People quite often ask me why my Organisation is called ‘Sea Salt Learning’, and the answer is quite simple: we are connected, around the world, over the water, but the voyages across these seas can be hard. And some of them we have to make alone.
Sometimes our role is to hold safe the harbour: to build and maintain the walls, and to run the harbour-side tavern! Sometimes we help each other to prepare for the voyage, but eventually, we have to leave the harbour mouth and feel the first swell of the open sea.
If we are lucky, others will be within sight: whilst we each have our ship to pilot, we sometimes sail in an flotilla, a group of individuals heading in a similar direction.
At other times we are reliant on nothing more than our own wit and talent, plus the good fortune that we hope to carry into the storms.
But eventually, we hope to make it back into harbour, where we share our stories, safely in the calm, sat by the waters edge.
So Sea Salt Learning was built to be a harbour, but with one eye on the open sea!
I love this way of looking at learning: from safety into the storm.
You cannot learn to sail if you always remain in harbour, but you cannot endlessly travel the high seas without coming into the port.
I think the sometimes we mistake the act of helping people to prepare for a voyage, with the idea that we can make the voyage for them. But that’s not how we learn, or how capability is built.
julianstodd
Julian Stodd's Learning Blog 