When Only One Person Showed Up
The following is a reflection on my leadership experience, and how I am navigating what at times has felt like potential failure. Fortunately, I am able to navigate the next chapter because the foundation is strong - built in collaboration with many thoughtful and committed people over the years.
Make Your Purpose Explicit
In 2012, I was contracted by the Association for China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS) to coordinate professional development.
The scope of my work wasn’t clear, but ACAMIS’s Executive Director, Jim Koerschen, made one thing clear, “we need to get our smaller members more involved and find ways to support a greater variety of staff.”
From that directive, three principles shaped the next decade of work:
Create opportunities for smaller schools to access PD more easily.
Differentiate and diversify PD opportunities for a variety of roles.
Equalise professional development by offering local language facilitation.
For eight years, the focus was on creating opportunities for those who did not have them. Middle Leaders. Teaching assistants. Support staff. Specialist teachers. Workshops facilitated in Chinese. Educators in smaller or remote schools.
One lesson became clear early: meaningful differentiation comes at a cost.
Making access possible meant shifting weight carefully. Middle leader workshops with stronger budgets were often hosted in smaller cities, reducing costs for smaller schools. Teaching assistant and support staff workshops were then run in larger cities, where scale allowed lower fees and broader access. It was never a neat equation - just a deliberate effort to ensure opportunity did not depend on role, language, or geography.
I learned another hard lesson that continues to pay dividends today. During this same period I had to also navigate a new, and initially uncertain relationship with Jim’s successor, Tom Ulmet. Staying anchored to that purpose also allowed relationships - including leadership transitions - to strengthen rather than fracture. Purpose provided clarity when circumstances were less certain.
From Events to Communities
In 2020, the pandemic, and emergence of Zoom as a learning medium, gave me the opportunity to scale my ambitions. I began hosting the first peer learning network meetings. They evolved into peer learning communities, and eventually into PeerSphere.
The intention was simple: if educators valued connection the most, why not create a structure where connecting could be the focus? Remove the content and facilitator from the equation and put participants and their experience at the center of learning.
At its peak, PeerSphere connected 2,800 members from 125 schools across 68 communities.
We were not only connecting teachers. We were connecting Heads of School, lab technicians, secretaries, subject leaders, and teaching assistants. Roles that rarely have a professional network suddenly had one.
PeerSphere was honoured with the China School Awards Lifelong Learner Award. We collected hundreds of testimonials from educators who felt less isolated and more capable because of the community they had joined.
PeerSphere became the embodiment of the work I had been doing since 2012: bringing professional development closer to people who otherwise would not access it.
The Night One Person Came
One evening, I hosted a community meeting.
I had prepared carefully. The questions were ready. The structure was tight.
One person showed up.
Not because the topic was wrong. Not because the community lacked value. But because despite the best intentions, it wasn’t a priority for many who had joined.
In that moment, the tension between mission and sustainability was impossible to ignore.
And I understood something clearly: we had created authentic communities. ut the demand required to sustain their costs was not sufficient.
Attendance and retention were the metrics that mattered. To survive financially, we needed high retention and steady growth. Low attendance quickly eroded both.
Schools valued the service. They rarely questioned the price. But most did not integrate it into professional growth and evaluation systems. Participation was encouraged, not embedded. Growth systems were often too underdeveloped to anchor community learning in a sustainable way.
Differentiated professional development is expensive. Even during our most efficient operating period the costs weren’t sustainable for our scale. Fewer communities drove those costs higher. We cross-subsidised as long as we could, but in the end the losses were significant.
Emotionally, it was difficult for my team and especially our hosts, who prepared generously and sometimes also met with only one or two members.
The mission was right.
The model was fragile.
And because so many people invested so much of themselves in the work, it deserves to evolve rather than disappear.
What Will Not Change
The purpose that began in 2012 remains unchanged.
PeerSphere exists to create opportunities for schools that are too remote, too small, or too constrained by budget to access high-quality professional development. It exists to create opportunities for staff who otherwise would have none. It exists to ensure connection and participant experience remain central to everything we coordinate.
