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BIG Questions Institute Update

January 31, 2025, No. 180 (Read online)​

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Vision Work: Look Up. Look Away. Look Closely.

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At the Big Questions Institute it’s been a busy season supporting schools with their strategic plans, and what’s at the heart of that work - a vision that aligns to the future a community yearns for.

Vision, by definition, involves what we see in action, so it’s useful to step back and consider: Where are we looking? At what? What lenses do we sense-make with? To uncover the answers, let’s start with the ways in which we “look.”

Look Up – The Planets Still Align​
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Earlier this week, during a day of back-to-back virtual meetings, between trips to Colombia and Nashville, my colleague Brad shared a thought that stopped me in my tracks. He said, “the planets are all aligning tonight; I hope your meetings do too.” Indeed, on Monday the planets aligned in the sky to the west, for an occasion that seemed remarkable to me, yet isn’t actually that uncommon.

At a time when things are feeling really out-of-whack, when each day we are flooded with news stories that defy goodness and logic, the planets still align. Stepping outside to look up felt reassuring (even though the clouds blocked my view). If such alignments can happen on a grand scale, they must be possible on the micro- and nano-scale, too. Even the reminder that alignment is possible helped me take a deep breath and recall small goodnesses, and even remember my own “why?” (what “aligns” me).

Look Away

Around the same time I learned about the planets aligning, I watched a short video of author and Professor Brittany Cooper, who offered another clue toward attention alignment, where she shared:

How are you keeping up?
I’m not trying to.
Having more information is not the same as having more knowledge. We live in an information-rich time, but increasingly it’s a knowledge-poor environment.

To distill the wisdom from the noise might mean looking away for a time. But this is not about disengagement. It’s actually becoming more engaged - with people, not with scrolling for more information (I realize the irony that this is conveyed in a newsletter). Sense-make in the context of community, with experts and other humans. Talk to people, even if you feel vulnerable about it.

Go where you can hold the moment in community and “not feel it’s our individual job to be a walking encyclopedia for the terrible.” as Professor Cooper said.
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Look Closely

Earlier this academic year, my husband and I traveled to South Africa to participate in the AISA conference and to celebrate our anniversary with a safari to Kruger National Park. Beyond the exciting moments of spotting the big game, a profound memory from the safari was the chance to view tiny miracles of nature and complex ecosystems on a micro level, up-close. Birds, centipedes, and even the dung from the diverse animals all became sources of fascination. A ridiculous photo I took is one I keep thinking about: a green sprout growing out of a big elephant poop. Once I noticed the hopeful sprout, they were everywhere.
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This felt like an apt metaphor for our times. The sh*+ is big and we have to make an effort to not get caught up in it, but even under the sh*++iest conditions, hope, beauty, and something fresh is capable of growing.

This is also the lesson I have learned over and over again from friends, family, strangers, and great writers who live/lived under conditions of oppression, instability, and actual persecution. Amidst hardship and even peril, humans continue to find joy and beauty, and be defined by something greater than their pain.

Vision is Powerful - It's a Source of Hope

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One last idea, this beauty out of horrific conditions, and the value of sight, is embodied by a courageous woman who I have gotten to know personally: Elahe Tavakolian. She was one of the many protestors for women’s rights in Iran, who was brutally shot in the eye. Her life will never be the same, but her resilience and truly, her “alignment” to a vision are literally unstoppable. Thanks to many supporters and the Eyes on Humanity program at WIlls Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, victims like Elahe are treated for their eye but regain their voice. For me, she's one more embodiment of hope. As Elahe says, “We lost our eyes. Let us not lose sight of our goal.”

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Where are you finding hope? Where are you looking?

In Peace,

Homa

If You Missed Our Last Newsletter

In the last newsletter we announced some changes at the Big Questions Institute. To summarize: We are bringing on new collaborators and amazing talent from around the world for thought partnership and in school engagement projects, even as Will is stepping back from BQI day-to-day work. We aren't going away! In fact, we have grown and look forward to a creative and collaborative future.

You can contact Homa directly (homa@bigquestions.institute) to schedule a discovery call to discuss how we might support your school or organization's leadership, learning, governance, innovation, belonging, and strategy.

Did you get our new book? We've had an amazing response to the 12 Big Questions Schools Must Answer to Imagine Irresistible Futures. It's still available as a free download!

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Learn With BQI

Will We Be in Your Neighborhood?

Homa is back on the road and would love to connect at any of the upcoming events. Note that additional travel to individual schools not listed here is being planned, so reach out even if you don't see your vicinity!

Feb 26-28 - National Association of Independent Schools Heads Summit and Annual Conference, Nashville, TN

March 3-6 - Zurich International School, Switzerland

March 7-8 - Swiss Group of International Schools Conference, Leysin

April 3-5 - ECIS 60th Anniversary Leadership Conference, Stuttgart, Germany

May 9-10 - EDULead Taipei American School, Taiwan

June 5-6 - Mount Vernon Ventures conference, Atlanta, Georgia

July 8-12 - Association for International School Heads (AISH) Summer Seminar, St. Gilgen, Austria

WORK WITH US!

Let BQI help you unlock the opportunities that are rapidly unfolding in education.

We help school communities:

• create new strategic plans
• articulate or update their school community's definition of learning and other key statements
• revisit their mission, vision, and values
• prepare for accreditation
• build trust, effective collaboration and new skills and literacies for the Leadership Team
• build the governance capacity for boards amidst shifting challenges
• support school communities to navigate more effective and inclusive pathways into the future, and cultures of belonging
• plan engaging professional development for their staff

Why not think about having us work with your staff, leadership team, or board on some BIG Questions worth pursuing?

We're working to design healthier, more just, more relevant, and more sustainable futures for school communities. Get all the details here.​

Onward with hope,

The BQI Team