300 newsletters later... a reflection from Ewan on what it means to write every week. You can subscribe to The Provocation by email so you get it before anyone else, and never miss an edition. Ideas to inspire, every Monday at 7am. https://lnkd.in/eaYPyCjz
Writing is thinking. Writing 300 of our Provocation newsletters has been the most powerful culture-building work in our team (you can subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/e3kUZxuj) When people talk about culture-building, the “Netflix Reference Guide on our Freedom and Responsibility Culture” is treated as a go-to. I don’t buy it. Because, on page two, is a cultural note that sours the whole: “Freedom and Responsibility Applies to our Salaried Employees. “Our hourly employees are important, but have more structured job roles.” Gah. What a let-down. “You matter, but your voice matters less.” The people in the organisation who already have the fewest privileges and pay get the least sway, too. Culture isn’t something developed only by people with a particular code on their payslip. Culture isn’t something you write down in a 128-page document, a weighty tome to be thrown down the stairwell from the executive suite to the plebs. Culture comes from your people. It oozes out of them every day. It’s just that most of that culture seeps away through the cracks of management. It takes leaders, not managers, to capture it and amplify it. If you’re going to develop culture, everyone needs to know their voice can contribute to the whole (even if it needs a little edit now and then). So that’s why everyone in our team writes, every week, and everyone contributes at some point to The Provocation. Writing is thinking. So we see each other’s thinking. You might not want everyone to write your school newsletter, but there are other ways to get their voice on paper. Start every boring admin meeting with an inspirational story of how someone saw your team’s purpose lived out vividly that week. A verbal provocation, if you will. Write a manifesto. For your team. For the grade level. For the class. Share stories of what the school means and rewrite your values. Change your mission statement. Nothing is too sacred when it comes to being the best community you can be, for today. But whatever you do, write it down together, regularly. Writing is thinking. I’m determined to show at least 100 more aspiring and current middle leaders how to move from management to leadership. And writing a little every day is a large part of it. Our Leading from the Middle course has already helped 700 of them gain demonstrably more confidence in initiating, collaborating around and landing projects in their schools. We open the doors to 2025’s cohort now: you can get your places before they run out. In every one of the live sessions, and in the drop-ins one-on-one, we ask people to gain clarity by writing, there and then. You create manifestos. You understand your values, and how you might sometimes clash with others’ if you’re not careful about how you frame them. You learn how to use words that get people excited and behind your ideas. Join us: https://lnkd.in/dB39MaM
