Category: Blog

  • RecalcitranceRemediation

    Resistors, slow-rollers, blockers all have well-earned reputations. They often bring organizational improvement to a standstill. But not always…

    All organizations have the Cadre of the Recalcitrant. So, how best do we navigate their resistance?

    Consider these strategies:

    • Seek counsel from wise others outside our organization. Perhaps we’re missing something that is giving the resistors reason to push back or credence in the eyes of others.
    • Keep communications open, even if painful. Transparency must prevail to keep various factions from digging more deeply in.
    • Do our homework. In each meeting and in each individual encounter we are wise to be armed with the best and most current relevant data, and to be prepared to share our highest aspirations for the team in clear and understandable terms. High ground is almost always the best ground.
    • Keep our communications clean, clear, forthright, and “on the business.” It is never productive for us to attack the character or personality of others.
    • Stay focused on the good and the positive. Negativity is a strong attractor, but what it attracts mostly is more negativity. People appreciate a genuinely positive perspective and optimistic voice, even if it’s a lonely one.
    • Be the change we desire. Integrity is when our words and our actions are highly aligned. Folks appreciate (often admire) it, even if they’re afraid to say so.
    Breaking through bottlenecks and barriers is a tough slog. 
     
    Let’s make sure we’re pursuing worthy and noble goals, then engage the challenge presented by the Cadre of the Recalcitrant with vigor and zeal.
    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

  • TrustBusters

    The best leaders I know work double-time to foster trust. They understand that magic occurs when there is a high level of trust among and between members of the organization. Those impactful leaders strive to be exemplars of behaviors that foster trust.

    Here are some well-documented Trust Busters:

    • One-sided communications
    • Absence of transparency
    • Lack of integrity
    • Hubris
    • Abuse of power
    • Outright dishonesty
    • Exclusive, rather than inclusive, practices
    How can we foster trust? A good start would be to scratch those seven elements off of our to-do list.
     
    Trust lost is almost impossible to regain. Gaining and holding trust requires intentional and persistent work.
     
    We can start right now…
    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

  • MEchanic

    The craft and process of betterment seeking is intensely personal. It starts with LEARNING and results in MEchanicing (aka fixing) the things in ourselves we think might “run” a little better.

    When we’re tinkering on ourselves, we LEARN through multiple channels:

    • By observing those we admire and attempting to copy their ways of thinking and behaving.
    • By paying attention to anti-examples — those we do not particularly admire — and working to eradicate those kinds of thinking/behavior out of our own.
    • By studying intensely — via written word, podcasts, videos, personal conversations — the strategies and habits we believe will move us toward becoming the best version of ourselves.
    When we’re truly committed to getting better, every day, on purpose, we really don’t have the time to “fix” others.
    Being a MEchanic is pretty much a full-time job.
    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

  • ExcellenceMissed

    Of course it is!

    We fall short of Excellence for two primary reasons:

    1) We weren’t striving for Excellence in the first place. It’s much safer to aim low, stay off the radar, caste blame, not care, give up.

    2) We were striving for Excellence, which is a bold, worthy, and illusive undertaking. We may have missed by an inch or even a mile, but at least we were pushing our limits toward betterness. Even those who occasionally do achieve Excellence have an extremely difficult time sustaining it.

    Pursuit of Excellence is not for sissies. It is, however, for those who want to be better, to do better, to leave the world a better place than we found it.
     
    Let’s roll!
    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

  • UnreasonableHospitality

    I recently read Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara (2022).

    WG is a high-end restauranteur in New York City. He and his team have garnered acclaim both in the U.S. and internationally.

     My top takeaways:

    • We can think of service as “black and white,” but hospitality is what adds the “color.”
    • Genuine hospitality means making others feel valued, seen, a part, welcome.
    • Providing hospitality can also be a selfish pleasure.
    • There is tremendous nobility in making the choice to serve others.
    • Hospitality can be expressed in almost any vocational or professional field.
    • The enthusiasm of one person can be the genesis of extraordinary things.
    • Let our energy impact those to whom we are speaking, rather than the other way around.
    • “Cult” is short for “Culture.” An interesting assertion.
    • Culture is caught, not taught.
    • Learning a system from the ground up has tremendous value.
    • The 95/5 Rule: Spend 95% of your business resources scrupulously, the other 5% foolishly.
    • We all — especially leaders — need someone who in our inner circle who feels comfortable telling us when we aren’t acting as the best version of ourself.
    • Find and leverage the strengths of each team member, no matter how deeply buried those strengths may be.
    • Keep emotion out of criticism.
    • Every hire sends a message.
    • Hire slow, fire fast (judiciously).
    • Being intentional is important; articulating it to the team is more so.
    • “It might not work” is a terrible reason not to try.
    • Excellence is the culmination of thousands of details executed perfectly.
    • Channeling Walt Disney: “People can feel perfection.”
    • Management key: How we choose to praise + How we choose to criticize = Level of success.
    • There is a difference in being attentive and paying attention.
    • The opposite of a good idea can, and should be, a good idea.
    • Better things happen when we can replace “transactional” with “transformational.”
    • Seeking to replace monologue with dialogue almost always yields better results.

