In academia, we often reach for metaphors to explain complex ideas about teaching, learning and leadership. One that has stayed with me is the beach ball.
Familiar in leadership and coaching circles, including in the work of Paul McGee, best known for his Shut Up, Move On philosophy, it illustrates why people view things differently. A beach ball is divided into different coloured panels, so depending on where you stand, you might only see three colours. Someone opposite you would see a different three.
The colours we see on the beach ball are not random. They are influenced by where we stand, what we have experienced, what we value and what we have been taught to pay attention to. Moving around the ball is therefore not just about gathering more information. It is about recognising that staying fixed limits what we can see; if we move, rotate the ball or listen to others, we gain access to more of the whole.
I find this especially useful in education because teaching and learning often require us to resist the comfort of black-and-white answers. Students and educators might seek certainty: the right answer, the correct interpretation, the neat conclusion. But often academic work asks us to navigate the grey space, where several valid interpretations exist and where our values, identities and experiences shape what we notice first.
The beach ball has its limits, however.
It still assumes that the “whole” exists in a fixed form, waiting to be seen more completely. It suggests that if we move position, listen carefully or gather enough perspectives, we might eventually arrive at a shared and coherent picture. Yet teaching, learning and leadership in higher education are rarely this neat. Meaning is created over time, through dialogue, context and interaction.
Cue the disco ball.
Its many mirrored surfaces reflect light differently depending on where you stand, how the light falls and who else is in the room. There is no single, stable view. Everything is shifting and relational.
The disco ball reminds us that understanding does not emerge simply because we change position. It develops through what happens between people, not just what each person sees.
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It also shows us that difference does not always need to be resolved. In teaching, learning and leadership, the aim is not to create uniformity but to create conditions in which different people can contribute, connect and shine without losing what makes them distinct.
In classrooms, inclusion is sometimes approached as ensuring access to the same knowledge, resources and opportunities for all students. The beach ball helps here: it encourages us to explore multiple perspectives. But the disco ball pushes us further to explore how learning environments can support students to bring their experiences, identities and knowledge into the room – not to smooth them out but to draw from them.
The implications for leadership are just as important. Too often, leaders are still imagined as holding the spotlight: making decisions, setting direction and bringing people into alignment. But if we take the disco ball seriously, it looks different.
It becomes less about helping people arrive at the same view, and more about creating the conditions where different perspectives can interact and generate something new. It involves noticing whose voices are heard, whose are missing, and how the environment shapes what can be seen and heard.
So what might this look like in practice?
First, we can ask: what am I noticing, and what might I be missing? In teaching, this might mean pausing before a discussion to consider whose examples, references or assumptions are shaping the room. In leadership, it might mean looking again at who contributes regularly, who is invited in to decision-making processes and whose expertise is treated as legitimate.
Next we must design for multiple perspectives. This could involve using small-group discussion before whole-class feedback, offering students different ways to contribute or deliberately inviting contrasting interpretations of a text, problem or scenario. In meetings, it might mean asking colleagues to identify risks, opportunities and unintended consequences based on their perspectives and experiences.
Designing for multiple perspectives also means recognising that expressing an opinion is not only about confidence; it is also about conditions. People are more likely to speak when they feel their contribution will be heard without being dismissed, appropriated or flattened. Creating those conditions may involve discussing uncertainty, welcoming challenge, slowing down decision-making or making space for quieter forms of participation. The aim is not to make everyone agree, but to allow different reflections to interact in ways that generate richer understanding.
The disco ball also invites us to sit more deliberately with tension. In teaching and learning, difference does not always need to be resolved. Some of the richest learning happens when we support students to confront uncertainty, compare interpretations and notice why people see, feel and understand things differently. The aim is not always to reach consensus but to deepen engagement with complexity.
Leadership might require a different balance. Sometimes decisions need to be made, priorities agreed and a shared direction established. But a shared destination does not require everyone to travel in the same way. Colleagues might navigate the journey with different experiences, concerns, forms of expertise and levels of confidence. Relational leadership involves being clear about the direction of travel while still making space for those different routes.
This approach requires a willingness to work with complexity. Not everything will align. Not everything will resolve. And that is not a failure of leadership, but part of the work itself.
The beach ball teaches us to see more. The disco ball reminds us that perspective is relational and evolving.
Perhaps the task for higher education is not to choose between the beach ball and the disco ball but to know when each is needed. Sometimes we need to move position to see more clearly. At other times, we need to recognise that meaning is continually evolving and create the conditions for others to step into the light. The challenge for teaching, learning and leadership is to build practices that help us keep moving, make space for difference and hold multiple perspectives as understanding continues to evolve.
Lauren Flannery is associate professor of Speech and Language Therapy at the University of East Anglia, where she also serves as director of innovation and partnerships for allied health professions and academic lead for Athena SWAN.
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