{"id":973,"date":"2012-06-09T03:34:18","date_gmt":"2012-06-09T03:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/?p=973"},"modified":"2012-06-09T03:34:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T03:34:18","slug":"tlp-bill-gerritz-international-school-bangkok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/tlp-bill-gerritz-international-school-bangkok\/","title":{"rendered":"TLP: Bill Gerritz, International School Bangkok"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Bill Gerritz, Head of School at the International School Bangkok, is a self-described \u201cnerd\u201d who views much of his work with the eyes of an engineer.\u00a0 In fact much of what Dr. Gerritz has achieved while leading various international schools around the world could be described as visionary engineering<\/em>.\u00a0 Most recently he\u2019s helped to pioneer the ISB invention Center, which will create a \u201csystem for kids who are interested in science and math [a place to] actually create new machines\u201d <\/em>and think like engineers.<\/p>\n

After 11 years at ISB, and over two decades overseas, Bill is ending his international school career to make room for new endeavors.\u00a0 When asked about retirement he was quick to explain, \u201cI\u2019m not calling it retirement, [because] retiring implies going to sleep or going off somewhere. \u00a0I\u2019m calling it being on the loose or a very long summer.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So if you happen to be in Estes Park, CO this summer watch out for Dr. Gerritz who will be officially on the loose<\/em> and anxious to start his new adventure.\u00a0 <\/em>Thankfully before he takes off, I had the opportunity to listen to him reflect on his leadership experience in international education.<\/p>\n

(If not specifically quoted, Dr. Gerritz\u2019s responses to these questions have been paraphrased)<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had the opportunity to work all over the world, what\u2019s surprised you the most about working in Bangkok?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThai culture is very peaceful, gentle, and funny.\u00a0 This is the most humorous place I\u2019ve ever worked at\u2026[there\u2019s] a lot of joking and laughing and fooling around.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Are there other schools or administrators that inspire the way you lead ISB?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that question is too simplistic or doesn\u2019t get to the root of what we do as leaders at ISB, because to understand leadership one must first understand the difference between leading and managing.\u00a0 \u201c[I think] unless you\u2019re a good manager\u2026you\u2019ll have neither the time nor the authority to do any kind of leadership in terms of moving things ahead.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mistake I see \u00a0some emerging leaders make \u2026being a principal for example [many think] is about leadership, but I think it\u2019s about 95% management.\u00a0\u00a0 Then if you do a really good job with management, you can move ahead and improve things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

However, before coming to ISB I spent 4 years on the faculty at UC Berkley \u201cso I had a pretty good idea about what good teaching and learning should be.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[For instance], unlike almost any other organization, schools [in general] focus on process not on results, they focus on teaching not on learning.\u00a0 So the big goal was to turn ISB into a learning-focused school, where we pay just as much attention to the results as to how the process goes on.\u00a0 For example we\u2019ve changed our whole teacher appraisal system, so instead of a traditional one where we watch what teachers do, we watch the quality of learning going on and make an assessment on that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s been most fundamental in your own personal development as a leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of reading and a lot of worshipping of Michael Fullan.\u201d\u00a0 I think the work he is doing to develop the capacity of leaders to produce positive change is really fascinating.<\/em><\/p>\n

In your role as Head, what specific set of skills do you bring to the school?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI try to keep it real simple–I work as hard as I can, I focus on the student learning getting better, and that a student\u2019s time at the school is positive.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s deeper then skills, to be an effective school leader or manager you need to have a high level of social and emotional intelligence and a high verbal intelligence. [In fact] people that [don\u2019t have these skills] won\u2019t be successful administrators.\u00a0 [Also] you need to be really good at critical thinking and problem solving.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you believe are some of your most important roles as Head?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found that schools are always full of conflict and that\u2019s ok. Conflict is inevitable given the diversity among students, parents and staff.\u00a0 Therefore as head it\u2019s my job to manage and use the conflict to identify what systems are working and don\u2019t need any attention and what systems are broken, in conflict, and ripe for improvement and change.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Creating an environment that accepts change is really important because as head I must \u201csing the song of continual improvement.\u00a0 [The idea] that everything can be improved and that\u2019s part of everybody\u2019s work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Also I\u2019ve found that international schools are often filled with a climate of fear.\u00a0 Some schools have poor<\/span> administrators that don\u2019t tolerate mistakes and create an environment where mistakes are punished.\u00a0 At ISB we\u2019ve tried, \u201c<\/em>to get rid of a climate of fear\u2026by never punishing people for having an opinion that\u2019s different then [mine] or who disagrees with [me]\u2026all it takes is one teacher who gets disciplined for disagreeing with the party line to ruin the culture for months and years afterwards.\u201d\u00a0 I also do this by, \u201cpublically admitting my own mistakes, and I expect the same from my principals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI value honest conversations with teachers\u201d and try to encourage this by allowing a time for teachers to come and share their peace or problems with me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t do this in an attempt to build consensus, but to allow teachers an opportunity to share their thinking. Most often, their ideas and perspective lead to substantially more effective implementation, \u201cbut it\u2019s not like a majority rules or building a consensus or anything like that.\u00a0 Some of the most important things I\u2019ve done here I didn\u2019t have a lot of support for.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your greatest priority when hiring administrators for ISB?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFinding people who can focus on results, and who can improve learning at the school, and make the life of the kids better.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a need to have a diversity of backgrounds and have a good mix of styles\u2026 I always try to hire people who are smarter than I am\u2026I don\u2019t actually do very much at the school, the real work is done by other people, so I want people who are smarter me and have different skills sets than I have.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you develop leadership talent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to identify emerging leaders and [maybe] people who don\u2019t have administration on their life plan, but they have the capacity to be a good administrator\u2026but I actually don\u2019t think we do a good job at ISB of supporting emerging leaders\u2026it\u2019s just not our priority\u2026but the flip side is we have a good number of very capable emerging administrators at the school, which has just happened.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What advice do you have for the next generation of international administrators?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201c[Avoid] shared endarkenment.\u201d\u00a0 I use this term to describe what I see happening at a lot of schools\u2026\u201dleaders that pay too much attention to what\u2019s going on in their own school,\u201d rather then looking at what other schools are doing and reading the literature.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c[Switch] from a focus on teaching to learning and\u2026 from a focus on process to results.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you have a conflict with somebody\u2026and you don\u2019t want to go talk to them, go talk to them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTrust takes a long time to develop and can be lost in a sentence, so be scrupulously honest with people\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of administrators think it\u2019s a political job, they think it\u2019s about pleasing people and about getting people to approve of them and their performance.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t work\u2026what\u2019s really important is to have a really clear and simple set of goals\u2026and stay focused on them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Bill Gerritz, Head of School at the International School Bangkok, is a self-described \u201cnerd\u201d who views much of his work with the eyes of an engineer.\u00a0 In fact much of what Dr. Gerritz has achieved while leading various international schools around the world could be described as visionary engineering.\u00a0 Most recently he\u2019s helped to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[45,137,142],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-leadership-project","tag-bill-gerritz","tag-international-school-bangkok","tag-isb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bangkok-gerritz.jpg?fit=900%2C220","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5BJbv-fH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learnedleadership.org\/divi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}