    My favorite quotes:

    “Fads fade and cycle, but the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.” (p. 5)

    “Some of the best advice I ever got about starting in a new organization is: Don’t cannonball. Ease into the pool. I’ve passed this advice on to those joining my own: no matter how talented you are, or how much you have to add, give yourself time to understand the organization before you try to impact it.” (p. 64)

    “You’re not always going to agree with everything you hear, but you’ve got to start by listening.” (p. 64)

    “The day you stop reading your criticism is the day you grow complacent, and irrelevance won’t be far behind.” (p. 90)

    “You must be able to name for yourself why your work matters.” (p. 99)

    “The first time someone comes to you with an idea, listen closely, because how you handle it will dictate how they choose to contribute in the future.” (p. 116)

    “One of my dad’s quotes I love the most is: ‘The secret to happiness is always having something to look forward to.’” (p. 145)

    “It isn’t the lavishness of the gift that counts, but its pricelessness.” (p. 209)

    “Creativity is an active process, not a passive one.” (p. 224)

    “Start with what you want to achieve, instead of limiting yourself to what’s realistic or sustainable.” (p. 238)

    This book reaffirmed much of what I already knew and believed, and framed some of it in new and interesting ways. It was well worth the time I spend with it.

    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

  • Collegiate Edu-Nation Announces 2024-2025 Cohort of AmeriCorps Members

    [ROSCOE, TX – August 1, 2024] -Collegiate Edu-Nation (CEN) is proud to announce the finalized roster of AmeriCorps members for the 2024-2025 program year. With every cohort, CEN continues to foster a community of educators who are passionate about serving rural students and addressing the unique challenges of rural education.
    Introducing the 2024-2025 CohortAmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, provides opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds to serve their country, address the nation’s most pressing challenges, and improve lives and communities. This year, 30 AmeriCorps members will begin their service terms on August 1st, working in 11 school districts across Texas.

     

    The participating school districts include: Colorado City, Cumby, Floydada, Hamlin, Hico, Iraan-Sheffield, Lytle, Post, Roscoe, Throckmorton, and Venus. We are thrilled to welcome back 15 returning AmeriCorps members and to introduce 15 new members to our program.

     

    Katie Daugherty, CEN AmeriCorps Program Coordinator said, “We are excited to welcome our new and returning AmeriCorps members. Their dedication to providing instructional support, communications support, and network resource coordination is invaluable to our school districts and the communities they serve.”

    AmeriCorps members will engage in a variety of services, including instructional support, communications support, and network resource coordination for their assigned school districts. Their work will significantly contribute to enhancing educational outcomes and community development in rural areas.

    “Congratulations to our 24-25 Cohort of AmeriCorps Members and our host districts. With every cohort, we have the opportunity to produce educators passionate about rural students!” said Dr. Rachael McClain, CEN President. “Through this partnership, strong mentor teachers can be replicated as we continue the commitment to growing our own educators through the Teach Where It Matters initiative for rural communities across the state.”

    Revolutionizing Rural Education: The Teach Where It Matters Initiative

    CEN is excited to highlight the “Teach Where It Matters” initiative, a collaborative effort with West Texas A&M, strategically addressing the acute teacher shortage in rural Texas. This initiative focuses on growing local talent by recruiting a diverse pool of participants and offering benefits and thorough training for teacher certification.

    Funded by CEN’s AmeriCorps grant, the initiative supports various components like work-based learning internships, mentor-teacher training, college and career advising, alongside CEN’s Registered Apprenticeship P-20 Teacher Program. This provides a flexible, supportive path to certification and shapes a sustainable future for rural P-20 education in Texas.

    “Revolutionizing rural education through strategic initiatives like ‘Teach Where It Matters’ allows us to address teacher shortages head-on and build a strong foundation for the future of rural education,” stated Dr. Rachael McClain.

    Katie Daugherty added, “By growing our own educators and providing them with the necessary support and training, we are ensuring that rural students receive the high-quality education they deserve thanks to the help of AmeriCorps.”

