I’ve spent a fair amount of time this week making visits. Both to districts, and to outside organizations, there is tremendous value in meeting others on their own turf; where they go about their business and are most open to ideas, thinking, and conversation.
Yesterday I visited a local arts organization to share potential ideas for collaboration. It was an amazing visit, and until a week or so ago, I didn’t even know about the organization’s existence. There are so many hidden gems in our communities that we need to make sure we take the time to explore all that is out there.
By being on-site at this organization, I was able to truly see the work that they do, and experience the examples of learning and leading that they stand for. As my supervisor said, “Visiting others lets us see what our true collaboration with them might look like.”
And she is one hundred percent correct. Initially, the meeting was scheduled to be held in my office, and the reason? Because it was more convenient for me. But, as my supervisor helped me to understand, the amount of time I would be giving up to travel (an hour or so) would be more than made up for, as I would have a better understanding of whether collaboration could happen, and/or what it might look like.
While we do tend to visit our districts and community partners quite a bit, this experience helped me to further understand the value of partnership, and the need for us to not only work together, but see each others spaces equally too.