When the Conditions Change

Today was the first time I rolled out my new Leading in the In-Between wānanga.

And, as it turns out, before I could facilitate a day about navigating uncertainty, adjusting the course and leading when the pathway isn't clear, I was going to have to practise it myself.

The day got off to a somewhat bumpy start.

Months ago, when I first planned the Dunedin workshops, I had booked the venue for two days - the 24th and 25th. One day was going to focus on curriculum and the other on leadership. Later, I decided the curriculum day wasn't quite the right fit, so I cancelled one of the venue bookings and kept the other.

Except I cancelled the wrong one. I didn't realise immediately. A few weeks later, I looked at everything again, realised the leadership workshop was now sitting on the wrong date, and emailed everyone who had registered. A small change of plan. Could you please come on Monday the 24th instead of Tuesday the 25th?

Everyone rearranged themselves.

Problem solved, or so I thought.

This morning I arrived at the venue with all my boxes, resources, mauri stones, workshop materials and everything else that accompanies me when I facilitate a day like this.

At reception I said, "We've got the conference room booked today.”

The receptionist behind the desk looked at me and replied with,,

"You've got the conference room booked for tomorrow.”

In that moment, the whole ridiculous sequence became clear.

I had cancelled the wrong booking, moved all the participants to accommodate my mistake - and had now brought everyone to a venue on a day when I didn't actually have a room booked.

Welcome to Leading in the In-Between.

Thankfully, the venue staff were wonderful. Go The Fable Dunedin!!!!!

They found us a room and told me I could set it up however I wanted. That was music to my ears. Their staff weren't quite ready for us because, unsurprisingly, they weren't expecting us until tomorrow.

But we had a space.

So I got to work.

I arranged the tables towards the television we would be using for the presentation. I set out the resources. I created the spaces for the different experiences we would have throughout the day.

Kaiako and leaders began arriving. We were going to be okay. But then the television wouldn't work. Don’t you just love technology.

Every time we turned it on, it turned itself off again. At that point, there really wasn't much else to do except laugh or potentially become hysterical.

Fortunately, I had brought my projector with me. We could still make this work, we just needed to face the other direction. So everyone picked up their tables and chairs and together we physically turned the room around. somewhere in the middle of all that movement, I realised:

This is the workshop:

We had started with a plan.

The conditions changed.

We adjusted.

The conditions changed again.

We adjusted again.

We didn't need to abandon where we were going simply because the pathway towards it looked different from the one we had imagined.

One of the ideas sitting at the heart of Leading in the In-Between is wayfinding leadership - the understanding that leadership isn't always about having a perfectly mapped route. Sometimes it is about holding sight of the horizon while remaining attentive to the conditions around us.

We notice.

We orientate ourselves.

We draw on the knowledge and resources available to us.

We work collectively.

And when the conditions tell us that the course we planned is no longer the course that will take us where we need to go, we adjust.

That was exactly what happened this morning. There was also something wonderfully fitting about the fact that I didn't reorientate the room by myself. The kaiako and leaders were pre-warned that we might need to reorientate ourselves with the help of the hotel staff. But when you are all in the waka together who needs hotel staff.

Everyone moved. Tables were picked up. Chairs shifted. People found new places. The whole group participated in turning towards our new direction. New direction same horizon. A huge mihi to the wonderful kaiako and leaders who joined me today. You arrived to a slightly more “in-between” beginning than any of us were expecting and simply rolled with it. You shifted tables, changed direction, laughed with me and helped make the day work. There was no fuss, just a collective sense of okay, this is where we are, so what do we do from here? You couldn't have demonstrated the kaupapa of the day more beautifully. Perhaps that's the bit I want to hold onto most from today.

Leadership in the in-between isn't necessarily about preventing disruption, having every answer, or making sure everything unfolds according to plan. (Maybe a plan that goes to plan is optimum, but it doesn’t always happen)

Sometimes leadership looks much less impressive than that.

Sometimes it is simply being able to look at what is happening and say:

Okay. These are the conditions we have.

Where is our horizon?

What do we have available to us?

And what is the next wise move from here?

We had a wonderful day, full of conversations about navigating the in-between - the unknown spaces, the changing conditions and the complexities of our ECE world. And perhaps there was something quite fitting about the fact that before we had even begun talking about any of it, we had already lived it.

We didn't have the room we expected. We didn't have the technology we expected.

But the horizon hadn't changed. A day to motivate and affirm kaiako and leaders.

So we noticed the conditions, drew on what we had, worked together, reorientated ourselves and kept moving.

New direction. Same horizon.

Maybe that is what leading in the in-between asks of us all.