This article forms part of our kete of resources for principals on resilience and wellbeing and will be regularly updated with new clips and advice. To access the rest of our resources, head to our Resilience page. For Wendy Paul, Director of Purpose at Fonterra, resilience grew from ego death. Having handled crises for her organisation before, she learned the importance of letting go of the 'hero mentality', and how that was core to true resilience. "It's a stoic, old-school mentality, believing your role as a leader is to save everyone," she says. "But it's normal to have ups and downs - you have to be authentic to yourself and those around you in how you deal with it." In this piece, we will break down our conversations with Wendy about resilience, wellbeing and growing through adversity. With regularly updated pieces of advice, we hope you find something to help you grow your resilience - and that of your team and community. What does resilience mean to you? Under lockdown, our resilience was put to the test. But for many leaders, it can be difficult to identify exactly what that trait means.  For Wendy, it is several things. Perhaps first and foremost, it is knowing yourself:  But beyond this, it is also important to understand what resilience is not. For many, the concept of resilience means ‘sucking it up’, and swallowing difficulties without a second thought. As Wendy explains, true resilience means being far more open about your feelings – both with yourself and others.  Putting this into practice, this routine of looking after yourself, and letting others express themselves instead of trying to fix things, is a difficult task. So difficult, in fact, that Wendy herself has struggled with it under lockdown – but remains focused on building a plan to help her own resilience. But as we explore what resilience looks like in our own lives and remain honest with ourselves, we can begin to demonstrate the trait in a way that others can adopt.  Supporting teams to be resilient can be a difficult task - one that begins with yourself and managing your own feelings to be helpful for others. Wendy notes that this is all about knowledge. And when your team is having a bad day, Wendy believes it's all about perspective. As an organisation, Fonterras has maintained a big focus on resilience throughout lockdown. For Wendy, this has meant being deliberate with her time in both personal and professional contexts - where she can! And now that we are moving into Level Two, we are all taking lessons from remote working into our organisations - something Wendy has already given significant thought to. And finally, we couldn't let Wendy go without first letting us know the most important resilience lessons that she has learned.

This article forms part of our kete of resources for principals on resilience and wellbeing and will be regularly updated with new clips and advice. To access the rest of our resources, head to our Resilience page. For Wendy Paul, Director of Purpose at Fonterra, resilience grew from ego death. Having handled crises for her organisation before, she learned the importance of letting go of the 'hero mentality', and how that was core to true resilience. "It's a stoic, old-school mentality, believing your role as a leader is to save everyone," she says. "But it's normal to have ups and downs - you have to be authentic to yourself and those around you in how you deal with it." In this piece, we will break down our conversations with Wendy about resilience, wellbeing and growing through adversity. With regularly updated pieces of advice, we hope you find something to help you grow your resilience - and that of your team and community. What does resilience mean to you? Under lockdown, our resilience was put to the test. But for many leaders, it can be difficult to identify exactly what that trait means.  For Wendy, it is several things. Perhaps first and foremost, it is knowing yourself:  But beyond this, it is also important to understand what resilience is not. For many, the concept of resilience means ‘sucking it up’, and swallowing difficulties without a second thought. As Wendy explains, true resilience means being far more open about your feelings – both with yourself and others.  Putting this into practice, this routine of looking after yourself, and letting others express themselves instead of trying to fix things, is a difficult task. So difficult, in fact, that Wendy herself has struggled with it under lockdown – but remains focused on building a plan to help her own resilience. But as we explore what resilience looks like in our own lives and remain honest with ourselves, we can begin to demonstrate the trait in a way that others can adopt.  Supporting teams to be resilient can be a difficult task - one that begins with yourself and managing your own feelings to be helpful for others. Wendy notes that this is all about knowledge. And when your team is having a bad day, Wendy believes it's all about perspective. As an organisation, Fonterras has maintained a big focus on resilience throughout lockdown. For Wendy, this has meant being deliberate with her time in both personal and professional contexts - where she can! And now that we are moving into Level Two, we are all taking lessons from remote working into our organisations - something Wendy has already given significant thought to. And finally, we couldn't let Wendy go without first letting us know the most important resilience lessons that she has learned.

