It's the people!!!!

Leaders can get excited about the prospect of introducing a new program into their organizations.  And, often are sorely disappointed when implementation fails to go as planned.  How many times are new initiatives abandoned, leaders and staff frustrated by the amount of energy and effort expended for very little result? And then, things go back to old way of doing things.

Well, part of the reason is that we tend to focus almost exclusively on the plan and very little on the people.  In his book, "Managing Transitions," William Bridges talks about this phenomenon, describing how we fail to recognize that people need to deal with the loss of the established system before they can take on the new system.  Bridges says that transition starts with an ending and finishes with a beginning.

How often have you recognized the emotional upheaval created by your decisions to implement new ideas in your school district?

Accentuate the positive

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
(Lyrics from a song made popular by Bing Crosby in the 1940s)

Positive? In today's competitive, supercharge environment, where there is no room for mistakes; no
time for do overs?

Well, it turns out that people are more productive when they focus on their strengths.  
Twenty-two percent of respondents indicated that they were likely to be disengaged when their 
manager primarily focused on their weaknesses. When their manager focused on their 
strengths, just one percent were like to be disengaged. (From Strengths Finders 2.0 by Tom
Rath).

If we expect our stakeholders to engage with us to solve the complex challenges we face, we need
to find ways to support, rather than criticize their efforts.

If you plan it, they will come!!

One of my passions is community engagement.  I believe that if we create a genuine space, people will come and share their ideas and passions--and commitment to public education.  When I talk about this, I often get pushback from the people who work and lead our school districts.  No one comes.  People don't have time.  We don't have time, or money, to plan it.  Only the cranky people come.

I understand that perspective as it is based on experience.  One that often comes out of what we encounter in public hearings.

Here is an example of what a community can do when visionary leadership calls for  genuine community engagement.  In Bibb County, Georgia, 4,000 people are participating in the district's strategic planning process.  Read more about The Macon Miracle here.

65 percent

That is the percent of children who are entering school today who will end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet.  How can we open up public education to innovation and creativity so that we can prepare our children for this future?  Most of our classrooms still resemble the 19th century model that was created to address the needs of that time.  We need to adapt so that we can prepare our children for the 65 percent.  Education needs a digital age update provides some food for thought on this subject.

People who make predictions must have tons of confidence

I don't think I understand what is going to happen next week, let alone in the next ten years.

Still, it is fun and important to think about how the world is changing.  One thing IS certain:  the pace of change continues accelerate.   Are you ready for what may come your way?

Here is a list of changes that could affect public education:
10 Things That Will Be Obsolete In Education by 2020

Transformation and technology

This week I spent two evenings talking with school boards about their work, particularly as it relates to vision.  One board engaged in conversation that specifically focused on technology.  How could we use it better?  How do we know what kinds of questions to ask about it?  Are we qualified to make technology questions. What does the term "cloud" mean?

The other board talked about vision and the need to include the community in conversations about the future of the district. One of the board members said, "It is clear technology has to be a central component of those conversations.  And, again, board members expressed dismay that they don't know enough to make these kinds of decisions.

Well, school board members are not alone.  In his blog, dangerously irrelevant, Scott McLeod talks about how educational leadership programs are not addressing this issue either.  We need to prepare our school leaders, not so that they will have the answers, but that they will be able to ask the right kinds of questions, spot trends, and bring people together to figure it out.

And, technology is not the issue.  The issue is educational relevance and the role technology plays in achieving that.  Other questions:  how will technology change our culture and are we ready for that?  How big of a change are we ready for?

Human Capital and Technology

I frequently hear conversations where people talk about the role technology could play in bringing schools into the 21st century.  It is easy to focus on the gadgets--laptops, iPads, Smart Boards.  But getting the gadgets into the schools is only one challenge.  If teachers are to successfully use these new technologies, they need training.

This blog post provides food for thought about how we might more effectively introduce new technologies into our schools.  And, the proposed changes to collective bargaining may provide opportunities for important staffing reconfigurations that can help support staff learning about new ways to deliver curriculum using technology.