Living on the Edge

One year ago I had the privilege of speaking with Jethro Jones as a guest on his podcast The Transformative Principal, In his series of podcasts each week, Jethro Jones interviews a principal or educational leader who is making a real difference in the life of his or her students.

In our conversation, we did a deep dive into my work on Edgework in his podcast “Living on the Edge.”

I developed the concept of Edgework within education over 30 years ago, refining it over the course of several decades through my own life experiences, honing it in my work as a classroom teacher and living it as a head of school, and giving the concept a name. Edgework is a mindset and process that engages a growth mindset, encourages perspective-taking, identifies potential opportunities, expands skill sets, and builds confidence. It powerfully influences and shapes who we are as individuals, as well as within our roles as leaders and educators in our organizations.
 
The “edge” symbolizes the boundary of our current capabilities, skills, knowledge, and experience. Often, it reflects the threshold of confidence as well. Too far away from the edge and we are not challenging ourselves. We are in the comfort zone, and we are not learning. Too far over the edge, and we are overly stressed and fearful—we are in the panic zone, and we are not learning. The goal is to be balanced on the edge—one foot secure and the other dangling just over the precipice.
 
And speaking of dangling over the precipice, in early 2020 we entered a global pandemic. By the time I sat down to speak with Jethro in June 2021, we had somehow managed to navigate through our first full school year (and little did we know that we had at least another year to go!). I didn’t see this sort of Edgework coming, but it certainly reminded me of the importance of finding my footing when faced with significant challenge.

Curious to hear my thoughts? The Audible podcast is now available (as well as on The Transformative Principal).