What would learning tourism look like?

Imagine if visitors emerged from the airport to be greeted to the ‘Christchurch campus.’ They might come to jump start their learning. They may have just finished an online degree and just want to have a place to argue about their ideas. Christchurch could be transformed into a place of scholarship and learning, passion and delight – a place where tourists would come to collaborate, engage and immerse themselves in thinking.

In the past, businesses have focused on ‘training’, appointing training managers to develop, induct, supervise and manage employees. This focus is disappearing, to be replaced with the concept of a learning organisation, a knowledge economy and life long learning.

We have the opportunity to attract people who understand the complex nature of the world and want to explore learning in more depth: “They need to learn to cope with the unexpected – and Christchurch is the perfect place.” People could come to learn strategies for coping with change, to explore innovation and to use information communication technologies to stretch their thinking.

Stephen Heppell quotes England as having 2.2 million jobs that are online. One in seven are working from home. In Christchurch, the number working from home, or connecting online, has increased too. The Christchurch Campus could be the heart of online learning and of online working. With ultra fast broad band focused on learning principles we could provide worldwide expertise in the best models of home hubbing, hot desking and digital collaboration. As new spaces are designed we could become world leaders in flexible design for learning organisations.

What would it take?

For Christchurch to be a world leader in learning it would require leaders across the city and beyond to do things from a coherent systems perspective, following agreed principles of learning: learner-focused, future focused, system coherent and sustainable. It would require educators to collaborate for a greater good and to explore new ways of working across networks. “You won’t do it by rebuilding education in the old way.”

Building on Stephen’s ideas, I think there are some opportunities we should consider:

1. Set up a Young Learner’s Commission. Get a group of young learners to look around the works and intereview people who are already doing great things in learning. This group would be representative of all student groups and develop an initial structure of student researchers who would listen to the voices of their peers. Learning designed by young learners, for young learners, with input from experts.
2. Run a series of educational events, starting with a conference, forum or TEDx for ideas to be explored and developed.
3. Establish an independent learning taskforce to work with the Ministry of Education, Christchurch City Council, CERA and government to develop ideas with all stakeholders. Resource this and ensure that all city developments are made with learning in mind.
4. The Ministry of Education should set up an innovation learning unit that supports schools to try new ideas and make it easy for them to explore ways of working with each other for the benefit of all students. This should be trialled in Christchurch as a demonstration hub.

We could make a start on this before the end of the year. It will take leadership and commitment – I think it is worth it.

“…and in doing so you could rebuild your city, rebuild your future, rebuild your economy and rebuild the excitement and enthusiasm for learning. It’s a no brainer really.”

My latest thinking revolves around the impact that the Christchurch earthquakes have had on our local education system. What if we took looked at this as an opportunity to grow a new vision for education in Christchurch? What are the possibilities? How can we take the best of what we already have and create something that is world class, and considers the needs of all students?

Team work is not enough. We must question and challenge our own thinking and that of others. When ‘group think’ occurs there will be no forward momentum – “We’re okay as we are! In fact we’re really good so why change?” While organisational coherence is necessary, so is creative tension and challenge. “Challenge is the crucible for greatness” – Kouzes & Posner.
Over-consultation stymies creation. I’m a fan of involving people to gain deep commitment, and of listening to people’s needs. At the same time I worry that ideas generated from consultation sometimes focus only on the past and present; without building in ways to explore possibilities and to ask “What if…?”. There is the famous quote from Henry Ford “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” If we spend too much time in consultation we slow things down, reduce clarity and conform to the average.
Courage is needed. We live in times where we are pulled back to standards, quality assurance and risk aversiveness. Moving beyond this takes leaders who are strong in their beliefs about learning, have a dream of what could be and can intelligently advocate their position. Courageous leadership is not about the position we hold in the organisation and doesn’t make excuses that those ‘above’ require conformity. “The greater the darkness, the more brightly the candle glows.”
Learning will happen if we get out of the way. Most schools of today are over-structured and over controlled. What would happen if educators stepped back and let students do more for themselves? Allow them to be expert learners and teach the adults – it’s a reciprocal arrangement that acknowledges the expert knowledge of the teacher. It also acknowledges that students can create their own learning when they engage, collaborate and choose.

I was reflecting on this as I watched one of the latest TEDTalks from Sugata Mitra, on The Child-driven Education. His work in putting computers into holes in the walls of buildings in Indian villages has had profound results. His latest work goes well beyond this. He has come to understand that children will learn to do what they want to learn to do. Sugata talks about the way in which the learning happened without intervention from the outside.   When the students asked him “How do we do that?” his answer was ” I don’t know that actually…” and he left them to it. They worked together to move their learning forward.

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

While I’m not yet convinced of the depth of the learning shown in the TEDTalk what I am sure of is that a new idea was tried and has had amazing results. Sugata Mitra didn’t conform to the tried and true. He had an idea and went with it. If we are aiming for future focussed schools perhaps one of the key understandings is to look outside the current realities and explore the possibilities, generate some creative tension and take a giant leap.

Heifetz, Grashow and  Linsky (2009) describe adaptive leadership as the practice of mobilising people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. I think this is the way to go. Adaptive leadership is needed for the growth of individuals and organisations. Perhaps, to avoid low expectations, future leadership involves:

• looking for those things that should be preserved and having courage to abandon the expendable;
• accepting that conflict is a necessary part of the organisation and can be productive;
• creating a culture of courageous conversations;
• acknowledging the importance of collaboration, networks and global connections; and
• building the capabilities of others to lead in adaptive ways.

This quote from Egon Zehnder (2000) reminds us that future leaders will need to be flexible, future focused and capable of thinking in new ways. “Stability is a liability, not an asset in today’s world. Each new view of the horizon is a glance through a different turn of the kaleidoscope.”

I’m going to leave the survey open for a few more days so take a few minutes to contribute here. And join the conversation about what the biggest challenge for future leaders will be. Do you agree that it is low expectations and if so what do you interpret this to mean?

The greatest lesson Greg learnt was to “share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects (p.150).” This may have seemed more time consuming to start with but in the long run it produced more sustainable results. Too often leaders are focused on doing things rather than creating connections. They become driven by improving the external environment of their organisations without considering the foundational relationships that underpin the organisation’s success.

In their work based in Chicago schools, researchers Bryk and Schneider came to the conclusion that relational trust was foundational for school improvement. They suggested four vital signs for identifying and assessing trust:

• Respect – genuinely talking and listening to each other in ways that acknowledge and accept the views, ideas and beliefs of others.
• Competence – the ability and willingness to fulfill responsibilities and believe others to be competent.
• Personal regard – caring for each other personally and professionally. Going that extra mile.
• Integrity – keeping ones word. Putting the needs of children first, even when tough decisions need to be made.

These points were all exhibited by Greg Mortenson. He did not try to impose his views on those he was working with and he was prepared to do what was needed, at times with great personal sacrifice. The building of trust allowed him to work in areas that few could access and to provide education to many.

Future leadership is very much about collaboration, building professional learning networks and growing capabilities in others. It builds on trust and integrity and comes from the heart as well as the head. Future leadership requires leaders who listen and who constantly reflect on their own behaviour.