What’s the best way to recycle a laptop?   E-waste collections, selling on TradeMe, gifting to a friend – there are many opportunities for passing on your tech when you upgrade to something new.   But for Whangarei-based Fonterra Area Manager Neil Crowson, the option was something a little different – donating laptops to schools in need.   Relationships and resources  In 2019, Neil was a Capacity Partner in Springboard Trust’s Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme (SLPP). Working with Okaihau Primary’s principal Tim Couling, they spent 10 months of the year working together to build Tim’s strategic leadership in a schooling context.   As the programme went on, conversations turned to issues specific to those rural and remote Northland schools. Issues like funding access, families’ digital resources, and improving the tech literacy of students in the regions.   “The tech space can be a big challenge, as Northland isn’t as well-resourced a region as some other parts of the country,” Neil notes.  “It meant that when the laptop situation arose, working with these schools was the organic and clear thing to do.” A timely donation delivery Towards the end of 2019, a refresh of Fonterra’s hardware presented Neil with a fantastic opportunity.   “We had 40 laptops that we wanted to recycle, and we suggested getting them out into schools instead.”   “During the last workshop and celebration with the SLPP group, I put it to the cohort – and it went down really well.”   From there, it was a simple case of logistics. Neil asked the principals to give him some direction on how to split the laptops, and together they decided to share the devices evenly between each school in the cohort.   Carol Ashton (one of Springboard’s Programme Managers in Northland) and Neil then delivered the laptops to the schools, and work was done – as simple as that!   “It was a pretty good feeling,” Neil adds, “especially at the end of the year – it feels great to be Santa Claus.”  “And on a professional level, it’s also nice to identify an opportunity and get those devices out. It’s having an impact in schools and communities who need it, without costing anyone anything.”  How the laptops impacted Northland schools Schools often operate on very fine margins – and while the gift of laptops may have been low effort and cost, Neil found the impact it has on the ground is profound.   “The comments from principals were that this will have a big impact, particularly for struggling families who don’t have access to or the means to buy these laptops. Kids had been sharing laptops, and with roll increases that scarcity would only grow worse.”   “It really filled the gap for low decile schools that needed more resources.”  Additionally, the laptop gifting has led to more projects outside the realm of the principals’ and Capacity Partners’ interactions during SLPP.   “I had conversations with some principals who suggested assigning the laptops to senior students at their school. From there, they could partner with people from Fonterra – bring that Springboard framework into the school and foster some great coaching sessions.”  While those conversations to set up the programme are ongoing, it is a testament to the power of connection that programmes like SLPP can develop.   “You have a 10-month programme with these principals, but the benefits are far longer-lasting.”   With six schools equipped with refurbished and recycled laptops and more work in the pipeline, Neil is thrilled with the way things have turned out – and what he’s learned in return.   “When you work as a Capacity Partner, there’s an impression that you’re teaching the principal – but it’s a two-way street.”  “I took a lot of learning out of my experience, things outside my industry that taught me new theories and ways of working. It’s a great thing to be a part of, and I can’t wait to come back for my third year!”  

It’s Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa 2020 – a time to celebrate Samoan language, culture and identity. And this year, the theme is Tapena sau ōso mo lau malaga, which translates to “prepare yourself a gift for your travels”.   So, in line with this – and our recent focus on resilience during a crisis – we would like to highlight a model of wellbeing that all leaders can learn from, one that finds its roots in Samoa: the Fonofale model of health.   What is the Fonofale model of health?  Developed by Samoan-born academic Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann, the Fonofale model of health is a system of wellbeing that acknowledges and embraces Pacific perspectives.   It is a model built around a simple idea: the Samoan fale, or house. However, it includes elements from many nations, including the Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, Tokelau and Tonga.   This fale represents one’s overall wellbeing, and is comprised of multiple individual elements.   The floor, or foundation, represents aiga – family. Not just your immediate relatives, but extended family and anyone you are linked to by partnership or agreement.   The roof is your culture, your beliefs and value system that provide protection and shelter. Pulotu-Endemann notes that this can be traditional beliefs tied to a specific Pacific identity, but can also focus more on Palagi identity and values.   These two parts of the fale structure are then supported – figuratively and literally – but four pou (pillars). They represent the spiritual, the physical, mental and ‘other’ aspects of your wellbeing. Other includes elements like sexuality, socio-economic status and gender.   No one part of this fale stands in isolation – they are all reliant on and supportive of one another. Then, all around the fale, sits a circle, boundary or cocoon that has the final three elements:  The environment surrounds the fale, and is focused on the physical setting, no matter where you are.   Time and context relate to, respectively, a point in time that impacts Pacific people and the surrounding socio-economic, political, legal or personal context that shapes who you are.   For many people, this might be a new way of looking at wellbeing. Typically, we might only consider two or three elements of this when looking at how we’re feeling, or what we can change to improve our situation. But in times when we need to take the utmost care with our wellbeing, models like Fonofale show us a different way of approaching ourselves.  Why are models like Fonofale so important?   In New Zealand, it is critical that we apply a culturally competent lens to everything we do that involves Pacific or indigenous people - especially in schools.   Helping people learn and grow as themselves is paramount, and models like Fonofale (or Hauora, Te Vaka Atafaga, Kalaka and Fa’afaletui) help both leaders and learners do that. It also provides a far better framework when looking at issues like our widening mental health gap for Pacific youth.   And beyond cultural responsiveness, the Fonofale model of health has a lot it can teach about resilience and wellbeing. Mackay et al have noted that Māori and Pacific models have a strong focus on both connection and reciprocity which, in addition to adhering to the overarching principles of Te Tiriti, are likely to help the practice of looking after your wellbeing. On top of this, it has recently been foundational for helping older people reconnect with their identity and culture.   At a time when we’re emerging from two months of disconnect and relative isolation, Fonofale gives us a model for taking stock of everything in our lives, identifying what’s going well (and not), and charting a clear path to resilience and wellbeing.  

