2026 Agenda

Part of leadership in schools is shaping the culture of conversations. The way we engage in dialogue signals what we value as an organization, especially when those conversations are challenging. Difficult conversations are necessary to address concerns and drive improvement, yet they are often avoided. When we choose comfort over courage, we unintentionally create barriers to progress and limit our ability to build effective, student-centered systems committed to keeping kids first.

In this session, we will:

• Examine what makes some conversations challenging
• Increase self-awareness around how they show up and respond in difficult moments
• Explore practical frameworks for managing challenging conversations with clarity and purpose
• Experience how a coaching approach can strengthen challenging dialogue

In many schools, “data” has become a word that evokes fatigue, fear, or resistance—especially when it has been experienced as a compliance tool rather than a support for learning. Data Rules: Elevating Teaching with Objective Reflection (2024), written by Jim Knight and session presenter Michael Faggella-Luby, reframes data as a source of clarity, hope, and instructional agency that strengthens teacher–coach partnerships rather than undermining them. Grounded in the TLC coaching mindset and drawing from the structure of the Data Rules book, this immersive pre-conference session invites participants to rethink how data are chosen, gathered, and discussed—shifting from “using data on teachers” to using data with teachers to illuminate student engagement, achievement, and instructional practice in ways that preserve trust and foster growth. Coaches will leave with practical tools, refined language, and a clear framework for using data as a “third point” in coaching conversations—supporting teacher agency, instructional clarity, and sustained improvement across classrooms.

Key takeaways:

• A renewed sense of purpose for using data in coaching, grounded in ICG’s Partnership Principles. Participants will learn how to use teacher-chosen, objective data as a shared point of focus—not to judge or persuade, but to build trust, honor professional expertise, and support meaningful growth.
• Clarity about how data fit naturally within the Impact Cycle, supporting better goal-setting, more focused learning, and thoughtful improvement over time. Participants will see how data can make coaching conversations clearer, calmer, and more productive—especially when change feels hard.
• Concrete ways to look at student engagement, helping teachers notice patterns in participation, attention, and opportunity that often go unseen. Coaches will be better equipped to support instructional adjustments that help more students feel seen, involved, and successful.

Great change starts with great conversations. In this session, you’ll learn how to lead through partnership, communicate in ways that reduce resistance, and use coaching conversations to support meaningful growth.

Explore the Impact Cycle, practice evidence-based strategies, and discover how to make coaching a natural, sustainable part of your leadership.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how to lead through partnership so coaching feels collaborative and builds trust.
• Strengthen communication skills—questioning, listening, and dialogue—that spark meaningful growth.
• Use the Impact Cycle to get clarity, set goals with teachers, and guide growth step by step.
• Gather and use simple, practical data to understand what’s happening and inform next steps.
• Leave with a plan you can put into practice immediately.

Conversation is at the heart of learning and leading.

In this session, we dive into a dynamic leadership context: those frequent, in-the-moment, “got a minute?” conversations. You know the ones – the unscheduled knock on the door or hallway conversations that happen throughout the school day. They are not in your calendar and you don’t have time to prepare, but many of these encounters present the opportunity to support the thinking and progress for our conversation partners. They present the opportunity to be learning conversations.

Chris Munro, co-author of Growth Talk: A Coaching Way of Leading in Schools (Munro & Campbell, 2025), will lead this highly interactive day, bringing to life the concepts, frameworks and skills that help make every conversation count.

Key takeaways: 

• What it means to be an effective conversation leader
• How to intentionally manage in-the-moment “other-initiated” conversations
• Immediately implementable strategies to support the thinking and progress of our conversation partners
• Confidence to lead Growth Talk conversations with teachers, administrators, parents, and students
• An understanding of ‘coaching as a way of leading’ in human-intensive organizations like schools

Learn to have conversations that strengthen personal and professional connections and relationships. Based on the framework developed by Prof. Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, this full-day course introduces a practical, research-informed approach to listening that goes beyond attentiveness and empathy. Radical Listening treats listening as an intentional professional act — one that shapes thinking, trust, motivation and learning within conversations.

The day begins with a provocation: even highly skilled coaches and leaders are sometimes distracted, impatient, or influenced by hidden assumptions. Participants will examine common obstacles to listening and reflect on their own habits. From there, participants will explore a central idea — that listening is motivated behavior — and consider how different intentions subtly guide the direction and quality of a conversation. The course then introduces the closely related skill of noticing and its relationship to expertise, presence, and intellectual humility.

Through demonstrations, structured exercises, and coached practice, participants will analyze real interactions and apply Radical Listening directly to their own professional conversations, receiving feedback and refining their approach in real time.

Participants will be able to:

• Identify common obstacles to listening
• Describe the connection between motivation and listening
• Define and apply the skill of noticing
• Recognize different modes of listening and their impact
• Use intention deliberately to guide conversations
• Create conditions that support reflection and insight

What do leaders need to know and do to ensure that coaching flourishes in their school? This is a question that Christian van Nieuwerburgh, John Campbell, and Jim Knight have been wrestling with over the past year and the result is a completely new version of John and Christian’s book The Leader’s Guide to Coaching in Schools.

In this interactive session, Jim Knight and John Campbell will unpack the key ideas from the book and guide participants through hands-on activities designed to turn theory into practice.

Participants will explore:

• What leaders need to know about The Impact Cycle and how administrators can apply its principles and methods in everyday conversations
• How the Growth Coaching Conversational Framework equips leaders to guide teachers and colleagues to set and hit powerful goals
• Strategies for having powerful coaching conversations even when there’s only 5 to 10 minutes available
• Next-level communication skills that deepen trust and engagement