Transformation Through Audacity

What role does audacity play in transformation?

Lisa

Thompson

Ben

We have been wondering about how to foster Community Care not just within our organizations but bridging the gap with our community - particularly the elements of our community whose values are at odds with our own.

We are wondering if the time we find ourselves in requires courageous action, requires action that might be termed 'audacious' but may lead to transformation. If so, what would this look like? Is this an experiment we might actually want to try?

The personal computer, this tool in our hands that allows us to communicate, learn and create in ways unimaginable a few decades ago, was largely due one man's Audacious Aspiration.

In the 1970's Alan Kay led the Computer Learning Group at Xerox's research institute, PARC. He asked a simple question: “How would we change computing to make it about learning?”

At a time when computers filled rooms and were handled by an elite group of scientists (all white men - just say'n) for scientific calculations, he imagined something called a 'Dynabook' that a child could hold in their hands. He then challenged his team to imagine the experience of creating on this imagined computer, imagination that led us to our modern graphic interface – to reimagine on the Blue Plane.

It was Steve Jobs who brought Kay's vision to the market – the executives at Xerox were stuck in an old mindset, one focused on printer technology. They lost an opportunity to change the world – that was to be done by someone who was not burdened with the weight of an old reality.

But Jobs understood the potential for a new creative mindset and was committed to finding new ways to use the power of computers to unleash creative potential in users.

Let us not forget that moment when this vision was revealed in a brilliant Super Bowl ad that was aired only one time but changed forever how we thought about computers.

There are lessons here. Audacity is required for us to escape from an existing Cognitive Horizon and to create a new reality. There are times when we must recreate our reality – this is one of them.

Audacity. Bold. Brave. Courageous. Fearless. Daring.

This is the time to be all those things. Yet, I am still afraid. I am afraid to fail. I am afraid to make mistakes and fall on my face. I am afraid my mistakes won't be forgiven or they will be judged and my "value" will diminish.

There is reservation in my actions, even though I know the right course to take. I just want to do it right. Sometimes you don't get a second chance and I am worried that this may be the case.

This dialog in my head makes me wonder how many of our students experience this same conversation, especially females, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and other oppressed populations? I don't want them to continue this internal conversation for as long as I have been engaging in it. This is why I need to do what I know is the right work. Change the dialog - help them see themselves in a different way - unleash the Creative Potential.

This also needs to happen for our community at large and for our colleagues. This week has provided me a snapshot of the harm we are doing to so many. We really need to work on changing our industry, and we can start here, with each other and with our students.

It will first start with me.

I have been listening to a lot of Brené Brown lately. It's giving me the fuel to step into courageous/daring leadership. I think the thing about her framework is that it is explicitly about connection with others. She says that "leadership requires having a heart big enough to hold everyone you're leading". That leaders are vulnerable all day every day. That's really different from other leadership approaches - like commanding respect for example.

I am wondering if part of what is required to reach out into our community is an audacity of heart. Can we have hearts big enough to also hold our community?

Are our hearts big enough to hold each other?

We each carry with us a Narrative Identity, one that often limits who we are and who we might become. These are the little voices that we listen to that sows doubt – that self-doubt that imprisons us.

This narrative is often unrecognized, it is like the water in which a fish swims. The fish has never known anything but the water, so how is it to understand it?

We want each student to be able to realize their creative potential where a genius manifests through an authentic voice. We want them to be empowered to become that who they can be. But to do that, we, the adults in their lives, need to be liberated from our own debilitating doubts so that we might model for them the courage to walk into new wonders.

Last week Jess received a set of Learning Capacity assessments from Zoe as part of the experiment that we are doing with Griffin to visualize leading indicators of learning success (example here ). Zoe misunderstood the original guidance from Jess and did the assessment for herself, rather than her students. Once she was corrected, she went back and completed assessments of each student.

When Jess and I reviewed Zoe's own self assessment, we found this narrative identity very telling, marking herself more limited in capacity than she was assessing some of her students. That got us to wonder how powerful it might be to do this assessment exercise with all of her teaching staff. Jess is now walking into that wonder, recognizing how critical it is that these nine attributes are recognized and illuminated for all learners in her school, especially her teachers.

How about we do an experiment, Lisa? You do a self-assessment and Ben and I will do one for you. We will then sit together and explore the difference between how you see yourself ('realized potential') and how we see you ('recognized potential'). This discussion might empower you to more courageously walk into your 'emergent potential'.

Held in the heart.

Wow. This is calling for some serious vulnerability and courage. It makes me nervous. And excited! Can we push into this? Can we be open enough with each other? Both of those questions are a way of asking if we are able to be truly known.

It appears as though we have been working on our learning capacity together without, at least for my part, really knowing it. These indicators for learning capacity read like a list of our conversation topics. I wonder what the assessments would have looked like a year ago.

At the core of my experience in Dayton was a deep commitment that Jami and I made to each other to be truly known. Without this level of commitment, we could not have done the deep work there.

As an integral part of this process, we had to become mirrors to each other. I reflected back to her the greatness that I saw in her and she did the same for me.

Without this profound belief in each other, allowing us to reflect each other's potential, we could not have gotten through the dark days when we would feel lost in self-doubt – times when our hearts were crying out in pain.

And yes, there were many such days, but they were never at the same time. Together we kept crossing these chasms, more empowered, more authentic, and yes, more confident in our creative potential.

Our potential for greatness is often more clearly seen by others than by ourselves. It's through their eyes we must walk into it.

Okay, I am in. I trust you both very much and I feel safe being completely vulnerable. I have completed my self-assessment.

I wish this kind of trust and vulnerability could be experienced by everyone on our leadership team. We are so afraid, myself included, to put ourselves out there and trust that the others will support our personal growth without judgment.

Okay, Ben, your turn. Are you willing to follow Lisa into a courageous conversation about emergent potential? If Lisa can do it, so can you.

Lisa, Ben has already done a self-assessment as part of the DIG he is doing with his staff. When you have some time, can you do your assessment? We can then walk through these assessments together when we meet next week.

Just fork this page to your wiki: Lisa's Assessment of Ben

Here is where we explore Ben's self-assessment and Lisa's assessment, looking for surprise and the promise of emergent potential: Ben's Analysis

I fell a great deal of gratitude for the amount of time we spent talking about me when we discussed my emergent potential. I think the closeness we've forged through our explorations has allowed me to experience some radical growth right when I needed it. And I've never met Thompson in person. That's wild.

I wonder about how to keep this in front of me. Lisa has created a visual reminder of herself. I'm not sure what I need. And I wonder how to bring others to this. Is the meeting monthly during a pandemic the only way? I would hope not.

And I wonder about my need to "do something". On the one hand, I want to incorporate my learning in order to retain it. And I also have experienced the benefit of sitting with a new learning and waiting for the next step to emerge.

I have spent a lot of time talking about this experience, so I am not sure there is much to write about.

Giving and receiving feedback that is not deemed evaluative or that is not connected to something that I am "supposed to" or told to learn and then be measured for that learning, is extremely liberating.

It is as if I am finally able to be seen for who I am. I think that because I am not a scholar, I have always felt that I was less than. Somehow using this assessment tool has validated my sense of being.

I am sure there are others that would rather be evaluated with our historical approach of achievement. I am not one of them. This tool has allowed me to look at the parts of myself that I consider valuable and valued. These are the characteristics that allow me to be in relationship with others, to work with others, and to find soul-nourishing purpose in the world.

I feel like I am working towards becoming and belonging! Honestly bringing forth my authentic self. What a gift that is! Thank you my friends for this journey.

Next: Finding Voice