In an era where the only constant is change, Chris Jones, the visionary founder of SMARTcurriculum Ltd, exemplifies the power of resilience in leadership. Facing monumental challenges while leading two major educational institutions through structural and operational metamorphoses, Jones encountered a pivotal moment of failure that reshaped his professional journey. Instead of succumbing to the weight of skepticism and immense pressure, he pivoted towards innovation, birthing a company with an international footprint. This interview sheds light on his transformative experience, offering insightful lessons on risk-taking, embracing failure, and nurturing a growth-centric culture. Dive into Chris Jones’ inspirational journey from educational leader to a global change-maker, as he shares invaluable strategies for overcoming career setbacks and redefining success on the world stage.
Interviewee Name: Chris Jones
Company: SMARTcurriculum Ltd
The Interview
What inspired you to start your journey in this field, and how did it all begin?
Chris Jones : I had been a career teacher and leader for 40 years, trained as a Design Technology teacher in the mid 80’s and being moved quickly to leadership positions I knew schools well, enjoyed teaching and innovation. I worked with leaders who were game changers and innovators. I liked being out on the edge of change, always ahead of the game and looking for next practice not just best practice. Having been at the start of the Academy creation we were designing schools in ways that the Department for Education needed to have proof that it would work, so proof of concept was high in mind and articulating vision was where I was comfortable.
Can you share a failure that significantly impacted your perspective as a leader?
Chris Jones : Leading two schools in significant change, while running the operation of two large challenging schools and ensuring the learners still got a great learning experience, proving the concept to a government department who were sceptical of unproven models while two huge building programmes transformed the sites was too much to bear and I did not survive the scale of the operation. I still wanted to live the innovation but had to make a change to my working life. So I set up the company that has become SMARTcurriculum from this inflection point, what I saw as a halt for me, at the point of stepping into career pinnacle moments transitioned into starting an organisation that could have wider impact, beyond the cluster of schools I was influencing to a national and now international perspective.
What was the most important lesson you learned from that experience?
Chris Jones : Commitment to a vision needs to be tempered with a realistic view of succession planning and personal capacity. The need to impart the vision to a wider team, not that I had not been, but it needed to be sustainable and has to grow roots that can be the strong basis of change across a system that moves slowly and has a lot of legacy practice. Challenging the norms comes at a cost and you need to have capacity to bear that cost to be able to manage the storms. I didn’t do that well and bore the load too personally at cost to my well being and health.
How do you approach taking risks now compared to earlier in your career?
Chris Jones : Risks are part of change, innovation and challenge. Don’t fear risk but measure it and prepare to pivot when necessary. There are many routes to the goal, sometimes you will need to divert to survive but you can still reach your goal. Gather sufficient people around your circle of trust who are the voice of reason and passion, those who understand your goal and will be with you when the going is not as straight forward as you want it to be. Have people around you who will build you up, not just saying yes, but feeding wisdom and perspective.
Within this process I was pointed to the military leadership principles captured in the VUCA world. I found myself face with volatility, uncertainty, chaos or complexity and ambiguity. Facing these in spades and I needed to find ways to manage this world. I now look for vision, understanding, clarity and agility. Managing this changing world requires different thinking, agility is becoming a word that causes concern – to me its not about constant changing direction its an image of the basketball player running for the hoop able to swerve move with fluency and skill to reach the goal along a constantly changing path. Change requires communication as it can be disruptive, taking people with you when you are constantly re-evaluating the trajectory can be too much for some, so you need to be aware of vision, understanding and clarity as you move.
How do you foster a culture where failure is embraced as a growth opportunity?
Chris Jones : Within my company I have learned to acknowledge when mistakes are made without criticism but understanding. Help folk to see that failure is inevitable and is not a reason to stop but a place to pause, understand, realign to move on. It has created a place where colleagues are not dishonest about mistakes but are willing to stand up and admit they got it wrong knowing that we can move on once it is understood. I didn’t get that when I finished in my leadership role in school, it was about blame and criticism and punitive action. I will not do that to my staff. That’s not to say we can’t have honest conversations about getting things right, but its in a fearless environment not a fearful environment.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone struggling with setbacks in their career?
Chris Jones : Step back, evaluate your health, your capacity, your goals and your relationships and make a decision to move forward with all of those elements.
Change is your friend however uncertain that might make you in the moment, that uncertainty will diminish as you move on and build confidence in a new environment. Next time change becomes clearer and cleaner to navigate.
Leaders Perception magazine would like to thank Chris Jones and “SMARTcurriculum Ltd” for the time dedicated to completing this interview and sharing their valuable insights with our readers!
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