Leadership Huddles: A Bespoke Approach to Innovative Learning Communities with ACS and Kristine Mizzone

As the American Community School of Abu Dhabi (ACS) enters a new year, consultant Kristine Mizzone is spearheading an exciting, innovative initiative designed to empower leaders within the school community. This initiative, called the ACS Leadership Huddles, is not just another leadership workshop—it's a unique and dynamic program tailored to fit the needs of busy educators and leaders at ACS. The goal is to blend flexibility, practical impact, and personalized support, helping individuals grow, inspire their teams, and lead with purpose. Kristine’s work is a great example of how creative professional learning experts are crafting innovative experiences on Huddle Up.

The Leadership Huddles are structured to maximize work-embedded learning, offering a unique opportunity to take theory and transform it into actionable strategies.

Three Opportunities to Innovate

Kristine and ACS collaborated to identify three different pathways for ACS educators to join. Together, they developed a model where each pathway was structured to innovate in three distinct ways.

Personalizing Professional Learning

Tailoring professional learning to the diverse needs of participants is inherently challenging. In traditional workshop or conference settings, or as an external consultant, it can be difficult to create experiences that resonate with every individual. This challenge stems from the complexity of addressing varied professional contexts, learning styles, and goals within a single approach. Achieving true personalization requires not only flexibility but also a deep understanding of participants' needs.

Leveraging Professional Learning Time

One of the biggest challenges in consulting is maximizing time and impact, especially when consultants are not physically present. Kristine says it well when she shares: “One of the challenges in consulting is maximizing our time and impact, especially when we're not physically present.”

The implications of this challenge are profound. Without in-person engagement, it can be harder to foster connections, maintain momentum, and ensure the strategies discussed are implemented effectively. The reason why consultants find innovative ways to amplify their presence and provide sustained support despite these time constraints.

Measuring Success

Demonstrating the value and impact of consulting work can be challenging, particularly when some of the key outcomes—like shifts in mindset or practice—are harder to quantify. However, these changes are essential for lasting transformation. While the tangible results, such as new practices and products, are important, Kristine knows they represent only part of the picture. Exceptional professional learning is also about shifting mindsets, and for that shift to truly take root, the organization must grow as a learning community. Without this collective growth, the impact will remain limited.

So how did Kristine meet this challenge? She developed a customized solution for ACS educators -  a bespoke cohort-based solution for leadership development.  Read more details below or just click here to hear Kristine’s welcome message to launch the program to the ACS faculty. Her program made sure to take advantage of the three opportunities she identified. She customized a solution that was 1) personable, 2) honored educators’ busy schedules, and 3) focused on evidence and action to deliver an experience that goes beyond traditional professional learning.  

Learning: Choose 1 of 3 Pathways with a Cohort Focus

One of the challenges in professional learning is personalizing experiences to meet the diverse needs of participants. The ACS Leadership Huddles address this by offering participants the choice of three distinct pathways: becoming a skilled facilitator, a change agent, or a team builder. This flexibility ensures that each participant’s learning aligns with their goals and professional context. Combined with a cohort focus, this approach fosters collaboration while still respecting individual needs.

Leverage the “Gap” Between the Trainings to Share Evidence and Feedback

Time between training sessions is often underutilized in traditional professional learning settings. The ACS Leadership Huddles redefine this “gap” as a valuable opportunity for participants to engage in meaningful learning activities. Through the Huddle Up platform, participants can share artifacts of learning, provide feedback, and reflect on their progress in an asynchronous, self-paced format.

By leveraging technology, Kristine transforms the period between in-person sessions into a continuous engagement model. As she explains, “It’s as if participants have me as a consultant in residence throughout the entire project, from January to May.” This approach maximizes professional learning time, enabling participants to learn anytime, anywhere, while fostering collaboration and reflection. The ongoing access to resources and facilitation ensures that participants are supported throughout the process, enhancing both individual and collective growth.

Evidence of Learning and Implementation - with Data

With the ACS Leadership Huddles, we can see tangible evidence of progress through the creation of artifacts. As participants apply their learning in authentic ways within ACS, they generate real-world examples that allow us to track individual growth and the collective impact of the work. This approach makes the results of the huddles both visible and measurable.

Moreover, participants engage in self-assessments at both the start and end of the process, providing clear insights into their development in knowledge, skills, and understanding. But the real value goes beyond individual progress. Kristine is intentionally fostering a learning community where participants can share these artifacts and insights with each other. By exchanging feedback, strategies, and reflections, they not only accelerate their own growth but also support each other’s learning. This collaborative dynamic enriches the overall experience, creating a community that continuously learns from one another and drives collective success.

The ACS Leadership Huddles in Action

A core component of the ACS Leadership Huddles is its structured, phased approach to professional development. It blends synchronous and asynchronous collaboration and sharing so that each learner has the time and space to share their best thinking and peer feedback. 

First, participants enter the READY phase, where they’ll engage with bite-sized lessons and videos on a platform called Huddle Up. These videos are designed to be easy to digest, allowing participants to move through the modules at their own pace. Over the course of two months, they'll select a pathway and gain valuable insights that can be immediately applied to their leadership role at ACS.

In the RUN phase, participants will take what they've learned and put it into practice. Whether it’s setting team goals, refining meeting strategies, or fostering team culture, this stage ensures that new skills are directly applied in the real world, and shared with colleagues, making a tangible impact at ACS.

Finally, the HUDDLE phase offers an invaluable space for participants to reconnect with others in their pathway, share successes, troubleshoot challenges, and exchange fresh ideas and feedback - synchronously or asynchronously.  It’s a collaborative environment designed to encourage feedback, celebrate progress, and build a sense of community among leaders.

What makes this program particularly unique is its flexibility and the personalized coaching Kristine provides throughout the journey. Participants will have access to one-on-one or small group coaching, as well as opportunities to work with their cohort group both virtually and in person, where they’ll reflect on their growth and celebrate their accomplishments - all evidenced in the ideas and feedback visible in the platform.

The ACS Leadership Huddles are a unique and innovative solution that breaks away from conventional professional development programs. They provide the flexibility and real-world actionable learning to evidence the resources, solutions and feedback of each participant to build an online learning community that learns from each other.

With personalized support and a focus on actionable outcomes, Kristine has created a program that is set to make 2025 a transformative year for leadership at ACS.