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Unwarranted Optimism

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    For there is always light,

    If only we’re brave enough to see it.

    If only we’re brave enough to be it.

    (Amanda Gorman)

    When everything around appears dark and it is hard to see the light, we need to be brave enough to have unwarranted optimism. It is unwarranted because of the number of challenges faced by colleagues working in education that push us into hopelessness and toward helplessness. And, perhaps worse, there is a real danger that this helplessness is increasingly learnt, mutually reinforced and influencing the stories we tell each other about our profession.

    “Do you have the resilience to show unwarranted optimism, and to regard crisis as the norm and complexity as fun, while maintaining a bottomless well of intellectual curiosity?” (Tim Brighouse)

    To work in our profession requires unwarranted optimism. It always has, but it feels harder than ever to view the future with hope. Optimism (particularly unwarranted) is the life blood of our sector, the fuel that drives good people to do good and change lives. We must not sink our profession by peddling pessimism, even if it is warranted.

    “The problem is that people mistake optimism for ‘blind optimism’.” (Hannah Ritchie)

    However, this is no time for ‘blind optimism’, a naive faith or passive hope that things will turn out well. We need a ‘conditional’, ‘urgent’ optimism that empowers us to act, to step forward and build together a future for all children. Even if optimism, at this time, is unwarranted, it is a far better basis for offering colleagues and children a sense of possibility.

    Warranted Optimism | Everyday acts of heroism.

    “Optimism is seeing challenges as opportunities to make progress; it’s having the confidence that there are things we can do to make a difference. We can shape the future, and we can build a great one if we want to.” (Hannah Ritchie)

    Our schools may well be performing better than ever, providing provision that is meeting the steepest of challenges, post pandemic, and in the face of the fracturing social contract. In all schools, heroic acts are changing lives, exemplifying the power of human connection, offering real hope and optimism for the future; a powerful force for good.

    Warranted Pessimism | poor choice for children and colleagues.

    Warranted pessimism is not an option. Despite the oppressive background music and the darkening light, if we choose to be pessimistic, we may well extinguish the fading light. Too much pessimism, warranted or unwarranted disturbs us deeply, encourages retreat and pushes us to become victims of circumstance. And whilst we can individually decide to retreat, it comes at a cost for all and our profession, as well as the children who need optimism, not pessimism, from the adults they trust.

    “There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.” (Kofi Annan)

    Skin in the game | our influence lives beyond us

    We all have an opportunity to be and bring the light to others. We cannot choose to sit outside the lives of others or be silent in the narratives that we tell each other; we have skin in other people’s lives. How we choose to move through life, reinforces or erodes the narrative and norms that set the stage far beyond ourselves, in schools, classrooms, and more broadly in life.  How we choose to live in this world, matters.

    “How to live in a world where profound uncertainty is not a bug, but a feature?” (Yuval Noah Harari)

    We are also hugely influenced by the need to fit in. It is coded deep in us that to be outside of a group hurts, is unsafe and a danger. So, we often take opportunities to align ourselves with the beliefs, attitudes, norms and behaviours of those closest to us. Often choosing against our independent beliefs to follow trend and fit in; a trend that is too often pessimistic. It matters, therefore, whether we choose unwarranted optimism or not, it radiates and infects beyond ourselves to other beings and happenings, all of the time.

    “Your response has to be to reject cynicism and reject pessimism and push forward, with a certain infectious and relentless optimism. Not blind optimism, not one that ignores the scale and scope of our challenges, but that hard-earned optimism, that’s rooted in the stories of very real progress.” (Barack Obama)

    Fairy Lights over Spotlights | a marvellous victory

    “What we choose to emphasise … will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something… and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. …to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvellous victory.” (Howard Zinn)

    To live with unwarranted optimism is to seek the joy of fairy lights over spotlights. A focus on fairy lights enables us to see the joy woven through life, to value the happenings and humans around us. Shifting our focus to the normal, everyday, magic that happens in schools, reveals the power of human relationships and places value on what really matters.

    “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.” (Howard Zinn)

    The future then is built on an accumulation of small acts, a bottom-up movement, where change becomes possible and we have the chance to send this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

    meaningful movements start bottom-up.

    Seeking spotlights on the other hand is like waiting for big things or changes, often viewing them as a salvation that will save the day. It is the hope that kills, the waiting for the next station that stops us from living now and enjoying the journey.

    “I’ve very deliberately chosen to notice the smaller things, the joys I might have otherwise missed had I looked too broad, too big. The thousands of joys that lattice and join and thread into and around our daily school life.” (Claire Stoneman)

    Uncommon Opportunity | striving for what is worth having.

    There might just be an uncommon opportunity to re-evaluate what really matters in education. Some of the most courageous and heroic work is happening in unfavoured areas of our sector; areas where the challenge is steepest and recognition the lowest.

    “This is Vanity Fair a world where everyone is striving for what is not worth having.” (William Thackeray)

    The narrowness of what is valued in education belies the vibrance and range of opportunity that exists in our world and the eclectic abilities of human beings. It is this narrowness that disenfranchises the many. We must throw more light on what is worth having, what children need for their future; a system more geared towards those it serves.

