Endings
Endings often feel funny, they are a bit of anti-climax. Yesterday was my last day as Director of Learning (Scotland) for Osiris Educational. I’ve been building up to it and making sure that I leave everything ‘in order’ and of course there was one or two things I just couldn’t complete and sort before I finished and so I left them with in the capable hands of the team.
At 5o’clock I switched off my laptop off and that was it. Being a remote worker I didn’t even get to say goodbye or leave the building! So now my things are packed up in a cupboard waiting to be collected. My workspace is now all mine and the space in my head is all for me and my vision.
Endings are as important as beginnings. Acknowledging the ending makes space for the beginning.
I owe Osiris Educational a thank-you for opening my eyes to a skill set I didn’t know I had. Having worked in Education and Local Authority for 15 years I wasn’t sure how I would get on in the ‘outisde world’. My role was to build and grow Osiris Educational, Scotland and I really didn’t know how that was going to go. I think i can say that went well! Moving out of Local Authority was a leap for me and now I look back I can see that while it didn’t get me to where I hoped to be, it actually provided a window to something more.
The wide and varied experiences I’ve had over the last 3 years have challenged me in many different ways and I am now clearer than I have ever been on who I am and what I can do. At the heart of everything for me is integrity, growth and connection. I’m grateful for that renewed clarity and I guess I hope that resonates with people I have met and worked with.
We are all hard wired for connection and I missed this so much when I first left my educational psychology role, I missed connected with a group of people each day. That was until Judy joined the team and for 2 years we have worked in a way that is hard to describe. There was no competition, only collaboration. There were equal amounts of hilarity and clear focus. We lifted each other when we need lifting and we will continue to do that.
Every conversation can be a learning conversation and I have had 100s of those in the last three years. I try to add value in every conversation and interaction I have as well as being open to learning. It’s been a privilege to have those learning conversations not just with the likes of Professor John Hattie, Peter Dewitt Shirley Clarke, Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves or Paul Bloomberg, also with my closer colleagues Judy, Laura, Mark, Anne-Marie and Stephen.
The most common feedback I get from people I work with (in all sorts of ways) is that I help bring clarity and with that clarity, the motivation and ability to take the action required. I love working with people who want to move forward and improve whether that is personally and / or professionally.
Huge thank-you to all those who have been in touch, it means a lot! For now I will leave you with these words from Mark Twain. If they resonate and you feel inspired to explore what else might be out there for you, get in touch! I would love to help you.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
— Mark Twain
