IWYS – A New Perspective…

Risks are a part of life. From small risks like planning a picnic on a cloudy day to big risks like trusting a student with a lot of responsibility. But taking risks is also an important part of learning and growing. Last week at PLB, we decided to step forward and do something new and adventurous, and it has taught me so much. IWYS ( I Wear Your Shirt) is a new approach to marketing where a group of people wear PLB t-shirts, and spread awareness about our services for a whole day. As a part of the package come tweets, fun videos and a live stream. It was great, and loads of fun, and it got me thinking.

Click on the videos below. Each one will pop-up in a video window.

The videos that IWYS created were interesting and were from a whole new perspective. I mean, if I were to talk about PLB, I would not have said the same things. In some ways they were not what I expected. And it’s this, which makes them so much fun.

I was just thinking about this as a teacher. Sometimes when we give a project or an assignment, students come back with something that’s very different from what we asked for. How do we respond? Do we tell them that they didn’t understand their assignment, or are we ready to be open and embrace their perspective?

It’s so tempting to say that “this is right, and this is the only way”, and the truth is that it’s not always so. Communicating our expectations clearly is our responsibility, and after that we need to be open to new perspectives, innovation and extraordinary ideas.

What are your thoughts about these new videos IWYS made for us?