👋 Sam Fitzpatrick
@sam-fitzpatrick.bsky.social
Work stuff here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samfitzpatrick89
Thoughtful stuff here: https://samfitzpatrick.substack.com/
Silly stuff here.
Thoughtful stuff here: https://samfitzpatrick.substack.com/
Silly stuff here.
Reposted by 👋 Sam Fitzpatrick
#️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ is about rugby, systems change, and stories. It's aggressively on-brand for me.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
We can't [...] until [...]
Two weeks of rewrites. Some stories hold us together. Others hold us back.
open.substack.com
May 14, 2025 at 9:50 AM
#️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ is about rugby, systems change, and stories. It's aggressively on-brand for me.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ is about rugby, systems change, and stories. It's aggressively on-brand for me.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
We can't [...] until [...]
Two weeks of rewrites. Some stories hold us together. Others hold us back.
open.substack.com
May 14, 2025 at 9:50 AM
#️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ is about rugby, systems change, and stories. It's aggressively on-brand for me.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Thanks for reading, Madeleine, much appreciated! 🙏
April 17, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Thanks for reading, Madeleine, much appreciated! 🙏
#️⃣2️⃣4️⃣ is a messy set of reflections following a recent study tour to NYC with the @leadeast100.bsky.social and @leadyorks100.bsky.social folks.
More questions than answers.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
More questions than answers.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
🇺🇸 Uncommon, unsettled, unresolved
I went to New York City looking for answers and all I got was a brand new bunch of questions to mull over and over and over and over and over and over and over
open.substack.com
April 17, 2025 at 12:13 PM
#️⃣2️⃣4️⃣ is a messy set of reflections following a recent study tour to NYC with the @leadeast100.bsky.social and @leadyorks100.bsky.social folks.
More questions than answers.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
More questions than answers.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Reposted by 👋 Sam Fitzpatrick
The false economies we can’t afford
Making space for what really matters
open.substack.com
April 15, 2025 at 6:17 AM
This piece is part provocation, part blueprint.
It’s an argument against inheritance and habit—and a call for coherence, imagination, and purposeful trust design.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
It’s an argument against inheritance and habit—and a call for coherence, imagination, and purposeful trust design.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Re-designing school trusts from first principles
Deliberately structured to remove friction, unlock potential, and make it easier for the people closest to children to do their best work.
open.substack.com
March 22, 2025 at 7:04 PM
#️⃣1️⃣9️⃣ is about why we need to stop managing schools as if they were machines.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
The problem with Brutalism, Brasília and blueprints
Schools are complex systems—let’s stop managing them like machines
open.substack.com
March 21, 2025 at 4:08 PM
#️⃣1️⃣9️⃣ is about why we need to stop managing schools as if they were machines.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Reposted by 👋 Sam Fitzpatrick
#️⃣1️⃣8️⃣ is about my plan for the next three articles. I want to explore how trusts can better support schools (*if* we accept the proposition that schools aren't linear, predictable machines but, rather, complex, adaptive ecosystems).
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Preface: Beyond The Blueprint
Schools are complex, adaptive systems yet we manage them as if they were machines. This series explores how trust structures can evolve—moving from control to enablement, from compliance to coherence.
open.substack.com
February 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM
#️⃣1️⃣8️⃣ is about my plan for the next three articles. I want to explore how trusts can better support schools (*if* we accept the proposition that schools aren't linear, predictable machines but, rather, complex, adaptive ecosystems).
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣1️⃣8️⃣ is about my plan for the next three articles. I want to explore how trusts can better support schools (*if* we accept the proposition that schools aren't linear, predictable machines but, rather, complex, adaptive ecosystems).
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Preface: Beyond The Blueprint
Schools are complex, adaptive systems yet we manage them as if they were machines. This series explores how trust structures can evolve—moving from control to enablement, from compliance to coherence.
open.substack.com
February 26, 2025 at 11:45 AM
#️⃣1️⃣8️⃣ is about my plan for the next three articles. I want to explore how trusts can better support schools (*if* we accept the proposition that schools aren't linear, predictable machines but, rather, complex, adaptive ecosystems).
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣1️⃣7️⃣ is about parents’ evening (but really it’s about inclusive design).
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/a-service-...
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/a-service-...
A service designer, a behavioural economist and a mediator walk into Parents’ Evening…
What would Parents' Evening look like if we designed for the edges?
samfitzpatrick.substack.com
February 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
#️⃣1️⃣7️⃣ is about parents’ evening (but really it’s about inclusive design).
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/a-service-...
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/a-service-...
#️⃣1️⃣6️⃣ is about complexity. If these are properly complex times we’re living in, we need to lean in and lead differently.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Apollo 13 & the linear illusion
Leading in a polycrisis
open.substack.com
February 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
#️⃣1️⃣6️⃣ is about complexity. If these are properly complex times we’re living in, we need to lean in and lead differently.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ is about the allure of behavioural solutions (over and above systemic ones)
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
The allure of behavioural solutions
Matryoshka dolls, Bronfenbrenner and systemic change
open.substack.com
February 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
#️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ is about the allure of behavioural solutions (over and above systemic ones)
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
It's such a generous and helpful resource this, Ed. It's bookmark #1 in my browser! Thank you 🙏
February 20, 2025 at 10:09 AM
It's such a generous and helpful resource this, Ed. It's bookmark #1 in my browser! Thank you 🙏
#️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ is about the allure of behavioural solutions. How they're great, and all, but we can't let them crowd out other approaches to problem solving.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
The allure of behavioural solutions
Matryoshka dolls, Bronfenbrenner and systemic change
open.substack.com
February 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
#️⃣1️⃣5️⃣ is about the allure of behavioural solutions. How they're great, and all, but we can't let them crowd out other approaches to problem solving.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣1️⃣4️⃣ is me trying to work out how and why the immediate crowds out the important.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
Forced rhubarb (and the tyranny of short-termism)
Why do immediate pressures crowd out long-term thinking? How and why do we let that happen? Is it inevitable? Immutable? Can we... hack it?
open.substack.com
January 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
#️⃣1️⃣4️⃣ is me trying to work out how and why the immediate crowds out the important.
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
open.substack.com/pub/samfitzp...
#️⃣1️⃣3️⃣ is a bit of a personal reflection on why it's hard to look 'beyond the obvious'
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/beyond-the...
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/beyond-the...
Beyond the obvious
This is a short(ish) personal reflection on how challenging it can be to look 'beyond the frame' (even when I've expressly said that is what I want to do 🙄)
samfitzpatrick.substack.com
January 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
#️⃣1️⃣3️⃣ is a bit of a personal reflection on why it's hard to look 'beyond the obvious'
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/beyond-the...
samfitzpatrick.substack.com/p/beyond-the...
💬 Picture this: you’ve just taken over a school where the brand—if it can be called that—is toxic. Morale is low, parents are whispering, and students are disengaged.
Plus, Tim Messenger from The Sandford Citizen is on your back.
Plus, Tim Messenger from The Sandford Citizen is on your back.
What can we learn from 'toxic' brands?
Change alone isn’t enough—how leaders tell the story of that change determines whether it succeeds and sustains, or not.
buff.ly
January 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM