Apprentice Achievements
Think Differently

Think Differently

We’re on a journey to being outstanding

Now I know this is a bold statement & one which some may argue isn’t possible to achieve, but I believe it is & I’ve said it out loud so we’ve nowhere to hide now!

I’m always learning & I’m fortunate to work with like-minded colleagues.

I’m under no illusion that achieving outstanding in our education world isn’t an easy accomplishment but making a commitment to this achievement is the first step on this adventure.

Throughout my career to date I’ve experienced both extremes of inspection & although outstanding is harder to maintain, inadequate is harder to hear!

Much has been written & spoken about learning from our mistakes & although I agree that experience is a great tool for learning, mistakes & failures are definitely pants, & can be costly.

They’re also so much more visibly noticeable than our successes!

I don’t like making mistakes, I don’t like to be defined by my mistakes & I don’t like dwelling on my mistakes, which as a prolific sulker can be difficult, but importantly I readily accept that mistakes & failure are a key ingredient in lasting success.

Often mistakes are met with an emotional response that can then influence the actions required to deal with any problem we face, & although it’s perfectly normal to respond in this way it’s not always helpful to make a decision during this period of heightened emotion.

Taking some time to just stop & think differently often yields greater results allowing us the time to step back from an emotional state & review all the options available to us.

I often call on the expertise of colleagues to help me in making decisions ensuring that I call upon the greatest available bank of knowledge before committing to a decision – time permitting.

I’ve increasingly found that it’s easy to fall into the trap of ‘doing what we’ve always done’ as we get caught up in the day-to-day stuff that consumes our time, & as time passes it becomes harder to unravel the status Quo to allow for innovation.

Thinking differently as a team is a learned process that can take effort & discipline, & it can be tiresome when constantly challenging each other’s reasoning, but with time & practice the results can be outstanding.

If we aim to avoid failure & mistakes we’ll often be faced with mediocre & taking frivolous risk is irresponsible, but calculated risk with an acceptance that mistakes & failure are a real possibility focuses our attention helping us to think differently to minimise these taking place.

We’re on an exiting journey to becoming outstanding without compromising our desire to be different & we can only achieve this is we continue to think differently.

I hope you have a great week

Cheers

Noel