A valued friend of mine shared a lovely concept with me this week. (I’ll call him Bob for purposes of anonymity.)
Bob told me that he had been advised at a young age by valued mentor to take the following approach to life:
Whenever you have the opportunity to help someone, take it. For it may never come around again.
Yeppers. A simple tenet to make the world a better place.
We could begin today…
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
I recently read The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation of Failure, byGreg Lukianoff and Jonathon Haidt (2018).
In this is book, Lukianoff and Haidt premise what they call the three Great Untruths:
1) The Untruth of Fragility: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker;
2) The Untruth of Emotional Reasoning: Always trust your feelings; and
3)The Untruth of Us Versus Them: Life is a battle between good people and evil people.
My top takeaways:
My favorite quotes:
“… wind extinguishes a candle but energizes a fire.” (p.23)
“A culture that allows the concept of “safety” to creep so far that it equates emotional discomfort with physical danger is a culture that encourages people to systematically protect one another from the very experiences embedded in daily life that they need in order to become strong and healthy.” (p.29)
“Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil.” -from Eric Hoffer, in The True Believer (p.99)
“Free play helps children develop the skills of cooperation and dispute resolution that are closely related to the “art of association” upon which democracies depend. When citizens are not skilled in this art, they are less able to work out the ordinary conflicts of daily life. They will more frequently call for authorities to apply coercive force to their opponents. They will be more likely to welcome the bureaucracy of safetyism.” (p.194)
While Lukianoff and Haidt get into the weeds a little prescriptively toward the end of the book, I found the premise of their arguments to be sound and consistent with my societal observations.
This is a book I’m thankful to have read. And, I’m thankful that my grandchildren are being raised by parents and educators who are teaching them that life is what we make of it, not what happens to us.
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
As a small, rural school superintendent, my primary goal is to ensure that excellence and continuous improvement resonates throughout our district. To achieve this, I employ a structured approach that focuses on collaboration, innovation and a commitment to student success and achievement.
Strategic Vision: At the core of our efforts is a well-defined strategic vision. Our vision was developed in collaboration with various stakeholders, including teachers, parents, and community members. This vision serves as our roadmap to our district’s future.
Data-Driven Decision Making: We continually emphasize the importance of data in driving our decisions and student achievement efforts. Regular assessments are conducted to gauge student performance, teacher effectiveness, and overall district progress.
Professional Development: Continuous improvement begins with our educators, all of them. We invest in ongoing professional development opportunities and coaching for teachers and staff. This provides them with the most research-based, highly effective teaching methods and technologies.
Resource Allocation: When considering our budget, we allocate resources wisely, directing funds to areas where it will have the most impact on student achievement. We maintain fiscal responsibility while ensuring that our schools have the necessary resources to succeed.
Innovation and Adaptation: We continuously encourage innovation in teaching and learning. Our district stays current with educational research and trends and adapts to meet the ever-evolving needs of our students.
Recognition and Celebration: We celebrate the achievements of our students, teachers, and staff. Recognizing and rewarding excellence creates a positive culture of success within our district.
In summary, the structure of my work as a small, rural school superintendent is built on a foundation of collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and a commitment to continuous improvement. By maintaining transparency, celebrating achievements, and fostering innovation, we ensure that the drumbeat of excellence echoes throughout our district, inspiring our students to reach their fullest potential.
Sometimes we slip into recalcitrant thinking and behavior. The impact of such behavior is defensive, limiting, and “slowing.” That impact is especially magnified when the recalcitrance comes from leadership.
What does recalcitrance look like in an organization?
Where recalcitrance rules, obsolesce — or irrelevance — soon follows.
Anti-example can be a powerful teacher.
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
The best leaders I know are constantly doing the work of succession planning.
Most organizational leaders know they are only one minute or one decision away from no longer being the leader.
How do these wise leaders go about the business of succession planning?
Do the leaders hand-pick the next leader? Rarely. On the contrary, when the day comes that they leave the organization (for whatever reason), there remains a stable of highly capable, highly prepared next-generation leaders to choose from.
SUCCESSion!
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
Pushing for improvement is a process, not an event. It involves adopting new habits AND abandoning old habits. The time-tested mantra of “Old habits die hard” has staying power because of its profound truth.
It really doesn’t matter if we are at the top, middle, or bottom of the organizational power structure, we can all affect improvement. And those changes toward improvement rarely come easily.
A common “dodge” is to claim that we don’t have the power — or enough power — to cause that improvement (which always involves changing something).
But each of us can do something. Even if it’s a little something. Even if it’s just us doing it. Whining about what we can’t do — or are not allowed to do — never causes improvement.
Getting better. Every day. On purpose.
And today is the best day to do it.
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
Culture is the ultimate expression of our values.
We default to the values of our dominant cultural affiliation UNLESS we choose values different from those.
Important questions to ask ourselves and our teams as we examine whether or not our organizational culture is effectively manifesting our chosen values:
As we answer those questions, two important action steps follow:
Culture shaping is hard work that requires constant attention. Culture shapes us AND we shape culture. It is a dynamically reciprocal relationship.
Values matter!
*If you’d like to red more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
Early in my career I pretended to be an athletic coach. One of the events I attempted to coach was the high jump.
In the high jump (and the pole vault) there is what is called the “opening height.” That is the height at which the bar is initially set to start competition. Athletes must clear that opening height to remain in the competition. Those that don’t………………….put their warmups back on and head to the bus.
In organizational work, we also have opening heights. We call them “standards.”
A mistake that is made quite often is to think of the standards as THE GOAL. They are not! Achieving the standards is akin to clearing opening height — it is simply the starting point that keeps us in the competition.
EXCELLENCE is the goal. It is that ever-increasing height to which the bar is moved as we push ourselves, and each other, to betterness.
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
Birthdays are merely anniversaries of our arrival on this planet. That day may have been much-anticipated and dearly longed for. Maybe not. It might have gone just as expected and without complication. But then, perhaps not. It might have occurred with much fanfare and brouhaha. Or not.
Whatever the circumstances, that day launched an inevitable turning of the clock. And with it, some constant changes (yes, that seems a contradiction). Don’t believe it? Look at pictures of yourself over the years.
We have no control of the birthday clock. We do, however, have tremendous control over our GrowthDay clock. We can choose on this day, and every day, to get better and learn more. On purpose.
There’s recipe for making today a GrowthDay:
Atrophy happens. It happens more and faster when we let it.
Happy GrowthDay! (Today, and every day.)
*If you’d like to read more of nc’s blatherings, go to nc’s Recursive Learning.