    “I deal my own deck, sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.” (Gloria Gaynor)

    When we are pushed by powers beyond our control we should strive to go in the opposite direction and enable others to take more control, to step forward and make a difference to their part of the world. We should continue to deal our own cards, and empower others, to deal from their decks, optimistically, regardless of what is dealt; because we have collective power and we are the system.

    Too many feel unremarkable | in a remarkable world.

    In a darkening world children, particularly under-resourced children, need us to have unwarranted optimism, to offer more light and a greater sense of possibility. Creating the conditions for children to adventure down rabbit holes of curiosity and to feel the wonder of our remarkable world. We seek this wonder, so that children have the chance to walk a step or two with genius and because childhoods last a lifetime.

    “Do you believe with a passion that brooks no denial that all pupils, whatever their background, can walk a step or two with genius and that your staff will embrace the aim that all students will grow up to think for themselves and act for others?” (Tim Brighouse)

    We must not allow a pervading pessimism to extinguish the light for children and create a self-fulfilling narrative that damages our profession. We must encourage more to serve in education to reveal the magic that exist in ordinary lives and to bring more light.

    “…treading the intriguing line between the everyday and the otherworldly, revealing the magic that exists in our ordinary lives.” (The Lost Bookshop)

    Not our story to finish | true but useless.

    We should not pretend to know the future or how this story plays out. We must tread carefully on the dreams of children and seek to create provision that is more born out of optimism than pessimism. It is the difference between setting the stage for children to stumble forward in the dark, steeped in pessimism, and stepping with confidence into a future that is full of optimism and possibility. Children need to grow up in a world where they feel remarkable, opportunity is unbound, and where children do not feel separate from the world.

    “…although her childhood, had left her feeling separate from the world.” (Steven Rogers)

    Lest we forget that children are vulnerable to the beliefs and narratives of the adults in their lives. The challenges we face are true but useless for the children we educate. They do not choose the conditions, location, or time that they inhabit, and they are largely unaware of pressures, turmoil, and upset of colleagues in our sector. They profit nothing from a sector that fights, argues, gives-up, or fails to work optimistically with the hand that they are dealt.

    Unwarranted optimism | An invitation to dance

    We choose our approach to life and to work. It is too easy to see the challenges that surround us and retreat into the security of pessimism, into narratives that reduce agency and reinforce helplessness. But, when we do, it is not an individual choice, the impact of this stance reverberates through other beings and happenings. It denies a sense of possibility.

    Conversely, to bravely choose optimism, conditional optimism, we offer a greater sense of possibility, to reassess what is valued and to see the magic and the light in the everyday. This is a stronger basis for the future, more generous and a greater investment in colleagues and children.

    “Ignore those who say that we are doomed. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone.” (Hannah Ritchie)

    So, to choose individually, collectively, and organisationally to pursue unwarranted optimism is to contribute to a growing narrative that encourages us not just to see the light, but to be the light. To step forward rather than shy away from the future and collectively build it.

    And in this optimistic light perhaps all children and colleagues will accept an invitation to dance.

    Dan Nicholls | February 2024

    Collaborative Advantage | seeking a trust dividend

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    Strong Trusts seek collaborative advantage by building an organisational structure and curating a culture that connects colleagues in shared endeavour. In these Trusts colleagues are empowered, on standardised platforms, to take collective responsibility for approaches and artefacts that enable connected schools to add value and secure a Trust dividend that sustains beyond their time. Trusts seek school improvement by making deliberate bets, laid as investments, that improve the life chances of all children, particularly those who are under-resourced. And in these dark times, it has never been more important for Trusts to seek greater equity through education, to be long-sighted and to invest in the future by planting trees, deeply rooted in their communities; the shade from which they may never benefit.

    “…leaders doing less but understanding more… can free themselves to focus on the future – which is, after all, the proper territory of leadership.” (Tracey Camilleri, et al.)

    Where Trusts choose to play and how they focus on the future, matters…

    Defined by the decisions we make | Choosing where to play

    Whilst we might assume that there are many ways to run a Trust, there are surprisingly few. And it is ‘few’ because all Trusts are in the business of school improvement, held in a highly regulated system and seeking to improve the life chances of all children. There is a reassuring alignment between the challenges and opportunities that Trusts engage with to add value, moderated, a little, by maturity, scale and capacity. Where Trusts choose to play and how well this is enacted largely determines the success of a Trust.

    As Trusts grow, merge, mature and forge identities, their effectiveness could be simplified as the sum of all decisions made, by all colleagues, every second, of everyday, everywhere in a Trust that accumulates a dividend, or not. The role of Trust leaders is to influence, nudge, (direct), enable better decisions to be made more often, over time, the sum of which delivers the dividend. How Trusts influence this decision making, is a dance between what it decides to do together and where it decides to empower colleagues to act. An intelligent dance, that balances standardised and empowered approaches, and connects colleagues together seeking a collaborative advantage.

    Seeking collaborative advantage | Who’s on first base?

    Trust (and school) leaders “…are all playing Moneyball, all the time” (Seth Godin). Seeking the organisational design and strategy that will make a discernible difference and hold schools in a higher and more consistent performance space. For Bill James and the Oakland As it was: “…putting players on base at a higher rate, leads to more runs, which therefore, translates to more wins.” For Trusts, perhaps it is:

    “…putting colleagues together (with purpose) at a higher rate, leads to more value, which therefore, translates to a greater dividend.”

