“I want to be in small conversations.”

“I want to be in small conversations. That’s where you move people and get people to tell you things you need to know. This conference room actually allows you to have really intimate discussions.”

Marc Sternburg

Marc Sternburg is the founding “principal” of Bronx Lab 43, one of New York’s most successful new breed of schools. He made this comment about “small conversations” in an interview with David Nason who was doing a story for The Weekend Australian Magazine. In part he was explaining why he doesn’t really have an office. Apparently he uses a bench in a room he shares with other administration staff. When he needs to meet with people he uses a meeting room that Nason describes as “bigger than a phone booth, but not by much.”

It would be easy to use this situation and what Sternburg says as the launching pad for a discussion on the value of intimacy and participation, but that’s not what struck me here.

Sternburg was hired at the age of 29 to be the founding principal of one of a number of smaller schools designed to “replace” Evander Childs High School “a mini-metropolis of 3000 students known as one of the most dangerous institutions in the US.” Drawing from the same geographic area of the city and with no policy of selectivity in place, Bronx Lab 43 last year graduated 95 percent of its senior year with all of those graduates being accepted into college.

Sternburg seems to me to be a living example of the view that we change things “one conversation at a time” and that whether we do that or not is dependent on how we “show up” in those conversations. Sternburg has strong views that don’t fit with all sorts of mindsets – I’m sure these views show up in his conversations all the time. At the same time I can’t believe that the success that has been achieved has been because this one person imposed his views on everyone around him finding ways to control the behaviour of others. To read the full article and get a sense of Sterburg’s views on a range of topics, including unions and performance management click HERE.

Leading in todays complex world is no longer about control. But it isn’t about not having beliefs, values and commitment either. It’s about showing up in each and every conversation confident in who you are and what you believe AND open to the other people and other views around you. Out of such conversation comes expanded awareness, out of expanded awareness comes learning and out of  learning comes sustainable change. One conversation at a time!

A simple question for the start of this week:

How are you “showing up” in the conversations you are engaged in?