Emily Ryan

How do we lead ourselves and others through this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous era?

As we pass the six month mark of the global pandemic, there is much to learn from each other. Since May, the Catalyst:Ed team has spoken with over 70 districts and schools that serve almost 700,000 students, blogging trends and learnings as the nation's schools respond to the global pandemic. I encourage you to check out the learning here, along with probably one of the best curated resources on independent school responses worldwide here.

How do we lead ourselves and others through this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) era? - by embracing the adult development opportunity before us and starting with empathy and kindness towards ourselves and others. This two part webinar, The COVID Crisis and Adult Development, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, provides insights into the developmental challenge before us and how to leverage its inherent learning and growth.

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On a related note, it's time to reduce the bureaucratic drag in our education system. Check out Gary Hamel's Bureaucratic Mass Index (BMI) survey below and learn how to excise bureaucracy and replace it with something better here.

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Promoting the "Heart" in MIT's Academic Departments

As we head into spring, I wanted to share with you two articles I enjoyed reading recently. It is encouraging to see great work that enables students and adults alike to lead with and develop their humanity:

In "This Is How Scandinavia Got Great," David Brooks explores the power of deeply educating the whole person: "Bildung is the way that the individual matures and takes upon him or herself ever bigger personal responsibility towards family, friends, fellow citizens, society, humanity, our globe, and the global heritage of our species, while enjoying ever bigger personal, moral and existential freedoms.”  

The article below on the MIT MindHandHeart Department Support Project (MHH-DSP) describes a data-informed initiative designed to cultivate welcoming and inclusive learning environments (underway in all 31 of MIT’s academic departments).

Here's to a wonderful start to spring! 

Promoting the "Heart" in MIT's Academic Departments

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The MindHandHeart Department Support Project (MHH-DSP), a data-informed initiative designed to cultivate welcoming and inclusive learning environments, is now working in all 31 of MIT’s academic departments.

The MHH-DSP aims to effect change across five key dimensions:

  • deliver actionable data along measures of learning and academic support, inclusion, well-being, and student satisfaction;

  • connect departmental faculty, staff, and student leaders to existing MIT support resources;

  • share promising practices across departments;

  • strengthen and streamline internal communications; and

  • create measurable, time-bound action plans, outlining goals and concrete steps departments, laboratories, and centers (DLCs) are taking to address gaps revealed in the data.

3 Things I'm Loving this February

Hope you're having a great start to 2020! Below, I wanted to share three new resources that I hope you will find useful. I especially loved this recording of the live stream from the first ever symposium of The Sarasota Institute. 

Also, if you haven't purchased The Human Side of Changing Education yet, you can order a discounted copy from Corwin Books (CODE: LDN199H9 for 20% off). You can also purchase on Amazon. 

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Three Things I Love

Happy November!

And all of a sudden, the holiday season begins. I'm delighted to share three resources below that I think will be helpful as we head into a busy month. Feel free to share with your colleagues and friends, or invite them to sign up to receive this "3 Things I Love" monthly email here.

The Anxious Achiever
A School I Love
A Must Read Report

More exciting news -- This past month, the book was featured in the Harvard Educational Review. The editor noted:

"...The Human Side of Changing Education offers hope on how education leaders may transform US schools to prepare students for the demands of an unpredictable future. By seriously considering (and implementing) the recommendations in this book, district and school leaders, and other stakeholders, can begin moving from complaining about what needs to change in our nation’s public schools to actually doing something about it."

What are some things that you’re loving lately? Let me know!

Leading Through the Uncertainty of Change

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The academic year is well underway and I hope the implementation of your visioning/strategy work is taking shape and form. Too often though the gravitational force of the status quo takes our attention away from the priorities we know will take our schools into the future. An academic year has so many competing commitments, and as a leader of change you essentially have the concomitant responsibilities of keeping the trains running of the existing system, whilst nurturing the fledging work to design, build and support the new.

For the next few editions of the IFL newsletter, I will be sharing excerpts from The Human Side of Changing Education - stand-along excerpts with an accompanying tool or strategy you can put into practice to help you navigate your own path of school or district change. This month's excerpt is entitled "Leading Through the Uncertainty of Change."

I hope you find it to be helpful - and if you ever have a resource you would like to recommend to IFL readers on leading change in education, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email me or reach out anytime.

Harvard Educational Review

I am thrilled, and deeply honored, to learn that The Human Side of Changing Education is reviewed in the current edition of the Harvard Educational Review. The editor issues a compelling call to action for the next book - I am beginning to see the workings of what the next two to three years of study and practice might look like :)

Also, in case you missed it, if you order The Human Side of Changing Education through Corwin.com, you can save 20% with the discount below.

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