Sven Pannell, Director at KPMG and four-year veteran of Springboard Trust programme facilitation, is showing me his monobrow. “These maniacal little ones,” he says, “have scratched me right between the eyes in a ‘tickle-fight’ and now I look like I have a monobrow over Zoom calls”. Gesturing to the rest of his home office, he points out painting supplies and toys scattered around the books and folders. “If you look downstairs, it’s total carnage – huts, toys everywhere. My wife and I prefer a tidy house, but we’ve found the kids disagree.” Two months into home schooling his 6yo son and 3yo daughter, Sven and his wife have embraced an unstructured approach to their children’s learning. With both parents working jobs that ramped up under lockdown, they decided to focus on meaningful connection with their children over disciplined learning frameworks. It’s something he notes has been deeply rewarding, albeit with a few quirks. Bringing the learning home Prior to COVID-19, just 3,597 families home schooled their children. Of course, in the last few months that number has skyrocketed, with parents assuming multiple roles – parent, worker, teacher, friend, playmate – often simultaneously. For Sven, the unstructured approach to home schooling has been both necessity and a challenge. “I definitely wouldn’t recommend doing it the way we did - but it was the way we had to do it.” “We both have full time jobs with clients who needed support as much as possible, and we both have that desire to do our best for them during this time. It meant a lot of pressure, largely driven from within, which we were then balancing with spending as much time as possible with our 6yo boy and 3yo girl.” “Our home schooling, we weren’t super disciplined about it – the most important thing for my wife and I was to connect as meaningfully as possible with our kids.” Under the view that the lockdown would not be a long-term situation, Sven and his wife set about creating fun, creative educational situations for their children without focusing on a structured routine. “A big highlight was taking the training wheels off my son’s bike, and riding with him around Khandallah. There’s a really great community of families, of kids saying hello and social distancing and being together, even if they’re apart.  Just getting outside and exploring our local environment with fresh eyes was important for us.” “And my daughter – spending time like this, you see so much more about what makes them tick. I didn’t realise how wonderful she was at role playing, singing and at inventive games. You learn so, so much more about them in this situation and by letting them entertain themselves a bit more than normal.” “It’s only by being there every day and seeing those things, what they learn and what they’re good at, that you can step in and do a better job of being a dad.”Challenges and boundaries But with that deeper, more constant connection came a challenge all parents will be familiar with under lockdown – maintaining work-home boundaries. “I’ve never had so many plates spinning at home before,” Sven notes, “you deal with the kids urgent needs, and your work’s urgent needs, then you try to find moments to focus on being a family – it leaves no time for yourself.” “We’re extremely fortunate to be in the situation we are in, but regardless it’s been hard in a bubble with full time jobs and full on little ones.” With no time to himself and resigned to a single building (“which has been absolutely dominated by the kids”), Sven turned to cooking as a focal point. “Before this, I didn’t cook nearly enough – I wasn’t home in time – so I decided that I would do it every night while we’re all here. It makes a nice daily focal point for the family. We do all sorts of cheesy things, asking the kids what their daily highlights were, that sort of thing, to connect. We’ve all loved that time, coming together after a busy day” Of course, it’s back to work for Sven and his wife after dinner – but even a single family meal can form a critical touchstone with so much chaos going on around us. Returning to school – lessons learned Acknowledging, of course, that Sven already has a deep appreciation for the work principals and teachers do (“Springboard volunteering is the most wonderful contribution I get to make”), there was still a lot he learned from his home schooling stint. “We know all about the role schools play in developing great humans – but this has really hit home how big a role they also play as a nucleus, as a driver of better communities.” “My kids are gagging to go back – to see their friends, teachers, just to be a part of school as a community – it's such a massive part of their identity at that age.” On top of that, there is a more practical role that Sven admits he hadn’t thought of before. “I never really