"I think we missed an opportunity here in education, as we came back from the pandemic, to create our own narrative. However, all is not lost. It is our time. It is our season to create our own narrative. It is time for us to define ourselves— we are more than mere babysitters; we're more than mere catalysts. We are what we are. And we are people for the next generation."

Stephanie Kimbrough, a Kansas City-area educator, said this, at our most recent school event, where we hosted and surveyed more than fifty educators. Our goal was to celebrate the difficult year educators have had, identify continued “pain points” in need of innovation, and source educators willing to pilot new, innovative approaches.

This is the heart of Leanlab—uplifting educators', students’, and parents’ voices to create meaningful change and innovation in education. However, since the pandemic hit two years ago, we’ve been a system grappling with how we put back the pieces of a puzzle that was already warped and ill-suited to adequately prepare young people for the unprecedented and unpredictable realities that are the 2020s.  

In Stephanie’s words, I hear a painful truth and also a promising resolve. To what extent did we miss a chance to create radical, systemic change? And to what extent is there still a surge of passionate educators longing and willing to create such change?  This is the work of Leanlab Education—to find these educators, and then mobilize and equip them with the resources necessary to systematically elevate their voices to enhance future-facing tools and resources that can propel the education sector forward.

In 2021 we made progress—we ran 12 pilot studies with 178 teachers, 100 parents, and 1480 students across 10 school districts. We solicited their feedback through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and conversations. These insights led to 155 recommendations of technology improvements. To date, 100% of education technology companies that piloted with us have implemented at least 75% of product recommendations—actively embedding school community insights into palpable future oriented tools. 

“it’s not just tools and resources limiting innovation in the field, it’s also the way we lead.”

However, as a leader of an education organization, I’ve personally had to grapple with my own alarming realization: it’s not just tools and resources limiting innovation in the field, it’s also the way we lead. The leadership practices of the past—rooted in physical office locations, white supremacy culture, a certain kind of rigidity—are not the same practices that inspire innovation, curiosity, connectedness and liberation—the kind of practices we’ll need to reimagine education at scale. We need a new way of leading change. And this realization meant that change needed to start at home, with me. 

And yet, on this quest to find a new way of leading I found myself stuck in a liminal space—somewhere between old and new. 

Still writing and working from a kitchen, instead of an office.  

Grappling with the pain experienced by our school partners, such as upticks in violence, student deaths, staff shortages, limited resources—still with less physical interaction than we’ve had in years past. 

I’ve heard so many of our educators say, “The pandemic was hard, but this year has been even harder.” As a leader, I have to agree. The pandemic was hard, but gave us a certain level of clarity. We had a singular aim as individuals, organizations, and schools—and that was, quite literally, to survive.  

For the last two years, we’ve been a society entrenched by fear. And from fear, you cannot create change. With that visceral fear subsiding in 2021, I found myself finding new legs.  

“we flattened our hierarchical organizational chart and transitioned to a new way of working where power, decision-making, and responsibilities are distributed.”

At Leanlab we had—and continue to have—real and honest conversations about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging on our team. However, it had to move past vanity metrics of diverse staff and stakeholders. We needed to reconstitute our organization to align with principles of shared power.  In response, we flattened our hierarchical organizational chart and transitioned to a new way of working where power, decision-making, and responsibilities are distributed. In a more radical approach, we experimented with titles, giving everyone autonomy to create their own C-level title, and we are now experimenting with a self-review and accountability structure.  This work is not easy and I am far from perfect, but we are embracing the messiness in a commitment and acknowledgment aligned with Stephanie’s vision: “It is our season to create our own narrative.”