Moving Together: Why Pathway and Motivation Matter

It was 2010. The iPad was just released. I was speaking with a parent about a growing frustration—schools were asking students to adapt to outdated systems rather than evolving to reflect the world they were actually living in. I shared my thinking about how iPads could transform learning.

He paused and said, “If you can come up with a solid plan, I’ll provide a $15,000 donation.” This does not happen in public schools. But it did.

The only problem was—I didn’t have a plan.

What I did have was a belief that this mattered, and a willingness to not do it alone.

I reached out to someone I had briefly met at the high school, who then brought in two high school students. Together, along with a teacher and myself (principal), we built the proposal, secured the funding, and implemented what became a school-wide initiative. Using a train-the-trainer model, students and staff learned alongside one another, and within a short time, the work spread across the school. What began as a single conversation became something much larger.

This landed us on the front page of the main Vancouver newspaper. Outlets across Canada picked up the story. In one and a half years, we had over 1,000 visitors, including the Ministry of Education.

Change Needs a Pathway

Looking back, the success of that project had very little to do with the technology itself. It had everything to do with two conditions that are essential for any meaningful change: a clear pathway and strong motivation.

In many organizations, we assume that if an idea is good enough, people will naturally move toward it. But that rarely happens. Not because people are resistant, but because the way forward is unclear. A pathway provides direction—it helps people understand where they are, where they are going, and what steps they can take to move forward. In the iPad project, that pathway was not predetermined; it was co-constructed. We started small, made learning visible, and built momentum as we went. The pathway evolved through action.

People Need Motivation

At the same time, even the clearest plan will fall flat if people are not motivated to engage. In my experience, motivation comes down to three core needs: a sense of belonging, a belief in one’s competence, and the feeling of having agency. People need to feel that they are part of the work, that they can contribute meaningfully, and that their voice matters. That is what sustains effort over time.

The iPad project worked not because we had the perfect plan, but because we created the conditions for people to step in, contribute, and grow. It was both structured enough to provide direction and open enough to invite ownership.

Leadership as Design

This experience shaped how I understand leadership. Leadership is not about having all the answers or driving change forward alone. It is about designing the conditions where change can take hold—where there is enough clarity to move and enough motivation to care.

Without a pathway, people feel lost. Without motivation, they don’t move. But when both are present, change becomes possible—and, more importantly, sustainable.

A Question to Consider

So the question for all of us is this: in the changes we are trying to lead, are we paying as much attention to how people move together as we are to where we want them to go?