PiXL Pearls

The clue was in the box all along. In the fourth episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) takes on one of leadership's most overused phrases and turns it inside out. Because thinking outside the box is only half the story. The other half is what Christopher Clayton Hutton did in World War Two, when he hid silk maps, compasses, files, real currency and a tiny saw inside a doctored Monopoly board and smuggled them into German prisoner of war camps under the noses of the guards. 744 airmen escaped. The secret stayed hidden until 1985. Hutton wasn't the obvious hire for MI9. His CV said journalist, Hollywood publicist, RAF pilot. What got him the job was a passing reference to trying to outsmart Harry Houdini. His interviewer heard something in it and asked him to keep talking. That moment, a sliding doors moment that could easily have been missed, is the first of three leadership ideas this episode unpacks: the power of unseen interests, the discipline of starting with what you already have, and the ability to look at familiar things and see them differently. The pieces were there all along. Someone just had to look at them differently. What do you know about what your staff love? And when did you last let someone walk through your school and tell you what they see? Tune in today. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's four books: ⁠ Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we' Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools. PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠

A $327 million spacecraft was lost because two teams were using different units of measurement. In the third episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) uses the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter disaster as a starting point for something far closer to home: the misunderstandings that quietly derail teams, erode trust and cause things to go wrong, not through incompetence, but through assumption. Because most misunderstandings don't happen in space. They happen in staffrooms, in corridors, in the gap between what we think we're communicating and what people are receiving. Drawing on research into the liking gap, the illusion of transparency and David Robson's work on connection, this episode examines three things leaders consistently get wrong: how much people like them, how readable their feelings actually are, and how much connection shapes the quality of everything else. The Mars team assumed they were speaking the same language. They weren't. The question for leaders is whether the same thing is happening in their schools right now, and what it would take to find out. When did you last tell someone you valued their contribution? What would change if you did? Tune in today. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's four books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we' Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools. PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠

The most magical place on earth was not an accident. In the second episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) takes a look behind the curtain at Disney: not the rides or the fireworks, but the leadership principles that make the whole thing work. From windows set at child-eye height to rubbish bins placed exactly 27 feet apart, Disney's magic is designed, taught and deliberately maintained at every level of the organisation. Drawing on the Disney Institute's book Be Our Guest, this episode explores three principles that translate directly into school leadership: practical magic, the commitment to exceeding expectations through relentless attention to detail; guestology, the art and science of truly understanding the people you serve, including those who aren't yet coming to you; and the kind of explicit training culture that doesn't just put people into an organisation, but puts the organisation into people. Because the detail is never just detail. It signals intention. It signals what you believe your people and your community are worth. What are your four priorities, in order? Who are you designing the experience for, and how well do you actually know them? Tune in today. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's four books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we' Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools. PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠

Most people who changed the world never made the history books. In the first episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) opens with Josephine Cochran, the woman who invented the dishwasher in 1886, not because she was an engineer, but because a problem needed solving and nobody else was solving it. Widowed, working against every social limitation placed on her, she got the job done anyway. But this episode isn't really about dishwashers. It's about what drives any of us to try and change something, in our schools, our teams, our leadership. Drawing on Rutger Bregman's work on Moral Ambition, Rachel introduces the Triple S Model: is the problem solvable, is it sorely overlooked, and is it sizeable enough to scale? Three questions that cut through complacency and point toward the work that matters. Because too many talented people, Bregman argues, spend their energy on the wrong thing, their own reputation, their own advancement, their own ambition. Moral ambition looks different. It starts with a simple realisation: you've only got one life. What is the problem in your school, your team, your leadership that you've quietly accepted as just the way things are? What if you didn't? Tune in today. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's four books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we' Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools. PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠

PiXL Pearls returns for series 10. Host Rachel Johnson, author, leadership thinker and CEO of PiXL, shares eight new stories built to challenge and inspire the school leaders of today and tomorrow. This series steps outside education to find its lessons. How did a board game help win a war? How much faith do we really place in dice? Why does the albatross have a PR problem? And what can Disney's backstage teach us about what happens on stage? Pulling from film, entertainment, nature and entrepreneurship, each episode asks a question designed to help you look at your own leadership differently. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's three books: ⁠ Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠ ⁠Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠ ⁠ Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠ Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠ ⁠ Subscribe on Spotify⁠ The PiXL network spans thousands of schools across key stages 1-5. We collaborate, share best practice, and equip leaders throughout the educational system. Subscribe now to download every episode directly to your phone automatically. PiXL Podcasts are We Are In Beta productions. For more information visit: ⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