More on 'Agile Leadership'

Nguyen Vu Hung (vuhung) via Compfight cc 

"Five year plans are the last thing I'd be creating if I wanted to see innovation happen in a school." Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh at #Edutech2014 challenged thinking on leadership with the notion of 'Agile Leadership'.  

McIntosh says:

Ultimately, agile leadership is about recognising that everyone in the 'orchestra' of school is a leader, provided the strategy has been scored in a way that enables everyone to know their part in making it happen. The metaphor with music is one I concluded with, based on this old conductors' post I wrote. 

McIntosh overlaid his own entertaining and insightful commentary on agile leadership (be great if that makes it to youtube soon +Edutech ) as depicted when Maria Joao Pires realises she has practiced the wrong concerto and the ensuing exchange between herself and conductor Riccardo Chailly. 

Some further reading on Agile Leadership:

Agile leaders -- what do they look like?
by Ana Duta "Agile Leaders are those who “figure it out”, who “get it”, when faced with new and challenging situations."

The Agile Leader’s Toolkit"Agile leaders are leaders who are able to reflect, see possibilities and reframe their thinking constantly. They understand the importance of adaptability, grace in failure, curiosity, collaboration, back up, diversity, ease of access and the ability to forecast.

Providing the conditions conducive to cultivating creativity, learning and improvement in student work

This clip used in Sir Ken Robinson's presentation at EduTECH 2014 and shows the results of a simple experiment that regarding how articulated expectations of a right answer influence the creative effort / capacity of students to take risks. 

When the pressure is taken off and students' work is graded satisfactory or not - rather than graded A to E, students feel free to take more risks - hence be creative.

Sugata Mitra's research showed that if adults step aside, and give less 'help' children can work out so much more for themselves - and the learning really becomes their own.

Ewan McIntosh relayed how we as teachers are often satisfied with students first or second attempts and demonstrated the power of continual feedback from a wider audience in promoting more superior student work. 

The school library is in a pivotal position to offer opportunities and conditions conducive to cultivating creativity in learners. How can we also make it a place where students can gather real feedback on their work in order to improve?

Read more: Grading Systems - SCHOOL, HIGHER EDUCATION - Students, Grades, Teachers, and Learning - StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2017/Grading-Systems.html#ixzz34EwtnJn9

Agile Leadership with Ewan McIntosh at EduTECH

Some key points from Ewan McIntosh's keynote on 'Agile Leadership' at EduTECH 2014.

For more on the work of Ewan McIntosh and his team especially in the area of 'Design Thinking' visit their site 'Notosh'
Ewan argues that we need to encourage students to be not only problem solvers but problem finders.