“The heartbeat of education lives inside the walls of schools. Within those walls, you’ll find stories of kids and teachers in the mess of learning.” This sentiment, one I share in my book, The Leader Inside, speaks to the essence of what we strive to build—a learning ecosystem brimming with curiosity, collaboration, creativity, and growth. But make no mistake, these spaces are also filled with teachers and students experiencing the discomfort of trying new and challenging things. There are big feelings around this, because I have never met a teacher who didn’t want to be their best so they can bring out the best in their students.

As leaders, how can we foster learning ecosystems that not only embrace this discomfort but see it as an opportunity for growth and learning? 

Take, for example, a rollout of a new and complex curricular resource—a process that can bring “fast and furious” waves of discomfort. The planning, skills, knowledge, and explicit teaching needed can be challenging. However, if you are a leader guiding this work, you can invite your team to reflect on your plans and recognize that the growing pains and continuous refinement are a mark of growth. Just as Elena Aguilar shares in her best selling book Arise, “…don’t fear the discomfort; it’s a gateway for growth” p. 4.

As you embark on implementing a new plan, resource, or priority, here are a few strategies that can help your team stay grounded and responsive:

1. Become a Master Learner: Lead by example. In his book The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros shares the following, “If you want to be a master teacher, you must be a master learner,” When learning something new or revisiting instructional approaches that already exist and making them better, the leaders and teachers leading the learning can roll up their sleeves, learn the content and model it themselves. Showing your own willingness to learn, adapt, and grow is modeling your own discomfort and is an invitation for others to do the same. I always say, I will never ask a teacher to do something I have not done or are willing to do myself.

2. Consider the Audience: Each school community is unique. Listen actively to teachers and students to understand their needs, concerns, and aspirations. This helps you tailor your support to fit their specific learning journeys. For example, you may have a professional learning session to implement a resource or new instructional approach and the plan for the workshop may not unfold the way in which it was intended. When educators take a moment to share their thoughts and are asking for a different kind of support to enhance their instructional approaches and implementation, we can listen. In a talk by Simon Sinek, he shares, “Asking for help is perhaps the greatest single thing anyone can learn.” With this in mind, your team can recognize that this is okay. Sometimes you will need to slow down and notice the people giving you signals that you will need to adjust your expectations and meet them where they are, so together, you can row to your destination in a more palatable and accessible way. 

3. Pivot on the Plan: Flexibility is key. Sometimes the best-laid plans need adjustments. Being able to pivot quickly keeps the focus on what works best for those involved. For example, slowing down and adjusting your original expectations for the resource roll out may do the trick. By revisiting the scope and sequence of the a resource and recognizing what is doable among a sea of priorities and slowing down means that educators have the opportunity to master a few skills drills, skills, and routines in purposeful ways instead of feeling like a novice at many, can be a great investment in the social capital and learner deposit box. 

4. Create Helpful Tools: Equipping teachers with resources that make their jobs easier is essential. Tools and structures can provide a sense of stability in the midst of new and complex learning processes. For a new curricular resource, you may consider having teams of people including teachers and administrators pooling their resources to create cheat sheets, structures, and a Google drive with accessible materials to enhance the planning and instructional approaches. You cannot do this work alone and as the leader who is leading this work, you can lean into colleagues for meaningful collaboration in this area.

In The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp remind us that conscious leaders “own their commitments by owning their results” (p. 21). This means understanding that our impact is not just in what we do, but in how we approach it.

As the book notes, every conversation has both content—what we are discussing—and context—how we are discussing it (p. 21). With this in mind, I believe you can embrace both aspects fully.

We can do hard things. We can listen to our teachers’ needs. We can have big feelings. We can plan, fail, iterate, and try again. We can lead more effectively and create learning ecosystems that thrive on both structure and flexibility. We can step into and lead through discomfort allowing for the genuine growth we want to see in our learning ecosystems.

We’ve got this. Keep going.