Restart-Ed was founded by me, Ben Gibbs, in 2010. I am a systemic and executive coach, organisational consultant and professional development facilitator, working with school and school system leaders in the UK and internationally. Following an early career in marketing, I taught in UK schools, worked in the UK government and international assessment, and consulted on research, curriculum, leadership and organisational strategy. I hold postgraduate qualifications in teaching, educational leadership, organisation development and psychology-informed organisational consultancy alongside a portfolio of professional diplomas and accreditations.
Driven by a deep care for the work that schools do and a deep understanding of what can sometimes make that difficult, my vision is of a school system in which leadership is more relational, and my mission is to help leaders like you build that relational capacity so that you can achieve your aims more effectively.
My approach to this is unapologetically disruptive.
In an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable world, you can no longer pretend to have all the answers or be able to make all the decisions. That’s simply not possible. Your role now is to create the organisational conditions in which good decisions can be made by the people who are closest to where the action is, and then facilitate them to do so with confidence. This requires a wholly different set of skills, aptitudes and mindsets to those that previous generations of leaders could rely on, a new way of understanding how your organization works, and a wholly different type of leadership development.
So I help MAT leaders like you take up your authority in this new role by:
My capacity to do this depends on three things. Firstly, my own deep training in complex organisational leadership, and the network of peers I met along the way. Secondly, my engagement with the wealth of rich thinking, practical theory and novel practice that sits outside the school sector. And thirdly, my passion to bring this stuff inside and make it available to you.
If I’m being completely honest, there’s a fourth driver too. I’ve seen close-up how the prevailing culture of the school system can be a cruel place for leaders and feel strongly that that’s not right. So all that I do aims to strengthen leaders from the inside out; to build your sense of purpose as well as your capacity to connect with others. My hope is that this will enable you to both fully realise your leadership potential and create a more relational, effective and human-centred school system.
I offer a very carefully facilitated and supportive space for leaders and leadership teams to think deeply about their experience of work and to consider how, by better understanding their own and others’ drives and needs, they might feel fully connected to their work and become more effective in their roles. We will focus in particular on the systemic nature of MAT leadership; on how the parts of a school interrelate and interact to impact the whole. When working with teams, I address the dynamics in the group as part of the process of developing trust and team effectiveness.
"This is real coaching and came at a time when I needed it the most! Ben is a skillful listener and adeptly makes use of questioning and a range of coaching tools to enable me to reflect on my leadership experiences and think forward” (Secondary school Principal)
My consultancy is designed to help you identify what's reallygoing on in your organisation by mapping it, getting under its surface, and then working out what you need to do to improve or change it. In particular, we will explore the interpersonal, systemic and cultural dynamics that are driving behaviour and therefore outcomes in your trust. By using a range of evidence-based techniques and approaches, I look beyond the ‘presenting issue’ and - often surprisingly quickly - identify the root cause of challenges that remain unseen by 'insiders'. If required, I can call on a range of wonderful partners with tools or services that further these aims.
"Ben's approach to my development as a system leader bridges the gap between NPQEL and reality" (Deputy CEO of a mid-sized MAT)
My leadership development offer is focused on building your capacity through enhancing your awareness of self and others, and of the nature of the system you’re in. Most approaches to leadership development are horizontal, focusing on competencies, strengths or models. However, an increasing amount of evidence indicates that this is not developing the capacities leaders need to succeed amidst complexity. Through my workshops and professional development programmes - some developed in partnership with leading providers, others proprietary to Restart-Ed - I go vertical, building the habits, skills, behaviours and capacities that will help you lead more effectively and achieve the many things asked of you.
"It’s hard to think outside the box when you’re in it” (Charles Handy)
For example:
Change management - I was commissioned to help the executive leaders of a mid-sized MAT address a number of key strategic challenges. They had identified a tension in the relationships between the trust and its school leaders, and were concerned this had the potential to disrupt planned change. We co-created a consultancy programme based on a two day a month contract over two years, initially exploring school leaders' experience of holding authority and maintaining role boundaries in the trust system at various levels. We quickly identified that the executive’s influence was being ‘filtered’ before reaching ‘second tier’ school leaders, and that they were actually a potential source of significant energy and goodwill. By establishing a regular forum to support their reflective capacity, we hope to provide a way for them to engage fully with the trust's strategy.
Rediscovering purpose - The new COO of a rapidly growing trust commissioned me to provide a programme of coaching sessions with a specific aim to help her re-discover her sense of purpose. My client was finding that her interest and energy was waning following her recent promotion from a single-school business manager role. The work felt too 'corporate' and she missed regular contact with the young people who had previously inspired her. Working online, we used imagery and animation to help her think about her position relative to others at work, and to consider the resources she had available to her. Using system maps and constellations, we also thought deeply about how her origin story influenced her experience, what her life-stage meant for her ‘right-place’ at work, and how engagement with others might improve things for her. We created a 'self-contract' to guide the new terms of her engagement and priorities.
Galvanising a demoralized SLT - Under pressure from their trust to improve, the head of a large secondary school commissioned me to provide a half-day professional development session for its senior leadership team. The school had been through a long period of disruption and the SLT - some of whom had been appointed while the school was in lockdown - was finding it difficult to work together. The session was actually the first time the whole team had met face-to-face and the brief was to galvanise them to collaborate on building the school’s new strategy, provide a confidence boost and build some new team-working habits. The session began with a facilitated check-in followed by a short period of reflection, using photos as a way to encourage expression. We then explored the characteristics of a high performing team using the 'Creating the Team Edge' and 'Prophet' models, before engaging in a constellation-forming activity and a ‘liberating structure’ exercise to consider what individual and team behaviours might inhibit the achievement of strategy. The head reports that the team still refer to the models learned almost a year after the session.
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Company no: 05303883
Charity no: 1107640
