Flourish with a Post-Workshop Action List

With the National Education Summit just two weeks away, educators will soon head to Brisbane looking for fresh ideas, practical strategies, and perhaps a little renewed energy.

I know the feeling well.

You attend a keynote that challenges your thinking. A workshop gives you practical ideas. You scribble notes, take photos of slides, and sit with colleagues afterwards asking the familiar question:

So what are our actions?

By the end of the day, someone has captured a long list of next steps on butcher’s paper, in a notebook, or in a shared document.

Then Monday arrives. A staff member calls in sick. A parent complaint lands in your inbox. A student issue escalates. Your curriculum meeting runs overtime. The action list that felt urgent on Friday suddenly feels disconnected from the reality of school life.Your notes get lost in the bottom draw of your desk.

I’ve lived this as a principal. The issue is not motivation. Schools are filled with deeply committed people who want to improve outcomes for young people. The problem is that many post-workshop action lists are built for ideal conditions that simply do not exist in schools. Ironically, they can create the very exhaustion many leaders are trying to solve.

We confuse movement with progress There is often an unspoken belief that a workshop must end with a long list of actions to be considered worthwhile.

I’m no longer convinced.

Some of the most valuable professional learning experiences I’ve had did not produce immediate actions. They gave me clarity. They challenged assumptions. They helped me realise we were solving the wrong problem. That is progress. Before creating actions, leadership teams need to be clear about what they are actually trying to improve.

Is the issue of staff wellbeing?

Communication?

Strategic Goals?

Student learning?

School culture?

Without that clarity, schools can end up implementing activity rather than meaningful change. We move too quickly.

School leaders are problem solvers. It is one of their great strengths. It can also become a weakness. After a conference or workshop, there can be pressure to act quickly while enthusiasm is high. But fast decisions are not always wise decisions.

I’ve seen schools introduce wellbeing initiatives when the real issue was workload.

These initiatives have just added to the workload.

I’ve seen schools add new communication systems when trust was the deeper issue.

I’ve seen leaders invest in expensive programmes before properly listening to staff.

Sometimes the most productive thing a leadership team can do after professional learning is pause long enough to ask better questions.

What is really happening here?

What are we missing?

Does this idea actually fit our context?

Not every good idea belongs in your school right now. We ignore capacity. This is often the biggest issue of all. Schools are full of good people operating near full capacity. Teachers are managing increasingly complex classrooms. Leaders are balancing staffing shortages, budgets, parent expectations, compliance pressures, and the realities of their own lives outside school.

Every new initiative requires time, emotional energy, and follow-through. Adding six new priorities after every conference may feel ambitious. In reality, it often becomes unsustainable.

This is where flourishing matters. Flourishing is not about squeezing more productivity out of already tired people. It is about creating conditions where people can do meaningful work well over time while maintaining their health, relationships, and sense of purpose. A better way forward. Before implementing anything from a workshop, use a simple filter with your leadership team:

What should we stop?
What meeting, initiative, process, or habit is draining time and energy without adding meaningful value?

What should we start?
What is one idea from the workshop that could genuinely improve your school?

What should we sustain?
What are you already doing well that deserves greater consistency?

Then give yourself 30 days before launching anything significant.

Let the excitement settle. Review your notes, talk with your team, and test whether the idea solves a real problem.

And if you cannot clearly explain why something matters, it probably should not be added to an already full system.

As you head to the National Education Summit, I hope you leave inspired. Flourishing.

But I also hope you leave with fewer actions, better questions, and the discipline to focus on what matters most.

That feels far closer to flourishing than returning from another conference with a notebook full of ideas and no real capacity to implement them.