Sharkcano: The Power of Adaptation

As a parent of 3(!), I am asked a fairly high number of what many might consider odd questions—and am informed of an even higher number of “facts.” My oldest son, Gryffin, is adamant there IS a lone, surviving megalodon living in the depths of the ocean. My younger son, Beren, is equally insistent that there is a planet where people can go to “watch the sun set and have it be the last thing they see” (presumably because it’s several thousand degrees below zero—he’s not bothered by the fact that death would occur instantaneously, sunlight or no sunlight, under those conditions, or that we’ve yet to achieve interstellar travel, but I digress). All of this, while my daughter Eden (the oldest), rolls her eyes, sighing at all the things her little brothers “know,” but clearly don’t know.

But truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. For example, did you know there is a REAL underwater “sharkcano” that is home to mutant sharks? It’s 100% true. NASA’s 2022 photos of the then-erupting sharkcano (real name Kavachi Volcano) and its residents made news…and my retelling of it earned me major street cred at home.

To quickly summarize: The Kavachi Volcano is likely the last place we would consider a hospitable environment for life, given its superheated, acidic waters and regular, violent eruptions. And yet…it is. This crazy, unexpected miracle of the natural world is home to multiple species of shark, reef fish, and other organisms that have successfully adapted to not only survive—but thrive, despite the extreme conditions.

Within curriculum development, we often find ourselves in our own sharkcano—balancing the sometimes-contradictory requests and needs of different team members, what we ourselves know of best practices for assessment and curriculum design, the needs of an evolving learner population, and in some cases, juggling critical feedback amidst internal change.?

So, is there no hope? Are we destined to swim around in harsh, acidic, inhospitable environments like our sharkcano friends? Of course not! Here are some of my tips to adapt, survive, and thrive in even seemingly harsh conditions.

• Accept feedback: We all care deeply about our students. After all, that’s why we work in higher education—we believe in our students’ ability to succeed, and we own our role in providing them the necessary tools to achieve mastery and go on to successful careers. We are passionate about the work that we do, and we consistently deliver what we truly believe, in the moment, is the best possible product and experience. Because of our investment, it is hard to receive critical feedback or recommendations for revision, especially when we feel that something already represented our best effort. But at the end of the day, there is only one question that we should be asking ourselves when receiving feedback: What will serve our students best?
• Bend—or break—when necessary. Good, clearly defined processes provide logic and clarity to what might otherwise feel like an overwhelmingly complex set of disparate steps. But sometimes our processes don’t serve us, our cross-functional stakeholders, or worse, our students in the ways that we imagined. We must be willing to flex when we need to—or to go so far as to break and rebuild our methods.
• Be OK with being wrong…but don’t stay wrong. While we always deliver what we truly believe to be our best effort, what our audience wants and needs—sometimes we will simply get it wrong. Again (say it with me), sometimes we/you are going to be wrong. We don’t have to like being wrong, but we do have to accept it, and ask ourselves and others hard questions (without judgment or defensiveness). We also need to be prepared to hear some hard answers…and then do something about it.(1)
• Seek opportunities in times of tumult. Change of any sort can feel risky—dangerous even—in unknown and unpredictable ways. When we are willing to adapt, new opportunities to learn and grow (both at the team and individual levels) present themselves. We simply have to remain open. Ask yourself how might recent changes positively impact your work and that of your team? What opportunities for growth might now exist that previously didn’t? I promise you, they are there, if you look for them.

Finally, don’t feel pressured to do this all at once. True adaption doesn’t occur overnight, and learning to operate from a place of discomfort isn’t easy. As you navigate this growth process, keep in mind the reasons that we do what we do—focus on what our students need from us in order to succeed. Little by little, we can all learn to adapt, grow, and swim comfortably.

______

(1) If you need some inspiration, consider listening to the TED Radio Hour podcast episode “Changing our Minds.”