Merging Ideas on Leadership - Day 9 - 6.27.09

As the Summer Institute has continued, several emerging themes are beginning to come out about leadership. Many of these themes aren't new, they are ideas that have been around for a long time. However, moving those themes into our practice or really seeing the value of those in our practice is what can be hard. 

Where do these themes come from? Often they are from studying what we consider great leaders. We identify who these people are, then look at what they did in order to make them successful. Leadership is then defined by things such as being a gift from those you work with (Owen, 2009), how we build relationships with others (Perez, 2009), and how we draw and channel energy from others (Marshall, 2009). Building community, working with others, and developing relationships (Taulbert, 2009; Robinson, 2009) are also important traits of leaders. This all makes sense and really is difficult to argue. However, the definition of what leadership is brings about more complexity to leadership. 

Leadership for our program has been defined as the process of influencing others toward the achievement of a goal. Using this definition, almost anyone can be defined as a leader. At one time or another in our lives, it is likely that you would be in a position of influencing others toward the achievement of a goal. My son happened to convince the whole family tonight to go see the movie Transformers Rise of the Fallen. He sure influenced all of us toward his goal of going to see the movie! :)

It would be interesting to think of leadership in terms of what it isn't. How about we start at the characteristics that the people we don't consider leaders posses. What is it that keeps them from being a leader? Why wouldn't we consider them a leader? I think that would give us a very new theory on leadership. One that may (or may not) be more insightful. As we continue to search for leadership it may be easier to tell us what leadership isn't rather than trying to define what it is. 

Was Hitler a leader? If he isn't what you would consider a leader, what is it that he possessed leaders shouldn't have? Or are we sufficed to say that Hitler was a leader...just not one we think is worthy to follow. 

We should continue to contemplate leadership, what is it, what isn't it, and how can we use our leadership in service to others!

Wild ideas about education. Popping the bubble of Academia - Day 8 - 6.26.09

Jason Freid (2009) challenges current thinking about how a business should be run. His business is a small (14 employees) web design company. It was so interesting watching him present to a room full of doctoral students who, for the most part, work in large, traditional organizations. Whether in health care, education, business, or non-profit, most of us can't imagine working in a company with only 14 employees.

His ideas really stretched our imaginations also. It was interesting watching most of us struggle with whether to agree or disagree with the information he was sharing. After he was done presenting, the conversations either indicated that the person thought he was crazy, the information didn't apply to their situation, or they got it but it wouldn't work for their organization. 

Today's blog is an attempt to put a context around what life in school would look like follow the "Fried" principles. So here we go!

Failure isn't "cool"

Freid (2009) argues that failure is overrated. For some reason failure has become "cool", like fail early, fail often. You don't have to throw things against a wall and see what sticks. In schools you often hear people say, this is a learning environment, and that includes failing. Do we ever stop to think what failing in schools really means? Why is failure an option? Isn't the point that we want to teach kids techniques to succeed? And wouldn't our success with students be higher if as teachers our main goal was to find ways to get students to succeed? What if all schools took the approach that this doctoral program takes and that is for the cohort community to work together to see that all of the cohort members experience success? Just for a moment, close your eyes and try to image the classroom where the goal was to never let people experience failure. 

Practically speaking I get that we do experience failure and that failure does provide great learning opportunities. I do agree however, that if our schools were more focused on teaching kids to go into things thinking they can make them work and finding a way to make that happen, our students would learn the problem solving skills needed for them to be successful in the future.

Planning is overrated

We don't know what is going to happen in the future...bottom line. Fried (2009) tells us that planning is what people do to make them feel better about the unknown. We are experts at this in education. An example is the textbooks we spend millions of dollars on (and that may be a conservative estimate) every year in our schools. By the time we get them in the hands of the students, they are 5-7 years old already. Most of our new initiatives take years to fully implement. Our professional development programs are training teachers on concepts and ideas that have been in circulation for 10 or more years. 

A large portion of our teacher preparation programs train teachers how to plan for their instruction. We spend a great deal of time in education on the planning. It makes me wonder exactly how much time of our day is planning and how much time is actually on doing. 

Realizing that not planning could be detrimental to the education of our students, I believe we need to refine "how" we think about planning. The backwards design of planning lessons has been around now for almost 10 years, and many educators have not yet grabbed this concept. We do need to be flexible in our planning. How about starting with this one thing...teachers you can no longer hand out a semesters plans of assignments at a time. How about a little flexibility to respond to the stimuli of your students? How about taking into consideration current knowledge and being flexible with where you want to go? 

