Greetings!
“Let’s say you are dancing in a big ballroom… Most of your attention focuses on your dance partner, and you reserve whatever is left to make sure you don’t collide with dancers close by…When someone asks you later about the dance, you exclaim, ‘The band played great, and the place surged with dancers.’
But, if you had gone up to the balcony and looked down on the dance floor, you might have seen a very different picture. You would have noticed all sorts of patterns… you might have noticed that when slow music played, only some people danced; when the tempo increased, others stepped onto the floor; and some people never seemed to dance at all… the dancers all clustered at one end of the floor, as far away from the band as possible…You might have reported that participation was sporadic, the band played too loud, and you only danced to fast music.
…The only way you can gain both a clearer view of reality and some perspective on the bigger picture is by distancing yourself from the fray…
If you want to affect what is happening, you must return to the dance floor. So you need to be both among the dancers and up on the balcony. That’s where the magic is, going back and forth between the two…”
This is an important leadership metaphor that I learned from studying with Marty Linsky at a Wexner Graduate Fellowship conference the same year he and his co-author, Ron Heifetz, published what is now their highly acclaimed book
, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading
. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
This week, I would like to take you up to one kind of balcony Jewish day school leadership from which I gain tremendous perspective, insight, and inspiration.
Right in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, on Tuesday September 26, I was flown to Manhattan to have dinner with 25 people. Five of the 25 people were, like me, Heads of School who were invited by Paul Bernstein, the CEO of
Prizmah
(the Center for Jewish Day Schools) and the entire North American Prizmah Board of Trustees to help launch their major strategic planning process. Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to present innovative answers to the following question in a 3 minute presentation:
"If you could dream about what Prizmah could do in the next 3 years, what would it be?"
The goal of this think tank was to ignite a bold 6-month strategic planning process for Prizmah, and by extension, the entire Jewish day school field. Prizmah wants to think differently about the future and expose themselves to challenging ideas.
So, even though it was a crazy time – right in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – I knew I needed to go and represent CJDS. And was it ever a great decision.
First, the five of us Heads, who represent schools from Manhattan, Boca Raton, Boston, Brooklyn, and Columbus, across the Jewish denominational spectrum, all got a chance to emerge from our local ecosystems and meet and be inspired by stimulating visions for the field of Jewish day schooling.
Even more significant, knowing that the Prizmah Board and their professional leadership team is at the helm of our field, and asking visionary questions by facing directly the difficult challenges of our day, was intensely energizing and rejuvenating.
What a great feeling to know each of us in the bubbles of our own school communities is not trying to recreate the wheel in an echo chamber. There is an organization - barely one year old now - made up of dedicated, thoughtful, experienced day school leaders who care deeply and passionately about the health and vitality of our sacred work. And how wonderful to learn that by the end of the evening, the Prizmah Board felt exactly the same.
In other words, it worked. They got ignited. They wanted to learn more, hear more, and dive deeper.
Then, about a week or so later, I got a call from the Director of Jewish Education and Engagement at the
Jewish Federations of North America
. She had heard a buzz from the Prizmah think tank and asked to hear about my ignite speech. I gave her a short version - a real 3 minutes this time. And she invited to me to present at a very unique and possibly unprecedented 5-hour Symposium dedicated to Jewish Day Schools that Jewish Federations of North America (
JFNA
) is holding during this year’s “GA,” or
General Assembly
. The massive annual event brings together lay leaders and professionals from Jewish Federations from all over the globe.
So, even though it will be a one day trip across the country, I am once again honored to be able to represent CJDS nationally (and even internationally). I accepted her invitation to present on a panel at the Symposium to address how day schools can better address and respond to the ways Jews and Judaism have changed in recent decades.
So, I look forward to reporting back in November about what I learned, heard, and hopefully, about how the Symposium was able to ignite the minds and hearts of many Federation leaders who might never have stepped into a Jewish Day School before.
And on the dance floor here at home, we are also gearing up to ignite hearts and capture the imaginations…
… of many new families at our upcoming exciting Open House experience, on Sunday November 19th, from 1:30-4:30pm at CJDS. Think of a family that you would like to introduce to CJDS, who has 2-4 year olds, and invite them to come get to know our school, our teachers, our students, and our WHY.
…of all of Central Ohio and beyond, with our beautiful new marketing campaign and materials, which we will be revealing for the first time at the Open House!
…of the whole world with a brand new website, which we will be launching very soon.
I am so inspired to be dancing with all of you during this exciting time,
Shabbat shalom!
