Image label for reuse and retrieved from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/social-distancing-virus-covid-19-4981207/ 

In my initial post, I discussed my appreciation of distributed leadership. I discussed the importance of distributive leadership and how Harris & Spillane (2008) point out “In the increasingly complex world of education the work of leadership will require diverse types of expertise and forms of leadership flexible enough to meet changing challenges and new demands. (p. 31).

Looking at the recent events of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic examining how to respond to digital change it could have been a better preparation in studying the use of change frameworks presented in this class. Being asked to move a full course load of face to face classes to complete online literally overnight was certainly a test my understanding of change management frameworks and a newfound respect for the importance of project management.

I gained a greater perspective of an empathic view to change management and a team assignment to create a toolkit entitled “An Empathy Driven Approach to Overcoming Resistance” (Gates, Kuipers, Regan, McCarthy & Strachan, 2020). will inform how I lead digital change in the future.

I also reaffirmed lessons gained by leading troop in operational theatre a lesson taught that flexible and adaptive leadership is required in uncertain times. The one thing good leaders seem to share is the ability to build capacity in others.   As articulated by Peter Senge, “the people in our lives that influenced us are in all kinds of roles” (Sarder, 2015).

As I now teach a fully online and ponder how this pandemic will modify how we live and work in the future, I am optimistic that collaboration will mitigate the recent negative events until we arrive at the new normal.

 

References

Sarder, R. (Producer). (2015). What makes a great leader?  [Video file] Retrieved from YouTube https://youtu.be/1aYaj2-GZqk

Harris, A., Spillane, J. (2008). Distributed leadership through the looking glass. Management in Education 22(1), 31–34. doi 10.1177/0892020607085623