Transparency – The Right Stuff

I believe in it — transparency.  I believe that it should be the cornerstone in any leader’s foundation.  Transparency leads to consistency which leads to increasing trust from those in your organization.  And to be an effective leader one needs to have the trust of those whom they hope to lead.

Leaders who are not transparent aren’t the kind of people we should be following.  We can all probably think of people in leadership positions who change their words and actions depending on who they are speaking with at any particular moment.  You never really know what they believe and as a result you lose faith in them, trust in them and belief in them to work with you to move an agenda forward.  You likely give up at some point and strike out on your own with feelings of disillusionment and frustration.  Continue reading

The Great BC Education Change

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Public schools have been around since the mid 1800’s in our province.   They have been a critical part of our societal fabric for a very long time.  We knew that a strong public education system was critical to the health and success of our province.  I found out some time ago with intrigue that Saanich was actually one of the first established school districts in the province. How cool is that?  We were a trend setter here on the peninsula!

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Residential Schools – We Can Remember by Wearing Orange

I found myself feeling somewhat nervous, perhaps a tad intimidated, when I set out to write this particular post.  I felt myself being drawn into writing something about residential schools and the upcoming Orange Shirt Day (Sept 30th every year), but I also felt incredibly inadequate:

  • My understanding about our national history on residential schools is bordering on the ignorant.  I do not ever recall being taught in school about Canada’s shameful past experience with residential schools, and while I’ve listened to elders talk about their experiences, I still feel somewhat uninformed;
  • I am not an indigenous person — none of my relatives are indigenous — and as such I do not pretend to begin to understand the pain and suffering felt by the thousands of persons who were sent to residential schools in Canada;
  • I worry that my words and sentiments, because of my limited understanding, may inadvertently add to the hurt or pain already felt among many in our indigenous communities.

What I am NOT concerned about is whether this blog post might result in people talking about our nation’s past practices with Indigenous people.   In fact, I hope that it might encourage some conversation about our experience with residential schools.  Our country’s history with residential schools is shameful.

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