    Creating the architecture for colleagues to deliberately collaborate creates the conditions for a collaborative advantage. Connecting colleagues within professional networks and subject communities, empowers peers to co-construct and co-design beliefs, attitudes, approaches and artefacts that drive the dividend, for the long term. Strong Trusts understand the need to build antifragile organisations where the hard-wired (and soft wired) collaborative architecture strengthens under stress, secures wide ownership for improvement, is self-improving and irreversible. Effective collaboration is hard to create, what it is and what it isn’t and how it is designed, entirely determines the benefit felt. The biggest influence on teachers is teachers.

    “System leaders focus on creating the conditions that can produce change and that can eventually cause change to be self-sustaining.” (Senge et al.)

    The cultural landscape and fabric of the Trust

    It is hard to under-state the importance of culture in organisations. The deliberate design of the cultural landscape and the strength of the cultural fabric are necessary pre-requisites for the sustained success of any organisation; built ever onward.

    Colleagues need a contradictory mix of being part of something bigger (the cultural landscape), and to see themselves in the organisation (part of the cultural fabric), to have what they need and to be a unique part of the pattern.

    The cultural landscape of a Trust is shaped and carved over time towards the shared purpose, the mission of the Trust and is guided by deeply held (lived) values and enacted in shared rituals and routines. Walking and working in the cultural landscape reveal the values and character of the Trust; it determines and secures belonging, status, and esteem of colleagues, or not. How Trusts choose to spend time and how colleagues connect is a window into the soul of the organisation.

    “The stars we are given. The constellations we make.” (Rebecca Solnit)

    The strongest cultural landscapes are organised around the reason for existence. These Trusts clearly articulate the mission and the purpose of the Trust, which is held across the landscape by the North Star, guiding and moulding the norms and behaviours. Lit by this star the cultural fabric weaves colleagues together towards the mission, to do good and make a difference.

     “If everything is important, then nothing is… When you know your reason for existence, it should affect the decisions you make.” (Lencioni)

    The strongest cultural fabrics are held together by a shared language, vocabulary, norms, behaviours, attitudes, artefacts, standards, conversations, ideas… it holds colleagues, offering the psychological safety to bring their best selves. The fabric is deliberately, consciously and systematically woven in every action and conversation. It is the cultural landscape and fabric of a Trust, that sets the stage and the conditions for colleagues to do important work.

    “When we build a culture of people who eagerly seek out and take responsibility, we build a culture that enables a special kind of resilient freedom.” (Seth Godin)

    In strong Trusts, culture is deeply linked to where it has been (true to founding) and where it is going (ambition for all) and its journey (the everyday culture). It is (un)surprisingly well designed and felt everywhere, from all colleagues; how we treat anyone, is how we treat everyone. One of those things that takes years to build and seconds to destroy. The culture and colleagues drive the dividend.

    Trust Mindedness | school is trust, trust is school. Priming the landscape.

    Strong Trusts seed and cultivate the landscape, to reward Trust mindedness, intrinsically so. A priming of culture that is conducive to collaboration, to understanding that all leaders, all colleagues are responsible for all children in the Trust. It is about creating an internal market where the stock price of schools, leaders and colleagues rises with altruism, collaboration, professional generosity, contributing to the shared artefacts, routines and rituals that live out the Trust values, towards the mission and secures the dividend.

    This is a Trust-wide mindset, within the cultural landscape and fabric that primes, promotes and rewards relationships and behaviours that fuel and sustain the School Improvement Model. It is the deep collaborative motivation that lives in the Trust, to depth, that encourages better decisions more often, so that the Trust is more than the sum of the parts. Under these conditions Trust leadership is increasingly about guardianship and stewardship.

    The primacy of Principals | The lead actors in mature (and immature Trusts)

    Strong Trusts recognise the primacy of Principals. Schools are significantly influenced by the quality of the headteacher (and teams they lead). If the culture and choices made by a Trust largely determines the potency and effectiveness, then the Headteachers are the key actors in school improvement. The effectiveness of the Headteacher is largely the determining factor in the quality of provision, influenced by the Trust, of course, but perhaps not as much as we would like to think.

    The strongest Principals are great with people, understand provision and lead with purpose, prioritising and implementing key strategies and approaches, over time to drive the effectiveness (and efficiency) of the school. Importantly they are open and able to utilise the resource and strength of the Trust; a symbiosis that adds value, and increasingly so. Strong Trusts invest deeply in Headteachers, designing curriculum, professional learning, opportunities, connectivity, collaboration and the conditions for Heads to lead well.

    Exploit the complicated | Standardised Provision

    Perhaps the biggest advantage afforded to Trusts is the ability to standardise aspects of provision to secure school improvement and greater consistency in provision. Despite some negative connotations or overly simplistic views of “standardisation,” it has tremendous power to liberate, support and give permission (and opportunity) for colleagues to focus on the Main Thing(s). The creation of standardised approaches, strategies and artefacts builds a platform for colleagues, to focus on meeting need, without the distraction of re-designing areas of provision that just need to happen reliably and consistently.

