IMPROVE YOUR PASSION AND SKILLS AND BECOME A STAR!

COMMUNITY MATTERS

"Devote yourself to loving others,

devote yourself to your community around you,

and devote yourself to creating something 

that gives you purpose and meaning."

Morrie Schwarz

We are not going to tackle the real issues facing us in this country by doing more of the same and at times like this I often ask myself what are we trying to achieve? What is our vision for our schools, our libraries, our hospitals, our care homes, our public services? How do we continue to build brilliant organisations, in brilliant places to serve brilliant communities? What is the trick to releasing the magic and unlocking the potential of each and every child, of each and every colleague and of every family and every community to be their brilliant best? Of course, I understand people's impatience with failing services but I have my doubts about the easy answers It’s the quality of what goes on in organisations that matters and everything points to the fact that people are the key to success. Evidence suggests that big improvements are possible provided we focus vigorously on the things that make a difference. This isn't intended as an excuse because the critics are right, satisfactory will never be good enough and we must constantly strive for answers to the poor services that we have put up with for so long. We need to build world class organisations with world class standards.

I have worked for over forty years trying to answer these challenges and those of us who have spent our lives at the front line know the real answers lie where they have always been...

• strong, disciplined, focused and passionate leadership;
• clear, shared vision, values and beliefs;
• talented, energetic, enthusiastic and creative teams;
• empowered, trusted and disciplined colleagues;
• powerful, stimulating and interesting environments;
• high self-esteem and high expectations of everyone;
• strong, dynamic and meaningful coaching relationships;
• high engagement and involvement of customers;
• positive engagement and involvement of the communities we serve.

We need to be determined, persistent and focused even if it is hard.… whatever it takes!

TRUST MATTERS

FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS!

It has been a long hot Summer where I have been reading, learning, listening and looking at evidence, research, analysis and case studies. Over the last year people have focused once again on the wrong things as the keys to success and to improve outcomes and failed to recognise the importance of people, feedback, challenge, shared experience, environment and community.

TEACHING THE ELEPHANT TO DANCE!

A colleague asked me recently how she should start with the challenges she was facing and I told her she should read a great book by James Belasco. Reading 'Teaching the Elephant to Dance' taught me such a lot about the management of change and that changing organisations and structures and cultures is possible. However, it also made me realise that changing anything is a complex task and that is where I learned so much about cultural change, learning leadership, beautiful systems and intelligent accountability.

CULTURE MATTERS!

IT'S NOT THE CRITIC WHO COUNTS!

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

We must continue to develop a culture of team with co-operative and collaborative approaches where we network and share what works and create 'centres of learning excellence' and where we learn from our own best practice and what works everywhere and anywhere. We must recognise and celebrate that every school is on a learning journey; a journey to outstanding and we must constantly challenge ourselves to do better. It's also increasingly clear that OFSTED doesn't work in this context and we need to develop a new accountability framework and a model to celebrate excellence and quality assure what we do. Since I worked in York, where we developed 'Schools Learning Together', a Gatsby Charitable Foundation project, I have worked to develop new models where we find and share the bits of magic in every school and be totally honest about the areas where things aren't good enough and then connect. We must work together to develop centres of learning excellence supporting teacher to teacher and school to school learning within a powerful and reflective learning community with a relentless and uncompromising focus on what works and importantly what doesn't.

BE POSITIVE!

“You can program yourself to be positive. Being positive is a discipline … 
and the more adversity you face, the more positive you have to be. 
Being positive helps build confidence and self-esteem”

Rick Pitino, University of Louisville Head Basketball Coach

WE NEED OUR FAIR SHARE!

The real problem we face here in York is that all the indicators suggest that everything is OK and outcomes and achievements are high. However, what is also true is that the gap between those doing well and those doing badly is larger here that anywhere else in England and in every one of our schools and in every classroom there are children and young people whose engagement with arts and culture is as limited as any of the places receiving funding through the Arts Council. It isn’t fair that these young people miss out on these brilliant projects and funding opportunities!