Understanding the changing context

Some of you may have heard me talk about how the world, Wisconsin, and the expectations of public education have changed.  Seth Godin's blog post does a good job of explaining some of the challenges of the changing context.

Leaders in public education need to understand these changes.  If we continue to improve the current system, we will have failed.  It is not reform, but reinvention, that we need to pursue.

This means that leaders need to have strong communication skills. Today, leadership is not about technical skill.  It is not about being good at issuing orders.  It is about creating contexts for groups to come together to solve problems.  Problems which do not have one clear answer.

In this more complex era, leaders need to be able to develop good relationships.  They need to create a context of trust.  The context is chaotic.  Leaders who learn how to create a context to let order emerge from the chaos, will succeed in leading the public education reinvention our students need.

Everything is Amazing and Nobody's Happy

This youtube video serves as a companion to Barry Schwarz's TED Talk.  Sometimes comedians can say things in a way that connects with us where a more academic presentation fails. Louis CK talks about some of the amazing inventions we live with today, and our inability to be happy, in spite of all of the amazing inventions in our lives.

"The secret to happiness is low expectations."

In this TED Talk, psychologist Barry Schwartz, explains how too much choice is making us miserable. What are the implications of this idea for the policy world, particularly in education?

Think about it!

"Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time."

Chinese Proverb

Leadership and the New Sciences

Margaret Wheatley wrote a book that explained why the way we think about organizations (as mechanical structures) no longer works. And, that by looking to the new sciences, like quantum physics, we can create new organizations that are better suited to solve our current challenges.  This short video summarizes the book in an engaging way.



PFYT: Margaret Wheatley from FreedomLab on Vimeo.

An interesting book

Policy makers, especially those in education, need to read this book:  The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, written by David Brooks.


Here are two links that will give you a taste of the book: 


Brook's Tuesday, March 29th column in the New York Times: Tools for Thinking


Brooks's talk at TED 2011

If only we had more money....

I hear this all the time from school board members.  Yes, times are tight and I can honestly say I can never remember a time when times weren't tight in public education.

Scarce financial resources can provide opportunity for innovation.  Rather than grousing about the lack of money, look for the possibilities.  This article, The Number One Key to Innovation, from the Harvard Business Review, talks about scarcity, and the fact that among all of the innovation methodologies researchers have identified, scarcity is the only common denominator.

We in public education need to cultivate a culture that embraces scarcity and turns it on its head.  We are not going to get more money, therefore we have to innovate.