Leading Change

I missed a couple of days of posting!  On Friday, the E3 Peer Group (Excellence in Experiential Education) met at On the Pond Lodge in Mactaquac for our 3rd session of the year.  With a storm on the way, a few people couldn’t make it, though it was nice to catch up with those who could.  I was pretty sick at the session – a cold that I thought had passed but made it’s way back on Thursday night to kick my butt into Saturday – but I’m glad I made it.

On Saturday, we held a session on ‘leading change’ with Mark Symes from Symplicity Designs.  We chatted about change, why it’s often unsuccessful and how to lead change within the education system here in New Brunswick.  Interesting timing as it was on the heels of the State of the Province address from Wednesday, where Premier Gallant announced a 10-year plan for education – to help make education less about politics and more about what is best for students.

My takeaways from the session were to spend more than half of the time dedicated to a change on defining what the problem/situation is and understanding the root causes – to not rush.  My other big takeaway was to develop a communication plan – who do you need to talk to, and how often. That sounds so simple, but to write it down and commit to it – it’s a game changer.

I’m going to be spending some time over the next few days translating what I learned in the session on leading change to various aspects of my life – managing The Gaia Project and determining our strategic objectives, creating a healthy lifestyle, defining what I want my role to be in moving towards equity and my passion for feminism, and even applying it to training my dog!