Last month the Texas Tech K-12 staff met for a day of fun and professional growth.

The neon lights flashed their bright colors and the white bottle-shaped pins crashed against each other, accenting the day for the staff of Texas Tech K-12. The bowling, video games and a scavenger hunt were woven throughout presentations of statistics and objectives, inspirational speeches and looks into the future – a Fearless Future, that leaders with Texas Tech K-12 strive to create for students every day. 

Early in September more than 70 staff members participated in the day-long professional development excursion at Main Event in Lubbock. The arcade, bowling alley and meeting space provided the perfect place for the team to work and play. 

Superintendent Robert Bayard opened with a challenge to the group to strive for fearless leadership by taking 18 actionable steps, some of which are: Be curious. Embrace change. Seek inspiration. Shake up your routines. See the potential in yourself and others. 

Bayard also suggested the team members could become a little better every day by making a small one-degree shift in both behavior and thinking. 

“The power of a one-degree shift leads to incremental growth,” Bayard said. “Just one degree can make a giant difference and produce unimaginable success.”  

Principal Braxton Allison covered key legislative updates, enrollment statistics and action items for the group. Cari Moye, principal of Recruitment, Investment, Strategic Partnerships & Pathways, requested feedback to prepare for the Texas Tech K-12 strategic plan to be developed this fall.

The presentation portion of the day wrapped up with a keynote speech from Jason Weber, vice chancellor of Leader & Culture Development for the Texas Tech University System. Weber collaborates with teams across the system to construct leader development programs tailored for students, staff and faculty.

Weber again addressed the power of small changes as well as servant leadership. Referencing the book, “Becoming Better,” by Ryan Gottfredson, Weber posed a query: Most leadership development focuses on what we do, but this book challenges us to ask, who are we being?

“Doing = actions, behaviors, tasks, performance checklists,” read one slide. “Being = mindset, identity, values, character and presence. Key point: Doing flows out of being. Who we are determines the quality of what we do.”

The day’s icebreaker, the Fearless Future scavenger hunt, was scheduled between presentations to get people moving, collaborating and connecting with teammates and staff they might not interact with often. The quest involved using five “fearless” prompts and finding teammates with the same ones, taking photos of their teams with Fearless Champion props and shouting “Fearless Future” while racing back to the start to win Texas Tech K-12 swag.    

Thinking back on the success of the day, Allison says the team’s annual professional development events represent the only time each year the entire full-time staff is in person together. Team members flew in from across Texas and from out of state to be present for team building and learning. His greatest hope with these events is that their staff can feel connected with each other and interact beyond email and videoconferencing

“While we are fortunate that many on our team work together in-office, even then, we spend so much time in the trenches working through our daily tasks, we don’t often have the opportunity for the social interaction that brings us closer together,” Allison said. “At the end of the day, we are one big family, and we appreciate the excitement everyone brought to this event to interact while we worked toward professional growth.”