The kickoff meetings with the school pairs went well. It was a lot of time invested for Scott and those of us on the Leadership Team (6 sets of 2 1/2 hour meetings across a few weeks), but we all agreed the concentrated time was needed and effective for the teams. We're still struggling with the value of the paired teams (we've asked them to reach out to one another throughout the year), but we've been able to on-board new teams and new teams members as well as help teams refocus and or pivot their challenges as need be.
One area we've became more focused on is how to bring the leadership of the various schools "into" the work. Although they were invited to the two day summit last spring, only a few of the school heads or principals came. In advance of our Fall Design Summit next week, we decided to host a dinner at Lovett this evening for Fulton County district leadership, heads of the independent schools, school principals, team facilitators, and David Weitnauer of the Dobbs Foundation with our Leadership Team. We gave a welcome, followed by an overview of "why innovation" and background on Stanford and the d.global initiative. We then asked two school facilitators--one public school and one independent school-- to give the school leaders their case studies/perspectives. We closed with key findings to date and our timeline for the year ahead.
In particular, we were pleased to announce that the Dobbs Foundation is funding an evaluation of our model this year. Robert Kronley will be with us at our face to face events as well as conducting interviews and examining our meeting records and various documentation.
Feedback from the school leaders was very positive and we are excited to have them more connected to the work.
One area we've became more focused on is how to bring the leadership of the various schools "into" the work. Although they were invited to the two day summit last spring, only a few of the school heads or principals came. In advance of our Fall Design Summit next week, we decided to host a dinner at Lovett this evening for Fulton County district leadership, heads of the independent schools, school principals, team facilitators, and David Weitnauer of the Dobbs Foundation with our Leadership Team. We gave a welcome, followed by an overview of "why innovation" and background on Stanford and the d.global initiative. We then asked two school facilitators--one public school and one independent school-- to give the school leaders their case studies/perspectives. We closed with key findings to date and our timeline for the year ahead.
In particular, we were pleased to announce that the Dobbs Foundation is funding an evaluation of our model this year. Robert Kronley will be with us at our face to face events as well as conducting interviews and examining our meeting records and various documentation.
Feedback from the school leaders was very positive and we are excited to have them more connected to the work.