We need community.
While in Europe last month, I started writing a post titled, “We’re all in this mess together,” with reflections and field notes about the digital learning challenges that folks from around the world are facing.
And then I had a few weeks that humbled me. Big time. I decided to write this post first instead.
One thing that I’ve learned in life is that we envision others as having themselves together. And yet, nearly everyone I know, regardless of their position or accomplishments, mostly feels messy on the inside. We are messy people, existing in messy systems, trying to solve messy problems, and often we’re trying to navigate that mess alone.
Without going into the details, which aren’t relevant to this post anyway, I found myself feeling extra messy after returning home from my trip to Europe in June (it was a great trip, by the way, where I gained important insights while connecting with fantastic friends and colleagues). Sitting on my front porch, talking to one of my closest friends who had come over to sit with me and my messiness, I said what I know many of us often feel: “I don’t think I’m ever going to get it together and be enough.”
Fast forward two weeks and I found myself at the D2L Fusion conference in Phoenix listening to a keynote by Liz Bohannon. She spoke about embarrassing blunders, vulnerability, collective resilience and social health, and the importance of community connection both personally and professionally. Her presentation connected a lot of dots for me.
I’m lucky. I have a big community around me. My work world, my personal world, and the spaces where those worlds overlap are full of amazing friends with whom I can have moments of adventure, awkwardness, vulnerability, laughs, fun, and hard conversations. I’m grateful to be surrounded by some of the best humans out there and super-grateful that these friends continue to put up with my off days, my big and far-fetched ideas, and my ‘speak/act now, think later’ tendencies (and all kinds of other ridiculousness from me).
Going back to the messy version of me sitting on my porch wondering if I’ll ever have it together and be enough, I’ve come to realize that I won’t. That’s not to minimize my achievements, talent, or future potential. Rather, it speaks to the unrealistic, hyper-independent part of me that thinks I should be able to figure out and perform all the things on my own. And it speaks to the feeling I carry, that I’ve somehow failed, when I can’t do what is arguably impossible for one person to get done. Also, I’m always going to be messy to some extent, it’s just how we humans are (which is a beautiful thing). In the moment with my friend, he made a very kind and cutting (in a good way) comment. I can’t remember his exact wording, but he called me a perfectionist (he’s not wrong) and told me that I’m never going to be able to reach this unrealistic, hyper-independent ideal that I’ve set for myself. Even if what I want to do isn’t necessarily unrealistic, my approach is often too dependent on me alone. He reminded me how I need to be easy on myself and to let others join me on the messier side of my journeys, whether that be in my personal life or professional contexts.
Bottom line: We all need community.
In community, our messes can become stories that inspire other people and important lessons that help us all make better decisions. Our failures can feel more manageable and our successes more celebrated when they are shared with others. In the areas where we fall short, or don’t want to engage, there are likely others in the community with the skill sets and desires to play in those spaces, instead of leaving them as gaps.
One of the key components of the company I’m building is a close-knit, no-cost professional community focused on growing our collective expertise as digital learning leaders. My vision includes finding ways for us to gather, learn from one another, and collaborate to offer practical help to institutions and organizations as they work to overcome big, messy digital learning challenges.
I’ve talked before about the importance of taking a failure-focused approach and sharing our mistakes as a change management strategy for improving technology adoption. That applies to us as a broader digital learning community too. On my end, I’m doing my best to walk my talk.
Building a community for us.
With the point being hammered in to me over the past month that I need to lean into community more, I’m setting up a few virtual gatherings over the month of August to share more details about my hopes and plans for the Digital Learning Leadership Community (website forthcoming) and, more importantly, to get your feedback. I also want to take time to hear what you need most from this community as it takes shape.
Whether you are a decision maker, an edtech professional working in the system, someone with expertise looking to expand your consulting work, someone simply wanting to grow your expertise, or any mix of these, this community is meant to serve your needs and bring value to you personally, as well as bringing value to the higher ed landscape more broadly.
Each 60-minute gathering will have a general focus to provide us with a sense of direction and lots of time for discussion so I can hear from you. Come to one, come to them all, whatever works best for you.
Register for the Digital Learning Leadership Community gatherings now: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/aDLoGfqETmKBnEoiuOliAA#/registration
Friday, Aug 7: What I learned about the big, messy digital learning challenges we are facing during my listening tour
Friday, Aug 14: How can we better connect talented folks in the edtech world to the decision makers that need their expertise?
Friday, Aug 21: How can we better support the advancement of strategic and responsible technology use in teaching and learning?
I hope to see you there!
~Nicole
FIND ME HERE IN THE COMING MONTHS:
Want to meet up? Here’s where I’ll be.
WCET Annual Conference (Minneapolis, USA): Oct 14-16
AI-cademy (Vancouver, Canada): November 9-10
