On the Road: The L+D Conference Chronicles

When people ask me about L+D, I tell them that we are an organization committed to building the capacity of leaders at all levels. Our focus on helping leaders become more reflective, more optimistic about the future, and to concentrate on solving human needs resonates when we share it with the communities we serve. This past week was a busy one for the team at Leadership+Design. It was an opportunity for us as an organization to practice all three of the ideas that are central to our mission as a collective and nonprofit organization. We started in San Diego at The Heads Network annual conference and concluded the week at the NAIS annual conference, managing to throw a birthday bash in St. Louis at The City Museum to celebrate our 10th year as a collective. Reflecting on the highlights of what we learned, shared, and experienced together, a few key ideas come into focus.

The Power of Gathering Together

Learning takes on different forms and shapes, depending on the kind of learning you are trying to achieve. In the 30-plus years I have worked in and with schools, the power of gathering together creates a unique experience that can’t be replicated in a virtual space. While it is easy to assemble a group and do good work in a Zoom meeting, it can’t replace the intimacy and relationships that are created and strengthened by coming together in a community. The Heads Network has figured out how to bring together a small group of school leaders from diverse schools and from around the country for a few days of deep learning and community building. As one participant shared, the ability to have conversations and connect with colleagues is amplified by finding time to think about emerging themes and trends, as well as being together in a spirit of collaboration and renewal. This year, the focus of the annual conference was on leadership as a professional practice, and we explored how we, as leaders, can lead more authentically in a world where the stakes for authenticity seem higher than ever before.

It was powerful to hear leaders at various stages in their careers work through this idea of being fully authentic in their roles as heads of schools and struggle with the challenges of cancel culture, the risk of criticism, and being misunderstood. I remember feeling conflicted as a head of school when I was away from my campus, yet it was clear that we need time like this to gather together to share, reflect, and learn from each other. We explored questions like, "What does authenticity mean to you?" and "Can you identify a moment in your photo library where you felt fully and authentically yourself?" These initiated conversations that gave everyone at the conference an opportunity to explore the desire to be more fully authentic in our roles as leaders while, at the same time, acknowledging and expressing our concerns, anxieties, and realities around authentic leadership against the backdrop of today's challenging educational landscape. Everyone was asked to reflect and think about the movements they are leading, the feedback they are getting, the stories they are telling, and the rituals they are changing. These prompts were a powerful entry point into exploring authentic leadership and garnered some powerful insights from the group.

Creating Organizational Cultures that Thrive

Carla, Crystal, Ryan, and I jumped on a plane and headed to St. Louis on Tuesday to meet up with the rest of the L+D team for the NAIS annual conference. This year, NAIS chose "Thrive 2024" as the conference theme. As Debra Wilson, President of NAIS, shared in her opening remarks, NAIS chose this theme for this year's conference because it is clear that we need to pause and think about how we create the conditions for all educators and leaders to thrive in the work of our schools. 

Our contribution to the conference included part of our team, partners Shu Shu Costa and Greg Bamford, and Leader in Residence, Chandani Patel, facilitating a 3-hour pre-conference workshop on "Seeing School Culture, Shaping School Culture: A Design-Thinking Experience." With over 30 attendees, the session was a hands-on design-thinking experience for educators who want to see culture clearly and shift it in positive ways. They explored how to observe the behaviors, rituals, and artifacts that reflect deeper values, assumptions, and hierarchies. Mapped current cultures—and articulated an aspiration for the future. The session was hands-on, interactive, and left participants with a prototype they could take back to their schools.

Taking Time to Celebrate

On Thursday evening, we gathered at the City Museum in St. Louis, an artist-built playground full of weirdly wonderful spaces to explore. As an artist myself, I was super excited to explore this unique space. City Museum was the brainchild of internationally acclaimed and classically trained sculptors Bob and Gail Cassilly. The Cassillys and their longtime crew of artisans built the museum using all the weird and wonderful things that cities leave behind. Having grown up in a city and living in Boston now, this magical wonderland of old objects and new stories was the perfect backdrop to celebrate 10 years of Leadership+Design. The entire space is devoted to curiosity and play, two ideas we strongly and deeply believe in at L+D. Our approach to this event was like everything else we do, to create memorable experiences and make lasting connections that foster life-long relationships. Our many friends who joined us commented on how fitting the location was for an L+D event. The museum was open for L+D only and the best part was hearing everyone make their way through the underground cave system and climbing up to the five story slide that takes your breath away. Those who were able to join us experienced interactive stations centered around our core values of people, collaboration, transformation, action and joy. It was amazing to hear and share stories about how L+D has been central to the work of so many schools over the ten years we have been in existence. Seeing friends and colleagues from around the country and coming together for a brief time to be together in community was a wonderful way to end the week.