appreciated how much of an enabler school is for working families. Increasingly, it takes two people working in a household to live a comfortable life – and that’s impossible without schools.” And finally, the understanding of just how exhausting it can be to teach or manage a school. “Normally I’m in a workplace of adults, who have a very different set of demands to kids. Once one of ours has an idea, they want to communicate it and engage with you directly and immediately.” “They can immediately tell if you’re not fully present too – they will not suffer fools!” “I hadn’t thought about that aspect before. I imagine it’s hard for teachers to get things done, keep learning and engagement on track for a class of 20 children, all of whom have needs and want them met right then and there. That’s probably the biggest eye-opener for me.” With home schooling done (for now) and a routine on the horizon, Sven is excited for what comes next – but not without some sorrow. “Our kids are such remarkable, resilient little creatures and having so much time together as a family has been wonderful. The kids have missed school and kindy, for sure – but it’s been replaced with something really new and interesting. I’m sure they’ll be old enough to remember ‘lockdown’ into their futures and I hope they remember our family time with fondness.” As Sven can attest, Springboard volunteers have busy schedules at the best of times – let alone in the middle of a pandemic and public shutdown. But it is in times like these that coming together and supporting communities can be most rewarding. “The cohort I’ve been working with – it's been like a beacon of hope, of people coming together who are experiencing similar challenges. Empathy is built in the trenches, and I’m glad I can do my part.”

This article forms part of our coverage of the 2019 Impact Report. To read the abridged version of the report, please head this way!   The Strategic Leadership for Principal Principals Programme (SLPP) celebrated its fourteenth year in existence in 2019. This free, ten-month programme teams principals up with Capacity Partners – dedicated volunteers from the business world who teach strategic leadership, stakeholder planning and how to create the conditions for change.   Who took part SLPP in 2019?   Last year, some 115 principals took part in the programme, across 19 cohorts of give or take six apiece. Each principal had their volunteer Capacity Partner, and each programme also has a volunteer facilitator – taking the total number of volunteers for SLPP 2019 to 134.   These principals came from an even distribution of deciles, with the Springboard team taking into account PLD budget allocations, resource constraints, leader and volunteer needs, leadership styles and the prevalence of new principals in the sector when onboarding programme participants.   Our geographic reach also continued to expand. 2019 saw our first cohort in the Bay of Plenty, while we also ran SLPP in Wairarapa and South Canterbury for the first time. We continued to support New Zealand secondary schools, while also developing a New Zealand-first programme tailored to rural teaching principals.  The impact of SLPP in 2019  Through our assessment rubrics and reflexive thematic analysis, we could outline statistically significant improvements in several key areas related to SLPP. This included:  Active engagement of stakeholders (including more buy-in)  Coordinating a team around a focused set of initiatives  One-year planning  Clarity and understanding of school vision  Developing change in a process-driven way  This impact continues as principals move onto our Alumni Services programmes, with maximising student outcomes a key long-term impact theme alongside professional development and distributed leadership.  Big changes don’t happen overnight – but the impact we have seen from SLPP lays fundamental groundwork for the transformative change that follows.  Where is SLPP in 2020?   Springboard’s commitment to continuous improvement means that every year, we tweak our programmes based on feedback from principals and volunteers.   We revised the measurement module in 2019, and also looked at streamlining language across all of our offerings.   Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a significant impact on how we work. Since first entering Level 3, Springboard has moved its delivery online, with SLPP workshops and debriefs all taking place over video or phone calls. We’ll have more on how the remote workshops are functioning in a later article.   Overall, 2019 was a fantastic year for SLPP – evidenced in the amazing celebrations we had after completing the programme. We’re thrilled about the impact and how the current year is progressing, and are looking forward to sharing the results of that work with you soon.  

