Life Is A Risky Business
One story arc inside the human drama is about our ongoing and remarkable struggle to mitigate risk. Education itself could be seen as part of that story, representing as it does our quest to better equip our children for the uncertain future they all must face. But, "better equip" does not render risk toothless; rather, it just influences the odds a bit more in our child's favor. We do exactly the same thing when we apply mosquito repellant, instruct our children in defensive driving, or avoid high-crime areas of our city at night. None of these actions zeros-out the risk of West Nile virus, the damage done by a drunk driver, or our chance of being mugged.As the residential portion of our work with the NAIS Aspiring Heads Leadership Institute draws to a close in Atlanta today, I am reminded that no amount of preparation insulates a leader from the risks associated with a promotion. There are too many unknowns and unknowables that will only make themselves known as one enters and joins a new school or association. The best that programs such as ours do is to tilt the odds just a bit in the leader's favor, but career decisions are never, ever without risk.
Schools, like other institutions, manage risk by environmental scanning and strategic planning, but strategies themselves are just bets that seek to minimize the impact of uncertainty. No strategy can turn uncertainty into certainty with 100% accuracy.Living with risk and the possibility, however likely or remote, that bad stuff will happen is an essential challenge for mentally healthy parenting, leading and governing. Not a happy thought, but necessary all the same.