If we spent a little more time "doing" like Fried (2009) suggests, we may be much better off. Let our instruction be driven by student questions. Let inquiry and problem solving take our instruction into a random direction. Who knows, we may actually help students to experience much more learning than if we continue to give them worksheets and assignments from the book! Inspiration is perishable (Fried, 2009) so we should have systems in education that help students to act on their inspiration when it occurs instead of constantly missing the moment.

The workplace (school) is a place of interruption

I will use this as my last example because I think it is the hardest one to grasp for schools. Schools are a place of interruption also. Let's be honest, they really aren't a place for students to sit and concentrate on solving a problem. We constantly have students moving from class to class, teachers spend most of their time directing instruction, and student "think" time to solve problems is rarely allowed at school. (Those experiences are supposed to happen at home...where no interruptions happen...) 

Think if our schools could institute a "no-talking" day once in a while. A day where kids would know that the point is to give them time to think, explore, search for answers, and solve problems. So you can't imagine that? Try to imagine the impact that would have had on you if those were experiences you had on a regular basis in school. Do you think it would have provided a very different educational experience? Do you think school would have been much more than filling out worksheets and writing papers? Keep thinking? 

Wolfe (2009) and Estes (2009) discuss how the brain learns best by connecting new information to past experiences and that reflection and working those neural networks requires time for students/adults to assimilate that information. Yet most schools just keep pouring the information in without allowing students time to reflect, think, and create.

I'm not sure if I'm done dreaming on this subject yet. but enough for now!

Estes, D. (2009, June). Brain power. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wi.

Freid, J. (2009, June). 37-signals. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wi.

Wolfe, P. (2009, June). Brain research and education: The vital connection. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, Wi.

Understanding Learning is essential to Leading Revisited- Day 7 - 6.25.09

"What if the hokey pokey is what it is really all about?" (Estes, 2009).

In recent years there has been much information that has come out about how our brains learn. While this is great for educators, what does this tell leaders of all organizations? Promote just a little more EMPATHY. (Empathy for the purposes of this article is identification with or understand of another's situations, feelings, motives.)

When you learn about the brain and how the neural networks work, you can't avoid the discussion of hooking new information into the experiences that people have already had (Estes, 2009). As a leader of an organization, this hold true as well. 

As an administrator at a high school, the conversation of empathy would occur quite often. If teachers could only be a bit more empathetic of the current student situations. If only they could empathize about family situations and what families were going through. Maybe they wouldn't be quite so rigid. Maybe this could revolutionize the success of American schools. 

Many schools have used the Gallup Teacher Perceiver when hiring. Empathy is one of the categories that this instrument tries to measure. Perspective employees supply answers to questions that fit into several categories including empathy. Studies have shown that empathy is a category that high school teachers do not score well in. A common saying about teachers is...elemenatary teachers teach children, high school teachers teach subjects. 

Knowing this information, the leaders of the school then need to ask this important question. Can empathy be taught? This is where learning about the brain fits in. As we learn more and more about our thinking and how we understand the world, it builds our neural pathways to understand more and more about others perspectives as well.

Debbie Estes (2009) gives an example for us to consider. Read the following statements.

Mary hear the ice-cream truck coming down the street. She remembered her birthday money, and ran into the house.

Now let's follow up with a few questions...

What is an ice-cream truck? What do they look like? What do they sound like? What are they for? With is birthday money? Why would she go into the house for it? Was she going to stay in the house? 

Even this short little statement assumes that we understand a large amount of background knowledge in order to make sense of what is written. According to our experiences with ice-cream trucks, we interpret the information in that statement differently. My nephew is currently visiting, he is 6. Just as a test, the statement was read to him to see how he would respond. It was part of the 99% of information that gets dumped everyday (Estes, 2009; Wolfe, 2009). He did not even respond or try to ask questions. His lack of background knowledge or experience left those words empty to him. 

Learning about the brain can build powerful networks about empathy. Simply reading the short passage and considering the information above can help all of us to take a step back and imagine what it would be like to be in another's situation if they had never seen an ice-cream truck. 

Empathy is an essential quality that resides in many successful leaders. I believe it is an essential quality that needs to exist in every teacher in every school. It can be taught. If we purposely take the time to build the neural networks of our teachers so that they have the background to understand why their brains create preconceived notions build on experiences and neural networks and why students may act in certain ways because of theirs.

