Best Practice is only a Hypothesis

Artisans know how to improvise

There’s a great piece on Ewan McIntosh’s blog today on improvising in education, well worth a couple of minutes of your time.

It resonates strongly with my work with those in fast-changing and uncertain environments. When we don’t know what to do, “best practice” seems like a safe harbour. Do what has worked for others, and for which we have evidence. It’s an illusion though - it feels safe but keeps us stuck.

An artisan understands their craft, the material and the people they work with to improvise, to react to what is happening and harness it. And best practice is a great place to start.

Best practice is a hypothesis, not a rule. It was set by somebody else, somewhere else, at a different time and in different circumstances. It's a great place to start.

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There will be an New Artisans / Outside the Walls conversation on Zoom on Tuesday, September 17th, at 5:00 pm UK time, to explore this idea.

This call will be open to all, so we can shape it. What follows is open to discussion—my preference is to use a paid subscription as a filter, but we’ll see. I don’t want money to get in the way of doing something important.

I hope to see you there.