As one of the first Courage & Renewal facilitators prepared by Parker Palmer in 1994, it has been my extraordinary good fortune to work with the administrative team of Paw Paw (Michigan) Public Schools for the past 14 years. This unique opportunity offers one illustration of the potential of the Courage & Renewal approach to build community within an organization over time.
Superintendent Mark Bielang (now on the Center for Courage & Renewal Board) participated in a three-day Courage to Lead® retreat for education leaders in early 1999. In August 1999, Mark invited me to lead a retreat for his leadership team before the beginning of the school year. Every year since, I’ve continued to do so.
I called that first retreat “Gathering Strength for the Journey.” All 17 team members were required to attend. The team consisted of the superintendent, curriculum/instructional director, business manager, technology director, principals of high school, middle school, lower and upper elementary schools, the high school and middle school assistant principals, the adult/ community education director, transportation director, plant manager, and directors of maintenance, food services and transportation/buses. This diversity of roles was initially challenging but proved an extraordinary blessing over the years.
One of the first things that the food supervisor said to me was “I didn’t want to be here, but I came anyway” and the maintenance director, fingering the journal we’d provided, approached me with this quiet secret: “I don’t write at stuff like this.” I tried to reassure both of them in those early minutes, and in the circle stressed how seriously we take our guiding principles.
With a warm, gentle introduction, I invited them to introduce themselves in the circle with the direction, “Take a few moments to think of a story about yourself, or something about yourself, that these folks – whom you know so well – DON’T know.” This was great fun and resulted in relaxed shoulders all around!
We worked slowly through our time together. We freed ourselves of cell phones, and celebrated. In one exercise I invited them to consider a time during their work in education when they realized that they were fully engaged and felt the joy of that. What a beautiful time we had! The gentleman who confessed that he did not write was caught scribbling away with his left hand long after everyone else had finished! He’s taken a lot of gentle ribbing about that since and became a kind of wisdom figure for the team over the years, with no one more surprised than he!
As the years passed, the constants in each retreat were our principles and practices: the power of poetry and story, the generous way in which Time is held, and the unbounded welcome that we practice. As new leaders joined the circle, others left for other work, and one passed away. By 2012, only six of the original 17 remained. Those constants were passed on through the years with an ebb and flow that is natural to vital, living institutions. Newer administrators have more than once spoken of how the retreats helped them integrate into the community.
Over the years, I recorded what the participants shared with the group. There may be no better way to offer a snapshot of the impact of Courage & Renewal for this team:
- One thing I know: I don’t want to manipulate people. I just want to respect them and grow with them.
- I just realized what’s meant by ‘integrate being with doing’… that’s the undivided life you’re talking about, right?
- It’s not just about skills and techniques… it’s about my world and life view. It’s more about who I am.
- I always had to be with somebody. Now I’m content to be by myself.
- It’s kind of a new way of thinking for me: we can create the kind of environment we WANT TO LIVE AND WORK IN.
- Am I doing anything that helps my staff take better care of themselves? I see how this work helps me.
- It’s so healthy to own my own doubts and fears. Hearing yours has helped me do that.
- I’m feeling better understood by this team, and I even understand myself better!”
- “I’m thinking a lot about how to use our relationship on the team as a model for my staff relationships.
- Who knew it was OK … really good… to bring your HEART to this education business? How did we miss that??
- I wrote to myself… ‘Try to see the person behind the job. ‘ I keep it on my desk.
- One of the greatest things that has happened to me is that I realize I know more than I think I do. That sounds silly…
- I thought my high school staff would laugh when I used poetry in a meeting but they seemed to really like it. Incredible how a poem can facilitate real dialogue.
- It’s OK. I am not perfect … and this poet is right on: I am not done with my changes.
As a facilitator I feel like a member of the Paw Paw family and look forward to our retreat this year.
Think about a team you’re part of. What do you most hope for them?
The post The Long View – Courage to Lead for Educators appeared first on Center for Courage & Renewal.