Agile, Lean and Servant Leadership
Whakataukī:
Waiho mā te tangata e mihi
Let another sing your praises
This is about how the leader can assist others
Insights
Agile thinking, or agility in companies: software companies want to be more adaptive and responsive. They have 4 values:
* Individuals and Interactions * Working Software
* Customer Collaboration
* Responding to Change
The more traditional focuses they had, such as processes, tools, documentation, contracts, and plans, weren't wrong, but they weren't the most important thing either.
"He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata."
How does this relate to education?
The first value stayed the same when Steve Peha (who works in both industries) made some modifications: * Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools
* Meaningful Learning over measurement of learning
* Stakeholder Collaboration over constant negotiation
* Responding to Change over following a plan
Traditionally, working in teams was more like passing the baton: everyone did their job, then handed the product to the next team to do theirs, and so on. Companies that were moving forward said it was more like a scrum: everyone working together toward a common goal and supporting each other. In this method, there is a leader; their job is to serve the team rather than tell everyone what to do. And they work with the customer to ensure the product serves its purpose.
Students are both the customer and part of the team; they need to be agile, as they can help design the learning context and be each other's end users. This method gives students agency in their learning at a sustainable pace to meet their goals, and fosters collaborative teamwork. It is not all on the student; the teacher still needs to set up the why and what of the learning. Work with students to create the backlog (all the things they need to achieve to get the final product); these tasks can evolve over time.
Like all new experiences, start small. It is about adapting to what is happening around you.
Agile Leadership: Simon Hayward talks about - What makes an Agile Leader?
* Learning Agility - pause and take stock of what is happening around you
* Empathy
* Thoughtful, decisive decision-making
* Digital Literacy
Lean Thinking - Womack, Jones and Roos 1990
This too started out in a different industry, manufacturing, to reduce waste and upskill workers. But what is the relevance to Education?
We need to focus on the 'Value Stream' (from Lean Jargon), ensuring we deliver value to the learner.
* Reducing waste - teaching content that is not relevant, moving around when it wastes time,
* Replace Batch and Queue with Flow - learning moves on regardless of where the learner is at.
* Replace Push with Pull - Moving from learning being pushed at students to a situation where students pull what they need when they need it.
.Kanban boards are part of Lean thinking and can be used with Agile thinking too. Using a Kanban board helps students to manage learning flow and do tasks in a way they can self-manage. (Examples to the left, from Trello.com)
Kaizen - Incremental Change, to help move forward
Kaikaku - Radical Change
Both of these types of change are important and can be complementary
Servant Leadership
Takeaways
Final Individual Assessment -
Action Reflection Assessment
Kanban Board - Data collection is too big; break it down into small/short tasks that can be done in two weeks.
.
They will always be dynamic
It is important to have a to-do list no matter how you do it. This helps to keep you on track, and if they're bite-sized, they are achievable.