    “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” (Seth Godin)

    Strong Trusts intentionally and deliberately standardise ‘complicated’ areas of provision:  Complicated areas act largely the same way each time. These areas can often helpfully be reduced to a checklist; if this, then do that. Trusts should play in these areas and standardise as there is limited need for local decision making or creativity and, importantly, this offers the opportunity for a Trust to improve provision for all learners (and colleagues). Co-creating and co-designing shared curriculum and assessment are particularly potent areas for the dividend.  

    Empower and guide the complex | Empowered Provision

    Areas that are largely complex should be empowered to schools and colleagues. Complex areas respond differently each time and are typically influenced by the unpredictability of human action and interaction, requiring in the moment decision making. In complex areas of provision, we need to push decisions closer to the action where quality and outcomes are linked to the situation as it emerges, contextually influenced. 

    There are areas of provision in each academy that is better owned and empowered locally, they are largely complex, influenced by context and improved by local decision making. Of course, it is desirable to standardise aspects of these largely complex areas in academies to (fractally) create the standardised platform for colleagues in academies.

    Don’t overcook | Just because you could, does not mean you should.

    Standardise too far, and you remove the local decision making, professionalism and agency of colleagues to make good decisions, commensurate and appropriate to a profession, and being a professional.  This is the crux of effective Trust leadership, the dance between the complicated and complex, to standardise and to empower deliberately and purposefully. Held in tension, strong Trusts create routines, standardise areas of provision to support colleagues, but do not seek to over dictate the complex areas of provision where local decision making, near to the action, informed in the moment, adds the value and creates the sustainable behaviours that secures a self-improving organisation, beyond our time.

    Holding ideas in tension is not a compromise

    Trusts should not use their power to standardise without bound, there are limits to the effectiveness of standardisation when it steps over and on individual agency and professionalism.

    “…under the conditions of true complexity – where unpredictability reigns – efforts to dictate every step from the centre will fail. People … require a seemingly contradictory mix of freedom and expectation.” (Atul Gawande)

    Measure what matters, transparently and in the interest of school improvement

    Strong Trusts measure what matters and by doing so indicate what they care about. This is the transparent democratisation of data to all colleagues to enable a focus on learning and evaluation of provision, to depth. This reveals standards, informs school improvement and highlights high (and low) performance as well as expertise across the Trust.

    Trust leaders are guardians of standards, creating an insurance policy that holds and secures improvement for all children and schools in the Trust. A risk-led approach enables an agile and timely distortion of resource, school improvement capacity and expertise to ensure that all children, areas of provision and academies are supported to improve and level-up in a timescale that is quicker than the local resource capability. School is Trust, Trust is school; all colleagues responsible for all children.

    Whether Trusts become more than the sum of their parts and add a dividend for all children, families and communities is determined by the choices that they make and where they choose to play. Strong Trusts craft cultural landscapes and empower colleagues within a cultural fabric, on a standardised platform, to connect across the Trust to realise a collaborative advantage.

    “The role of the leader is to enable, facilitate, and cause peers to interact in a focused manner…but still only a minority of systems employ the power of collective capacity.” (Fullan)

    Strong Trusts build the conditions where the collective capacity is focused on addressing the steep challenges of our time and where the collaborative advantage drives a dividend that secures greater equity through education.

    …But, Trusts are not alone in the landscape, despite pressures that promote isolationism and competition, all parts of the sector are joined in a quest to build a better system. A system that will only meet the growing needs of all children when there is greater collaboration, stewardship, generosity and collective responsibility. We should seek together a sector that exploits a collective collaborative advantage for the good of all children.

    All Trusts working together for all children

    Dan Nicholls | February 2024

    The thinking presented here is based on the work, experience and thinking of colleagues across Cabot Learning Federation.

    The Social Contract is fracturing

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    “Everyone participates in the social contract every day, and we rarely stop to think about it. Yet social contracts shape every aspect of our lives, including how we raise our children and engage in education.” (Minouche Shafik)

    We live in difficult and darkening times. The growing gloom is becoming oppressive, encouraging retreat and reducing belonging. The social contract that shapes and guides every aspect of our lives is fracturing. For far too many children and families this is fundamentally altering their relationship with society, authority, and how we value and engage in education.

    The “social contract” is a theoretical agreement between individuals and society wherein people relinquish certain freedoms and abide by agreed-upon rules and norms in exchange for social order and mutual benefits.

    These are dark ages, characterised by challenging economics and social inequity, that are presenting both a psychological and material challenge. This is infecting and altering the narratives we tell ourselves and each other about what is important and what our contributions to society should be.

    “We all … listen for an account of who we are and where we stand.” (George Monbiot)

    Increasing numbers of children and adults are opting out from a world that finds multiple ways of challenging their sense of self, place, and agency. Whilst for some the light is not fading, for too many others, often the most vulnerable, the gloom is encouraging retreat from the agreed contract. Schools are at the heart of the maelstrom, open, available, and trusted enough for some families to fight against, because few others are listening, available or there. Schools stretch and respond to the needs that walk into school every day, attempting to fulfil their duty of care, often without the resource or expertise.

