The amazing things you can accomplish in just 15 minutes a day

 A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. —Anthony Trollope

“Frenetic activity” is an apt description of the lives of many educators. With some, it is even a badge of honor that demonstrates their commitment and work ethic.

For others, it is a commonly-offered explanation for why they aren’t doing the things they know are most important, things like talking with teachers or colleagues about instruction, thoroughly preparing for upcoming conversations and meetings, exercising, and so on.

Here a some things that can be done in 15 minutes or less than can make a substantial difference in the quality of your work and life:

• Make a brief, focused visit to a classroom followed by a short note to the teacher.

• Write in a journal to gain clarity about a problem or determine a course of action.

• Prepare a thank-you note for someone whose efforts you wish to recognize or a note of encouragement for someone whose spirits you would like to lift.

• Write a weekly blog for colleagues or the school community.

• Write a book a year. (Fifteen minutes a day could easily produce a couple of hundred pages of text in a year. You wouldn’t even have to know what it was about at the beginning; it’s direction would reveal itself after a few weeks.)

• Determine your intentions for a meeting or conversation and sketch out a back-of-the-envelope plan. The clarity produced in even a few minutes of focused attention can change the direction and outcome of an event.

• Cease outward activity to be mindful of your breathing, feelings, and surroundings. Even a minute or two of such focused attention can make a substantial difference in your mood and stress level.

• Exercise. In 15 minutes you can walk a mile.

• Have a conversation with a colleague, family member, or friend. Spend a good share of that time listening deeply to the words and meaning of those with whom you are interacting.

• Develop an important and perhaps even life-changing new habit. Any of the above, for example, could become a valuable habit in just a few weeks.

I encourage you to identify one or two activities appropriate to you and your setting that in just a few minutes a day can make a difference for you and others.

And, in truth, we all have 15 minutes a day that could be spared to improve the quality of our work and lives.

What suggestions do you have for other worthwhile “15-minute activities”?

How bad things can happen to good people who lack emotional intelligence

School and school system leaders are far more likely to get into difficulty because of low social and emotional intelligence than because of deficiencies in their technical knowledge. At least that’s my observation.

Here’s why they get into trouble:

• Because these leaders often have a high need to control people and situations, they are unlikely to trust others or to delegate.

• Because of a lack of trust and poor interpersonal skills, these leaders seldom have supportive relationships with others and therefore are unlikely to value the development of such relationships within the school community.

• Because these leaders don’t know how to manage or express their feelings in appropriate and proportionate ways, they are likely to be angry, anxious, and/or cynical. Those feelings, in turn, are amplified across the school community and create what some experts call a “slow-death spiral,” which depletes energy and diminishes hope for a better future.

• Because these leaders are unable to accurately sense and respond to the feelings of others, their relationships are likely to be tumultuous and superficial and viewed as means to an end rather than as worthy ends in themselves to be nurtured and valued.

• And because leaders with low social and emotional intelligence have limited self awareness, they are unlikely to see any of the above in themselves.

Do you agree, or not?

 

Why the distinction between “professional learning” and “professional development” is important

Professional development in schools refers to the processes used in promoting professional learning and the context and other resources that support it .

Professional learning refers to the outcomes – what is learned, how deeply it is learned, and how well it is applied in classrooms. It is about changes in what teachers and leaders think, say, and do on a consistent basis.

Discussing professional development without discussing professional learning goals and outcomes is like talking about teaching separate from student learning.

Put another way, professional development is to professional learning as teaching is to student learning.

Just as ineffective teaching strategies produce little student learning, ineffective professional development produces little professional learning.

And just as ineffective teachers say, “I taught it, but they didn’t learn it,” ineffective planners of professional development say, “I developed them, but they didn’t learn it.”

Unless teachers and leaders professional development is sufficiently robust to improve professional learning — that is, to change what educators think, say, and do — student learning won’t improve.

I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow.

