‘The Rippling Effect’- what ripples do you want to create this academic year?

Irvin Yalom, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, writes about ‘the rippling effect’ in his book Staring at the Sun. He refers to the rippling effect as: ‘the fact that each of us creates—often without our conscious intent or knowledge—concentric circles of influence that may affect others for years, even generations.  That is, the effect we have on other people is in turn passed on to others, much as the ripples in a pond go on and on until they’re no longer visible but continuing at a nano level.’

We’ve all likely felt the ripple effect of a leader who we’ve been led by. An intangible quality, manner or way of being that made us feel seen, heard and valued and more tangibly, the domain-specific expertise that reshaped the way we thought about something, in true service of the pupils we teach. An ability to navigate complexity intelligently, with measure and deep consideration of context. Ways of thinking and being that are robust, reasonably consistent and that provide an unspoken ‘drumbeat’ of interaction and behaviour, often leaving a ‘ripple’ of frameworks for thinking and a deep sense of psychological safety. I write this description with some hesitation and a passionate desire to avoid perpetuating the idea of ‘hero leaders’ who are all-seeing, all-knowing and infallible. (Spoiler alert-they don’t exist.) It’s fair to say this is an unhelpful contribution to the leadership development space and causes more problems than it solves. As Mary Myatt so aptly puts it in her recent blogpost, ‘no one wants to feel like a muppet’ and such a high-stakes bar, with little room for failure, is both unrealistic and unlikely to develop self-compassionate leaders; something which is arguably as important, as developing great leaders. However, great leaders exist! So the question remains…

How do we support leaders to get EVEN better?

I’ve been endlessly curious about how leaders can best be supported and developed in their roles. But there are some enduring questions about what makes a great educational leader that are left unanswered. This makes it very difficult to hypothesise sure-fire ways to develop excellent leaders, outside of broad approaches that are likely helpful. I wrote ‘Building Culture’ in an attempt to consider the strands of school culture that leaders might be able to focus on, to strengthen the impact of their leadership and grow thriving teams. But the question ‘how do we support leaders to get EVEN better?’ persists. I am determined to make some headway in finding answers to this question and particularly keen to learn from the wonderful leaders who do this important (and incredibly challenging!) work so well, day-in, day-out…more to come on this below!

Reflections for a New Year

But for now, ahead of a new school year, I’d like to consider ‘the rippling effect’. To do this, I pose some provocations for your reflection:

1. What ripples do you want to create this academic year for your pupils?
2. What ripples do you want to create this academic year for those you lead?
3. What do YOU need as a leader to create those ripples?
4. What might turn those ripples into a stone that just sinks?
5. How might you mitigate against this?

How do we make a ripple?

When we zoom in and really think about what creates a ripple, we recognise it involves:

• an initial disturbance that impacts the water
• delicate concentric circles that slowly scale up
• close to the water, it’s just water. Step out and we see the beauty of the water rippling out, as well as the longevity of the ripple.

As leaders in terms of school improvement/development then, we might think about:

• whether we truly need this disturbance to the system or whether it’s best to let the ‘water’ settle
• how we might ensure that we delicately gauge conditions in our teams and refine our support, professional learning and challenge in light of this.
• how we might step away from our system to be able to get an accurate view of the ‘big picture’

By considering what ripples we want to create, we can be more intentional and deliberate about not only WHAT we are doing but HOW we do it.

Let’s circle back to the question- ‘how do we support leaders to get even better?’ We know great educational leaders exist..So, by figuring out how they lead, what helps/hinders their thinking and decision making and what they DO to create teams that stay, we can get closer to answering this all important question. I am keen to speak to as MANY educational leaders as possible to discuss the thinking, practicalities, complexity and joy that goes into leading an educational setting. In doing so, I hope to tease out some of the common themes and ideas, in order to create content and tools to support educational leaders on the ground. If you’re interested in being involved, drop me a message on my website, Twitter, Bluesky or LinkedIn. Alternatively, if you’re short on time, please consider responding to my MS Forms survey which I’ll share in the next few weeks. Let’s make some ripples!

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy new academic year and look forward to seeing the many positive ripples to come, across the sector.