    CEN’s 2024-2025 AmeriCorps Cohort Members are:

    Colorado ISD

    • Freda Wesley
    • Ashley Hernandez
    • Cammie Oliver

    Cumby ISD

    • Madison Carson
    • Shelby Saragosa
    • Lane McCraw

    Floydada CISD

    • Claudia Barrera
    • Laura Paz
    • Izaih Alvarado
    • Victoria Cervera
    • Saul Reyes

    Hamlin CISD

    • Imajen Andrade
    • Lyberti Brannan
    • Vanessa Gonzalez
    • Cutter Martin
    • Klaire Jeffrey

    Hico ISD

    • Lacie Sublett
    • Ashley Bingham
    • Jessica Rosas

    Iraan-Sheffield ISD

    • Natashia Gonzalez
    • Nora Martinez
    • Brittany Contreras
    • Stephanie Smart

    Lytle ISD

    • Jada Vega

    Post ISD

    • Addisen Rodriguez

    Roscoe CISD

    • Mariana Luna

    Throckmorton ISD

    • Gay Hibbitts

    Venus ISD

    • Anna Taylor

    Collegiate Edu-Nation

    • Samantha Taylor

    For more information about AmeriCorps, visit https://americorps.gov/about and https://onestarfoundation.org/americorps-texas/. 

    To learn more about the Teach Where It Matters initiative, visit https://dev.edu-nation.org/edu-reach-13-14-twim-rural-healthcare-hub/#teachwhereitmatters.

    For more information about Collegiate Edu-Nation and its initiatives, please visit https://dev.edu-nation.org/.

     

    # # #

    About Collegiate Edu-Nation

    Collegiate Edu-Nation (CEN) is dedicated to transforming rural education through innovative programs and strategic partnerships. By focusing on holistic education, workforce development, and policy advocacy, CEN aims to provide high-quality educational experiences and opportunities for all students in rural communities.

  • EnergyManagement

    The best leaders I know are superb at managing energy (their own and that of the organization).

    Here are some of the daily disciplines they leverage:

    • Relentless focus on the Vision and clarity of direction
    • Continual thinking, dialogue, and action toward improvement
    • Mitigation of confusion and chaos
    • Attention to relationships (internal and external)
    • Team centered data analysis, reflection, and adaptation
    • Constant communication, transparency, and full disclosure
    These impactful leaders approach the work holistically, rather than in reductionist fashion.
     
    Yes, it’s a LOT. 
     
    But….. We really don’t have enough energy or time to waste otherwise.
    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

  • Artful_Inquirers

    The best leaders I know, in both personal life and professional, are masterful inquirers. At almost every encounter with members of the team, they find a way to ask questions that keep us focused both on the direction we’re heading and the way we are spending our precious resources (both tangible and intangible) in pursuit of that direction.

    Here are some examples of the questions that Artful Inquirers put before us regularly:

    How clear are we about the direction we are heading?

    In what ways are we spending our time, effort, resources well in this pursuit?

    What expenditures of our time/effort/resources seem not to be moving us toward our vision?

    How clear are we, both as teams and as individuals, about the roles we are being asked to play?

    How might we be clearer about the vision we have chosen, and why we have chosen it?

    These types of questions, and variations on them, serve to cause deep reflection and tightening of alignments. Both are good things.

    By the way, these are not posed as hypothetical questions. Thinking and dialogue are required responses.

    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning. 

  • GoodRight

    Doing good is harder than not.

    Adopting good habits is more difficult than the opposite.

    Choosing service over self-interest is an extremely onerous commitment.

    Creating ecologically sustainable systems is tougher than consumptive practice.

    Insisting on fairness and respectfulness is more challenging than deferring to privilege.

    If doing good is such a tough slog, why would we go to the trouble?

    Because doing Good is the Right thing to do.

    (We are not alone in the journey. Now is an excellent time to push the process.)

    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.

  • DisasterFoilers

    We make thousands of decisions each day. The higher up the leadership ladder we reside, the number of decisions grows.

    Well-crafted policy and ethical judgment are key to making sound and consequential decisions. Those are foundational to efficacious day-to-day operations.

    Crises, however, have a nasty way of shouldering themselves into our workdays. Rarely do those issues rise to the the level of true emergencies; but, sometimes they do.

    Two variables that almost always result in either poor or less-than-optimal decisions are Fear and Urgency. When we are making decisions grounded in either of those we are at great risk of making mistakes.

    The best antidote to that “Fear-Urgency disease” is to practice diligently, as a team, the craft of forecasting and anticipating. When the “surprises” don’t really surprise us, we are in much better position to make sound and beneficial decisions. Disaster(s) foiled!

    *If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings go to nc’s Recursive Learning.