Meet Chris

* Experienced * Erudite * Wise * Gracious * Nurturing * Insightful * Caring * Innovatiove * Visionary

These are some of the words people I’ve worked with use to describe me. (Check out the ‘Recommendations’ section below for some of them.)

WHERE OTHERS SEE PROBLEMS, I SEE SOLUTIONS.

When I look back on my 40-year career, I think of the Luck Star* song ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’. Except with me, it feels like ‘I’ve done everything.’ I began my career as a secondary teacher in southeast Melbourne in the late 1970s. It was a job I absolutely loved. However, I left Education disillusioned in 1990.

Since then, I have founded a couple of tech companies, worked for PwC for a time and had experience in almost every industry you can think of, including Aviation, Logistics, Health, Medical Tech, Education, Banking, IT, Retail, B2B, Advertising, Import/Export, Construction, Manufacturing, HR, Aerospace and Telecommunications.

I’ve been in Board Rooms and Executive Suites with amazing views over whole cities. When I started out, I could not have imagined having experiences like that. But you know what? Once you get behind the facade (and it IS a facade), it’s all very ordinary. You are just talking to ordinary people about ordinary problems. I’ve also worked with factory workers, builders, salespeople, and lowly clerks who are also just ordinary people facing ordinary problems.

The problems leaders in these industries face are not very different from those faced by most school leaders. The single biggest issue they all face is ambiguity. No one knows for certain what the future holds, and no one knows for certain what to do next.

This is why I focus on courage. My definition of courage is ‘Not knowing what to do (for certain), but acting anyway.’

In all that, I have never lost my enduring passion for education. Leaders in education need to act with courage just as much as leaders in any other organisation. In many cases they require greater courage because the stakes are so high. We can’t afford to get it wrong but we can’t know for certain how to get it right.

I use all the qualities I began with to help you navigate the course ahead. Not knowing but doing anyway.

* ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’ was actually written by Australian country singer Geoff Mack in 1959. It was made popular by Lucky Star.