Welcome to 15 Questions! Each month, we will ask a different member of the Springboard Team or wider community about their work, heroes, education and secret hobbies. We hope you enjoy it! Dale Bailey: Springboard Trust CEO On February 24, Springboard Trust welcomes Dale Bailey as its new CEO. With a storied history across education, evaluation and GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), he brings a wealth of experience and insight to our work. To get ourselves (and you all) acquainted with Dale, we got his answers on hard-hitting questions about his hobbies and heroes. 1. Hello Dale! Where are you right now? I'm on the beach in the Coromandel, at Pauanui! My partner's sister has a beach house here, so I am taking a few days off before I start at Springboard. 2. What are you looking forward to most next week? Learning about Springboard – meeting the people, getting to know the team and understanding what drives you all. That’s the most important thing I think. 3. How did you first hear about Springboard Trust? I’ve got some friends who have intersected with SBT before. Some worked here, some have been on the corporate side of things and worked with the team.   They were very positive about Springboard and what it was doing and recommended it highly – which leads us here! 4. What's the most exciting thing about working at Springboard? Coming back to work in education. As a part of that, the idea of connecting the corporate world with education – it's pretty unique, that cross-fertilisation of ideas is really exciting.   5. And the most daunting?   I think it’s getting back into full time work after a few months off! And having such a distributed team across the country, getting to know them over a distance. I want to work quite hard at that.  6. Before Springboard, what was the most interesting thing you did for work?   That would have to be working at Te Papa, where I oversaw national collections. It was a pretty awesome responsibility, and one of the highlights was negotiating with the Chinese for the Terracotta Warrior exhibition to come to NZ. I got to travel to China six times, meet so many people and understand their systems a lot better. I loved it there, and loved working through how to create such a large scale exhibition.   7. Who is someone you look up to?  I am a great, long-time fan of Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic explorer.  8. Why?  He saved everybody in his party when it went to custard on an expedition, camping on ice and leading men on a 700 nautical mile journey through hurricane conditions to save them. The sense of personal leadership that he brings is so inspiring.  9. What's a piece of history you want more people to know about?   The Treaty of Waitangi. I have worked over the last year with the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and am always surprised by how little people know about these complex relationships, and how amazing the treaty is as a modern guiding document.   10. Best piece of advice you've ever received?   One of my bosses once said “where you smell smoke, go towards the fire”.  Don’t try and ignore things, it's important to take them on.  11. How would you describe your leadership style?   Very collaborative and outcome focused. I like empowering people to get on with their job and making their job easier.   12. Favourite thing about NZ education?   The strength of public education in New Zealand. The fact that we have one of the world’s best systems, and that it started very early on in NZ’s history with a great level of investment in it, which has continued to this day – it’s a real standout strength.   13. What's your secret hobby?   I'm a great collector of Crown Lynn, usually through TradeMe and secondhand shops. Any time I travel, I’m looking out for more. I really like NZ-made things, and Crown Lynn is just incredible.   14. Favourite news source?   I am actually quite a fan of the Daily Mail online app – it's hysterical.   15. What is the question we should have asked you?  “Can you tell me about your grandsons?”  

Be predictable. Just a month or two ago, it would have sounded like a call to arms for the bland and uninteresting but now, it is a mantra for leaders during crisis.   It isn’t a new train of thought, however. You can look back to 2009, when authors like Barry Conchie and Tom Rath spoke to behavioural predictability as the foundation of trust, or Stevenson and Moldveanu’s work in 1995. More generally, leaders have always sought to maintain stability – they just might not have thought of it as predictability.   But right now, predictability should be the goal for all leaders – educational, organisational or otherwise. Research has even tried to make this a formal, measurable concept - it’s making it happen that can be difficult.   How to make predictability your focus  The current focus on wellbeing is excellent – but leaders also need to think about cementing predictability for the long-term.   1. Predict the future (as best you can)  Leaders need to show their people how they will act in the weeks and months ahead.   That means reiterating your vision, your purpose, and building your plans around that. Let people know what the future of the organisational structure is, whether pay will stay the same, and what the long-term outlook is.    The essential principle here is “tell them before you tell them”. COVID-19 means that many aspects of our life, from travel to distancing to education, will be up in the air for some time. Identify what you can control – and make sure your people know exactly what’s going to happen in that regard.   2. Overcommunicate As Springboard’s new CEO, Dale Bailey has had quite the introduction to our working environment – but has been a great example of predictability during a crisis. When asked about what the concept means to him, he had some clear words – of course – about communication.   “Establishing clear communication and information is important – even when you don’t know the answer, you should be saying so and committing to coming back with a response.”  This is echoed by Dan Grafton, ASB’s South Island Sales and Service Manager and volunteer with Springboard.  “The only way to keep things moving is give lots of clarity – almost overcommunicate what is going on organisationally. Keeping that door open and the information flowing – it means everyone knows what they need to and feels secure.”  Often, there is analysis paralysis about how often, how much, even how verbosely to communicate. But in times of uncertainty, it is almost always better to err on the side of too much.  3. Give a great routine   Establishing predictability means exercising consistency – and your own calendar is a great place to start.   “Predictability certainly starts with new routines – especially regular meetings and comms at set times,” Dale explains.   “There’s no better example than our daily briefings with the Director-General of Health. The nation has been glued to these 1pm communications, providing a great rhythm to our collective experience.”  Being deliberate with your time, blocking out the same space each day for important communications and delivering metronomic updates to your people – this is the way to predictability.   4. Learn from the experts  You may have seen the news that New Zealand ranked top of the world in COVID communications, according to a roundtable of PR professionals. But as the results show, there’s more to it than the clear routine communications.   Ranking the most credible sources of information on COVID-19, ‘independent scientific commentators’ were a clear first place – ahead of government departments and media.   Just as leaders can learn from the expertise on display from the New Zealand government, they can learn from the constant deferral to experts like Dr Bloomfield or Dr Siouxsie Wiles.   As Dale mentioned earlier in this piece – good leaders need to communicate when they don’t know the answer. But to cement predictability, having a clear trusted voice to defer to on matters outside your expertise can go even further to helping your people.   Predictability is not an art form: it is something achieved through repetition, reliability and routine. It may not be the most glamorous trait to have as a leader – but when your people are in a state of flux, it can be the most valuable.  

How we measure our impact for New Zealand learners. At Springboard Trust, we work with more than 300 volunteers and principals every single year. Each of these individuals has their own unique experience, bringing their own expertise and background to courses like High Performing Leaders and the Strategic Leadership for Principals Programme.   Throughout their journey with Springboard, and for some time afterwards, we gather information on the impact that Springboard’s work has had through surveys, interviews and specially designed assessment rubrics. This gives us a significant breadth of qualitative and quantitative data about how our portfolio impacts principals, volunteers, organisations, schools, senior leaders and New Zealand students.  Every year, we publish this data – along with substantial analysis of it - in our Impact Report. It includes our work on a new evaluation framework, reflexive thematic analysis, qualitative and quantitative findings that link the work we do with principals to positive outcomes for students.  With the 2019 edition now available for you to read, it’s a good time to break down some of the ways we use this data to measure our impact.   How we are measuring our impact: Reflexive thematic analysis  In the past, we have presented impact data qualitatively, as stand-alone case studies or supporting evidence. By utilising reflexive thematic analysis and a dedicated statistician, we have been able to turn this wealth of information into statistically significant findings around our impacts on schools and learners.   Thematic analysis (TA) is an overarching term for a set of practices in psychology, that have applications well beyond this field. In TA, researchers analyse qualitative data (like interviews, surveys or other expressive, open-ended responses) and identify statistically significant themes and outcomes. In short, it’s a more objective way of demonstrating results from data sets that can be highly subjective.   Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) is a subset of this, and was originally developed by the University of Auckland’s Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke in 2006. Since then, it has become a hugely popular approach which has seen it being used as a methodological approach in hundreds of academic journals internationally.  It is particularly well-suited to data sets that relate to people’s personal experiences or perceptions, and so forms a useful basis for analysing Springboard Trust’s impact.   RTA consists of the following six key steps which are recursive - meaning that the researcher might move back and forth between these steps several times:   Familiarising yourself with the data or information  Giving each element of the data a name or label (coding)  Developing the high-level themes or patterns within the data  Reviewing these themes against the entire dataset  Detailing and analysing each theme  Writing up the findings  We have adopted this approach, together with quantitative methods for the 2019 Portfolio Impact Report with the assistance of a dedicated Research and Evaluation professional, resulting in the most in-depth analysis of Springboard Trust’s impact to date. The challenge of measuring the impact of educational leadership  Springboard Trust’s ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for New Zealand students, which we do by enhancing educational leadership. However, research on this area has indicated some complexity in linking leadership in schools directly to student outcomes.   While it might seem reasonably straightforward to evaluate an SBT programme’s impact (just ask one of our principals), there has been ongoing debate about whether it is possible to determine the true and direct impact of principal development programmes. This debate is prevalent right across the development spectrum – not just in Springboard’s work.   Specifically, while there has been consensus on the role of leadership in student achievement, there has been a general reluctance to confront the challenge of determining indicators of effectiveness, identifying what aspects to measure, how to measure them and how to interpret and respond to the results.   This means the challenge for researchers – and Springboard Trust – is to go further in our evaluation than the bulk of educational research has gone before to navigate the complexity of tying school leadership, organisational function, teacher effectiveness and student learning together. That means clarity in identifying the focus and outcomes, consideration of whether these outcomes can be achieved in the short-, medium- or long-term, the selection of relevant and varied data sources (e.g., multiple stakeholders, multiple methods) and the systematic collection of evidence over time. All of this must also be tied together in an agreed-upon evaluation framework and a commitment to gathering data from the short- to long-term. Without that long-term commitment to evidence the impact of development programmes, we have - at best - a snapshot of delivery rather than evidence of impact over time. The challenge of evaluation is not one we – or anyone working in this field – can solve overnight. But we believe that with this Impact Report, we have laid the groundwork for some remarkable findings in how school leadership influences student outcomes.   It forms part of our commitment to both improving student outcomes and continuously improving our portfolio, year on year, to better help principals and learners alike. We're thrilled with the results, hope you enjoy them too. 

