Is email killing productivity and reducing your IQ?

The ping of a new email catches my attention as I sit in a meeting with a colleague. The two of us are in his office and we’re talking about an issue that needs resolution. As we talk, behind and over his right shoulder, I can see on his monitor that the ping means that he has a new email.  In the familiar Outlook window, I can see that his highlighted cursor has dropped down one notch and while he was up to date on his email, our conversation and this recent ping has him one down. It is the start of a familiar pattern.

Throughout our chat, I continue to hear that familiar “you’ve got email” ping and I notice his cursor falling lower and lower on his screen as the email piles up. By the end of our talk, he has a completely new page of unread emails – the cost of taking time to speak to someone rather than attending to the non- stop onslaught of email that we face every day. I leave his office wondering about email – is it really “helping” us in our daily work? Does it actually improve communication? Does it actually increase productivity or is the daily tsunami of electronic communications leaving us drowning in a river of information while gasping for the breath of true personal connections in the workplace and quality time with our colleagues on issues that matter and need our undivided attention?

In most of the meetings I now attend or chair, almost everyone will be using an electronic device during the meeting. It would be naive to think that they are all taking copious notes, no, they are time splicing their attention between the topic of conversation,  their email, and sometimes twitter or other social media channels. Perhaps this is effective use of time but we are educators and we know the research on multitasking which is…it cannot be done. It’s true, you can chew gum and walk at the same time but you cannot do a multiplication problem and write a poem simultaneously. The myth of multitasking has long been revealed. I much prefer the term time splicing where we devote thin slices of our attention between multiple tasks hoping that we can weave the threads together. The end result, as you might imagine and as supported by research, is that when our attention is divided our productivity drops and each of the tasks we juggle gets shortchanged beyond the simple loss of time.

Multitaskers have long been thought of as gifted organizers of time. We marvel at their ability to juggle multiple inputs. However, when researchers delve into these gifts, they discover the gift is empty. Ophir, one of the lead researchers at Stanford’s Communications between Humans and Interactive Media Lab stated about multitaskers “We kept looking for what they’re better at, and we didn’t find it.” Research not only shows that multitasking doesn’t work, it actually shows that it may impair brain functioning. So this is not something you want to be proud of or wish to see in children.

How much do people split their attention and time? A recent infographic that I found suggests that 67% of people emailed during a date, 45% while in a movie and 33% while at church. Researchers at Kings College in London suggest that “constant exposure to e-mail and other multitasking-friendly technology temporarily lowers IQ by 10 points–or about as much as skipping a night’s sleep.”

On more than one occasion, I have asked everyone at a meeting to go tech-less. Blackberries and iPhones/iPads down. If you ever want a strong reaction from a group, just try it. People are not only lost without their devices which have become more like appendages than accessories, they are deeply offended by the thought of someone who would dare to cut them off even for 15 minutes.

I do not believe for a minute that this time-spliced multitasking phenomena may change but I think it is worthy of a workplace conversation. For one example, if everyone is on technology most of the day why are we asking them to “come in to the office”? With environmental sustainability an issue and looking for cost savings around every corner, why would we not consider working from home as a serious workplace option? Avoid the commute, stay home to be available for family if needed, save the environment, sleep longer without having to prepare for what is likely 1-2 hours a day on the road.

As we are rethinking education we need to also start rethinking the workplace in general. As educators we criticize the industrial model of learning with students proceeding through strict rotations of blocks in discreet subject areas yet, in office structures, people still come to work, fit into their cubicle, and begin their 8 hour day connected to a computer. Given that we are more connected to each other than ever before do we really need to be sitting next to each other all day long too? Perhaps as we think about 21st Century Learning, we can also think about 21st Century workplaces. Places where work happens when you want, where you want and in a time suitable to your needs. Of course this couldn’t work for all jobs, but perhaps it could for many.

For many executives and managers, we spend time meeting to resolve issues, plan and organize. If we recognize that today’s structures of meetings have become largely ineffective, then why would we continue to meet in the same way we have for a century? The only difference is that people have devices and since we know meetings are typically largely ineffective, perhaps it should come as no surprise that people are opting out more than ever and spending a lot of meeting time checking email and working remotely.

In more than one blog article I have commented on the effectiveness of meetings. Given the lack of attention by participants, we either need to design and develop better meeting structures, use the technology itself in different ways, or abandon structures that we know are ineffective. However, one of the main reasons that people check email during meetings is simply to help deal with the volume of daily mail. If  most of your day is travelling or in meetings, working face to face with students or parents, then email piles up and awaits your attention.

What about ways to handle the never ending email barrage? Recently, I was lucky enough to have someone spend time with me on Outlook and its functionality to handle email and here were some tips handed to me:

• use the “follow up function” – a very quick calendar reminder for those emails that needed to have action by a specific date;
• use File – to put emails with agenda items for meetings, important things to do or reminders about issues
• establish quick rules for specific routine tasks – this makes organization easy.

However, the more I think about the pressures of email, perhaps the pressure to answer emails and the sheer volume is leaving people with what they feel is little choice other than to spend meeting time answering emails. If you do not manage to get to your emails during a day of meetings and travel, then you are left with at least an hour homework to catch up on email. So the pressure is to somehow find time during the day, in any way you can, to answer your emails. It is small wonder we see people emailing at intersections, at dinner tables, while waiting in lines and, yes, during meetings.

