The world is a scary and confusing place right now. Everything that we took for granted and everything that we regarded as constant has gone and it has been replaced by fear and uncertainty, everything is unknown. There is no sanctuary; this isn’t about individuals, it is about all of us experiencing this at the same time but in our own way and from our own perspective. I can’t help but think we are living in a unique period of time that will grace the pages of textbooks in the future and to be honest, I really wish we weren’t. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
When your identity is so linked to your job, when that is no longer there it forces you to pause and reflect; I am a teacher who isn’t teaching and that is uncharted territory. When a crisis like this causes a shift in your identity it is easy to lose sight of yourself (Maitlis & Sonenshein, 2010) and that is hard. Last week I knew how to do my job. I knew how to teach and I knew what the structure of my day would look like. I hadn’t really realised how automated I was in those routines and how hard I would find it if all that was taken away. I assumed it would be easy to create new routines and structures; I felt sure that I would be productive and that I would manage my time wisely. The reality is that without a timetable, I am flitting from job to job in an unsystematic way and it is hard. I am being bombarded with emails and the temptation to just sit and deal with them all day is high. Electronic marking takes way longer than I anticipated and my eyes can only take so much – thank goodness for my glasses! Trying to find concentration for any length of time is hard; my mind keeps wandering to the scary events of the world outside and that distracts me.
So, how to deal with this. I have to accept that normal has temporarily been suspended. That is step one. I have to accept that I am not going to be teaching in the usual way for a while. However, I am still a teacher and even though the interactions I am having with students are now virtual, they are still important, possibly more so than they were last week. Being in the same boat is a great leveller – the interactions take on more meaning, we are all isolated so reaching out and having contact in as normal a way as possible is so important right now. It will keep us connected. Step two established.
I have also realised that this is a time to step up as a leader. My colleagues are looking to me for structure and guidance as they also try to establish new norms. I have no definitive answers for any of this but I can create space to talk, share ideas and try to create order out of uncertainty. I have seen lots of examples of inspiring leadership since this all started. All of the leadership theories I have read about have suddenly become very real but it has further reinforced the point that theory doesn’t fit nicely and neatly into reality. Elements of theories work at different moments depending on context, need and circumstance. I haven’t seen a single leader start at point one of a theory and work their way through it to the final point; they don’t work like that. What I have seen, and what I have tried to emulate, is leadership that focuses on people, on doing the right thing, on tackling this wicked problem (Grint, 2010) in the best way possible whilst doing the least harm. I have seen leaders step up and try to create order out of the unknown, to reassure and to be a beacon of calm in the current situation. I know that both as a middle leader and a teacher, I have been trying to outwardly project calmness and reassurance whilst feeling overwhelmed and anxious on the inside; I am sure I’m not the only one feeling like this. Hats off to any school leader having to make the big decisions right now, they are awe inspiring.
I am fascinated by complexity theory and current times have brought that to the forefront of my mind. If we were experiencing a complicated system right now, we could remove any one part of it, replace it with another and all would continue as normal. But this isn’t complicated, it is complex and it is constantly evolving (Hawkins and James, 2017). Every time we change one element of the system, that has an impact on everything else; the key I think right now is to try to stop everything descending into chaos. The edge of complexity just prior to chaos is an amazingly creative space (Morrison, 2012) so, potentially, harnessing that could be incredibly powerful. I have just watched a colleague deliver a Year 12 lesson via Zoom – that wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t found ourselves in our current circumstances but it could change the way she teaches moving forwards. We are certainly being forced to swiftly upskill ourselves as teachers which could be a positive from all of this.
So, what is my point in all of this? Normal needs rethinking so for me, sensemaking has come into play; I cannot fall back on my defaults to make sense of this situation so I have to construct new meaning (Weick, 1995). But what I have realised is that it is okay to feel unsettled and uncertain right now. It is okay to have to create space to establish new norms. It is okay to work in a different way and it is okay to change the labels I give to things. I am still a teacher but for now being a leader will be the bigger part of my role. I can steer my Languages Faculty and I can engage in sensegiving (Gioia & Chittipedi, 1991 in Maitlis & Christianson, 2014) to create space for my colleagues to make sense of what is going (Holt & Cornelissen, 2014) and to establish their new norms. That will be helpful for us all moving on through these uncharted waters and as new norms emerge so will a sense of stability and sanctuary.
References
Grint, K. (2010). Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hawkins, M. and James, C. (2017). ‘Developing a perspective on schools as complex, evolving and loosely linking systems’. Educational Management Administration and Leadership. Vol. 46 (5).
Holt, R. and Cornelissen, J. (2014). ‘Sensemaking Revisited.’ Management in Learning. Vol. 45, no. 5.
Maitlis, S. and Christianson, M, (2014). ‘Sensemaking in Organizations: Taking Stock and Moving Forward.’ The Academy of Management Annals. Vol. 8, no. 1.
Maitlis, S. and Sonenshein, S. (2010). ‘Sensemaking in Crisis and Change: Inspiration and Insights from Weick (1998).’ Journal of Management Studies. Vol. 47 (3).
Morrison, K. (2012). School Leadership and Complexity Theory. London: Routledge Falmer.
Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in Organisations. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Creating Cognitive Classrooms 