Leadership requires creative use of 'what is not': it is only in unused space that there is the possibility for growth. "What is not" is not a deficit; it's the only place where leadership has the room to make a difference

Leadership, Sept-Oct, 2009 by George Manthey

It is somewhat ironic, or perhaps a case of being ornery, that I find myself returning to an ancient poet as I contemplate this month's Leadership magazine theme, "Leadership for a Changing World." In approximately 400 B.C. the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote a poem known in English as "The Uses of Not." This summer I asked the participants in ACSA's residential programs at UCLA to use this poem to frame their experience, and I am willing to bet that it can also provide a lens for reflecting on the articles in this magazine.

In this poem Lao wrote:

   Thirty spokes
   meet in a hub.
   Where the wheel is not
   is where it's useful.

Then, for those of us who didn't quite yet get the point, he went on to write:

   Hollowed out
   clay makes a pot.
   Where the pot is not
   is where it's useful.

For me this is where the poem really started to make sense. I imagined cooking a stew and could more easily see that the useful part of the pot--that part where the stewing mingled flavors--was where there wasn't any pot at all.

But Lao is not quite finished with us. He continues:

   Cut door and window
   to make a room.
   Where the room is not
   there's room for you.

The poem now becomes a call to action as we begin to understand that it is only in unused space that there is the possibility for growth. "What is not" is not a deficit; in a changing world it's the place, the only place, where leadership has the room to make a difference. As Lao concludes:

   The profit in what is
   is in the use of what's not.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Leadership for a changing world requires the creative use of what's not. When it's the unknown that we explore, the possibilities are without limit. In our schools and districts it is necessary to cut windows and doors, sometimes literally, to make room for purposeful learning communities, to share leadership, to reach out to those who drop out, and to unlock the potential in every learner.

Where school is not is where it's useful.

George Manthey is assistant executive director, ACSA educational services.