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HMW Ideas – Seeking Feedback

Written by Vanessa Wade

After my last blog post about what motivates students to get involved in leadership (the 6 “P”s), I have hummed and hawed about my HMW question.  In the end I have landed on a couple of ideas – wondering if I can get your feedback to help me move forward.

HMW #1: How might we allow students to understand and value informal leadership at Havergal College?  Moving away from focusing on formal leadership, this HMW focuses more on informal leadership.  Perhaps students lack of “interest” in informal leadership is because they don’t know what it is?

HMW #2: How might we help students understand their leadership footprint effectively so that they can make good leadership choices?  This HMW focuses on all forms of leadership (be it formal or informal).  It’s about understanding Havergal’s 5 domains of Student Leadership and seeing their place in it.

HMW #3: How might we disrupt formal leadership conceptions within the Havergal College culture?  Cultural change is tough but I really like this HMW because it tackles the heart of the issue around what motivates students to take on formal leadership…because it’s “the thing” to do.  “Everyone applies”.  “You aren’t good enough if you do not have a belt”.  Again, perhaps the way to disrupt these conceptions is to raise more awareness about the other domains of leadership.  That the choice is theirs.

HMW #4: How might we better understand Informal Leadership at Havergal College?  A simple HMW that I think gets to the same point as all of the above.

Thanks friends for your thoughts!!

7 thoughts on “HMW Ideas – Seeking Feedback”

  1. Thank you for reaching out @vwade and including us in this discussion – and what a great area for action! Of course, this is very connected to so much of what we talk about at cohort21, the “sphere of influence” and @gnichols concept of “leading from the middle.”

    I’m partial to your second iteration. Like almost everything we do, so much of the success and impact of your initiative will be connected to the extent to which you’re able to successfully draw the students attention back to their experience. If they can conceptualize their impact as leaders (witness and feel it!), they will be further inspired by the concept. And this HMW question seems to intentionally account for this.

    Hey, have you ever seen Drew Dudley’s Ted Talk about Everyday Leadership (the Lollipop Effect). Very connected to your ideas and well worth a watch if you have seven minutes: https://www.ted.com/talks/drew_dudley_everyday_leadership?language=en&fbclid=IwAR08tYBZ4SfjimLfJ9hpB0Wz_oQ6ehnmpgLBQQRjX1kgQfNHdOcdak-bFjM#t-306629

    I look forward to seeing where this goes!

  3. Hi Vanessa,
    These are all great questions, and I think that you could work on one project that addresses aspects of each of them. Have you talked to students about any of these questions? When having trouble deciding which path to follow, the best way to decide what to pursue is always to talk to your users. Perhaps you could float these questions by them and see what resonates most with them?

  4. @vwade “HMW #1: How might we allow students to understand and value informal leadership at Havergal College?”

    I wonder if a big part of this is the feedback loop. Not just from teachers but from the students they are “leading”. To what degree are the leaders hearing from the students they are leading. survey data, kudos, conversations. I think a big part of “seeing value” lies in tapping into the motivation. Yes we want kids to have intrinsic motivation but I think we can accelerate that by putting our leaders in front of positive and constructive feedback to help them see and feel their impact. How might you build in opportunities to collect, digest and incorporate it?

  5. Okay, I am a fan of the simple and elegant, so I would personally have a preference for the final one. I also love what @lmcbeth said…I usually agree wholeheartedly with whatever she has to say 😉

    I think one thing I’ve come to really value about design thinking is to ask question that are broad and don’t assume possible solutions or paths in the question. Your final HMW question seems the most open to me and full of the biggest possibilities.

    I’m curious though, since it’s been a little while since you have written this, if one HMW question has risen to the top?

    1. I think you are right about keeping it broad.
      In the end I think I am going to go with the last HMW: How might we better understand Informal Leadership at Havergal. The thing I like about that HMW is that it also acknowledges that students have the answers too – if that makes sense. The first three somewhat imply that the adults have the information to give to the students (“this is what informal leadership is”) where as the last one (the one I like) allows for lots of different interpretations of what informal leadership is.
      Thanks for your feedback.
      V

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