How “SUCCESS” can increase your influence

Successful leaders are influential. That means they are able to create energy in the school community around a common set of beliefs, ideas, and practices without directing, threatening, or manipulating others.

A primary quality of those leaders is their intellectual clarity and their ability to communicate that clarity concisely and precisely.

An effective leadership tool for creating and communicating that clarity are the “six principles of sticky ideas” described by Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their book, Made to Stick.

The Heaths use the acronym SUCCESS to capture the six principles:

Simplicty: To find the core of an idea, we must be masters of exclusion, the Heaths say. “Saying something short is not the mission—sound bites are not the idea,” they write. “Proverbs are ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound… a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.”

Unexpectedness: Getting people to pay attention sometimes requires the element of surprise. To that end, “We need to violate people’s expectations. We need to be counterintuitive,” they write. In addition, they point out that it’s important to generate interest and curiosity by “…systematically ‘opening gaps’ in their knowledge—and then filling those gaps.”

Concreteness: To make ideas clear, the Heaths say, “We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information… Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images… Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.”

Credibility: Credibility is established, the Heaths say, when people can test out the ideas  based on their own experiences. “We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves—a ‘try before you buy’ philosophy for the world of ideas.”

Emotions: “How do we get people to care about our ideas?,” the Heaths ask. “We make them feel something.”

Stories: Stories are the means by which all of the other elements are tied together in a coherent whole. A story, the Heaths say, “… provides simulation (knowledge about how to act) and inspiration (motivation to act).”

These six elements are not a formula, but rather factors to consider when seeking to influence.

They remind us that we are most influential when we speak and write with proverb-like clarity; tell stories that illustrate our ideas, elicit emotion, and include the element of surprise; and provide concrete details that describe and pique curiosity.

Leaders may benefit from developing a checklist based on these six principles to help them prepare for important meetings and conversations. I’ll have more to say tomorrow about the value, power, and use of checklists.

The “everyday leadership” of “tempered radicals”

Jim Knight is well-known to many of my readers. For those who don’t know him, he is well-regarded for his expertise in teaching and instructional coaching and for his books and “Radical Learner” blog.

So I was particularly honored when Jim invited me to prepare a guest post for his blog, which he has just published. It is titled “The ‘everyday leadership’ of ‘tempered radicals,’” and it begins:

“Radical learners” may sometimes feel like outsiders even when they hold important positions within their schools. Debra Meyerson uses the term “tempered radicals” to describe such individuals, and it is also the name of a book she wrote based on studies she has done on TRs, as she calls them.

Drawing on Meyerson’s Tempered Radicals and a 2005 interview I did with her for the JSD, I offer a set of attributes about “everyday leadership” so that “radical learners” can be even more effective in using their unique talents and perspectives to serve students and their school communities.

I encourage you to continue reading this essay on Jim’s blog…

When “good enough” is the best

Sometimes it is important for teachers and school leaders to continuously improve their performance. That’s particularly true when continuous improvement affects the life prospects of young people.

At other times, it is important that educators accept the standard of “good enough.” That’s particularly true when striving for perfection prevents them from having the time or energy to focus on high-leverage areas in their professional and personal lives.

While there are things we want done perfectly—say, brain surgery or the landing of a commercial aircraft—and other things we may want to continuously improve—say, the overall quality of teaching or leadership—there are some areas for which the pursuit of perfection produces stress and interferes with the achievement of important goals.

Here’s an example: Let’s say it takes me two hours to draft a blog post to a 90% standard of quality. If I invest two more hours in polishing it, I may achieve 95%. Two more hours, and perhaps I could reach 97%. I have clearly reached a point of diminishing returns.

If I can accept the “good enough” standard of 90%, I could produce three blog posts at 90% instead of just one at 97%.

The decision about whether to pursue “continuous improvement” or “good enough” is to a large degree situational.

Sometimes it is important to relentlessly pursue improved performance and outcomes.

