We're all obsessed with balance. In our work, our lives, our schools.

We're all obsessed with balance. In our work, our lives, our schools.

But for me, when it comes to learning and personal development, the pursuit of balance is a recipe for stagnation. Or worse.

True growth doesn't happen in a state of perfect equilibrium. It happens by constantly managing imbalance.

Think about me as a toddler. Little Robby, learning to walk. My diaper was perfectly positioned for soft landings, because I fell. A lot. I fell on my bottom, rarely on my forehead -I must have been a genius 😉- so my parents considered it relatively safe. Not that they weren't nervous... but they let go.

The secret to my success wasn't staying balanced. It was falling. I once heard a child falls 1,700 times before mastering walking. Falling isn't a bug; it's the entire feature. It's 'Freedom to Experiment & Research' in its purest form.

Yet in our schools and organizations, we are obsessed with finding a perfect, static equilibrium. We search for the flawless implementation plan, the team that never struggles, the year without disruption.

We tell our students: follow my path exactly and you will be fine. For them, it feels like walking a tightrope when they are still mastering the skill of walking.

The result? Fear, frustration, and the tragic conclusion that the student needs a label.

We treat imbalance like a failure to be fixed. But true learning and innovation don't happen in a state of perfect calm. They happen in the stretch, the wobble, the fall, and the getting back up.

So the goal shouldn't be to find that mythical balance. It should be to build the resilience to manage the constant, messy, beautiful process of moving forward.

💡 What if your school culture treated imbalance not as a risk to manage… but as a sign you’re doing it right? As an essential part of moving forward?