    For increasing numbers of pupils and families, school is seen as optional, far from being irresistible or a place of opportunity. The prevailing narrative is replacing long held norms around the value of education, driven by a weakening social contract and the entrenched inequities in society. The disadvantage gap, on any measure, is wide and widening, embarrassingly so. Fundamentally, the social contract is built on trust– when the returns from society diminish or disappear, or where we become increasingly priced out of life, we see the contract weakening and the trust we hold erodes.

    “Trusting others puts us in an inherently vulnerable position… the proof of the importance of trust is the intense emotional pain that accompanies it being broken.” (Owen Eastwood)

    We need a revised and reinforced social contract that seeks greater cohesion, strengthens belonging and places education at the heart of this nation. This needs to secure far greater equity through education and a much stronger architecture of opportunity. An architecture enacted by stronger trust and system leadership, greater connectivity and purposeful collaboration between trusts and schools so that we take collective responsibility and stewardship for our sector. All Trusts working together for all children.

    “It is only through building a connected system that we will be able to address the multiple challenges facing our communities” (Leora Cruddas)

    Building the effectiveness of our trust, civic and system leadership to build an education system that is able to address the multiple challenges, redistribute esteem and enable many more children to live lives of decency and dignity.

    “…we need a redistribution of esteem… to live lives of decency and dignity, winning social esteem. …(to) travel the road to 2045 with purpose, dignity and accomplishment.” (Peter Hennessy)

    Seeking together to build strong trusts with great schools that meet need. Enabling more children and families to belong and benefit from a renewed social contract, gaining a greater sense of agency in their lives and contributing towards the common good.

    “Agency gives us control over our time, and it encourages us to choose what our contribution looks like.” (Seth Godin)

    In the eye of the storm

    The lines between school and society have blurred. Schools are trying to respond to the fracturing of the social contract. Where deprivation bites and societal problems leak into schools, colleagues can become overwhelmed. They take increasing amounts of time to support, resolve, and cope with difficult and widening societal issues of children and families, obligated to fulfil their deeply held duty of care for the communities they serve.

    The present level of attendance, suspensions and disenfranchisement, particularly of those presently disadvantaged, is a national crisis – a social epidemic. As the narrative falters, individuals are making pragmatic decisions around survival and choosing to opt out, to not conform, to challenge authority, avoid commitment and to escape the perceived risk of failing in class.

    If life is a game, too many are deciding not to play.

    Fracturing built on entrenched inequity

    It is not that the social contract has suddenly fractured, it has been creaking over time and is evident in the inequalities that characterise our society. Just as there are triggers for climate change, where it becomes irreversible and the impact is catastrophic, the same is true of the social contract. Multiple factors have triggered descent to this crisis point with our social contract.  

    Strong Trusts, Great Schools, Meeting Need | An architecture of opportunity

    “There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children.” (Kofi Annan)

    The present architecture of opportunity in our sector, exists within a developing Trust landscape. It is timely, urgent and imperative for Trusts and groups of schools to work together within stronger collaborative structures to build strong trusts capable of supporting more great schools that are well placed to meet need. The sector should grasp the opportunity to create a stronger architecture of opportunity that addresses the societal challenges and particularly the widening disadvantage gap. Trusts and schools need to work much more collaboratively to realise the promise of academisation and to secure greater equity through education.

    We are the system

    The development of great schools across the sector that enable all children to lead full, flourishing lives is at that heart of the renewal we seek.

    “We need a broader and more ambitious vision of what a good life is. Human flourishing and dignity for all, requires us to have a wide set of success measures. Placing greater value on things such as contribution, difference, common values, and the process of learning and work itself.” (Ben Newmark, Tom Rees)

    The collaborative structures we need to build within and across the sector are required to secure a greater dividend, one that rises the tide for all children. Schools need to grow good humans through strong culture and inspire young minds through great teaching held within a progressive, sequenced curriculum that liberates agency and meets the needs of children now and for their future. This requires us to develop leaders(hip) that understands how to improve schools within the collaborative structure of Trusts, accelerated by Trusts working closer together. This will demand a move from silos to deliberate collaboration, so that we, together, take greater collective stewardship of our sector.

    The deficit narrative in society is reflected within our sector and in our schools. It is no accident that the current recruitment and retention challenges, the catastrophic decline in ITT applications and weakening working conditions are linked to the deficit narrative around schools and the value that our nation places on education. It is not that there isn’t an appetite to meet and reverse the challenges of the failing social contract, it is that it feels progressively more futile given the available funding, resourcing, staffing, and expertise that is required to meet the ever-increasing demand.

    Stewardship and Longtermism

    The investment in education needs to be long-term and it requires a commitment over generational timescales that inconveniently span timescales longer than political terms of office. We are prone to shortermism and this struggles to keep up with the complex needs of a growing number of children and families.

    “We should shift our energies upstream: personally, organisationally, nationally and globally. We can, and should, stop dealing with the symptoms of problems, again and again, and start fixing them.” (Dan Heath)

    This is urgent; it is not just about now, it is fundamentally about the future and the future health of our society and the standing, place and importance of education. Great schools are the hope, and increasingly the only hope, but they are exposed and creaking under the weight of the failing social contract. Schools and Trusts need to consider deeply their role in society and the educational offer that will better meet the needs of all children, now and into their adulthood.

