SBLs have a varied and wide-ranging role and one of their many superpowers is crisis management. But what do we do when we can’t figure out how to ‘fix it’? In this article, Education Executive’s Laura Williams gives you her top octopus-themed tip
Recently, I spent an amazing day at a multi-academy trust. They invited me to their INSET day to deliver two sessions to their SBMs, support staff and central team – one on productivity (aka my State of the Nation) and the second on Risk Management.
If you’ve been to any of my sessions, online or in person, you’ll know they’re usually a highly interactive affair with audience participation! There are many reasons for this – it’s more engaging, it helps people to apply what’s being talked about to their own context and get something meaningful from it – and because I love talking to people and hearing what they have to say!
The power of discussion and digging into a topic in a group brings out all kinds of useful nuggets and insights. In the risk session, when talking about labelling different types of risk, I asked the group how easy they found it to choose one category for each risk (for the purposes of their risk register).
Their answer? Not easy at all because risks often have many implications – financial, strategic, operational, compliance and governance. To pick just one category feels impossible! This is true – it’s not straightforward and, of course, I had tips on how to make the process easier that I was about to share…
But before I could jump in, one attendee shouted out ‘It’s like an octopus!’
Huh? I asked her what she meant, and she said: ‘It’s like putting an octopus in a box, there’ll always be at least one tentacle sticking out!’
I love it! How true is this?! The things we deal with as SBLs often don’t fit into neat categories and rarely stay contained for long. We also spend a lot of our time wrestling with various tentacles to try and keep some kind of order amid the chaos.
My tip to try and get a grip of your octopus or octopuses (a sentence I never thought I’d say) is to focus not on the tentacles but on the box (the category).
Whilst the issue may have far-reaching consequences, tackle it head on and in the middle.
Where is the most damage being caused? Where is the impact being felt the most? What is the most effective action to net the thing and put an end to the madness once and for all?
Yes, this month, I challenge you to get a grip of your octopuses! And if you’re struggling, reach out to another SBL because two nets are better than one!
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