Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

Looking for something?

  • Blog
  • Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.
  • Podcasts
    • TLTalkRadio
    • Shift Your Paradigm
  • Presentations
  • Recognition
  • #FETC 2020

The one question school leaders and parents aren’t talking about…

By Randy Ziegenfuss

leadership34-2In the book Illuminate from Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez there is an inspiring quote reminding us of one of the primary responsibilities of leadership today:

Leaders anticipate the future. They stand at the edge of the known world, patrolling the border between “now” and “next” to spot trends. They help others see the future, too, guiding people through the unexpected and inspiring them to long for a better reality. (pg. 9)

So much of our work as leaders is to help our organizations continually move forward. This is challenging work, especially in public education where there are an increasing number of compliance issues placed before us. As leaders, it can be overwhelming to find the time and energy to “stand at the edge” and spot the next trends. One of the areas we need to explore more carefully and bring to the forefront of every visioning conversation is tomorrow’s economy and the careers it will bring. Parents and leaders need to be asking this question:

What will it take for today’s learners to compete, succeed and thrive in tomorrow’s economy?

While nobody really knows what tomorrow will bring for our high school graduates, let’s start learning what the experts have to say. A very good start is Alec Ross’s book The Industries of the Future. Throughout the book, Ross shares an economic and geopolitical perspective on our future – “Robots that care for us as we grow old. Cyberattacks against our homes. Extinct animals brought back to life. Ubiquitous sensors eliminating privacy as we now know it.” (pg. 240) In the final chapter, he also asks a variation of the question above and offers a few ideas based on data from interviews for the book.

  1. Today’s learners will need an understanding of how the real world works as their careers and lives will be played out in a global context. He suggests that traveling to lesser known cultures (currently less-glamorous places that will be the markets of tomorrow) is one way young people can gain this real world, global perspective.
  2. Coupled with a global perspective is the need for multi-cultural fluency that can be developed through a curiosity for world languages and cultures.
  3. In addition to fluency in other languages, learners will need fluency in a technical or scientific language such as coding, helping learners to understand the technical world in which we live.

What other resources can school leaders and parents access to learn more about tomorrow’s economy? What do our learners need now to compete, succeed and thrive in the future?

Connect with Randy on Twitter and on the TLTalkRadio podcast!


Get new content delivered to your inbox and the ebook 3 Key Principles of Digital Transformation. The ebook contains valuable information from my experience leading a digital transformation and working with a variety of stakeholders over the past decade.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Randy Ziegenfuss
Follow me
Randy Ziegenfuss
I've retired from public education after 34 years, most recently as Superintendent. In addition to blogging at WorkingAtTheEdge.org, I co-host two podcasts at TLTalkRadio.org and ShiftYourParadigm.org. Learn more at https://workingattheedge.org/about/.
Randy Ziegenfuss
Follow me
Latest posts by Randy Ziegenfuss (see all)
  • A silver lining - January 22, 2022
  • Is our use of tech working against us? 🤔 - September 8, 2021
  • What’s NOT going to change in the next 10 years? 🤔 - September 7, 2021

Filed Under: Digital Transformation, Leadership

Get updates and a FREE ebook!

Get new content delivered to your inbox and the ebook 3 Key Principles of Digital Transformation. The ebook contains valuable information from my experience leading a digital transformation and working with a variety of stakeholders over the past decade.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Working At The Edge:

My name is Randy Ziegenfuss, and I'm a retired public school superintendent and a life-long educator with over 34 years experience developing a passion for teaching, learning, leadership and technology. <read more...>

I first came across the phrase working at the edge while learning about the work of Marzano, et al. School Leadership That Works: From Research to Results. In this work, the researchers define 21 responsibilities of the school leader, one being change agent. A change agent is defined as one who is, "...willing to challenge school practices that have been in place for a long time and promoting the value of working at the edge of one's competence."

Randy Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

Download your FREE ebook!

Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 8.30.12 AM

Archives

Categories

Copyright © 2025 · Rand Ziegenfuss, Ed.D.

Press f for fullscreen.