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Simpang Sessions
Simpang Sessions are short, focused entry points into the thinking behind Simpang’s work with schools.
The short video at the top introduces a core idea. The Simpang Snippets link takes you to a growing library of short extracts from longer workshops, leadership sessions, and strategy conversations.
Each snippet is designed to stand alone. Together, they reflect the deeper work: how leaders make sense of complexity, build shared understanding, and create the conditions for sustainable improvement.
If you’re exploring how Simpang thinks, this is a good place to start.
🎙️ Redefining Success: Lessons from Real Lives
What if success isn't about titles, speed, or being out front all the time?
In the latest Imperfect Journeys episode of Lab to Ed Leadership, titled Redefining Success: Lessons from Real Lives, I'm joined by Michael Everett from Simpang.org to explore what success really looks like, when you strip away the polish.
Through powerful real‑world stories, Mike challenges some deeply rooted assumptions:
🛹 TonyHawk spent over 25 years landing the first 900.
Years later, a 9‑year‑old does it in a day—because Tony proved it was possible.
So… who's more successful?
🚴 Mark Cavendish wins races by not leading most of them.
Pulled uphill by his team for hours, winning only in the final moments.
Success wasn’t individual, it was collective.
🎨 A logo sketched on a napkin in minutes…
Made possible by 20 years of experience.
🧗 Alex Honnold, climbing without ropes, reframes "risk" as preparation, not fear.
Across sport, education, design, and leadership, one message kept surfacing: ➡️ Success isn't linear ➡️ Impact matters more than status ➡️ It's okay not to know yet
This conversation is for:
✅ young people feeling pressured to have a perfect plan
✅ educators and leaders supporting others through uncertainty
✅ anyone rethinking what "success" actually means
🎧 Imperfect Journeys: A series by Lab to EdLeadership collaboration with Simpang.org
Because real success is built in the unseen moments.
Why This Video Matters
School improvement is rarely a straight line, but most leaders are still handed advice as if it is. This isn’t because leaders don’t know their craft, it’s because improvement is more complex than the models we’re given.
This video reframes that thinking.
In this session, Michael Everett unpacks the Sigmoid Curve and uses real-world analogies, from the motor industry to elite cycling, to show how meaningful, sustainable improvement works in schools.
It explains why well-intentioned initiatives often stall, why momentum can dip before it builds, and why timing matters as much as direction.
But this isn’t theory for interest’s sake.
You’ll see how the Simpang Index Tools (Clarity, Wellbeing, Inclusion, Curriculum, Leadership & Culture, Assessment, Communication) help leadership teams uncover what they don’t yet know, diagnose where practice is reactive or evolving, and map out the next strategic step.
They are not compliance tools or scorecards, they are strategic mirrors that slow thinking before speeding action.
This is a practical guide for leaders who want more than surface-level solutions:
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A clearer understanding of how change really works in schools.
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A framework to ask the difficult questions that truly move practice forward.
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A way to build leadership alignment, strengthen culture, and make data meaningful.
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A structure for improvement that doesn’t begin with a blank page.
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Tools they can immediately use with their own teams.
You’ll also see why sustainable improvement is a team effort.
Using the Mission: Support analogy, the session explores how leaders support one another to reach new highs, and how Simpang’s Leadership Rooms are designed to build exactly that kind of shared momentum.
Whether you are leading a school, shaping systems, or preparing to guide improvement at scale, this video offers:
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A new mental model for change
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A set of questions that surface blind spots
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A pathway to move from reactive → evolving → strategic & sustainable
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A glimpse of how Simpang partners with schools in a bespoke, embedded way
This isn’t a presentation of answers. It’s a framework for finding the right answers for your school.
If parts of this feel familiar, that recognition is the starting point.