Around 60 Deputy Principals from across Western Australia were privileged to recently attend the two-day Leadership workshop ‘Toolkit for Turbulence’, led by world-renowned Professor Martin Bean.
Professor Bean’s vast educational and world experiences, coupled with his ability to draw humorous parallels with the Star Wars universe, sporting analogies and personal anecdotes, equipped participants with practical leadership strategies to implement in schools, referencing his book ‘Toolkit For Turbulence’, which all participants were provided a copy of.
The Toolkit for Turbulence workshop led participants through the principles of Adaptive Leadership, with Professor Bean focussing on preparing leaders for an unpredictable, fast-changing world, emphasising the need to turn the adversity of disruptions into opportunities to grow and develop leadership that embraces:
- Adaptive Leadership: Navigating complex challenges by encouraging innovation, decentralising authority, and building collective problem-solving capacity,
- Positive Mindset: Maintaining optimism and resilience, especially during change, to foster motivation and high performance in teams,
- Growth Mindset: Encouraging continuous learning, embracing failure as feedback, and viewing challenges as opportunities for development,
- Reflective Practice: Regularly evaluating actions, decisions, and outcomes to improve leadership effectiveness and self-awareness,
- Future-Proofing Leadership: Equipping school leaders with the agility, digital skills, and awareness needed to stay relevant and impactful in an ever-changing education environment and
- Collaboration and Networking: Creating and leveraging opportunities to connect with others, sharing ideas, and building supportive professional relationships to enhance innovation and drive collective success.
The first of its kind, this professional learning was the result of a collaborative partnership between WAPPA, WASSEA and WAESPAA. Professor Martin Bean was generously supported by Apple Education, with Apple Educator, Simon Shaw, supporting participants throughout the two-day event. All participants will also be given the opportunity to participate in a follow up online event later in the year.
-written by Joe Bell, Associate Principal