Strategic Schools Dr Simon Breakspear
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- Education
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Get simple and practical ideas to enhance your educational leadership in under 20 minutes. Join educational researcher and author Dr Simon Breakspear as he shares key insights and practical tools that can help you to find greater focus, flow and impact in an increasingly overwhelming educational landscape.
Each year Simon Breakspear works with hundreds of schools and thousands of educational leaders. He received a degree in Psychology from The University of NSW, a Master of Science from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Education from The University of Cambridge.
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Ep. 20: Psychological Safety
Leading complex improvement requires learning, making mistakes, offering alternative perspectives and asking when we aren’t sure about the next steps. To enable this, we need a safe platform for interpersonal risk-taking. In this episode, Simon hones in on the interpersonal construct of Psychological Safety. He explores its importance to team effectiveness and unpacks simple approaches to enhance it with the people you work with. Simon Breakspear website Twitter Facebook
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Ep. 19: Team Health
It’s time to move beyond the notion of heroic educational leadership. Improvement is a team sport, and leaders need to purposefully team the teams they are in. In this episode, Simon shares his concept of Team Health. He explains what it is, why it matters, and how we can all play a role in deliberately enhancing group dynamics and processes. Simon Breakspear website Twitter Facebook
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Ep. 18: Running Retrospectives
In this episode, Simon shares one of his favourite tools for helping teams reflect, learn and adapt: The Retrospective. This simple routine involves teams systematically working through a series of questions at the end of an improvement cycle. Simon unpacks the why, what and how of running a retrospective. Great teams make better mistakes in every cycle of work. The retrospective will help you do exactly that. Simon Breakspear website Twitter Facebook
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Ep. 17: Less
What if the answer was less? In education, we naturally tend to try to solve problems and improve things by adding additional programs, initiatives and responsibilities. Too often, we overlook subtraction as a strategy for improvement. In this episode, Simon provides some provocative frames to use as a team to explore doing less. In a time of systematic exhaustion, the pursuit of less may be just the strategy we need in order to unlock progress. Simon Breakspear website Twitter Facebook
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Ep. 16: Building Social Proof
Building social proof is a crucial step in any school change journey. When individuals see that others within your context have embraced the change and experienced positive outcomes, they are more likely to feel confident and motivated to follow suit. Social proof serves as evidence that the proposed change is feasible and beneficial. In this episode, Simon explores why developing ‘social proof’ can be one of the most powerful ways to gain the support and early buy-in of your staff. He unpack...
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Ep. 15: The Power of Kanban
We are looking for ways to better structure and organise our work during long-term improvement projects. The Kanban approach to team rapid action planning can provide enhanced clarity, motivation and transparency about what needs to be done and where things are up to. Simon shares the core components of the Kanban approach and provides guidance on how educational teams can harness the benefits of this simple and effective tool. Simon Breakspear website Twitter Facebook
Customer Reviews
Timely reminder
Short and sharp, these podcasts are fabulous reminders of the tools we have on hand to lead change. Thanks Simon.
Sustaining Momentum
Such timely advice as competing demands have intruded on actioning our teaching sprint. Much thought, time and collaboration invested in prepare phase. Meaningful intentions all round. So, Simon’s advice beginning again, finding ways rebuild that momentum has been beneficial. And it’s calm, practical advice as always.
Excellent advice!
Just finished the first episode and can’t wait to hear more. Excellent advice and practical tips all based on evidence and current research 👍🏼