    The weather is oppressive

    The prevailing climate is increasingly oppressive and characterised by profound uncertainty.

    “How to live in a world where profound uncertainty is not a bug, but a feature?” (Yuval Noah Harari)

    Our response to this uncertainty and the challenges of our time has influenced the national psyche and altered our narratives. So much has shifted in our lived experience…

    The global pandemic, Brexit, standards in public life (Nolan Principles), high inflation, high interest rates, energy costs, mortgage rates, loan rates, cost of living, AI, inaccessible first homes, decline in living standards, shifting employment types and longevity, climate change, political turmoil, social media, conflicts across the world (including Europe), long waiting lists, funding crisis, erosion of local services and multi-agency services, mental health challenges, public service strikes, recruitment, retention…

    … disconcerting, oppressive, challenging; encouraging retreat and a deafening backdrop to life.

    All of which play out unevenly across society. Except that, this is not true for everyone. These oppressive conditions tend to maintain the status quo for those who have means and power.

    The shifting locus of control; retreating from the noise

    “Nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves.” Ben Okri

    Our society has always been divided into those who have and those who have not. Typically, the most disadvantaged in society have an external locus of control, one that encourages retreat, and one that negates a sense of agency. The current challenges are pushing more children into believing and acting as if they have an external locus of control. When this happens, they look to the contract that is meant to hold them, meant to say to them that they belong, and they pragmatically choose retreat and make decisions about their contribution to society; becoming more invisible.  

    Ubuntu: “I am a person through other people; my humanity is tied to yours.” (Zulu proverb)

    We must reinforce, redesign and improve the social contract. It is fractured and faltering. We must not stand-by and in doing so collude with this erosion. We need a society and an education system that builds back the social contract for the common good and creates an architecture of opportunity, so that more are invited to dance.

    Architecture of Opportunity | an invitation to dance

    1. We need to renew the invitation to dance, so that individuals contribute and benefit from the social contract. We need a new national and educational narrative around schools that places education at the heart of social renewal. This should seek to create a greater sense of belonging, status and esteem, a more just society and communities where children and families flourish.

    “Those who imagine the ground beneath their feet is solid are probably managing the present, not leading into the future.” (Tracey Camilleri, et al.)

    2. We are the system. As educators we have an opportunity and responsibility to make a difference, to tell a stronger narrative and to influence the national position of education. We need to review the present paradigm and ensure that we are keeping our side of the contract. We need to ensure that Trusts and schools develop organisational leadership to build a sector that rises the tide. Strong Trusts with Great Schools that Meet Need.

    “You cannot take away someone’s story without giving them a new one. Whether the systems that emerge from this rupture are better or worse than the current dispensation depends on our ability to tell a new story.” (George Monbiot)

    3. We need to invest more in education; an investment that yields a long-term dividend to our society and nation. The pay off will not just boost the economy, but it will improve well-being, mental health, community cohesion and deliver social justice. This investment will support schools to fulfil their duty of care and create an architecture of opportunity where the power of education will secure greater equity. Not for us, for them.

    4. We need to take a longer-term view on the role of education in society, as the moral priority of our time. Taking greater stewardship of the future, building collaborative structures where all educationalist can share responsibility for all children. It is what we owe their future.

    “Longtermism is about taking seriously just how big the future could be and how high the stakes are in shaping it. We need to act wisely.” (William Macaskill)

    5. We need to invest more in the first 1001 days from conception and in readying children for school. This lights the fire, sets the stage and reinforces, at the earliest possible moment, that education and investing in human potential is part of the fabric of our social contract. This includes educating and influencing parenting and the nations understanding of key developmental stages. We need to follow through on that investment into early years to give the best possible start in life, to secure the importance of school, where children belong and where we genuinely work upstream to prevent downstream problems.

    “We have the opportunity to help people become significant… build a culture of affiliation and status.” (Seth Godin)

    6. We need more great schools that meet the needs of all children. Schools that secure strong culture and great teaching to build great humans and bestow the very best curriculum, for our children in these times. Trusts need to work together to develop system leadership and purposeful collaboration that accelerates our impact on the everyday experience of every child. So that together we realise and enhance the collective Trust Dividend on children and society. We should seek to secure greater attainment mobility, to close gaps for those presently disadvantaged, and meet the needs of those with SEND.

    “There should be a national strategy to close the attainment gaps that have opened since the pandemic. Addressing these gaps should be a national priority, with a long-term plan in place, based on evidence.” (Sutton Trust)

    7. We need to urgently address the attendance crisis in this country. Seeking to tackle the entrenched challenges of our time, to strengthen our narrative around the importance of education and build back the social contract. Improving attendance is urgent; the damage and implications for this generation will play out across society and over decades.

    “Culture can change. And it is schools and school systems that have the power to change it.” (Lucy Crehan)

    8. We need to invest in ‘place’, work in strong partnerships and fulfil our civic responsibilities. We need Trusts and schools to collaborate and develop civic leadership to take greater stewardship for the places that we educate. Without these collaborative structures in place, we will not create the architecture of opportunity and the multi-agency working required to serve the communities where children grow up.

