We spent some time at our last Admin. Team meeting talking about community. How do you know when it's strong? Why does it feel like a fragile thing at times? This in response to a hasty decision made, questioned by others and the followup discussions. And then this wonderful quote from Parker Palmer of course to remind me to trust the abundance. “When a leader is willing to trust the abundance that people have and can generate together, willing to take the risk of inviting people to share from that abundance, then and only then may true community emerge.” In fact when I don't trust it is when I make poor decisions, it is then that I fall into micromanaging situations and when I break down the community we try to build together.
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Greetings - I have not had the opportunity to meet you but have heard great things about you from Matt Beimers (so I guess those who know Matt can decide for themselves whether this is a credible source). I wanted to say "thank you" for getting this blog started, long overdue. I hope more Christian school leaders will begin to use this forum in powerful ways. Your post today reminded me of a quote from Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girl Scouts. "Oh, you always have power, if you just know where to find it. There is the power of inclusion, and the power of language, and the power of shared interests, and the power of coalition. Power is all around you to draw upon but it is rarely raw, rarely visible." The true community you speak of seems to follow this power pattern of being rarely raw and rarely visible yet so obvious when absent. True community is all around us in education, waiting to be exploited for good of the Kingdom.
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