A Vineyard Visit

This last week was eye opening.  Not only did I use different lenses when interviewing an owner of a large vineyard, I began thinking very differently. Immediately after the interview, I began thinking about how educational leadership and organizational leadership ought to align closer in some areas and potentially shouldn't in others.  I was made aware that certain timelines of their business were not necessarily critical, whereas, it would be in the educational area.  Really, what doesn't have some sort of timeline in education; from testing windows,  budget approvals, teacher evaluations, start and end days of school, professional development calendar and teacher calendar.....whereas, professional development in a business may occur when something else is not been pressing, or follow up mentoring during critical times may not be on a priority list in another business but it surely is for the educational side.  No judgements here, please don't misunderstand me, it is just a point I am making...TIMELINES AND PRIORITIES MAY DIFFER. 

However, quality and being a family within the vineyard's business is the priority.  Fine wines, OF COURSE!  So if one was to compare quality of wine to quality education, there are similar desired outcomes.  Not all educational organizations wish to be a family....but isn't that why we are moving towards PLC....Professional Learning Communities?

As we move into this next week, we are finding that three people we wish to interview have very different schedules and their own priorities, and we may not be one of them.  They are very open to us interviewing them, just not too readily available.  Stay tuned as a put some puzzle pieces together, or at least try.