Estes, D. (2009, June) Brain power. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Wolfe, P. (2009, June) Brain research and education: The vital connection. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Leadership Lessons - Day 6 - 6.24.09

As I was growing up, our family participated on the swim team. I say our family because my only sister and I both swam, my dad was the coach, and my mom helped with organizing our swimming meets and trips. Being raised in Wyoming, we had many swimming meets that were more than 150 miles from home. We travel much and worked hard. Our head coach, Bruce Gresley, is a man that I believe exemplifies the word LEADERSHIP. 

Clifton Taulbert (2009) states how important vision is in leadership. In fact, having a clear vision is what will drive the organization to success. 

In small town Lander, Wyoming (population approximately 7500), the swimming team was the city's largest organized sport. Bruce's vision was clear. He wanted to have an impact on children and families, to help them live and learn leadership, stay healthy, and to bring the community together. Year after year, Bruce was able to have a large impact on the people of the Lander community by bringing families together around this vision. His track record is unbelievable. He led the USS competitive team to state championships year after year. The boys and girls high school swimming teams won state championships year after year. The enrollment in the swimming program never took a dip. How did he do this? By staying true to his vision.

Taulbert (2009) uses the analogy of being on a sailing ship when a large wind comes up. In that scenario there are two things a leader can do is 1) adjust the sails and 2) rally the crew. There is no sense to try to stop the wind.

When I was first part of the swimming team, the Lander community did not have a pool of it's own. We practiced at the Wyoming State Training School (a state run facility for handicapped people).  I remember the dinner table discussion of our family about what was going to happen when the "state school" would no longer allow us to use their pool. Bruce adjusted the sails and rallied the crew and in an amazing 2 years, Lander had it's own Olympic size swimming pool in the community. It was THE premier swimming facility in the state. Bruce's vision was so clear and the community he worked with was so strong that he was able to realize this dream in a short amount of time. 

Taulbert (2009) states the importance of building capacity, which is driven by the vision. building capacity is the creation of an enabling environment for all to participate by embracing their skills, experiences, and perspectives. 

Swimming is an individual sport. Yes, there are relays, but for the most part it is about an individual working to improve their time, stroke, and the place they finish in the race. Bruce was able to take every single person on that team, embrace the strengths they had, and find a way for them to experience success. His care and concern that every child learn leadership skills, experience the feeling of success when you have achieved your personal goal, and become a better person because of being part of the "team".

Leading the future is about investing in others, leaving a legacy (Taulbert, 2009). 

Bruce left that legacy. After the death of Bruce's son, a facebook page was created for Bruce, showing him the support from all the lives he had touched. Thousands of people who now live all over the world were contributing words of encouragement and giving thanks for the impacts Bruce had on their lives. 

Community is an important asset no leader wants to lead without.

Bruce led with integrity, was a role model, and exemplified what building community was about. His greater concern was that all children had a safe, healthy environment to be raised in, and that we could work together to have positive impacts on the lives of all the children in the community.

Taulbert was an amazing speaker. In the first few minutes of his presentation, you could see that he exemplified what he was speaking about. You could tell that his life was dedicated to helping others. His stories of success showed that he has worked hard to be a role model for others. He is concerned about who his is as a person because of the effect that will have on his followers. The most powerful of his message was through story. He uses his stories to show others how leadership can happen, even in the smallest of events.

Taulbert (2009) reminds us to RAP-Reflect, Analyze, and Plan. This is an important leadership lesson for all of us. It is in the reflection that we can continually check our vision. Are we on target? How are our core values? What do others see? Are our actions matching what we are wanting from others? Analyze what we have done and where we are going. Then plan. If we plan without the other two, we are likely to be headed in the wrong direction.

We must remember that the community we are leading is as strong and solid as their core values and the core values of the leadership charged to implement them. When the leadership's personal workplace behavior becomes unethical, it chips away at the company's core values, impacting others...sending signals of what is now acceptable behavior (Taulbert, 2009).

Bruce was such an incredible man because his core values and vision were in alignment. They were transparent. They were real. From the lives of those who he touched...we thank you for your leadership!

In the video below you can get a flavor of the power of story that Taulbert has. Enjoy!

Clifton Taulbert

Taulbert, C. (2009, June) Learning for the 21st century. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Understanding Learning is essential to Leading - Day 5 - 6.23.09

Since I began learning about the brain and the impacts on learning, I have come to know that all educators should be trained in the newest research about the brain and the impacts it has on students understanding and learning. For example, understanding the impact on background knowledge, as described by Wolfe (2009), Marzano (2004), and Sousa (2006) to name a few, on how students activate their neural networks in order to make meaning of what we are trying to get them to learn.  I'll connect this with an example, then connect our understanding of learning to leadership.

