Day One: Five Ways of Being Symposium
What is the Symposium?
An introduction to the theories and potential application of the innovative Five Ways of Being model for leading learning with opportunities for a deeper examination of your choice of the five ways of being with an expert in that area.
The Five Ways of Being Leadership Symposium inspires and supports learning leaders to take charge of their own leadership story. Our world-class leadership experts will help you undertake career-changing self-discovery, giving you practical tools you need and can immediately use.
School leaders face many challenges, including:
- Being too busy to take the time to consider learning at the centre of all we do
- Spending too much time ticking off tasks that take us away from learning
- Working out who we are as leaders of learning in schools and teams
- Struggling to lead people to learn more about themselves and their work
- Not being able to trust everyone we work with or lead
- Being courageous in the decisions that must be made
- Engaging others in a process of change that compels them to invest themselves
- Competing agendas, lack of time and self-belief
- Leading people who see the world differently to us.
Benefits
- Learn more about your current leadership identity and its implications
- Increase your capacity to be trustworthy, brave, compelling, purposeful, and growth-focused
- Discover what’s required to consciously commit to both your own development and others’, in the ongoing pursuit of learning for all
- Transform your school culture through what you think, do and say every day
- Uncover up to 32 practical strategies you can use in your leadership approach today
- Take home your own copy of Five Ways of Being: What Leaders of Learning Think, Do and Say Everyday.
Five Speakers; A keynote, 5 breakout sessions & closing plenary session all on one day.
Symposium Schedule
Opening Keynote:
Five Ways of Being: The key to writing your own leadership story…
Led by: Jane Danvers, Heather DeBlasio, Gavin Grift
Jane, Heather and Gavin, the authors of Five Ways of Being, will explore how the way learning leaders see themselves plays out in what they think, do and say every day. Our presenters will outline the key assumptions and characteristics to consider in the ongoing authoring of your unique leadership story, which is so critical to the learning needs of your students, colleagues, school and self.
Breakout Sessions
Being Trusting
Led by: Jane Danvers
It’s the strength of our relationships – the ties that bind us – that make all the difference in school communities. High quality relationships, in any context, are based on trust. But trust can only be built by getting to know each other as total human beings above and beyond our formal roles. Consequently, a core purpose for learning leaders is to cultivate trusting relationships with all members of their staff in what they say and do every day. By applying strategies such as Learning Conversations, Three Rules for Feedback, Talking Partners, Collaborative Learning Teams, I Do, You do, We do, Mindful Meditation and STOP, learning leaders inspire trust in those they lead.
Being Growth-Focused
Led by: Heather DeBlasio
A leader’s ongoing development can flourish or be hindered by the avenues available to them. If we have an explicit focus on making growth our primary purpose – not only for our students but our leaders and teachers – we can create a rising tide of growth that lifts all boats to greater heights of fulfilment and achievement. By using strategies such as Check-Ins (Not Check-Ups), Mirror-Mirror, Challenge Corner, Putting the ‘D’ in Development, Leadership Sprints, Leadership Moves, Annual Reflective/Planning Conversations and Tenure Review Revisited, we can transform our schools into incubators of human growth and potential.
Being Brave
Led by: Gavin Grift
The inherent nature of learning requires us to feel uncomfortable, to confront the unknown, to feel vulnerable and to make peace with the ambiguity that learning brings. Learning leaders understand the importance of this to their role in schools, where the core business is learning. To choose bravery requires learning leaders to commit to becoming braver. Through the application of strategies such as Lights-Camera-Action, Six Wedges, Crafting Your Self-Story, the Six A’s of Deliberate Action and DEA (delegate, expect, assume), building bravery can truly become a way of being for all learning leaders.
Being Purposeful
Led by: Colin Sloper
A learning leader’s integrity relies in no small part on a direct link, or harmony, between intentions and actions. So being purposeful is integral both to getting the work done and bringing our people with us on the journey. It is as necessary in the big things as the little things, for both the incidental conversations and the regular meetings we conduct and attend. Being purposeful becomes a way of being through using strategies such as Begin with the End in Mind, Conscious Choices, Planning Purposeful Agendas, Working Agreements and Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.
Being a Storyteller
Led by: Louisa Ellum
Edgar Schein, in his book Organizational Culture and Leadership (2010), wrote that the essence of leadership is the creation and management of the dynamic processes of culture. We believe that culture is shaped, nurtured and manifested through what learning leaders think, say and do every day. Culture is a dance between the values and beliefs of the community, the daily activities and drivers that play out in classrooms and the relationships that underpin them. It is found in the tales the students tell when they go home, the conversations in the carpark and the social interactions of teachers. The challenge and the opportunity for leaders of learning is to bring them together in one central narrative. Strategies like the Story of Why, Back to the Future, Synectics, Snapshot Observations, Chalk Talk, Gallery Walks and Fireside Chats enable learning leaders to tell the story of their school.
Closing Plenary
Increasing your impact – starting with now
Led by: Jane Danvers, Heather DeBlasio, Gavin Grift
To enhance and consolidate the day’s learning and ensure its immediate application into your leadership story and context, Jane, Heather and Gavin will lead participants through a process of targeted reflection. In a structured, energetic and supportive collaborative environment, you will devise a personalised plan to immediately enact the key learning of the day for you.
This will ensure the day leaves an indelible imprint on your ongoing development, as your leadership story continues to unfold.
