What an inspiration it has been to collaborate, learn from and alongside over 80 different colleagues at Frankfurt international school over the past 1.5 years. What started with a simple question “would anyone like to learn about how to create learning impact?” in June 2021 has become a bimonthly gathering of inspirational learning, coaching, and collaboration. We look forward to seeing where it goes in 2023 and are happy to share the journey should it be helpful for other schools moving forward. I have both attended and led leadership learning courses and have been fortunate to see many approaches, models, and examples over the years. Please do reach out and share your experiences, examples, models, tools, and frameworks so that we can all push forward in service of students and learning.

Initially we were looking to for a way to engage a group of aspiring leaders and impact players at FIS in a collective experience around growth, innovation, and leadership. Often in schools there is a key group of inspiring educators and staff who want nothing more than to create impact, share their learning and collaborate around innovation, this is a chance to draw these people out and get them together to keep each other motivated and learning together. It also allows for a global FIS conversation which does not happen very much given schools siloed structures. It started with a common read for anyone interested over the summer break in 2021. We read Dare to Lead to set the stage for module one at the start of the 2021/2022 school year. It is important to note when choosing reading that it will always be the case that certain styles of writing will resonate with some and not with others. It’s why in the summer 2022 we chose a very different style book in The Promises of Giants.

The Goals of the interactions were:
• Build a culture of personalized learning and coaching
• Collectively grow in the skills and concepts needed to create impact
• Enhance the toolbox for complexity thinking and application by focusing on systems,
change and mental models.
• Motivate members of the FIS community to know they can create impact, title or not.
• Push FIS to think beyond great academic results and multiple opportunities to lead
towards an aspirational North Star for the whole community

Initially over 65 colleagues signed up and we were off and running. Module 1 started with me and a few others setting out the facilitation and learning outcomes but there was a team of participants who met to set out how we could debrief the reading in meaningful ways. The idea all along was that the group would increasingly help to shape the learning and facilitate the learning experiences. Now moving into the 7th module, it is amazing to watch how many people step up to both plan and execute the learning experiences. As mentioned in the goals above the learning was shaped on understanding and applying, change theory, systems, and mental models. I am happy to share more specifics if you like but I always attempt to keep these learning stories succinct.

We aimed to build the impact leadership toolbox in each module and then started to articulate what impact everyone would like to make on learning. As the participants plans developed, they created accountability partners to liaise between modules. The accountability partners have now morphed into accountability teams, and it makes the transition for those new to the program much more seamless. We ask for the impact plans to be shared with all only if they feel comfortable, and it is quite amazing to see the scope of the plans as now more than 83 participants have been involved across all divisions and job scopes. We believe the outcomes both intended and unintended have had a tremendous impact on our school. Some include
• Building Confidence
• Growing Motivation
• Applying tools for change and leadership to apply
• Personal growth, coaching and mentoring (Both being mentored and mentoring)
• Increased skills for leadership in many differing ways
• A desire for more learning of this nature
• A relationship with colleagues at FIS that would not otherwise exist

I will update our progress and next steps. Module 7 will be filled with impact and leadership tools that have worked for our participants, including one that I shared, the systems iceberg. If you would like more information please do reach out. If you have programs, learnings, tools etc to share please do so. Here’s to learning impact, collaboration and the inspiration of coaching and sharing in an open forum of amazing educators.