    “Civic leadership is about the protection and promotion of public values and addressing issues of place …creat(ing) the conditions for collective impact by addressing complex issues affecting children … that require different actors to work together.” (Leora Cruddas)

    9. We need to invest in wider services, and find ways to effectively work in closer partnerships with others, including social care that sit in and around schools – renewing and reinforcing the broken contract, as an expression of care and duty. Taking greater opportunity to understand and meet the needs of all children and adults. Funding and supporting schools to realise their civic duty, with enough resource and expertise to meet demand and fulfil our duty of care.

    10. We need to be clear on where the boundaries of the social contract sit between schools and society.  This clarity is required to understand where responsibilities sit and to reduce the flow of societal issues into schools. We need to either rebuild the agencies, services and expertise in our communities or significantly invest in schools as community hubs to meet the needs of society.

    Through joint enterprise and shared responsibility we can build a society and an education system that renews the social contract for the common good and create an architecture of opportunity so that more are invited to dance.

    “It is a matter of shared purpose and sustained application.” (Peter Hennessy)

    Dan Nicholls | July 2023

    Connected collaboration and deliberate altruism… growing great organisations and systems

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    Connected collaboration and deliberate altruism… how great organisations grow and coherent education systems improve…

    del alt 3

    slide-5-638It is probably true that…for organisations to excel and become great the internal climate needs to support individuals to connect, collaborate and be deliberately altruistic. These indispensable individuals (mavericks, superheroes, connectors, change agents, linchpins, Freds etc.) draw maps, bring Art to work and accelerate organisations toward greatness.

    slide-2-638

    It is also probably true that this scales to a system leadership level such that great systems grow where deliberate altruism within collaborative networks/multi academy trusts enable clusters of schools to be remarkable; to bring Art to education – lifting-up communities.

    Which begs the question: How do we enable change leaders and linchpins across the system (within academies and across clusters of Academies) to connect, collaborate and be deliberately altruistic to deliver world class education?

    Perhaps Seth Godin expresses it best: “What happens when you build an organisation (or system) that is flat and open? what happens when you expect a lot and trust the people you work with?” …and what if we create the climate/platform for connection, collaboration and deliberate altruism? … maybe then system leadership has a chance to raise the bar and make education remarkable.

    “(when) Schools pull together and share their best ideas, while simultaneously employing peer pressure to achieve more for the sake of all students (and the whole community).” (Hargreaves et al. 2014)

    What if there are superheroes in our midsts?… What if we set them free to bring Art to work, to be remarkable, to be heroes who seek connection, who collaborate, who are deliberate, innovative and who altruistically spread ideas that work, because they are close to the action and they are infectious with enthusiasm. Tumblr_mnh27a7WA31rir6lho1_1280 Who are the superheroes?… What if we had more Freds in organisations and across systems? The story goes that Fred was the postman of Mark Sanborn. Fred cared; he cared a lot about providing a service – he did not have to, but he did – he went beyond the call of duty to add real value. Not because he had to, because he wanted to…he was extraordinary and he made Mark Sanborn consider the Fred factor; for which he identifies four principles…

    1. Everyone makes a difference…do we exploit opportunities to make a difference?
    2. Everything is built on relationships…do we always invest in relationship building?
    3. You must continually create value for others…do we lift others up & create value?
    4. You can reinvent yourself regularly…do we take a fresh look and reinvent ourselves?

    How many Freds do you know? Organisations that have Freds, add value and are likely to thrive. It is for leaders to create an oasis of Freds within their organisation – and even better if they inspire others to take charge…

    “Leaders are only truly in charge when they inspire others to take charge.” (Simon Sinek, 2012)

    What if we had more linchpins in organisations and across the system? Those that say…Linchpin_TTb What if we actively recognised, grew and recruited linchpins, These are positive deviants, who engage in “positive deviant practices.” (Heaths) Seth Godin in his Tribes and Linchpin books identifies that these individuals bring Art to work, are creative and are linchpins that link and connect widely. Gladwell would describe them as Connectors. (Tipping Point). 499b343267ee2a7181a9913c4f593c48 What if we allow linchpins to bring Art to work and drive improvement from within? What if we also devolve and push decision making and innovation closer to the action (David Marquet), so that Linchpins and connectors influence others, lead change and release potential to secure improvement? Maybe then change and improvement will have greater stickability, be more effective and more consistently delivered. It is exactly these individuals who “Don’t settle” (Steve Jobs) and consistently reflect and innovate deliberately around the few things that matter. See: Strategic Leadership | fanatical discipline and deliberate delivery. Jobs

    What if we enabled and created a platform for these change agents, innovators, linchpins and Freds to do their work…to be given the time and space to energise and accelerate improvement where it matters … near to the action.

    “The role of the leader is to enable, facilitate, and cause peers to interact in a focused manner…but still only a minority of systems employ the power of collective capacity.” (Fullan, 2010)

    What if leadership within an organisation and across the system created a climate for individuals to thrive, to lead…what if it offered discretion to be creative and innovative? And what if it was less about the leaders at the top and more about enabling and freeing linchpins and Freds to go about making remarkable things happen?

