Leadership

Painting a Picture with Numbers

/ Dave Eberwein / 2 Comments

Numbers are a great place to start a conversation. While they never tell the whole story, they do offer a launching point.

Take a look at the ones above.

They represent some statistics on an important topic — a part of a story from across our province and country. And while they don’t offer a complete narrative about the topic they do help to paint a compelling picture — a picture that reaffirms for me why schools need to be an important place of understanding and acceptance.

The topic I want to talk about today is also a polarizing one in our communities. My experience has shown that few people are without a strong opinion on the topic.

Let’s begin today’s discussion by looking at the two largest numbers …

1,000,000

  • The approximate number of persons in Canada who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning (2021)

75,000

  • The approximate number of persons in Canada who identified as trans or non-binary (2018)

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I Don’t Know Very Much

/ Dave Eberwein / 3 Comments

I know less every day.

I say this with sincerity, because everything I learn exposes other things that I don’t know — new questions, new unknowns, new explorations. As Superintendent, this provides that ‘fire-in-my-belly’ for me to push ahead.

The opportunities to learn are limitless. There is no finish line.

Does increased knowledge translate into having wisdom? Are people who know lots of stuff necessarily wise?

Wisdom requires more than knowing a collection of stuff.

WISDOM results when one’s knowledge is blended with HUMILITY, REFLECTION and GROWTH.

  • Humility provides the mindset to truly understand your learning journey;
  • Reflection results when you process context and previous learning into your new learning; and
  • Growth happens when the knowledge you learn broadens your understanding.

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Being Better

/ Dave Eberwein / 2 Comments

“Being better tomorrow than we are today” is something I talk about a lot — in my daily interactions, my blog posts, in all sorts of meetings …

But, what does it mean to be ‘Better’?

I explored this this topic the other day with our school trustees and thought it might also make for an interesting blog post. So, here we are …

When I engage others in conversation about our road to improvement, I reflect on a reminder I have above my desk about the need to move forward:

“It’s OK to be where you are right now. It’s just not OK to stay there.“

These concepts of ‘being better‘ and ‘finding ways to move forward‘ form an important part of my mindset on personal and organizational growth. But, the question still remains … what does BETTER actually mean?

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