this  age  of  transparency,  leaders  need  to  be  open  and  authentic  about  what  matters;  they  need  to  be  self-­‐effacing  and  mission-­‐promoting.  Encouraged  by  the  new  trend  toward  offering  town  hall  meetings  and  publishing  headmaster  blogs,  Kling  contends  that  school  leaders  must  be  open  and  transparent  with  external  and  internal  constituencies,  sharing  the  power  and  looking  for  opportunities  to  engage  the  community  in  decision-­‐making  processes.  Citing  the  surge  in  open  

   

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source  thinking,  Kling  hopes  that  secondary  schools  will  follow  suit,  recognizing  that  in  giving  ideas  away,  each  will  get  better  ideas  in  return.    Rapid  Prototyping  As  anyone  forty  years  or  older  remembers,  advances  in  the  home  phone  took  place  at  a  snail  pace,  the  rotary  dial  was  gradually  supplanted  by  the  push  button,  the  black  square  on  the  living  room  table  eventually  became  the  beige  rectangular  shape  hung  on  the  wall  in  the  kitchen.    However,  in  today’s  VUCA  world,  change  is  a  constant;  in  fact,  the  only  constant  is  change.  Innovation  in  schools,  therefore,  has  to  assume  a  different  form.  The  focus  needs  to  move  from  an  emphasis  on  success  to  an  acceptance  of  failure.  Johansen  defines  rapid  prototyping  as  “quick  cycles  of  try,  learn,  and  try  again  –  in  an  ongoing  sequence.”  Keith  Evans,  Head  of  Collegiate  School  (VA),  defines  this  skill  as  leveraging  failure.    Failure,  Keith  argues,  is  a  taboo  word  in  schools.  Schools  maximize  success,  value  planning,  and  avoid  risk.  To  maintain  relevancy  in  a  VUCA  world,  schools  instead  must  develop  a  trial  and  error  mentality  and  assume  a  bias  for  action.  They  must  resist  the  urge  to  form  a  committee  but  instead  prioritize  speed.    Encouraging  his  faculty  to  “make  small  bets  out  of  sight,”  Evans  promotes  the  testing  of  new  ideas  in  one  classroom  with  one  teacher,  advising  them  “to  see  what  you  learn  and  see  how  you  fail.”    No  motto  expresses  the  future  of  innovation  more  clearly  than  “fail  early,  fail  often,  fail  cheaply.”    Only  then  can  you  achieve  success.    Smart  Mob  Organizing  Most  of  us  consider  mobs  to  be  disorganized,  unpredictable,  and  disruptive.  But  in  today’s  world  of  pervasive  social  media,  a  mob  can  channel  its  connectedness  and  shared  sense  of  purpose  to  be  smart.  “Of  course,”  as  Johansen  argues,  “how  smart  a  smart  mob  is  depends  on  the  resources  of  its  members,  the  talent  of  the  leaders,  and  the  effectiveness  of  their  media.”  Chris  Angel,  Head  of  Hammond  School  (SC),  reminds  us  that  we  all  have  mobs  we  can  organize  and  leverage.    Future  leaders  need  to  develop  and  nurture  a  strong  social  media  identity,  capitalizing  on  the  collective  wisdom  of  the  crowd  to  make  connections  and  draw  links.  Gone  are  the  days  where  a  leader’s  in-­‐person  presence  will  be  enough  and  where  a  leader  can  simply  go  it  alone.  In  the  future,  leaders  will  need  to  employ  the  energy  of  the  mob.    Commons  Creating  In  a  remarkable  form  of  eco-­‐innovation,  corporations  in  Europe  have  bound  together  on  physical  sites  to  created  closed  loop  manufacturing,  analyzing  and  implementing  a  production  process  where  each  corporation  is  directly  connected  to  another  that  uses  its  waste  product  as  a  resource  for  production.    Bob  Johansen  describes  the  impulse  that  designed  this  model  as  “commons  creating”  defined  as  the  “ability  to  seed,  nurture,  and  grow  shared  assets  that  benefit  all  players  and  allows  competition  at  a  higher  level.”    Identified  as  the  most  important  and  difficult  skill  for  leaders  to  develop,  commons  creating  demands  truly  creative  thinking  to  discover  new,  shared  opportunities.    Paul  Ibsen,  Assistant  Headmaster  for  Finance  and  Management  at  Providence  Day  School  (NC),  offers  example  of  individuals  who  have  reached  out  to  build  organizations  of  mutual  interest,  citing  MISBO,  AISBO,  and  NBOA  as  important  and  valuable  examples  of  commons  creating.    Ibsen  maintains  that  in  our  silo  structured  institutions,  sharing  ideas  and  creating  symbiotic  

   

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relationships  is  difficult  within  school  let  alone  among  schools.    He  advocates  leaders  to  encourage  their  faculty  to  share  what  they  know  and  to  figure  out  ways  collaboratively  and  synergistically  to  make  things  better.  Take  the  advice  we  give  to  our  preschoolers,  “You  can’t  get  unless  you  give.”  

 The  final  chapter  of  Johansen’s  book  is  titled  “Learning  the  Ten  Future  Leadership  Skills  Yourself.”  Offering  a  series  of  self-­‐evaluative  questions,  Johansen  emphasizes  that  leaders  in  a  VUCA  world  will  need  to  develop  “inner  balance  and  personal  discipline.”  Leaders  can  make  the  future,  but  they  will  need  mental,  spiritual,  and  physical  fitness.  The  VUCA  world  awaits.  Are  you  ready  to  lead?      

   

       

The  Center  for  Creative  Leadership  will  be  hosting  a    webinar  with  Bob  Johansen  December  11,  2012.    

 http://www.ccl.org/leadership/community/leadersWebinar.asp

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