“What does respect mean to you?” by retrokatz is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I am teaching a leadership class at Temple for the first time. Since I agreed to teach the class, I have been vacillating between anxiety and excitement. It is definitely outside of my comfort zone and I have been worried about whether I am good enough. Since overcoming feelings of inadequacy and stretching has been at the heart of my leadership journey, I realize that I am not only the teacher, but this is an incredible opportunity for me to learn how to be a better leader.
The first class was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. After a quick summary of the structure of the class, I asked the entire class how we could create a safe learning community. Using the 1-2-4-All Liberating Structures, we established as a group how we would act and support each other on our growth journey. The list that the class created together was more comprehensive and better than the list that I would have created. They wanted to be able to be open and vulnerable and know that others would listen without judgment, as we practiced living the leadership principles that we would be learning.
Then we spent the rest of the class getting to know each other by telling our core stories. We arranged our chairs in a circle and each of us shared three core stories from our life and what we had learned from those experiences.
Several people in the group got emotional, including me. We were sharing deeply about our struggles and our ability to overcome those struggles. We talked about health challenges, close relationships, death of loved ones, physical injuries and having to give up our identities of who we thought we were when unexpected challenges arrived.
It was one of the most powerful experiences that I have ever had. There was so much wisdom and leadership in that room that had already been developed. I was reminded again that leadership is not about telling others what to do, but about creating an environment where the best ideas can surface and be shared.
At the end of the exercise, we talked about how differently we felt about the people in the room and the implications for leadership and life. As I was leaving the room, I realized that I don’t necessarily know the core stories of the people that I work with on a daily basis, and I am not sure how to do that in a safe and non-invasive way.
I would love to hear about how you have created safe learning communities.
Cindy regarding your interesting post on “Creating a safe learning community”… “I realized that I don’t necessarily know the core stories of the people that I work with on a daily basis, and I am not sure how to do that in a safe and non-invasive way”… how about we in TU-ITS further utilize our Wonderful WED/other days/times of week & lunches to spend more quality-connection time with our co-workers. Also regarding “I would love to hear about how you have created safe learning communities”… we in ITS-EISM lately have been successfully using Slack comm-app via multiple channels to post client requests & related tech info for all our learning within trusted & safe virtual environment. Additionally I am also a part of the Climate Reality Project Leadership corps (20K+), and we all use the “RealityHub” trusted & safe virtual comm site to connect-share-plan environmental info with shared values. What are some other examples from TU-ITS amigos…?