When I came into the doctoral program, we were "taught" about our dissertations. Even at the beginning of summer institute, the terms chapter 1, 2, and 3 were discussed. Something called literature reviews kept coming up. etc. However, the neural networks were still building in this area. Most of what was being talked about was not fully being understood.

During our first semester we were asked to write a pilot project. This created much anxiety for use because we did not have a solid foundation or understanding, background knowledge. In the classes that ensued, we had lectures on chapters 1, 2, and 3. We practiced writing chapters 1, 2, and 3. We completed literature reviews. All the while, we kept building those neural networks. 

Now looking back, it is easy to see how much knowledge has been gained. In intergenerational sharing, when the year 3 students were talking about their research, it makes sense. We have the neural network needed, the scaffolding built, to continue moving forward. 

So how does this affect leadership? We really need to be conscience of the learning process when working with people in our organizations. In leadership it is quite common to talk about creating a common vision. In schools this is generally done by a handful of people, then unveiled to other people. The problem with this is that when you don't have all the people involved in creating this vision, they do not have similar backgrounds and experiences, or neural networks. So when we unveil the "common vision" we shouldn't be surprised that people won't have the same understanding of the vision that the leaders who worked on this.

I'm not suggesting that we have to have everyone have the same types of experiences, that would be boring. However, the leader MUST focus on building the neural networks. We have to have conversations, give opportunities, continuously and purposefully create opportunities for the neural networks to be formed. The common vision must be a living concept. The way you breath life into it is by having it become a neural network in the minds of all the people within the organization. 

Easy to write about...harder to do!

Marzano, R.J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement: research on what works in schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Sousa, D. (2006). How the brain learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

Wolfe, P. (2009, June). Brain research and education: The vital connection. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Leadership as a Random Set of Events? - Day 4 - 6.22.09 and 6.23.09

Looking back to when I was in high school, I can say I don't think there was a time that I sat down specifically said, "I want to be a leader." I know for sure that I never expressed that I wanted to be an educational leader because entering the field of education came to me by chance. 

I went to school to be an electrical engineer, because my dad told me to. After several attempts to pass college level physics, I knew I had to consider other options. So I changed majors, kept taking classes that interested me, and ended up with no direction at the end of my third year of college. I finally went to an academic advisor and asked what degree I was closest to. That is how I ended up in mathematics education. 

From there a series of events led me to school administration, to working at a university, to working as an educational consultant. And here I am today, a leader in the field of education.

Gladwell (2008) describes the story of attorney Joe Flom's success as one of chance. His hard work certainly played a role. Robinson (2009) describes the attributes of a successful leader as one who empowers others, has vision, is a good communicator, and is a role model. These qualities were certainly part of who Joe Flom was, but there was also a factor of chance that added to his success. It has been interesting to learn just how large of a part chance does play in our success. I can't find a word to describe what I would call the fifth attribute of a successful leader, but it would be that they are open to follow the direction that life takes them.

Both of our speakers today (6.22.09) described their journey or path to their leadership. For Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Umhoefer, the journey went from missed opportunities to hard work, communication, patience, dedication until his story of success was written. Now his career has led him to public speaking instead of working on the beat for the newspaper. As he described the path of his career, it was a story that very easily could have ended with him working on the beat, living a good life, but not getting to that opportunity that now exists. It was not only his hard work and dedication that led him there, but a series of events that helped him unfold the Milwaukee County pension scandal.

Janice Ereth (2009, June) also described her path as one of making connections and letting the opportunities lead her where she is today. She emphasized in her presentation how important it was to make those connections and take advantage of the opportunities as they occur, to let life unfold your purpose and direction.

In Miodinow's (2008) The Drunkard's Walk, many examples of how chance plays a large role in our lives are given. We also need to understand the role that probability plays in these life events. Just like Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's home run record, chance often aids us in our leadership. 

Leadership is about dedication, passion, vision, understanding, communication, care, and all of those other attributes that describe good leaders, but we must also be open to conversation (Wheatley, 2005) and allow ourselves to embrace the opportunities that come our way. It is those series of random events that provide the chaos that re-patterns into order that aids us on our leadership journey.

_____________________________________

Dickmann, M. (2009) Deep thoughts about leadership and change. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Ereth, J. (2009, June) Juvenile Justice and Education. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Gladwell, M. (2008) Outliers: The story of success. NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Miodinow, L. (2008) The drunkard's walk: How randomness rules our lives. NY: Pantheon Books.

