Reflecting on Education
March has been a month that has offered a lot on which to reflect. It has been a time in which I have enjoyed conversations with a number of leaders for my podcast, Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend, workshops, various invitations to speak and co-host, and my work with Lucy Kidd on our Collaboration Equation™.
Throughout all of these experiences, I have made time to reflect on the variety of things ongoing in my life: my goal of having daily microadventures, the invitations that I found the curiosity and courage to accept, and the insights and knowledge brought to me in conversation with my podcast guests. In these moments, conversations, and interactions, I found that the topic of education kept arising and it, therefore, started to become a focus of my reflections.
I believe that the power of education cannot be underestimated or understated; it is one of the most important things to have but it is something to which not everyone in the world has access. Education can provide the tools that help nurture rational thinking, problem solving, and diversification of opinions and perspectives. And yet, it is still not an option for so many - it is a privilege to have one.
But how does the education obtained and learned in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood impact life as people grow older? How do I use the education that I was fortunate enough to receive in the everyday? And what has my education early in life allowed me to have later, in my life and my career?
What Access to Education Can Provide
I believe that one of the most important aspects of education is that it can help nurture the reflective thought process; it supplies the tools that allow a revisiting and an analysing of things that we have experienced and learned in the past. These help to inform our actions in the present and mold our view of the future. It is a skill that is more easy to attain if education can be easily accessed. There are three simple things that I keep in mind when reflecting on education:
It is not offered to everyone
It is often taken for granted by those who have received it
It is the job of leaders to create access to education for others
But what does education give to those who have it?
Creating a World of Opportunities
Recently, I have had the privilege of being in conversation with a number of people who hold education in very high regard, and credit their access to it with the lives they have been able to carve out for themselves today. Each one of these people brought their own experiences, surrounding education and learning, and was generous enough to share the impact that their educational journeys have had on their lives, careers, and passions.
The episode of my podcast that aired the first week of March features John Edwards, Director General, Regions Group of the Department for Education, in which he shares his path through education, not as a learner but as an educator. In this conversation, he speaks about the importance of doing leadership, and not worrying about or focusing on what leadership should look like - it is more about the actions and behaviours that you exhibit, rather than going through the motions or trying to mimic how you think leadership should look. Leadership can look different for everyone, and strong leadership is about reflecting upon your own knowledge, thoughts, opinions, and actions to inform how you can then effectively guide and lead others so that they can thrive.
I was also joined in conversation by Julian Roberts who is a coach to executive teams and their leaders and creator and host of the podcast Helping Organisations Thrive, who brought a slightly different approach to speaking about the impact of learning. His insights into learning, illustrates that education can refer, not just, to formal schooling in childhood and adolescence, but it is also something that can be a lifelong and ongoing journey. He speaks about the importance of reflection in creating ‘the learning loop’ that helps us build resilience, be more agile, and adapt to new and changing environments, circumstances, and challenges, all of which help to create and to share strong leadership.
Helping to Create a More Rewarding World
On the back of the opportunities created by the access to education and the reflective processes that are provided through educational learning, are chances to create for oneself and others more diverse paths to leadership; it is not just about receiving an education and using it to better one’s own life, but also about how we share our knowledge with others, that makes education truly worthwhile and powerful.
Each and every person has their own slightly unique way of learning, engaging with information and other people, communicating things that they have learned, and ways of thinking. It makes the world a wonderful, varied, and more interesting place. However, as so many simply do not have access to learning and education, I believe that it is the responsibility of those who have had the benefit of education to help boost up others. It is one of the key aspects of strong leadership, the ability to bring up those who are perhaps behind, to guide those who might require it, and to help provide access to things that may be inaccessible. Good leadership is not about giving commands and directions, but rather helping support, nurture, and care for others.
Photo by: Mike Will
My Own Path Through Education
I am naturally curious, I love learning about new things, reading and exploring ideas with others but my own experience of early education was not an easy one; my parents had high expectations of me. They truly believed that education would open up doors, and opportunities so there was a lot of pressure on me ‘to do well at school’. It was only after I left school and went onto further education, studying a BA in Communications Studies and a Diploma in Humanistic Psychology, that I really began to enjoy learning and ‘do well’.
After completing my degree, I was invited to participate in a weekend workshop led by John Heron. It was completely new - everyone was sitting on cushions in a circle on the floor. Up until then learning for me had, for the most part, been sitting in rows, still and quiet. This workshop was different in every way, and for the first time, I felt really safe in a group context. This feeling of psychological safety enabled me to speak up, sharing my thoughts and feelings, and while listening to others, I discovered two things:
I was not on my own
I was listened to and felt seen, heard, and understood
This second one is something that I have sought to create for those around me ever since. The weekend workshop with John was one of self-reflection, increasing my confidence through self-awareness and conversations with others. I knew I had found my purpose, to create an environment in which people felt safe to listen to others, to speak with others, to reflect and to have open and honest conversations.
I was keen to develop my knowledge, skills and experience of working with groups and completed a Diploma in Humanistic Psychology, and studied various other methods of working with people in groups and teams. Drawn to the world of business, I chose to do a Masters in Management Learning, mainly because of the way in which the course material was taught; it was a mix of reading, writing, and small group discussions. We also applied our learning and practice to the larger group, testing out theories through our own experience of being an organisation, a community of learners and practitioners.
From this pathway through education, I have been able to create spaces, through my website, my coaching, my podcast, and the business I share with my dear friend Lucy Kidd called Collaboration Equation™, in which I can help others identify, understand, and practice their own, individual leadership skills. I am truly grateful for the education that has allowed me to carve out for myself this life and career, for which I have so much passion.
