Living on an Island

 

Wow, I thought that this was going to be an easy post, but I am into the 5^th draft and not convincing myself of anything else other than the topic is more complex that I first intended (and even understood).  I wanted a brief and concise “rah, rah” kind of salute to networks, and I ended up on so many disconnected tangents that I had to put the writing away 4 times to give me time to reflect and digest.  Hmmm, maybe that is the real point of writing these things down?  But, I digress...

Early on, I had many people talk to me--professionally--about the importance of building a network of support, and some even tried building this network for me.  It didn’t work in most cases, of course, because it wasn’t authentic or genuine.  One event, however, stands out for me as the moment that I really began to take my personal networks seriously (meaning that I stopped taking them for granted), and that was a keynote by Alan November for an administrative institute that I attended about six years ago.  Alan spoke to us about technology in education, but came at it from an angle that I hadn’t really considered before.  He demanded that we use the technological tools available to us to connect to the rest of the world.  Not randomly, meaningfully and in the best interests of kids and education.  Not to do so, he argued, was malpractice.  Needless to say, he had my attention.

Skype was reasonably new to most people in the room back then, and Alan used Skype to call a professor at some US university to get a point of view on an educational question that we were discussing.  Alan didn’t know all of the answers, but he knew where to go to get them.  His confidence was in his network. 

I have never forgotten that lesson.

So, here are my questions for you:

1.       Who is your key contact when you find yourself in a jam at work?

2.       Who is your moral compass when you bump up against an ethical dilemma, or find strain in a relationship?

3.       Who do you seek out for comfort and security?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, please, take the time, right now, to find them.  My guess is that they will all be found right in front of your nose.

I used to think that we could not live on islands, and that we had to build bridges to connect our communities.  That is not exactly true anymore.  We can live—physically—in isolation, so long as we stay connected to that web of support around us.  But we need support, and it comes from people that we trust, and not in gigabytes or in megapixels. 

People are important. 

It is important to remember that networks can only work if they run on two-way streets; having someone as part of your network likely means that you are part of theirs, and while giving advice is easy, asking for it is difficult.  Connect with your network and promise to ask for help.  Then, go home and make a stronger promise to yourself. 

Promise yourself never to suffer in isolation. 

Promise yourself to seek help when help is needed; it is exactly that humbling of character that builds character.

Now go and connect with someone important to you.