If you lead a team—whether it’s a classroom, a grade level, a school, or an entire organization—you’ve probably felt this tension:
You have a problem.
You have an idea.
And your instinct is… let’s just go.
At least, that’s exactly how I’m wired.
In the first episode of Real Talk School Leadership, I share how a recent course on Organizational Creativity and Innovation completely reframed the way I think about leadership—and honestly, how I think about the people around me.
This wasn’t about becoming “more creative” in the Pinterest-board sense.
It was about understanding how different people actually think during problem solving—and why that matters way more than we realize.
The Leadership Mistake I Didn’t Know I Was Making
For a long time, when conversations dragged or progress slowed, I quietly labeled that as resistance.
Turns out—it usually isn’t.
More often, it’s just a different thinking preference.
That realization alone changes how you lead meetings, how you interpret staff reactions, and how you design decision-making.
Because if you treat thinking differences as resistance…
You unintentionally shut down the very voices your team actually needs.
The Four Types of Thinkers Every Team Already Has
One of the biggest takeaways from the episode is the FourSight framework—basically a way to understand how people naturally approach problems.
Most teams include:
- Clarifiers – want to understand the problem deeply
- Ideators – generate lots of possibilities
- Developers – refine and strengthen ideas
- Implementers – want to move and get it done
Here’s the leadership insight:
None of these are better than the others.
You actually need all four to create solutions that stick.
In schools, we often skip straight to implementation.
When that happens, people who needed time to clarify or ideate feel frustrated before the work even begins. AND…we are not taking the time to ensure we are answering the right questions, taking time to find the right solutions, or developing the ideas into workable plans.
Sound familiar?
Why Slowing Down Early Actually Speeds Things Up
One idea that hit me hard:
Slowing down at the beginning often speeds things up later.
When teams:
- clarify the problem together
- generate multiple ideas
- refine the plan
…implementation becomes smoother, buy-in is stronger, and the change is more sustainable.
In other words, creativity isn’t chaos.
It’s a process.
What a Pixar Movie Taught Me About School Leadership
In the episode, I talk about analyzing A Bug’s Life through the lens of the 4 P’s of creativity:
- Person
- Process
- Press (environment)
- Product
What stood out most?
Environment matters more than we think.
When ideas were criticized, creativity stalled.
When the character found support, innovation accelerated.
That mirrors real organizations.
People don’t usually stop being creative because they run out of ideas—
They stop because the environment doesn’t feel safe.
The Real Job of Leadership
Here’s the shift this episode is really about:
Leadership isn’t about having the answers.
It’s about creating the conditions where answers can emerge together.
That means:
- honoring different thinking styles
- building psychological safety
- being intentional about team dynamics
- trusting the collective intelligence of your staff
For me personally, it also meant recognizing that I’m naturally an implementer—which is great for momentum, but risky if I don’t intentionally create space for the other voices first.
A Question Worth Bringing to Your Next Team Meeting
One question I leave listeners with—and honestly one I’m still sitting with myself—is:
How could you better leverage the different thinkers already on your team?
Because every organization already has them.
We just don’t always design our systems to use them.
Want the Real Talk Version?
The blog post gives you the highlights—but the episode goes deeper into:
- how thinking profiles change meeting dynamics
- what creativity actually looks like in real organizations
- how leaders accidentally shut down innovation
- and how small shifts in process can create big cultural change
If you lead people in any capacity—teachers, administrators, coaches, or organizational leaders—I think you’ll see your own team in this conversation.
Listen to the full episode here: