In our work, we share a wide variety of resources on fostering adaptive leadership in schools. Below are some of our favorites:

New: EdCampIS workshop resources:

“Teaching Empathy Through Design Thinking”:

• “What-Why-How” is an exercise from the Stanford d.school that helps students infer meaning from observed behaviors.
• “Interview for Empathy” is a one-sheeter from the Stanford d.school that includes pointers for conducting an empathetic interview.
• The workshop Twitter Stream records workshop activities, notes, and participant reactions offered in real time.

“Teaching Frameworks for Creative Collaboration”:

• “Task and Maintenance” (video) is a video introduction to these two terms as we use them in Leadership+Design Summer, as two modes of operation that groups must operate in in order to collaborate effectively.
• “The Waterline Model Handout.” This handout includes Leading is Learning content on the concepts of “task/maintenance” and the Waterline Model as a two-page PDF ready for use in classes.
• The workshop Twitter Stream records workshop activities, notes, and participant reactions offered in real time.

Critical Conversations

Leading is Learning Resources

• “Strengths and Triggers” is a worksheet we use to help people understand what they bring into a critical conversation. We all bring strengths – and we all have triggers that can set things awry.
• “The Conversational Cycle Overview” provides a framework for preparing for critical conversation, including intrapersonal preparation, interpersonal preparation, and reflection after the conversation.
• “The Conversational Cycle Worksheet” lists questions that will help you think through each phase of the conversational cycle framework.
• The Critical Conversations Laboratory Slidedeck accompanied our first Critical Conversations Laboratory at Bright Water School and outlines core concepts, questions, and strategies.

Recommended Resources from Others

• “The Power of Vulnerability.” In this TED Talk, Brené Brown discussed the power of sharing our story with courage. This is a great primer for school dialogue about having authentic conversations on difficult topics.

Creative Collaboration

Leading is Learning Resources

• “Preview Video: Frameworks for Creative Conversation.” The entire 30-minute video, here, reviews the core concepts/terms that will be used in the EduCon conversation, and can be viewed as preparation or as review. The conversation itself will focus on hands-on application on these terms. This video includes all of the content in part 1-4 below. However, we have also broken the video out into four sections if you want to drill down into specific concepts.
• “Part 1: Frameworks for Creative Conversation” (video) introduces Leadership+Design Studio and the role that creative collaboration plays in a project-based learning environment.
• “Part 2: The Paradox of Group Life” (video) introduces a concept that captures the simultaneous attraction and friction that we feel participating as part of a group. While group formation is in some ways linear, the paradox of group life is never fully resolved and will express itself throughout a group’s life. It’s a simple but powerful concept that we’ve found useful in discussing this dynamic with students in Leadership+Design Studio.
• “Part 3: Task and Maintenance” (video) is a video introduction to these two terms as we use them in Leadership+Design Summer, as two modes of operation that groups must operate in in order to collaborate effectively. The “waterline model handout” is a good companion to this segment.
• “Part 4: Analyzing Group Dynamics: Structure/Group/Interpersonal/Individual” (video) covers four slices of group life that can provide different ways of analyzing group dynamics and addressing dysfunction or lack of collaboration, along with questions to ask when looking at each. The “waterline model handout” is a good companion to this segment.
• “The Waterline Model Handout.” This handout includes Leading is Learning content on the concepts of “task/maintenance” and the Waterline Model as a two-page PDF ready for use in classes.
• “Teaching Frameworks for Creative Collaboration – Recorded Workshop at EduCon 2013″ The entire workshop was recorded and posted on YouTube by the crack SLA student tech team – if you have 90 minutes, watch it here.
• “The Serious Business of Purposeful Play.” This TEDx talk, by Leading is Learning co-founder Greg Bamford, emphasizes the ways in which blurring the boundaries for purposeful play can help teams and leaders to build a common understanding of an envisioned future.

Recommended Resources from Others

• Introduction to the Waterline Model. The waterline model is a core concept for group process that we teach to mentors and Leadership+Design students. It outlines the concepts of task and maintenance – two modes that all groups need, and effective leaders must be able to navigate – as well as a framework for systematically analyzing broken group dynamics.
• Task and Maintenance. Task and maintenance are core concepts we teach our young leaders: effective groups balance both. This is a 30-minute exercise designed to help groups clarify which leadership roles are task and which are maintenance. By clarifying the task/maintenance dichotomy, it should become easier to notice when either task or maintenance is being neglected.
• “Groupthink.” This New Yorker article by Jonah Lehrer talks about the problems research has exposed with the traditional model of brainstorming (e.g. “don’t criticize”), while re-affirming the value of creative team collaboration – and outlining the ways in which creative collaboration can be more effectively structured.
• “Calibrate Before You Collaborate.” This article outlines some simple questions creative teams can use to determine how they’re going to work together, before they actually jump into things. The result? Spending time at the front end saves time on the back end.