Robinson, E. (2009, June) Four giants steps to developing leaders. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Umhoefer, D. (2009, June) The (dying) art of investigative reporting. Lecture delivered at the Summer Institute at Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI.

Wheatley, M. J. (2005). Finding our way: Leadership for uncertain times. San Francisco, CA: Berrett Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Orientation to SI - Day 3 - 6.21.09

Our time in SI today was spent on introduction about the program. Then we went into intergenerational sharing. So, what the heck is that? It is a very important and vital part of our program at CSU. Let me back up for those who may read this who aren't part of our group. The CSU doctoral program is a three year [of classes] cohort program. I am in cohort XV. This is my second year of the program. The program is so unique because it has been designed to teach about leadership, learning, and service at the same time you are working on your research. I have loved to program and totally admire all of my cohort members that know their topic and I can't believe how this program has helped them on their way to completing it. The program is a three year sequence. In the summers we meet for an intense 17 day (weekends too) summer institute. The benefit in the summer is we have everyone together, people in their first year, second year, and those entering their last. We can learn from the experiences of those who have forged the path before us!

My issue is that I haven't settled on a research topic. So what does that have to do with intergenerational sharing? Well, I've really went back and forth on what to do my research on. During out intergenerational sharing, there were many ideas that circulated. These at least led me in a direction and gave me hope. For that last few months I have been in a total standstill and now I feel like at least I can tackle this again. [THANKS JUDY AND LAURA]

I learned a ton more about research, much more about trusting the process, and am so happy to have others to help me on my way! At the same time it was interesting watching the new folks sit in the same tailspin that we all experienced last year. That really does tell us that our experiences drive our learning. Now that I have one year under my belt and have accumulated a whole lot of knowledge about leadership and research, the comments in intergenerational sharing had a huge impact on me. Brilliant, this program is!

I feel like I haven't added a ton today, but promise that in the days to come, there will be much more synthesis of research, speakers, etc. For now, I need rest!

Introduction to the Learning Year - Day 2 - 6.20.09

Brain FACTS

Today we spent almost the whole day talking about the brain. My brain hurt by the time I went home. It is kind of an interesting phenomenon when you are thinking about your thinking. 

Some important information - 

• Our brains dump while we sleep. See, it isn't that we forget information, it really is that our brain has purposefully decided it isn't something we need to know. Even when we think we need to know it later, we don't. Well, seriously, think about how much information and stimuli we get during each day. It is so much information, that when we sleep our brain kind of does a re-run and takes in everything it can by making connections to other things that we have currently stored in our brain. We actually only remember 1% of what we "learn" during the day. Now think about in the classroom. How could we use this information to help students learn in the classroom or help adults when they are learning on the job. This is a fact I have known for a long time, but I haven't seen many practical applications of it. I'm going to work on integrating this into what we teach teachers at Messmer. 
• Your brain does regenerate neurons. When your parents used to tell you that if you drank too much or smoked you would kill your brain cells. While this may be true, new research has shown that neurons can actually re-grow. They regenerate. Great news!
• The BRAIN is a mean, lean pattern making machine.

Our discussions about the brain led to an interesting conversation about difference in men and women. Like the fact that men tend to learn in a linear, sequential pattern and women enjoy a much more analytic route to learning. Men like short (dumb) jokes. They come to a quick punch line and are linear. Women tend to like jokes that make them think and analyze. Because Peter told us this...we know it is well researched. He didn't tell us what study it came from, but...

And in communication women have more questions than men. And when women nod their head, it means they are listening deeper. When men not their heads, they are nodding to show they are in agreement. 

And how about the study that occurred in Washington DC. You see an alien had landed in DC and what they found is that the aliens do have symbols for their letters. You can see pictures for two of the letters below. One of them is the symbol represents KiKi (the sound of one of the letters) and one of them is the symbol that represents Boomar. In this research study, which sound for the letters is represented by which symbol? Ok, here are the symbols...

Again, so which one is KiKi and which one is Boomar?

Well, the majority of people will identify KiKi as the first symbol because of the hard "k" sound matching the hard edges of the symbol. While this really has no application in the alien language, it is how our brain works. It tries to find connections and make meanings (even when they don't make sense). It was a cool type of activity demonstrating this!

So the final two exciting things that Dr. Jonas shared:

"Do you want me to teach you everything their is to know about statistics in 30 seconds? Here it goes... Probability." [Actually that didn't take 30 seconds, but oh well.]

"What are the 3 most important things in your dissertation?

Research

Research

Research"