There are three places in everyone’s life. The first is home – the space we live in, our comfortable surroundings. The second is our place of work – the space that, outside of our home, we spend most of our time.   Then there is the third place – something that Ray Oldenburg argues is critical for a healthy society. This third place differs from person to person, but it is always where you go to enjoy yourself, or more generally partake in society. It might be your favourite café or bookstore, perhaps your local church, or even a nearby park you like to take a walk in.   But under COVID-19 and the lockdown restrictions, our ability to access these three places is greatly limited. So what we’d like to explore today is, can you possibly have the three places accessible from your own home?   The problem with place in a remote working environment  Work-life boundaries were already difficult to maintain prior to lockdown. Researchers like Leonardi, Treem and Jackson have highlighted how information technology – the bridge between us when working remotely – often acts as the ultimate boundary eliminator, making us feel connected to work no matter what space we occupy.   In our current conditions, the distinction becomes even harder to maintain. At least one space in your home has to be converted to a work environment, and the majority of people’s third places will be closed until we reach at least level two. There are those who will have already done this courtesy of work from home arrangements – but Stats NZ indicates that this is only 16% of New Zealanders. This drastic shift to remote has many impacts – and often negative ones.   Further reading: MBIE Flexible Work Toolkit Grant, Wallace and Spurgeon found a tendency to over-work in remote environments (for those with high motivation), as well as minimal time to recover. By the same token, remote work also lowered productivity among those with an existing lack of motivation. Then there are also new barriers put in place through remote working arrangements – ease of access to physical resources, tech literacy gaps and the conflation of home and work boundaries are the beginning.   Of course, it isn’t all bad. Grant, Wallace and Spurgeon noted increased autonomy and confidence, as well as reduced travel- and family- related stress. The freedom afforded by remote working gives us all a greater sense of control over the way we work.   But the fact remains that with this situation put upon everyone who continues to work, there needs to be boundaries – spaces – for each element of someone’s life. So how can we make that happen?  Creating a first and second space in the home   The first space is the easiest to create in a remote working environment – in that it doesn’t need to be created at all. Rather, it is a task of maintaining boundaries in your pre-existing home – which in turn creates the second space.   This can be as simple as marking out a specific room that is the ‘work room’ - a study, lounge or kitchen for example. You can do work in this environment, and maintain a ‘home’ boundary at the edges of the room.   However, this makes some assumptions about one’s living environment. Many people will be working without such a space available to them – co-working households, flatting situations or smaller properties may lack the space to create a separate work environment.   In these cases, boundaries may have to be actions, rather than physical borders. Going for walks to mark breaks or the end of the day, changing into work attire, using a work-specific chair and desk or strict working hours can demarcate your lockdown workplace effectively. The Springboard Team has their own tips for doing this here.   An interesting note to add here as well is the use of our home’s outdoor spaces. Khajehzadeh and Vale found that even in summer, New Zealanders average just 0.55 hours a day spent outdoors at their own home – perhaps an underutilised space for all of us.   Creating a third space in the home   This can be more difficult. When someone’s third space is a commercial premises (like a café or bar), or even a non-essential service venue (libraries, meeting halls), it is difficult to recreate.   You can create areas of the home for specific activities (reading, watching films) that typically form part of your third place, although this can have cross-over with home activities.   For others, the third place may be (or become) an action. The popularity of the daily walk in our current environment offers one way people are creating this third place, while for others something as simple as the dairy queue might be all they need.   Then, of course, there is the virtual. The third place does not have to be a physical environment or action – it is the sense of participation, creativity and relationship-building that defines it. Zoom or HouseParty calls, playing board games with a friend online, or perhaps even logging on to Twitter or Facebook could constitute visiting a third place for many.   These online communities, ever-present in modern life, reflect real-world social environments in many ways. Crowd participation, the ability to have private exchanges, learn new ideas, even argue – for some, a third place may just be a Stuff comments section.  Food for thought: The body as the work-life boundary  For a final point of discussion, we have to acknowledge that many remote workers do not have those clear boundaries – they are comfortable performing domestic, working and social functions in quick succession or even simultaneously.   For example Koslowski, Linehan and Tietze argue that the body is the “ultimate boundary object”, in that it is part of every space in the home and controls what that space is being used for – work, home, or something else. This includes the mind, where we will often feel the pull of all three spaces at once, clouding our needs and creating confusion.   They use examples of this like someone answering emails on their laptop while talking in bed with their partner. In this situation, a person is acting in both a home and work environment, turning home furniture into work furniture, and performing both personal and professional acts at once.   There are limits, of course. The researchers use the example of parents working from home to highlight that a home / work duality only properly works when one party does not demand active attention – for example, if a child is sleeping on their lap rather than asking for something.   But the fact remains that no matter how we create and maintain our spaces, we are capable of blending multiple roles into one action. They key is understanding your limits, your comfort zone and which parts of the house you want to reserve for a particular kind of space. 

