Hiya. I’m writing this very late in Auckland. Sorry it’s late coming to you!
It’s slightly odd to be writing at this time, because in Edinburgh this would normally be morning writing time. But it has been one of those full, generous, slightly ridiculous weeks where the suitcase is half-packed, the brain is still running, the weekend wasn’t (yet) had and the best thing to do would probably be to sleep.
Instead, I’ve been trying to pause.
That sounds simple. It really isn’t.
This week, we ran two open learning events in Australia and New Zealand.
In Melbourne, with Learning Environments Australasia Victoria, we brought together 70+ learning designers, architects, educators and school leaders around one question: Who owns the learning?
Not who owns the building or the masterplan for the campus. Not who owns the next iteration of the timetable. Not who owns or contributes to the strategy document. We wanted to know what everyone in that room wanted to achieve for learning, and the people who make it happen - learners, teachers, the broader community.
Having shown the power of asking better questions, and really listening to the answers, everyone realised that it’s incredibly hard for people to know what they want to achieve. It’s a complex idea to express simply.
So we listened to stories of great teaching. We asked what space makes possible, and what it makes harder. We looked at people, place and pedagogy as a system, not as separate conversations.
And afterwards, someone described it as: “One of the best educational events in pushing authentic future schooling forward.”
Lovely words. Dangerous, too.
Because the moment something goes well, the instinct is often to move on.
Next flight. Next workshop. Next school. Next problem.
Then in Auckland, with the Stonefields Trust, we ran a free session for educators and leaders on five conversations that create clarity. The premise was that most schools don’t lack ideas. They lack decisions.
Again, nothing shiny. No magic framework. No book to push. No “stand back while the expert tells you the future”.
Just good people doing the hard work of deciding what matters, where to focus, what to stop, who to involve, and how to make the change stick. Bloody hard work, and they loved it! Who knew that the pit is a fun place to be!
And that’s what I’m reflecting on tonight. Sometimes the work we take for granted is the work other people have been waiting for.
It’s not about being clever, or having some thinking that nobody else has thought of. I dare you to try either of those - it ends in tears. It was successful because it was all useful.
There’s a leadership lesson in this slightly late-night ramble. Reflection is not self-congratulation. It is sense-making. It helps us notice what worked. It helps us understand why it worked. It helps us decide what deserves repeating, refining or retiring.
So here’s a small invitation for the week ahead.
Before you race into the next thing, pause for ten minutes and ask:
What has worked well so far today? Why did it work? Who helped make it happen? What did we learn that we should not forget? What should we do more deliberately next time?
Success is easy to waste.
Pause long enough to learn from it.