It Can’t Get Any Worse
It Can’t Get Any Worse
Yes, it CAN
Recently, at Jim Knight’s TLC Conference in Phoenix, I presented “Keep Hope Alive.” I have heard ‘HOPE’ is not a strategy. True. However, without hope people and organizations perish.
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope”
George Washington Carver
Similarly, in Proverbs 29:18 – “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” There are others who have said or adapted these quotes. Michael Ayers, retired 3M leadership trainer (and former parent at South High School, Minneapolis, MN where I was principal) told me years ago, “people must believe change is possible.”
Planning and follow through are essential. However, several false starts can derail the best laid plans; this has proven to be true in several leadership roles. A short digression: ‘best practice’ for whom? Don’t we need multiple best practices for moving everyone ahead?
Strategies exist to teach good reading, math, science, etc. that help kids learn. I heard in the past, ‘kids know more ways to learn than we know how to teach.’ One size does not fit all. In science doing lab experiments not only teaches content but also teaches collaboration with teammates, psychomotor skills, prediction, and assessing theories.
In Social Studies using structured conflict provides opportunities to advocate for either side, to understand patterns of history, and to gain background knowledge of how we got to this place and time. Mathematics and English teach pattern recognition. The key for understanding patterns is to recognize when something does fit pre-existing conditions and when there is a deviation. Physical Education and health contribute to physical, mental, and emotional well-being in addition to addressing several social maladies. Schools have taken on social issues of drug/alcohol abuse, obesity, family problems, and many societal issues.
Career tech is making a major impact on helping students connect learning to real-life vocations. This increase in relevance can keep more kids in school and learning for a future. There are career tech centers in many parts of the country. Kent ISD in Michigan, Center for Advanced Professional Science in Blue Valley district, Kansas, etc.
Creativity, innovation, and agility will mark preparedness for the uncertain future.
“Children are messages we send to the future that we will not see”
Neil Postman
The so called ‘soft skills’ are now the ‘hard skills’ of the future. Art Costa and Bena Kallick, Habits of Mind, have been great advocates for developing skills for the future. Check it out the book to find strategies to help incorporate those skills into the existing curriculum. Karen Tui Boyes, SpectrumEducation.org in New Zealand has been a forward-thinking educator to use multiple learning strategies for students as opposed to ‘sit and git.’
I find that our ‘WHY’ (Simon Sinek golden circle) is usually known. We want to contribute to a better future. Our ‘WHAT’ is normally clear; we want to elevate everyone’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes to perform better and adapt to a changing world. We want better results.
The ‘HOW’ can be daunting and not for the faint of heart. Keeping Hope Alive requires the culture to be psychologically safe (Amy Edmondson), strong enough to incorporate Radical Candor (Kim Scott), and to care personally and challenge directly. These processes are being used at Google (Project Oxygen), Pixar (Braintrust), and Netflix among others to elevate learning and to accelerate creativity.
“You can’t give what you don’t have”
Greg Hiebert
So, HOW do we support those on the front line working directly with students? Over 30 years ago, Art Costa asked me, after a thinking skills training, “you’re a principal Bill. What are you doing to create a mentally stimulating environment for your staff?” I replied, “I have to do that too?” And, Art said, “if you don’t provide that for staff, why do you think they will do it for kids?” Ouch. He was correct then and it is true today.
- What are the leadership skills necessary to keep ourselves hopeful?
- What are the leadership skills that will keep our educators hopeful?
- What are the leadership skills that will model for students to keep hopeful?
One process I use in coaching leaders is FeedForward developed by Marshall Goldsmith and Frank Wagner. Learn from the past and decide, ‘what will I do now to move ahead.’ You can’t change the past, and there may be a need for amends, apologies, and actions to rectify errors. FeedForward focuses on how will you proceed NOW; how do you change behaviors that will get better results? In our work at Stakeholder Centered Coaching®, we identify behaviors that will help good leaders be even better or to change one thing that might be getting in the way of positive interactions.
Following are some strategies and references that might help keep hope alive:
- What is your organizations positive ratio?
- If the leader is negative, it flows downhill. That doesn’t mean ignoring issues. Psychological safety and radical candor are so important to build upon.
- John Gottman reports it takes 5:1 positive to negative in order to stay even; Barbara Fredrickson says 3:1
- Emotional Anorexia – think of people who helped you during your toughest challenges. Have you told them thank you and how important they were to you?
- Following are helpful activities:
- Within 24 hours from reading this, write them, call them, talk to them face-to-face. If they have passed, write them a letter. They will know and more importantly, you will know.
- Within 3 days do the same process for a second person.
- Within a week repeat the process for a 3rd
- You cannot wait for business, government, or others to do this. You have to do it for yourself and those around you. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
- Angeles Arrien told me years ago: “Stop the Inner Terrorism.”
- We sometimes treat ourselves worse than anyone else.
- Is your self-worth stronger than your self-critic?
- Read:
- Mojo by Marshall Goldsmith
- Regret by Daniel Pink
- Power of Mattering by Zach Mercurio
- Rehumanizing the Workplace by Rosie Ward
- Following are helpful activities:
Make positive change happen! Change the world from a downward spiral by attracting others to a positive workplace and living space. You can’t do everything, but you can do something.
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach
Unless our walking is our preaching.”
St. Francis of Assisi