This is the second episode on Teachers Teaching Teachers in which we invite the ideas of Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze’s Walk Out Walk On http://walkoutwalkon.net to inspire our conversation.
We are joined on this episode by Chris Sloan, Monika Hardy, Scott Shelhart, Mary Ann Reilly, Paul Allison, Ann Leaness, Pam Moran, and Heidi Hass Gable
Are you a Walk Out? Read these couple of paragraphs from the book and Web site, then come join us on Wednesday, 12.21.11 for a chat room at http://edtechtalk.com/live-ttt and watch the LiveStream.
ALSO – if you would like to join us in the Hangout soon, if you have read the book and would like to get in on the conversation directly, just let us know.
Inside dying systems, Walk Outs who Walk On are those few leaders who refuse to work from the dominant values that permeate the bureaucracy, such things as speed, greed, fear and aggression. They use their formal leadership to champion values and practices that respect people, that rely on people’s inherent motivation, creativity and caring to get quality work done. These leaders consciously create oases or protected areas within the bureaucracy where people can still contribute, protected from the disabling demands of the old system. These leaders are treasures. They’re dedicated, thoughtful revolutionaries who work hard to give birth to the new in very difficult circumstances.
And then there are those who leave the system entirely, eager to be free of all constraints to experiment with the future. You’ll read their stories in the next pages. But even though they might appear to have more freedom than those still inside, they encounter many challenges that restrict their actions. Old habits and ways of thinking constantly rear up on their path. It’s easy to get yanked backwards, or to doubt that this is the right direction. It takes vigilance to notice when these old ways of thinking block the path ahead.