The method is evolving.
PeerSphere, in partnership with schools and service providers, will continue to make professional development accessible to entire school communities - parents and students included - while building networks beyond local boundaries so that no one is limited to the perspectives within their own institution.
The ambition remains what it was in 2012: equalise access, differentiate intelligently, and ensure learning does not depend on geography, language, or role.
How I Must Navigate PeerSphere’s Next Chapter
I am very fortunate to have a great team, coupled with a strong network of collaborators, that is willing to learn alongside me. We all believe in the purpose.
PeerSphere represented the pure distillation of that purpose. The 68 communities were what I believed were the purest and most impactful form of peer learning.
As a leader I have to realize that PeerSphere doesn’t have to be a place. It is an ideal. A principal. A critical ingredient to learning.
PeerSphere, peer learning specifically, is something that we have made very tangible and visible. It is now essential that the spirit of PeerSphere is visible in everything we do going forward.
Next year, communities will continue, though at a more sustainable scale. These communities will be subsidized by our association partnerships, sponsors and in-person events.
There will be a great emphasis on in-person events next year. Over the next few months we are running a series of in-person events, alongside a growing offering of online activities, with a very clear mandate: put peer learning at the heart of the experience.
ACAMIS Student Leadership Conference
March 7 (Sat) | Shenzhen, Changshu, Beijing, China
Students will learn how to ask for and give feedback to one another to hone and scale their ambition to make the world a better place.
Everyone is a Language Teacher
March 7 (Sat) | Shenzhen, China
Innovation Labs, Table Talks and a greater variety of peer presentations will ensure participants are not only introduced to great practices, but have time and space to develop ideas with peers. Symposiums hosted in Japan, Malaysia and China in 2026 will culminate in a community of practice that has sustained impact across the year and beyond.
Enhancing Boarding Practices and Safeguarding in Private Bilingual Schools
March 21-22 (Fri-Sat) | Beijing, China
In collaboration with our Partner NESSIC and our very experienced facilitators, we will deliver a low cost workshop for a very underserved, yet vital, role in NESSIC member schools.
School Administration Conference
March 27-28 (Fri-Sat) | Guangzhou, China
Our annual conference for Administrative Leaders and their support teams. Peer Learning and Sharing Sessions are a staple of this event, along with the variety of carefully curated expert and peer presentations.
Leading Inclusive Communities
In line with our mission, we will be creating more spaces for educators to explore inclusive, strengths-based approaches that ensure every child and adult feels seen, valued, and thoughtfully supported within diverse learning environments. Through our partnership with MindPrint and Formative Action School, we aim to make as many of these learning opportunities as low cost as possible, or free, by learning from and alongside other community stakeholders
Advancing Team Leadership: Strategies for Experienced Middle Leaders
May 8-9 (Fri-Sat) | Kobe, Japan
This course is tailored for Experienced Middle Leaders (2+ years in role) looking to elevate their practice, reinvigorate team culture, and navigate the complexities of sustained leadership.
Leading Effective Teams for New and Aspiring Team Leaders
May 8-9 (Fri-Sat) | Chengdu, China
This workshop is designed for new and aspiring middle leaders in international schools who want to build the foundational skills to lead effective, collaborative teams.
Stepping Into Middle Leadership: A Practical Leadership Orientation for New and Aspiring Middle Leaders
June 5 (Fri) | Putrajaya, Malaysia
This is a one-day orientation for new and aspiring middle leaders who want clarity about their role, realistic priorities for their first term, and language and frameworks to navigate the conversations that matter. It is designed to be grounded, useful, and centred on the real challenges of school life.
Facilitation Academy
Alongside events, the Facilitation Academy is designed to build the capacity of educators to design and lead professional learning well - not as performance, but as disciplined, thoughtful practice. The emphasis is on helping schools strengthen the quality of their internal conversations and development processes, so that professional learning becomes more coherent, purposeful, and sustainable over time.
