Culture of Learning: a culture of learning is a vulnerable and courageous culture that allows people to take risks, fail fast, and learn from each other free of shame or judgment. It is created by prioritizing the development and integration of new knowledge and skills as much as achieving goals or outcomes. When teams create a learning culture, they often ask questions like:

• What did we learn from that?

• What worked and didn’t work? Why?

• How might we do better next time?

• How might we be better next time?

They create spaces for team members to share their reflections and insights about their work—their successes and failures. Effectively creating a learning culture necessitates a culture of feedback because the most accessible learning can come through authentic reflections from trusted colleagues who know you and the work.

From the Decision-Making Series

General Stipulations in Using New Frameworks and Tools:

• No one tool can solve for everything.

• The strength of the tool is contingent on the strength of the alignment, mindset, and skill among those using the tool.

• We approach decision-making as a process rather than an isolated event.

• The most effective decision-making processes are grounded in guiding principles (usually the organization’s values).

From the Power & Authority in Classrooms Series:

The best source of what is going on in a classroom: students. it’s always the students. This is where we have the strongest evidence of impact. As educators, we can intend to get something across, but it is not until we learn from the students themselves, that we know the message sent was indeed received.

After asking students for permission to learn more about their experience you can try asking:

1. Do you like this class? Why?

2. How about your teacher? Why?

3. Does your teacher like you? How do you know?

4. Can you share what you are working on here?

5. Why is that important to learn?

6. What kinds of things are you interested in—perhaps something you would like to pursue as you get older?

7. How is this class helping you get there?

8. Is this work easy, medium, or hard?

9. Is this class easier, harder, or about the same as your other classes?

10. Is there anything you need to be your greatest self here?

From the Power & Authority in Teams/Orgs Series:

Everyone appreciates “transparency,” but not all transparency is created equal.

Use responsible transparency as a guiding principle in your leadership. Responsible transparency calls you to be forthcoming about critical content—the ‘right stuff’ in the ‘right’ way to the ‘right’ people at the ‘right’ time. Responsible transparency doesn’t mean sharing everything all the time. Oversharing can unintentionally create confusion, delays, and even cause harm. It requires using sound judgment to ensure people have access to the information they need in a timely manner that allows them to make good decisions for themselves and the work.

Responsible transparency considers systems-level implications such as:

• how the information impacts people at different levels of the team/organization (look out for disproportionate impacts on historically marginalized populations)

• how culture might be affected, and

• the unintended consequences that could manifest as a result of the communication (or the lack thereof)