October 15, 2021 | A Virtual Event 

for a New (and constantly changing) Normal

After 18 months of free-falling when solid ground seemed forever away... or even worse, a big ugly crash landing...we find ourselves wondering whether to look up or down! The complexities and demands of our jobs as independent school leaders are expanding exponentially and the polarization of our communities continues to grow to unprecedented levels. Dilemmas abound and we are exhausted... but also passionate, hopeful, and ever-resilient. As the new school year unfolds, we invite you to join Simon Rodberg from American University, colleagues from Folio Collaborative, and other "parachute packers" for a day filled with resources, strategies, new research, and tools to help you prepare yourself and your team for bluer skies and smoother landings in 2021-2022!

Agenda: 

Making a path through tough dilemmas is key to school leaders’ jobs. How can we find that path when what we did in the past no longer seems sufficient? This session will synthesize the latest research in cognitive science and decision-making into an easy-to-use process for the hardest moments of leadership. You’ll locate trade-offs, identify small steps and big ideas worth piloting, and anticipate what to do when you go wrong. Alongside colleagues known and new, you’ll work through the puzzles you face, and you’ll leave with answers, better understanding of your values, and steps to use for a successful future.

Essential Questions:
What cognitive biases lead decision-makers down the wrong path?
How can leaders use a reflective process to overcome challenges to thoughtful leadership?
How can decision points be moments for effective team-building?
When must we accept realistic trade-offs, and when can we innovate?

11:30am         Break

Among its many other impacts, the pandemic has forced school leaders, for better or worse, to confront and re-evaluate many of the systems we use in schools. Faculty/staff growth and evaluation systems sit near the top of many leaders’ lists of “things we need to redesign or tweak.” The good news is that attention to a core set of key principles -- based on Folio’s work supporting hundreds of schools for almost a decade -- can yield much more effective systems and approaches than what many schools currently have in place. Whether or not you use Folio at your school, and whether you’re looking to tweak or redesign, these core principles can help. Join us to think about how to create professional growth and evaluation systems that take a brain-based approach to adult learning, foster cultures of growth-orientation and collaboration, and reallocate time and other resources to where they have the greatest impact: moving all faculty/staff towards excellence and elevating the quality of instruction and student experience.

Guiding Questions:

What big ideas and best practices sit at the core of effective approaches to faculty/staff growth, evaluation, and feedback?
What might meaningful cultural change look like when it comes to faculty/staff growth and evaluation?
How might we design systems that would align our growth and evaluation approach to what really matters and what we really value?
What can we take back to our schools to make small impacts in the short term and begin planning for larger changes down the road?

 3:45pm          Adjourn

Registration

Speaker Bio