Proud father gets inspired

This post will be of a more personal nature so I hope you enjoy my ramblings. My oldest son William just recently moved from a public school to a private school here in Vallentuna called Vittra and there are a couple of reasons why he did this:

Differences for the students

• You are allowed to work as long and as deep on a subject as you want. For instance William is brilliant at math (a skill he most likely have inherited from my wonderful “math magician” wife Katrin) so at Vittra he is able to solve harder math challenges.
• You have to take charge and plan your work much in the same way as in the real “adult life”, I remember Williams joy after his first day at school when he told me –Dad at Vittra we never have homework”.
• Every student in 5th grade gets a brand new Apple computer.

Differences for the parents

• Happier children that can excel in interesting subjects
• Happier children that think they won’t have any homework
• Instant feedback with results from tests, cases and attendance in a really nice looking web portal.
• The opportunity to try a new Apple computer

So yesterday William, Katrin and myself had our first Individual Development Plan meeting with Williams “ansvars pedagog” or “responsible educationalist” you might say. The meeting went very good and the “responsible educationalist” was really impressive in the way that she focused on how to challenge Williams strengths and strengthen Williams weaknesses much in the same way we as adults are used to in our jobs.

Vittra has the following philosophy surrounding teaching, learning and personal development:

The following table attempts to translate the words into English:

Swedish word:	English word:
Personlig utveckling	Personal development
Kunskapsutveckling	Knowledge development
Lära att lära	Learn how to learn
Personligt ansvar	Personal responsibility
Olikhet	Difference
Tydlighet	Clearness

Vittras take on learning is that you can’t develop your knowledge without strengthening your personal development and the way you learn. And one of their key values Difference is one that I really embrace through the antiracist “Vi Gillar Olika” campaign here in Sweden.

Back to the meeting where we together with the “responsible educationalist” tried to create at least 1 goal and at least 1 action for all 3 focus areas Personal development , Knowledge development and Learn how to learn. This meeting inspired me to write this blog post and to create this Individual Development Plan for myself:

Focus area:	Goal:	Action:
Personal development	Become a great Coach	Learn from people and real situations and study other great coaches. Challenge myself to take on difficult challenges.
Knowledge development	Learn more about Lean and Kanban	Attend seminars, shadow Lean/Kanban coaches, listen to podcasts or watch interesting videos.
Learn how to learn	Learn a new way of learning	Try different approaches when learning like learning from videos and podcasts. Try new tools like tools for mind mapping.

There you go, my very own Individual Development Plan inspired from my son.

What’s your IDP?

Hugo