In a world where more and more people realize their voices matter, simply engaging people is not enough.
People need to feel empowered in the work and learning process. The shift from compliance to empowerment is essential in organizations today.
With that in mind, how do we help people grow? The question is not how we motivate them, which is an entirely different idea. Motivating others is possible, but it is not long-lasting. We can only truly motivate ourselves for any sustainable amount of time; this is not something that can be done for us.
Leaders need to examine how we create environments that remove barriers and support the development of an innovator’s mindset in individuals. Leadership’s job is not to control people but to unleash talent. The environment and processes we create are important in helping people find their own way and strengths.
Yet, we too often focus on external “motivators” to be the drivers for change or even learning. One of the most significant shifts in my thinking in the past few years is how learning is such a personal endeavour, yet we try to package it up and decide the paths and passions for others. Stephen Downes summarizes this sentiment nicely:
“We have to stop thinking of an education as something that is delivered to us and instead see it as something we create for ourselves.”
With that being said, a lot of professional development is working to “incentivize” learning with the use of external motivators. Immediately doing this, in many ways, says that it is not important to learn without the incentive, or else we haven’t taken the time to focus on the “why” of the learning. If people don’t understand why we are learning something, it will not stick. They need to make their own internal connection.
I understand though that in some areas, I don’t need to really explain “why”, before we move forward. For example, if there is a safety plan in school, I would expect that people know how to do it and spend their time learning any procedures we have.
I have seen states require “credit hours” for professional learning and watched people show up so they can check off that they were there. This is not going to create powerful and deep learning but is simply a checklist in the “game of school.” If we do not take ownership of our own learning, how deep will we really go?
So, what would I do differently?
Daniel Pink discusses the importance of autonomy, mastery, and purpose in motivation, and we should consider this when developing long-term professional learning.
Although growth plans have been prevalent in schools for as long as I have been teaching, I think it is important to ask questions that focus on those three elements while also helping leadership remove barriers to help learners achieve their goals. As we develop our professional growth plans for any time, here are some questions that I think are important to include.
1. What would you like to learn? (Autonomy)
Although this question has driven my professional learning for years, it is still necessary to set the stage for deep learning. Ownership over the learning is crucial in this process.
2. What questions will be the driver for your learning? (Autonomy)
Inquiry-based professional learning is a robust process that helps you view yourself as a problem-solver and a problem-finder. It also helps the learner articulate why this learning is essential and gives them ownership over the process.
3. Why is this important to you? How will it help the school? (Purpose)
This is a crucial element to not only a person’s learning but also helping them use their strengths to improve learning while helping leadership understand those strengths to tap into. The best teams in the world build upon individual strengths to bring people together toward a common goal; they do not try to mould people to something that they are not.
4. How will you know (measures) that you have achieved your goals at the end of this time? (Mastery and Autonomy)
Accountability is crucial in this process, but helping the person define their own measures not only helps them define what “mastery” could look like but also gives them autonomy in understanding their own point “a” to point “b.”
5. What barriers will you need to be removed, or what support will you need to be successful? (Unleash Talent)
This question is crucial and necessary to leadership. Many things don’t happen in schools because of dumb policies and guidelines that make “innovation” extremely hard and simply “hoop jumping.” I used to say to my staff all the time, “I cannot solve problems that I don’t know exist.”
That is true, but perhaps I needed to ask them more about what problems I could help with.
To have a “culture of innovation,” developing educators as learners are crucial.
It is paramount to help them understand their passions and interests and give them opportunities to use them to further the school’s vision.
But if we see learning as a truly “personal” endeavour, focusing on the ideas of “autonomy, mastery, and purpose” in developing our professional learning plans is crucial for the development of both individuals and organizations.
