Last week’s #chat2lrn focused on the topic of flipped leadership. I like to think in simple terms, so to me the concept is about leading from below. In other words, leading without formal authority, often through influence and by example.
When talking about the “flipped classroom,” I thought this might be somewhat analogous, but it’s not. In the flipped classroom, students learn through lectures and videos outside of class and attend homework/discussion sessions in class. It’s not really a flipped classroom; it’s a flipped instructional design compared to traditional classroom models. There are still formal authorities, lesson plans, and expected outcomes.
To find the analogy to flipped leadership in education, think from the learner perspective. People who learn without formal authority are practicing a form flipped learning. They do it without writing expected outcomes in advance and without instructional design, and self-leadership is essential. But flipped learning already has a name: informal learning, where learning IS the outcome, and an end is never reached.
Re-reading the #chat2lrn transcript, I think Allison Johnson (@guerillalearn) had it right, saying, “(learners) make serendipitous discoveries=innovation, which top down instruction inhibits.” Well put, Allison.
Thanks for reading! @tomspiglanin
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Like the way that you have put this ‘leading without formal authority, often through influence and by example’. It would be great if we could get leaders to realise that their informal authority is probably as important if not more important than their formal authority. Great leaders are those we follow because we choose to not because we have to!