At other times it’s desirable to lower one’s standards, particular when those standards interfere with our overall performance, create stress for ourselves and others, and deplete energy rather than create it.

The challenge, of course, is to acquire the wisdom to discern when an attitude of “good enough” strengthens individual performance and the well-being of the school community and when “continuous improvement” is essential to the development of human and organizational potential.

What aspects of your life and work would benefit from a “good enough” perspective, and which require an attitude of “continuous improvement?”

 

Improved teacher evaluation may be necessary, but it’s far from sufficient

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. – H. L. Mencken

The problems of teaching, learning, and school leadership are complex. Perhaps that is why policymakers often respond with solutions that are “clear, simple, and wrong.” Or at least wrong in part.

Recent efforts to strengthen teacher evaluation provide an example.

There’s no question that improved teacher (and principal) evaluation is desirable. Evaluation methods used in most places in recent years have done little to improve teaching, support struggling teachers, and identify and remove educators who are incompetent.

But the effects of improved processes of teacher evaluation will be minimal unless they are well integrated with:

• Well-trained classroom observers, evaluators, and peer assistance teams.

• Peer evaluation and mentoring of teachers in their first few years of employment to ensure that only competent teachers are admitted into the profession and that they begin their teaching careers on a solid footing.

• Sustained, high-quality professional learning with coaching targeted at high-priority school and school system student learning goals.

• Participation by all teachers on instructional teams that have as their primary purpose the continuous improvement of teaching and learning for all students.

• School cultures that promote innovation and experimentation and that surround all members of the school community with encouraging and helpful relationships.

• Skillful principals and teachers leaders supported by skillful system administrators.

Effective leadership at both the school and district levels will determine to what extent these elements are integrated into a coherent, high-quality program of career-long development that serves students, the school community, and the teaching profession.

What’s a trim tab, and why is it essential for every leader to have one?

School leaders don’t have time to do everything. They don’t even have time to do everything that is important. That’s why the idea of a trim tab is so important.

Peter Senge’s book, The Fifth Discipline, introduced me to the metaphor of “trim tab,” which he in turn borrowed from Buckminster Fuller.

Senge wrote: “[S]mall, well-focused actions can sometimes produce significant, enduring improvements, if they’re in the right place. System thinkers refer to this principle as ‘leverage.’ Tackling a difficult problem is often a matter of seeing where the high leverage lies, a place which – with a minimum of effort – would lead to lasting, significant improvement.”

Among all the important things leaders could do, the notion of trim tabs asks leaders to think deeply about which activities are of greatest leverage and to do them first.

Identifying the trim tab

The process of identifying a trim tab is not an easy thing to explain, at least for me, but here’s an example that I hope is helpful:

• A school leader or leadership team decides after some consideration of alternatives that the implementation and development of strong teams is a highly-leveraged approach to continuously improving teaching and learning. While teams could be thought of as a trim tab, the leader knew that it was important to examine the issue in greater depth.

• The leader realizes that to create strong teams, trust is essential.

• To create trust, the problem of “parking-lot conversations” that create cliques and mistrust among teachers must be addressed.

• The leader decides that a group agreement must be formulated about the importance of having crucial conversations in the meeting room, not the parking lot.

• To initiate the conversation about group agreements, the leader realizes the “elephant in the room” will have to be described—that trust is being undermined by parking lot conversations.

• The leader feels anxious at just the thought of such a “crucial conversation” because it may lead to conflict.

• The leader realizes that he or she believes that conflict destroys relationships and signals a lack of competence on the leader’s part.

The trim tab: At the conclusion of this line of thought the leader identifies a less-than-obvious but incredibly important trim tab: Addressing the belief behind a fear of conflict that prevents him or her from confronting a number of “elephants” that have taken up permanent residence in the school, with parking lot meetings being but one of them.

This single change is likely to produce effects in a number of important areas of the school’s culture and overall functioning.

This awareness in itself may lead to a significant change. Or it may be the first step in acquiring the skill and habit of addressing difficult issues with candor and integrity.