Feedback and Assessment

Leading is Learning Resources

• “Assessment for Resilience,” by Greg Bamford. This slide deck accompanied our 2012 presentation at the PNAIS Fall Educators’ Conference, and due to attendee request, we are posting it here.

Recommended Resources from Others

• “Learning a New Way of Being.” This TEDxOverlake talk, by Alison Whitmire, discusses the human challenge of leadership: accepting feedback, seeing your blindspots, and adjusting along the way.
• “The Perils and Promise of Praise,” by Carol Dweck. This article outlines how the wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior, but the right kind motivates students to learn.
• “Seven Keys to Effective Feedback,” by Grant Wiggins. This great article helps to differentiate feedback from advice and grading. Learning to offer better, different feedback can help students learn more without requiring additional time.

Design Thinking

These resources are what we use to introduce educators to design thinking. We typically share them ahead of time, flipping the PD experience so our first day can focus on discussion and experience, rather than introducing new concepts for the first time.

Leading is Learning Resources

• “Shoe Design Offers A Trojan Horse for Problem Solving With Design Thinking.” This Edutopia article covers a shoe design studio we organized at Catlin Gabel School in Portland. In it, Suzie Boss outlines the benefits that such an intensive, design thinking experience can offer.
• “Needfinding.” This is a one-page worksheet that we have created to help young leaders understand the unmet human needs at the source of any design problem. It’s a quick warm-up exercise that emphasizes the human-centered nature of the design thinking process.
• “Interviewing for Understanding.” This is a one page worksheet that introduces how to conduct a design interview and contains space for students to generate their own questions.
• “Developing a Point of View.” This is a one-page worksheet that includes an overview of a POV as well as a quick exercise, adapted from the Stanford d.school, called “POV Mad-Lib.” This helps students quickly develop a Point of View for their design problem.

Recommended Resources from Others

What is Design Thinking?

• Tim Brown at TED. This video offers a broad, big-picture overview of this shift from design to design thinking.
• Tim Brown of IDEO in Harvard Business Review. This 10-page article hits the right balance of “more substantive and thoughtful than Wikipedia” but also “interesting and doesn’t require you to read 200 pages.” Though focused on applications in the business world, we’ve found it to be a meaningful, accessible primer for leaders in non-design fields.
• IDEO Redesigns the Shopping Cart. This clip from Nightline shows IDEO going through the process of redesigning a shopping cart. Hilarious 1990′s clothes are a bonus.

What Does Design Thinking Look Like In Schools?

• Ewan McIntosh at TEDxLondon. In this talk, hybrid teacher/investor Ewan McIntosh shows how really using the design thinking model requires a shift in teacher behavior to “get out of the way” and allow students to find solutions to relevant challenges.
• “Design Thinking for Independent School Educators.” This webinar by Leading is Learning co-founder Greg Bamford provides a 100-level introduction to design thinking and why is matters in the independent school environment.
• Design Thinking in Education. This partnership between IDEO and Riverdale Country Day School (NY) focuses on how design thinking is used in schools, often to help schools solve problems about where they should go, what they should do. It includes case studies and nice short videos about educators using design thinking here.
• The Stanford d. school K-12 Wiki has a range of resources for K-12 educators.
• Stanford REDLab (Design and Education) has scholarly articles on design thinking and education, videos, and a few models of design thinking units in middle school math and high school science here.
• The Nueva School in northern California, a K-8 independent school, is a national leader in using Design Thinking. Information on their curriculum and iLab facility is here.

Tools for Teaching Design Thinking

• Stanford d.School Crash Course. This crash course provides an 80-minute challenge, allowing you to practice the design process. You’ll need a partner and some prototyping materials (whatever old arts and crafts materials you have are fine. Sneak them from your four year old.) Related resources (e.g. handouts) are here.
• Stanford d. school Mixtapes. One you’ve introduced the overall design thinking process, these mixtapes offer a well-packaged “deep dive” into three specific phases: empathy and understanding the user; into ideation and idea generation; and into prototyping and experimentation.
• Stanford d. school Bootcamp Bootleg lists specific, practical exercises that can help you lead groups through each phase of the design thinking process – and it includes handouts that are useful for groups. You can look at the exercises individually here  or the download the whole thing as a “bootleg.”
• Hands-on exercises for students learning design thinking. We use the “wallet challenge” on the first morning of Leadership+Design Studio to provide an overview, but there are other great exercises and case studies available here.