Great Expectations

 The big day….

Getting dressed in my academic finery took longer than I expected. The outfit under the gown is prescriptive. It’s called “sub fusc” and involves covering up every inch of skin in a long sleeved white shirt, long skirt and black stockings. Over that goes the gown, the hat and a ridiculous black velvet bow around my neck . The boys get a bow tie.  Clearly the ribbon is some effort to dress up the females but I look somewhat like a six year old from the seventies.  My poor family is  also dressed up in full formal glory. I appreciate the tradition, but black academic robes or blazers and ties in the middle of a heatwave require more commitment  than even signing up for the course in the first place. 

As we made our way from the hotel to the venue, I felt a little conspicuous in my gear, lots of tourists looking and smiling. Random people kept saying “congratulations”. 

The Sheldonian Theatre itself (designed by the ever present Christopher Wren), is a breathtaking building. A very fancy, special place for a graduation ceremony. The ceremony was really nice - shortish speeches, a vocal quartet , some handshaking and we were out in the sunshine for the obligatory photos and hat throwing.

While we were sitting in the ceremony, I had some reflection time. Forty nine people put in time and money and effort to learn something new. Why? What were we hoping to achieve and now we are at the end of this chapter, did we achieve it? 

I had applied for the “view from the room” speech to be given at the ceremony. I didn’t get the gig, but my draft speech had been largely about these questions, via a metaphor.

Hic Sunt Dracones. Here be dragons. 

This phrase appeared on old maps, warnings inked on to the edges of the known world. Beyond this point - uncertainty, danger, mystery, things not yet understood. For me this is an appropriate metaphor for my Organisational Leadership course in so many ways. 

The first dragon for me was the fear of not knowing. Adult learning asks established, competent people to become beginners again. I’m used to being the person with the answers,  and all of a sudden I have none. I don’t know what good looks like. There is something uniquely humbling about getting a mark on a paper I’ve spent weeks crafting. 

The next dragons were the ideas themselves. How to tackle ambiguity, paradox and change. And while we wrestled with new complex ideas inside Oxford, outside the walls the world continued shifting beneath our feet. We studied change while living through it. Technology reshaped industries faster than organisations could adapt. AI challenged how we work and how we made decisions. Political systems fractured. Social expectations evolved. The pace of change accelerated while our certainty diminished. 

Which brings me back to the metaphor. Old maps no longer work. In order to lead in today’s world we need to be able to navigate when the existing map fails . Navigate into the unknown places marked by dragons. 

But… dragons are also symbols of power, wisdom and guardianship over treasure. 

So did I achieve what I wanted from this chapter of my life? I think so. I learned to fly over terrain I once found intimidating. To tolerate ambiguity. To ask better questions. To challenge assumptions (including my own). 

Finally, I’ve also gained some self belief. I looked at the edge of map, at the place marked “here be dragons”. I read those words and was willing to walk there. 

And I didn’t walk alone - there is cohort of others, now friends who walked with me. We all arrived at Oxford with different expectations, but we all leave with something shared, an experience that built a support network that will last well beyond the course.