(My favorite books on this subject are Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott and Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson and others.)

In practice it would look like this: The leader addresses his or her beliefs (and perhaps skills) about conflict ➤ to have critical conversations ➤ about parking lot conversations ➤ to determine meeting agreements ➤ to establish trust ➤ as an essential element of effective teamwork ➤ which is an essential component of the continuous improvement of teaching and learning.

Identifying such highly-leveraged, but less-than-obvious activities is a demanding intellectual activity, one that is often best accomplished in collaboration with colleagues.

But the identification of trim tabs is an essential means by which school leaders work smart both for themselves and for the benefit of the school community.

What are the trim tabs in your work?

Your answer to these two questions could change your school forever

To what goals would you aspire for your school if you knew you could not fail?

What type of school would you create if you didn’t know what role you would play in that school and you would be in that role forever?

I don’t know where or when I acquired these questions, but I have found over the years that they evoke incredibly important conversations in the school community about purposes and barriers to creating wonderful schools.

The phrase “if you knew you could not fail” in the first question acknowledges that our fear of failure often prevents us from aspiring to do all that is possible.

The second question requires that we put aside self interest to consider the perspectives of others in creating schools that would be wonderful places for everyone who learns and is employed in them. For instance, it asks teachers to consider the characteristics of a school in which they would want to be a principal or a student—forever.

Fear of failure: Leaders address their fear of failure by recognizing that worthy goals and important learning demand that we risk failure. The only alternative is the safety of our comfort zone, which ensures the status quo.

Leaders ask the school community to do the same by inviting it to participate in a deep, honest, and sustained conversation about its aspirations and fears.

Multiple perspectives: It is essential that school communities examine problems and their solutions from multiple perspectives. Such a process requires that the views and experiences of each role group be elicited and fully explored.

Addressing fears and incorporating multiple perspectives enable the creation of schools in which all young people and adults are successful and surrounded by supportive relationships.

A special note: I value my readers. And because I want to extend the reach of these ideas, if you are not a subscriber to this blog, please consider becoming one. 

Subscribing ensures timely, automatic receipt of every post. It only takes a moment to subscribe using your email address, and it’s just as easy to unsubscribe. (WordPress does not use email addresses for other purposes.) 

Thank you for considering subscribing!

 

Mindless professional learning produces mindless teaching

The notes of the lecturer are passed to the notes of the listener – without going through the minds of either. – Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler succinctly describes the mindless learning that follows mindless teaching.

Visualize a continuum with that form of teaching and learning at one end. At the other end place the kind of teaching that produces high levels of engagement, meaningful involvement with the subject matter, and the acquisition and exercise of complex cognitive skills. (A good share of the teaching students experience each day falls between those two extremes.)

The professional learning of teachers and administrators can be placed along a similar continuum.

To update Adler’s description, at one end of the continuum the PowerPoint slides of the presenter are passed to the tweets of the students without going through the minds of either. At the other end is professional learning with qualities that closely resemble those described above for students—high levels of engagement, meaningful involvement with the subject matter, and the acquisition and exercise of complex cognitive skills

In my experience, the kinds of teaching/learning processes used in professional development have a profound effect on the teaching/learning processes used in the vast majority of’ classrooms. Put another way, mindless professional learning produces mindless teaching. And vice versa.

The remedy is simple, but not easy: It’s essential that teachers’ professional learning resemble as closely as possible the kinds of teaching and learning desired in all classrooms.

That means that teachers will:

• spend much of their time in small, interdependent groups collaboratively solving important instructional problems;

• gain a deep understanding of the issues and their remedies through intellectually-demanding learning processes—the close reading of professional materials, writing that extends learning, and dialogue;

• acquire and regularly apply complex cognitive skills in identifying and solving meaningful problems; and

• experience firsthand the value of the methods they are expected to use with their students.

Through mind-full experiences like those, teachers will continuously improve their practice for the benefit of all students.