    “There are conditions under which people thrive and conditions under which people do not. The culture of an (Academy) is essential…it is organic. If the conditions are right – you give people a different sense of possibilities, a new set of expectations and offer discretion to be creative and innovative…things spring to life…real leaders know that.” Ken Robinson 

    And What if leaders sought not to command and control, but to create a climate of possibility that enabled people to rise up, influence and do remarkable things?

    “The real role of leadership in education…is not and should not be command and control the real role of leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility…people will rise to it and do things that you did not anticipate and could not have expected.” (Ken Robinson) 

    Quotation-Seth-Godin-giving-leadership-work-ideas-people-Meetville-Quotes-228804 What if we developed tribes…

    “…groups of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group only needs two things to become a tribe: a shared interest (vision) and a way to connect and communicate.” (Seth Godin)

    After all, given freedom we should trust that… f163eaa3b112c76e1f850c9a4ba57189

    What if the mode of operation was deliberate altruism. As Adam Grant considers, there are givers, matchers and takers. The takers hold what they have, steal ideas and focus on self-interest. The matchers only give if they receive something of equal value. The givers who give strategically/deliberately, make things happen, they gain far more and they contribute to improvement. We all know takers, matchers and givers. It is interesting that whilst this works on an individual level it is also true at an Academy level. Where Academies give they make a contribution to the system…everyone benefits…in fact more comes back… a-few-quotes-from-its-not-how-good-you-areits-how-good-you-want-to-be-3-728

    “There is a crucial difference between the wisdom of openness and the folly of unguarded innocence. (Givers can be the most and the least successful)” (Hargreaves and (Grant))

    What if every organisation created the space and supported connected collaboration for individuals to bring art and what if system leaders understood the power of networks…John Kotter provides an excellent diagram of how a great organisation maintains a hierarchical structure with all the necessary line management and accountability whilst enabling connected networks to exploit the linchpins and Freds in the organisation to connect and enabling the organisation to be agile and innovative. If we place a number of hierarchies (academies) around a central network, a network that connected linchpins and Freds across the system, we have the model that connects. If this connection and collaboration is built on deliberate altruism we have the basis for enhancing system leadership and a chance to reshape education. Slide1

    Uplifting leadership entails engaging a talented team that values risk and creativity, acknowledges and tolerates honest mistakes, and has members that participate and “play” in interchangeable roles. They inspire each other as leadership emerges throughout the group.” (Hargreaves, 2014)

    What if organisations/academies deeply connected and collaborated across networks/clusters of schools and altruistically shared everything such that there was a wide responsibility for system improvement? What if all Principals/Headteachers were system leaders or change agents?

    “If as a principal you go it alone, you can only go so far…although it is possible to become a great school despite the system you are in, it is not possible to stay effective if the system is not cultivating greatness in all of its schools…the system matters a great deal.’ (Fullan, 2014)

    The best system leaders look out to improve within whilst contributing to the wider system. What if we did not see local schools as competitors? what if there was a greater recognition that the success of other schools increases system success and this is better for everyone? Hargreaves et al.(2014) identifies three powerful combinations of collaboration and competition:

    • Co-opetition: the alliance of opponents achieve greater value together than they can achieve alone.
    • Uplifting federations: that include competitors increase social value for the wider community as well as for each individual organisation.
    • Being on the collaborative edge: enhances motivational value; pushing up performance in the comradely quest to keep innovating and outdo others – in a way that moves everyone up to a higher level.

    “There are many strategic benefits…from aligning joint effort, and for combining collective investment for competitive gain. Uplifting leaders know that these (collaboration and competition) are the yin and yang of enduring success.” (Hargreaves, 2014)

    Maybe then…Academies will develop greater opportunities and platforms to support individuals to be linchpins, connectors, Freds and change agents. Maybe where the connection and collaboration of these individuals is deep and deliberate altruism dominates, great ideas and approaches will grow from within the organisation.

    and Maybe this will…push decision making, innovation, research, development and delivery to the people closest to the action. Perhaps this greater ownership and drive increases consistency and take-up and importantly is better attuned to the needs of students and the Academy. Perhaps this will also allow Academies to be agile enough to stay on the cutting edge … ever closer to creating remarkable approaches that deliver unusual outcomes for students and families.

    …and Maybe if we take these ideas and apply them at an Academy level and to Principals as system (uplifting) leaders across networks of schools and multi academy trusts we could transform education. Creating deep connections and collaboration based on deliberate altruism would better allow clusters, trusts and networks to lift up communities and regions….making education remarkable.

    Perhaps it is at this level that we require our system leaders (our uplifting leaders) to be superheroes, Freds, connectors and linchpins to take on the responsibility for taking a deliberately altruistic approach to collaboration, creating a remarkable education system…that has a wide and deep impact on communities/regions.

    …and perhaps there should be greater focus and measure of these qualities and approaches …such approaches are poorly incentivised at present…and yet it offers a remarkable opportunity to grasp and shape education.

    Maybe then we will have a coherent system and shift into the top right quadrant where connected collaboration and deliberate altruism dominates… del alt 3 February 2015 | @DrDanNicholls https://twitter.com/DrDanNicholls