Lateral trust among colleagues is as important as vertical trust within the hierarchy.

Strong professional communities risk and sometimes relish conflict.

There is a new science of complexity which says that the link between cause and effect is increasingly difficult to trace; that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways; that paradoxes and contradictions abound; and that creative solutions arise out of diversity, uncertainty and chaos.

Blame and betrayal are the emotional enemies of improvement.

On being: Arrogance is not the prerogative of the gifted.

Without optimism & self-belief among teachers, classrooms become wastelands of boredom & routine and schools deserts of lost opportunity.

Improvement is about doing something better; innovation is about doing something new.