2007 Year of Formulation: What We Learned

Some of what we learned (and sometimes re-learned) during the year of formulation:

• Building the school is the school. The school is not something we will get to someday. The school exists in the creation of it and what we learn together.
• The Charter we created is a powerful statement of who we are and what we are up to. It provides the space from which the School continues to emerge with no one person driving it.
• Formulation, when very little is certain and your own actions seem to be held up waiting for others to take action, is a challenging phase. It worked to be patient and to be persistent.
• You don’t always need to be face to face to create something or to get work done. Most of our work this year was done effectively and inexpensively through conference calls, email, and our wiki.
• Any one part of the school can be access to the whole of the school. Individuals and elements focusing on their part and then coming back together worked.
• We learned a lot about working as a community. We successfully self-organized and self-generated.
• Working as a community multiplied ownership of the School and increased participation in the Mastery Foundation.
• Empowerment of those who take ownership for something allows for new possibilities.
• We learned a lot about learning. Even the design work we did was done as a learning experience rather than as an expression of what we already know.
• Without integrity nothing works. And having an ongoing practice to build our integrity works.
• Creating something worthwhile together is enormous fun.
• Relationship is the foundation for accomplishment. Relationship is a major part of how things get done.