Zoom has been a fundamental tool for Springboard Trust and many other organisations in this shift to remote work. However, as with any application, it is not entirely risk-free.   The Government Chief Information Security Officer (GCISO) from Te Tira Tiaki and National Cyber Security Centre recently released some best practice guidance for using the video conferencing app – we have summarised some of the key points below, and you can read the full guide here.   Please note that these guidelines are targeted at public servants or "nationally significant" organisations, and for use during COVID-19 alert levels three and four. As such, we have left out some of the guidance pertaining to mentioning classified information and working for a government agency specifically.   Eight tips from the April 2020 Zoom security guidelines 1. Use your usual tools for internal meetings  If your organisation usually uses a specific app like Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts for your internal video calls, then it is fine to continue doing so under lockdown. However, it is worth getting up to speed with how Zoom works as, due to its widespread use, many people will be involved in a Zoom call during lockdown.   2. Zoom is not risk-free   The GCISO notes that in the last 18 to 24 months, Zoom has had security issues. This includes recent cases of ‘Zoom bombing’, where unwanted users enter your meeting.   Security journalist Brian Krebs exposed some frailties in non-password protected meetings, while Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has admitted mistakes during the app’s rapid expansion due to COVID-19.   All of which is to say that Zoom is not without risks. However, the company has taken strong steps to improving this security, including default password-protected meetings and expansive best-practice guides for using Zoom – more on that can be found here.  These steps, in addition with the below advice from the NZ Government, can help you navigate Zoom use safely.   3. Use the laptop app first (then browser, then browser on phone – avoid mobile app)  The government’s preferred priority of ways you use Zoom is: the desktop application first, then the in-browser functionality on either laptop or mobile, then last the mobile app.   While the GCISO had not been able to do a rigorous review of the mobile app as of April, due to concerns around user tracking and “a permissive privacy policy”, it recommends government staff avoid using the mobile app for now. If you have to use Zoom from your phone, host or join from your browser (ie Google Chrome).  4. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) – especially if you have a high profile The risk of phishing – someone using fake credentials to get information from an individual – is nothing new. But in this remote working environment, it is especially important for senior leaders and those with a public profile to protect themselves with multi-factor authentication.   5. If you have to use the mobile app, don’t use it for hosting The GCISO prefers that people use the mobile app, if they must, primarily for joining internal calls or parties. That means using the app to host a meeting, or join a meeting hosted by a third party, is not ideal.   6. Make your settings secure In our previous entries on Zoom, we ran through the settings you can toggle as you set up a meeting. The GCISO has also given recommendations on which to use and which to avoid. This includes:   Don’t use a meeting link – generate a random ID  Limit people who can enter to those signed into their own Zoom account   Use the waiting room tool and don’t let people join before the host   Setting a password for your meeting and sending it to participants securely  Much of this is now turned on by default in Zoom – in particular, meeting passwords.   7. Record your meetings locally By doing this (saving your recording to the computer instead of the cloud), you limit the exposure of the contents of your meeting – it is always good practice to have an offline backup of any material you want to hold onto.   8. Be a sensible Zoom user The majority of these measures are to prevent unwanted guests from entering your call. Passwords, waiting rooms, secure communications channels all create strong boundaries around your call, meaning you can conduct your meeting with minimal risk of intrusion.   On top of these measures, you can also practice sensible behaviour as the call begins. Checking who is there, ensuring people are who they say they are, and only accepting attachments and remote control requests from people you trust.   This all may seem quite stringent – but keep in mind that it is also GCSB information designed for NZ public servants. That said, the basic principles of online security are always worth discussing when we operate in a digital environment. Like the old saying goes, better safe than sorry!   For more information on staying safe in Zoom, head to the National Cyber Security Centre. For more general Zoom or remote meeting enquiries, the Springboard team is right here to help.