Beginner's Mind: how we learned how a new school is created.
Team Letter | December 18, 2023
December 18, 2023
Woo Hoo, Happy Monday Alpaca!
This weekend, I was re-reading The Creative Act where Rick Rubin talks about the importance of “beginners mind.” If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, beginner’s mind is “starting from a pure childilke place of not knowing… with as few fixed beliefs as possible.” Developing a practice of “beginner’s mind” means learning to let go of what you know, to let your brain operate like a child’s (or a puppy! Ahem, Aster. Your presence is requested at the office) - operating on innate instinct, rather than learned behavior. Valuing play, moving freely from one idea or emotion to the next, and seeing things as if you’re seeing them for the first time.
It made me think: we are so lucky to work in the space of education.
In our work, we are surrounded by spaces and people where the entire focus is teaching and learning. Starting fresh, not knowing, being new to things is all very okay in our space! In fact, it’s the whole point of education. Because of it, we’re working with people like Susan Toohey who say “oh, you don’t know anything about that? No problem. I’ll help you learn.” And when you’re a startup company that hasn’t done this before, people willing to help you and teach you is the difference between making it or not.
That’s why, when we got the opportunity a year ago to learn how a new school is created, I jumped at the chance. And then dragged Kimberly into it with me. :)
One year ago, in a conversation with Susan Toohey, who is the founder, former principal, and current Superintendent of Nelson Mandela Elementary School, she told me that she needed to document the story of her school. It was a daunting task for her, and felt like the kind of project that would teach me something BIG, and so I asked to ghostwrite it for her – to interview her and her team in depth, and then synthesize it all into a single story. And I told her I thought we could get Kimberly’s help on the photos, because the visual storytelling would be incredibly important. I didn’t realize just how big a component of this project that would be.
The project became known as SCHOLAR, named for the school’s name for their students, which itself is a brilliant bit of branding that helps their kids feel like they belong to a special place from the moment they walk in the door. When you say “I’m a Nelson Mandela Scholar” you’re already setting yourself up for success in life. Brilliant!
In exchange for our help, Susan gave us complete access to her school and staff, and use of the photos for Alpaca, which gave us marketing material at a time we really needed it!
What I didn’t anticipate is just how much we were going to learn about how schools work, what challenges their teams, what great school leadership looks like, and how thoughtful, intentional practices can change the way educators feel about their jobs.
In a way, I believe that the work we did on SCHOLAR gave rise to Alpaca’s new product strategy you’ll see emerging in the weeks ahead, focused fully on listening to and engaging teachers in real ways, and providing solutions for true teacher engagement and wellbeing. With a completely blank notebook, days of immersion at an exemplary school, and dozens of hours interviewing an extraordinary leader, I got to experience the idea of “educator” and “school” brand new, as a beginner.
And through a lot of writing on my part and some brilliant visual storytelling on Kimberly’s part, we got to capture the story in what I believe will be a really unique and beautiful way. Last week, we delivered a draft of 4 out of 7 chapters of a book that’s been a year in the making. It’s not complete and there is much work to be done! But it is taking shape, and so I wanted to share it with you.
And when we actually print the full book, we’ll have a copy for the office, of course!
As you’re thinking about your work values as part of our review process this week, and as we’re getting ready for a new year ahead, I’d love to encourage you to think about where you can apply a beginner’s or learning mindset in a new way in the new year. And share it with us if you feel like it! We want to learn alongside you and cheer you along!
Let’s go, Team Alpaca!!!
KB