In November 2004, the Texas Principals Leadership Initiative, under the direction of Ann Hoover from Region XI, launched a pilot project for delivering the MHA Institute Leadership Through Learning Program.  The program consisted of five two-day courses that focused on developing the thinking and acting competencies associated with systemic story telling, a process that embraces complexity and change. The program was run out of the Dallas Fort Worth area, and involved 45 superintendents, principals, and human resource and professional development consultants over a period of 10 months. Marilyn Herasymowych and Henry Senko facilitated the program.

The schedule for the courses was as follows:

 

1. November 2004: Action Learning: Solving Real Problems in Real Time
2. January 2005: Systems Thinking: Navigating Through Complexity
3. April 2005: Reflexive Practice: Living with Complexity, Relationships and Strange Loops
4. May 2005: Strategic Practice: Working with Corporate Culture and Organizational Change
5. September 2005: The Decision Support System: Surfing the Waves of Change

 

Each of these courses used a Guide that was developed by MHA Institute. Click on the link to access more information on each Guide.

During each course, participants learned specific systemic story telling techniques that they then applied to real work problems, situations, and opportunities. They developed action plans and worked in action learning groups of participants who would challenge assumptions and support each other in taking action in the real world and learning from that action. After each course, participants took action and met with their action learning groups to debrief the results of taking action and to develop next steps. When they arrived at the next course, they shared their results from using the systemic story telling technique with others in the course.

The most significant learning occurred in the last course in which the techniques from the four previous courses were integrated into a decision support system. Most participants commented on how this last course brought everything together. Not only did they understand the techniques from the other four courses, they could easily apply that understanding to real world work problems, situations, and opportunities.

As a result of the success of the first pilot group completing the LTL program, two new initiatives have been started:

• There are 13 participants from the pilot group that are now being trained to facilitate the LTL Program to principals, teachers, and students in their districts. Currently, they have completed the first course in the Practitioner Development Program and are practicing by training others in the course called Understanding and Working with Learning Styles.
• A second group of superintendents and principals finished the LTL Program in December of 2006.
• A third group of superintendents and principals have started the LTL Program in November of 2006.

 

Wanting to get a sense of what was accomplished in the pilot group, Marilyn Herasymowych and Henry Senko collected a number of informal written evaluations at the end of the fifth course. Three questions were asked in the evaluation:

1. What has been significant learning for you throughout the Leadership Through Learning program?
2. What has changed for you as a result of learning the different approaches to systems?
3. How often were you able to practice and use the systemic story telling techniques that you learned in the program?

Follow the link below to view samples of the comments that were received. Some of the comments were modified to aid comprehension.

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