The power of “swarm intelligence”
SCHOOL21C
If not now, when?
About
Since the start of the 2020 academic year, schools around the world have faced daunting challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In just a few months, the schooling playbook (how we do school) has drastically been altered, probably for ever. While there are many silver linings educational leaders have leveraged in our never ending quest to change and improve education for the better, we must do so in the midst of serious medical risks, school closures, mask wearing, social distancing, hybrid and distance learning. The lessons learned and how schools will look in the future is an evolving and developing story.
In these times of heightened crisis management challenges facing school leaders, a timely New Yorker article entitled What should crisis leadership look like? reveals lessons learned from a HarvardNPLI study, Meta-leadership Lessons from the Boston Marathon Bombings Response: The Ingenuity of Swarm Intelligence .
The study examines crisis leadership and the power of “swarm intelligence,” surfacing five consistent, essential characteristics that leaders exhibit and employ during a crisis
1. Unity of mission : Clarity and focus on your overriding purpose .
2. Generosity of spirit and action : An extraordinary level of cooperation “Whaddya got? Whaddaya need?”
3. Stay in your lane : A respect for the authority, responsibility and bounds of each other’s role.
4. No ego, no blame : Sharing Credit and Accountability or no one grabs credit; no one shoots blame.
5. Trust : Leveraging strong inter-personal relationships, trust, respect, and camaraderie in a spirit of true collaboration .
Like our fellow schools from around the world, the International School of Prague is doing more than learning to live with this crisis. As we overcome each challenge and obstacle with flexibility and agility, our focus is always mission driven. Each day provides a new opportunity to learn about learning during this crisis, and we add new ISP Learning Stories from the day to day experiences of our students, teachers and community.
The conclusions of the Harvard study provide school leaders with timely food for thought, as each of us, individually, and more importantly together, face the challenges of our times. School leaders are in a unique position to not only apply the concept of swarm intelligence within our teams and communities, but also to find ways to leverage our collective intelligence among educational communities across the globe.
Tweet
Share on Tumblr
Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:
You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )
You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out / Change )
You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )
You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )
Connecting to %s
Notify me of new comments via email.
Notify me of new posts via email.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Join 2,174 other followers
Email Address:
Follow
Way to go @ IntSchPrague ! twitter.com/IntSchPrague/s… 1 month ago
A wise message from @ elizabethperry about “starting where you are” twitter.com/elizabethperry… 1 month ago
Another wonderful leadership opportunity! Learn more about the Superintendent position at American Community School… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 month ago
Director, International School of Prague
View Full Profile →
67,879 hits
Follow Following SCHOOL21C Join 2,174 other followers Sign me up Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
SCHOOL21C Customize Follow Following Sign up Log in Copy shortlink Report this content View post in Reader Manage subscriptions Collapse this bar
Customize
Follow Following
Sign up
Log in
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar