Leadership EDIT 2026

Tony Wagner (1993) said, “The real methodology for systems change begins and ends with ongoing, authentic conversations about the important questions.” For staff, this may be strategic planning, policy decisions, or how to support students. For students, it may be school, state, or national policy; making sense of current events; or maintaining healthy relationships with their peers. With few quality models for talking across differences on the national stage, let’s build skills for communicating and living together and heal along the way.
We’ll examine research on the benefits of discourse, offer structures and strategies for use in classrooms and staff meetings that include a values orientation, and experience conversations to feel the impact of this approach on our bodies and minds.
Leave this session ready to plan for and facilitate a group discussion and build capacity for humanizing discourse with templates and resources for support.