Jennifer Abrams is an international educational and communications consultant for public and independent schools, universities and non-profits. Jennifer trains and coaches teachers, administrators and others on new teacher/employee support, having hard conversations, collaboration skills and being your best adult self at work. 

In her over two decades at Palo Alto Unified School District (Palo Alto, CA, USA), Jennifer was a high school English teacher, new teacher coach, and professional development facilitator. She left PAUSD in 2012 to start her full time communications consultancy in which she works with schools and organisations across the globe.

Jennifer’s publications include Having Hard Conversations, The Multigenerational Workplace: Communicating, Collaborating & Creating Community and Hard Conversations Unpacked – the Whos, the Whens and the What Ifs, Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives, and her newest book, Stretching Your Learning Edges: Growing (Up) at Work.

You can read more detailed professional and personal biographies at Jennifer’s website. 

Jennifer’s webinar presentation took place live on 24^th February 2026 and was based on her book of the same name. She referred to a 14-page ‘packet’ which you can find in the Resources section below.

Jennifer talked about being your best self when leading and collaborating; not just in leading the work of education but being an even better colleague. Amazing as you are, this can always be improved upon. There is always space to reduce social friction and work more effectively together. We all continue with professional learning throughout our careers, but do we continue to engage in developing ourselves in terms of how we work with others? This was the focus- the learning about how we are at work. Stretching at your edges means committing to consciously doing more of something you find works well and to keep learning about ourselves…and every interaction counts.

Find out more about Jennifer’s 5 facets of really growing (up) in the workplace both in the packet and the summary video.

You can use the short video to open a dialogue with a small group of colleagues about communication, relational trust and collaboration. This could connect to work already ongoing, or planned, but be clear on your purpose in sharing the video. What do you want to achieve by showing it and how will you agree actions, for example?

Before sharing this video with others as part of their professional learning, watch it yourself to ensure you know the key messages. You might also want wish to familiarise yourself with some of the additional resources listed below and perhaps pick out one or two that are useful to signpost.

It is important to consider how best to ensure a safe space for sharing and reflecting on the topic Jennifer covers in the video. You should agree ways of working with the group beforehand so everyone knows the behaviours that are expected, e.g., attentive listening, respectful comments, inclusive practice and language. These ‘ground rules’ should be generated by the group and recorded where they can be seen and referred to if needed.

You could use a few of the following prompts to facilitate professional dialogue in pairs or small groups, or perhaps private reflections and note making where the questions feel more personal.

• What most resonated with you from the film? Why?
• Does the team stop to think enough about personal and collaborative practices?
• If not, what could we do differently?
• What might a shift in practice mean for us and our individual practice?
• What could it mean for practice in our team/ department/ whole setting?
• What conditions exist in our setting that support the building of collaborative capacity and belief in each other?
• Is there more we could do to strengthen those conditions?

Encourage the group to identify a small number of manageable, collective actions that will contribute to enhanced relational trust and stretchier edges! You might ask the group to note down an individual action that they will commit to, that you can revisit at a later date.

Jennifer kindly provided this ‘packet’ (PDF) of resources to support her live session and summary video.

Take a look at Jennifer’s website for more about her publications. You can also sign up for her fantastic newsletter, Voice Lessons. 

Jennifer referred to other works on personal and /or collective efficacy. You may want to explore some of the following publications: 

Timothy R Clark
The 4 stages of psychological safety, Berrett-Koehler, 2020 

Amy C Edmonson
The fearless organisation, Wiley, 2018 

Anthony S Bryk and Barbara Schneider
Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement, Russell Sage Foundation, 2002 

Jenni Donohoo
Collective efficacy, Sage, 2016 

Robert Kegan
In over our heads, Harvard University Press, 1998 

Jennifer Garvey Berger
Changing on the job, Stanford University Press, 2011