Practical Pathways to Innovation

Walter McKenzie
May 2
5 min read

This is an ongoing series on The Worthy Educators’ Principles of Educator Agency and Efficacy and their implementation in our efforts to transform the profession. This piece addresses the non-negotiable right of principle 10, Innovation: ensuring safe, supportive environments that promote experimentation, rigor and risk-taking. See the accompanying infographic below and share this resource with colleagues. We invite educators everywhere to join us in this important work!

Watch the video accompaniment to this blog post!

Innovation often feels like a magical, elusive force…the sudden flash of a brilliant idea, the painting that seems to pour off the brush, the song that writes itself. But the truth is, innovation isn’t grabbed out of thin air. It’s a spark created by the friction of experience, curiosity and imagination.

Education has been formalized and written into institutional policy and practice, and legislated into law and funded by said lawmakers. This has boxed us in to a set way of running schools, teaching and learning for more than a century. It seems longer, but we’ve really painted ourselves into a corner just recently.

The good news is, innovation is the product of our experience, so the institution constraints that have weighed us down provide a starting point, even if it’s for what we don’t want moving forward. Ever problem, every conversation, every situation we face plants the seeds for alternate and better ways of doing things. Some sprout quickly into immediately actionable ideas. Others are dormant for months and even years before they can become implemented. We are at a moment in history where education is ripe for transformation.

How can we create the conditions for innovation?

Curiosity Fuels Creativity

The creatives among us aren’t necessarily born with more ideas; they simply ask more questions and aren't afraid to explore the answers. We all have the ability to be innovative! Curiosity is one of our superpowers of innovation. When we approach the world with a sense of wonder, asking "What if?" and "Why not?" we move beyond the current state of disruption to a better way of leading education.

Emotions as a Gateway

Joy, sadness, love, anger: strong emotions have an incredible ability to inspire us. At a time like this, they connect our humanity to the institutional challenges we’re grappling with, allowing us to express authentic ways of rethinking our work. Humankind’s most powerful achievements have been born out of a deep emotional response to the circumstances in each moment in history.

The Power of Solitude

Sometimes inspiration strikes when we step away from all the noise and commotion of a current crisis and recenter our minds. Moving to a different space, enjoying the serenity of a quiet morning or a peaceful sunset, or even just a quiet moment of solitude with the door shut before the next meeting can create the space and opportunity for new thoughts to join in your internal conversation. Give the world around us the chance to remind us of its boundless creativity and beautiful imperfection.

Connection and Collaboration

Innovation isn’t accomplished in silos. The notion of a scientist slaving away in a solitary laboratory defies our experience as educators. Conversations, collaborations, and even disagreements challenge our assumptions and push us to fresh perspectives we can’t find on our own. Sometimes the spark comes from hearing someone else's point of view, and oftentimes it comes from everyone getting in the sandbox and helping build together.

The Courage to Create

Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable is a precondition to innovate; to take risks, make mistakes, learn from the results and start over again without fear of judgment. There’s a freedom in being able to bring ideas to life, even if they are imperfect or incomplete, and then work with them and see them evolve into functioning, implementable solutions to the problems we are trying to address. There is no better time than this age of disruption to reinvent our profession.

How can we nurture our inner innovator?

Embrace Disruption

If you didn’t get the memo, disruption is here and it’s not going away. Dive deep into it and look for the ways to make things better from its fallout. Now is the opportunity to shake off the old ways that have kept us from moving forward and create the new way forward for education.

Practice Playfulness

Sometimes the best ideas come when we’re simply playing. Have fun turning reality on its head and looking at the world in childlike ways. Who better than teachers to know and show that play removes inhibition and invites innovation. Start safely amongst ourselves and build out into our community.

Immerse Yourself in Mindfulness

For all the commotion of this age, slowing down and being fully present sharpens our senses and our awareness of who we are and what we want to achieve. Innovation can be hiding in the small details we miss when we’re rushing through everyday routines or resting in our comfort zone. The resulting clarity of mindfully seeking a new way forward rewards us in ways we don’t readily see when we’re going through familiar motions.

Seek Others’ Stories

Innovation is, by definition, moving in a different way to achieve groundbreaking results. Read reflections, watch webinars and listen to colleague’s experiences. Stories pull us out beyond our own reality to swim in deeper water and surf tides of others’ energy and inspiration. Allowing different voices to inform our thinking breaks us free from our familiar patterns that lock us into the way we have always done things.

Reflect on Your Journey

We didn’t get where we are by accident. Look back at where we've been, what we've overcome, and how we've arrived here. Find the lessons, course corrections and new ways forward from where we’re standing. We don’t move forward creating reality our of whole cloth. We build on the wisdom of our experience and then innovate intentionally towards a better way of being and doing. The answers are just beyond the horizon.

Final Thoughts

Innovation comes in cycles. The more you engage yourself in new ways of being, the more it will make itself known.

Feeling uninspired? Don’t sit around waiting for a lightning bolt. Step out of your current circumstances, survey the landscape around you and be open to what you don’t immediately see. Place your trust in the knowing that innovation is always just a step ahead of you!

After all, innovation isn’t about finding the "right" idea that fits into our current mindset. It’s about letting go of assumptions and understandings of our current circumstances to realize what’s possible!