CEO Latest News
Welcome to my CEO news page. I'll be regularly updating this page with news and developments from across the trust. There is lots going on so keep popping back to see what's happening!
Best Wishes
Gavin Booth (CEO)
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The Infinite Game
Wed 13 May 2020Over recent years the pressure of league tables and the polarity of OFSTED judgements has led to many schools, MATs and their leaders pursuing strategies based on short term impact. Yet the curious thing is, if we step back a little, the leases on our academies in our master funding agreement are in excess of one hundred years. Long after our careers and even our lives are over. There is a growing feeling among system leaders that we need to put aside the short termism of the first part of this century and begin to develop the structures and the people who will lead them in the decades ahead rather than the next few terms.
It is against this backdrop that our Headteachers have been reading the ‘Infinite Game’ by Simon Sinek. We are called the ‘Infinity Academies Trust’ so as the Americans may say, Sinek’s work should be our ‘playbook’ as we seek to have a long term positive impact on the community that we are proud to serve.
What is the Infinite Game?
We are so used to seeing the world in terms of black and white or as winners and losers. Yet in education you cannot win the game, as the game does not end, instead one academic year rolls into the next academic year and a cohort leaving is continually replaced by one joining. Furthermore if we were to come up with a win or a loss what would we base it on? There are so many metrics available that a winner could never be truly determined.
Instead education is an infinite game and our primary objective should to be keep playing the game, to keep providing the best education we can. At this Trust we are committed to playing the infinite game and that means that our current colleagues are our future and those NQTs joining us in September, will become the leaders of our vision.
Success in the Infinite Game
To succeed in the Infinite Game we have to think about how we are going to build a Multi-Academy Trust, which will be strong and healthy enough to stay in the game for generations. There are five essential practices that leaders who wish to adopt and infinite mind-set must follow. These are:
- Identify a just cause
- Build trusting teams
- Study your worthy rivals
- Prepare for existential flexibility
- Demonstrate the courage to lead
A Just Cause
We are used to talking about a vision or a set of aims and a just cause does have similarity to these. It defines where we are going, describes the world we hope to live in and the one we are committed to help build. Sinek give five suggestions of what a just cause should be:
- For something not against so it is both affirmative and optimistic
- Representative of a wide body of people so it is truly inclusive
- Service orientated, for the primary benefits of others
- Resilient, able to ensure future changes whether evolution and revolution
- Idealistic; big, bold and ultimately unachievable
The just cause must tick all those five boxes and at the same time it must not be a ‘moon-shot’ or be based upon just trying to be the ‘best.’
Trusting Teams
We all recognise that for teams to achieve their very best, there must be a high level of Trust. Sinek explains this in more detail in ‘Leaders eat last’. We want to ensure that our staff feel safe as they come to work. We want them to focus on providing a great education rather than worrying about making mistakes.
In the infinite game we are looking for long-term success and we need a system to ensure that trust and performance endures over time. Many system leaders will understand that they are not responsible for the results; they are responsible for their Headteachers. Then in a manner akin to Russian dolls, Heads will also understand that they are responsible for the people who are responsible for the results. This will not happen if there is a culture of fear in the organisation.
Worthy Rivals
In education there has been an obsession of competition over collaboration in the last two decades. This has meant that some school and MAT leaders have seen others as competitors, which in some areas has resulted in an arms race reminiscent of the cold war.
We are playing the infinite game so rather than competing we identify those around us who are our worthy rivals. They are organisations that share similar values that we can learn from. They will inspire us to help us get better at what we do and most importantly we can both succeed together. It has been wonderful to see so many MAT leaders reaching out the hand of friendship to the Infinity Academies Trust this year in a culture of sharing ideas so that we can all become better. These are our worthy rivals.
Existential Flexibility
This is the capacity to initiate a considerably change to our current working in order to move effectively towards a just cause. In many ways this is what we are doing at the moment. We have realised that we cannot continue to provide the same education for our community as we did in February via the Internet, as this would not be suitable for our community. Instead we have to think about what we are trying to provide for children and their carers that is aligned with our just cause.
We all know that education is constantly changing so we have to be ready to flex in response to that. We can all think of schools that haven’t changed their methods in the face of examination changes or OFSTED framework and their decline has meant they have been unable to stay in the game.
The Courage to Lead
Finally if we commit to playing the infinite game this requires considerable courage on behalf of the leaders in the organisation. If the rest of the world is looking through the lens of a finite game, it can take huge courage to state we are working for long term not seeking immediate success next term using boom then bust strategies.
We have to prioritise people over numbers and act consistently in line with the values of our organisation. We must also understand the playing the infinite game is not a checklist it is a mind-set.
Finally when leaders exercise the courage to lead, the people who work inside the organisation will start to reflect the same courage. These colleagues will then go onto play the infinite game in the future so that the organisation stays in the game. The very purpose of the ‘Infinite game’.
If you want to read more about the ‘Infinite Game’ by Simon Sinek, I would strongly recommend reading the book (or listening to it). Also have a look at ‘Leaders eat last’ or his first book, ‘Start with why’.
Paul K Ainsworth is the School Improvement Lead for Infinity Academies Trust. He is the author of a number of books including Bloomsbury’s, ‘CPD Library: Middle Leadership’ and enjoys supporting schools in and out of the Trust.
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CEO email to all staff following the Prime Minister's announcement.
Mon 11 May 2020Morning All,
I hope you are well. I like many of you sat anxiously watching the Prime Minister at 7pm last night hoping that he would lay out some clear plans to enable us to begin to return to normal. My top two wishes were the chance to interact with my wider family followed by a structured and informed approach to bringing our school community back together. Unfortunately neither of my wishes came true.
As you will have seen there is an initial suggestion that from 1st June the Government will look to bring children back into primary schools beginning with children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. This as you can imagine has thrown up literally hundreds of questions about how it’s possible to do this safely. We are anticipating guidance from the DFE today which we hope will offer more detail about how we might begin to tackle this including the implications for all of us as staff working in schools. I know you must all have a lot of questions. One thing is for sure at this moment in time myself and the Senior Leaders across the Trust don’t have the answers! We are hoping that in the coming days once we have this guidance we will be able to begin to form a plan about how this all might work. We will then be in a position to share it with you. I know waiting and listening to all the speculation builds anxiety but please try and be patient as we try and find a way through. At this point in time nothing has changed for us- the key worker and vulnerable children lists remain unchanged, the rotas stay in place and we continue to offer the emergency childcare that has become our new norm. One thing you can be confident in is that we will not be opening our doors to children and families until we believe we can do it safely. And by that I mean everyone’s safety; children, parents and staff. I am in regular contact with a large number of school leaders and many of them feel exactly the same way. The decision to open a school ultimately rests with me not the DFE and if I can’t be sure it’s safe I won’t do it. Many of my colleagues and other Trusts leaders are taking the same approach. I’ve been really impressed by the work of many of the teaching unions and they seem to really understand our concerns and we need to trust in them to challenge the DFE and represent our worries.
I have been overwhelmed with our response to this crisis. To put it simply you’ve all been amazing! I know we all want a return to normal, to welcome our children back and to rejoin our school families, however we need to make sure we do this when the time is right and when we can do it safely. I will endeavour to keep you all updated as I’m sure your school leaders will. Thank you for all that you are doing. The online learning and social media presence of our Trust is absolutely phenomenal. Keep doing what you’re doing and let the leaders worry about the next steps. We will get through this together.
Very Best Wishes
Gavin