In any organization I have ever worked, when you ask employees for one area of improvement, communications is always on the list. Love it or hate it, email is a major part of any organizations communications framework. So if this is the case, how often do we take the time to discuss our etiquette, our strategy, our skills and our goals with using email? Here are some simple questions for you to consider within your organization:

• what email groups do you have and are all members updated and necessary?
• what etiquette have you discussed on simple things like reply all or replying when cc’d?
• when are people cc’d and what does it mean to be cc’d?
• do you ever approve of using bcc? If so under what conditions?
• how are you using your email signature features to identify/celebrate/promote your organization and its values?
• have you discussed the passing of jokes over email?
• what is your employee awareness of FOI legislation and emails?
• who has security levels to read all emails?
• what policies exist for those with high level security access to email?
• have you trained all employees on the features of email systems to support productivity (e.g. flagging, setting reminders and follow up times, writing rules for sorting)?

The purpose of this blog is to hopefully stimulate some conversation about email within your organization. If research tells us that some of our practices are actually hurting us and in our gut we all know it, then perhaps it’s time to step back, don’t hit send for a moment and simply take a half an hour at some point to put down your devices, take a breath and have a good old fashioned face to face chat about how email is, or is not, working for the organization and for enhancing communications. It could be a refreshing break to improve the likely thousands or tens of thousands of messages flying through the bitsphere in any given moment. Perhaps it is a chance to actually chart a new communications course through your organization. A course that you can share with others, maybe even over email.

On a final hypocritical note, I checked my own email 3 times during the first draft of this blog. Pavlov would be proud.

The Passion and Caring of Today’s Youth

I had the privilege this week to emcee the Wayne Houston Memorial Speech Meet in Surrey. On stage with thirteen teenagers, I got to listen to their short and powerful speeches. So often we hear about teens but to rarely do we pause to hear from them. What I heard on stage was person after person sending messages that they care about the earth, their community, each other, and the future. They are deeply connected through social media, they are proud of their diverse heritage. They are smart, articulate and they don’t pull any punches when they tell adults just what they see. In honour of their speeches, I asked one young man if I may share his speech to  give people a taste of what today’s youth think and feel. It’s just one example, but it was typical of the types of things we heard on that night. The post below is from one of the junior competitors, Amolak Singh from Semiahmoo Secondary. I thank Amolak and his family for allowing me to share his story.

Hello, my name is Amolak Singh.  I am 15 years old, and yet I feel much older.  This summer, my parents let me have a facebook account and I just completely lost my innocence.   Life was so simple before – With my iphone 3GS  I used to spend long hours texting my friends about the latest episodes of Prison Break or download movies onto my IPAD, or better yet play online games with kids around the world, killing hundreds of bad guys with deadly explosive weapons in 3d.

But this summer my happy innocence came to an end when my Dad sent me a friend request and I accepted.    And so just as I was uploading vacation pictures of myself bodysurfing, I got the request.  My Dad was inviting me to join a facebook group on helping child beggars in India.   I ignored the requests for several days, after all I was very busy – I had just upgraded my cell phone to the new iphone 4 and I had apps I needed to download, but finally, I joined. 

I read my first post because the picture intrigued me – it was of a small, really skinny child, with an amputated leg.  I thought the child was doing the posting, but it was a post by a teacher travelling in Mumbai, India, telling about the group of beggar children that sleep on the streets behind her hotel and constantly follow tourists with their pleas for money. 
She was talking about how she had been there for five days and each day had resisted giving any money to them, despite the helpless little children following her everywhere, despite seeing their mutilated bodies and the hunger in their eyes, despite seeing them curled tight into little balls, hugging the alley walls at night as flys and mosquitoes feasted on their scrawny frames. 
 
You see she knew that the children never got to keep any of the money, that the children were owned by organised gangs who had first either bought or stolen the children while very young, then mutilated them to make them appear even more pathetic and now preyed on their earnings from begging.  Giving the beggars money did not help them at all. Everyday, just to keep her sanity, she was posting a new picture every hour of a new child beggar on the group wall for the duration of her 2 week vacation.  Well, I was instantly trapped – I read all her posts from the start of her vacation – I stared into the eyes of each haunting picture, and my heart sank so low, at the magnitude of it all.  

 
Another post linked to a video of children not barely 12 years old working in a sweat shop embroidering clothes with their tiny nimble fingers, pulling needle and thread in and out of the silk material bound for happier, luckier people to dress themselves. 
And yet another post brought before my eyes the gruesome fate of starving children, just skin and bones, dying daily of starvation in the Horn of Africa.  Just one post from one facebook friend led me to countless others, interconnecting me to people around the world – people with information to share about the world we live and the plight of the billions who will never be as lucky as I am, here in Canada.

Now there was no going back to my happy innocence  – to that state of blissful ignorance when I knew nothing of starving millions.  Once informed, it haunts you and you can not become un-informed, no matter how much you may want to.
So I have come to question everything -  how can millions be starving to death while we waste  so much food and spend billions of dollars on useless trivial material nick nacks that we later just throw out . 

I have realized that social media is a powerful tool that in some countries has helped revolutions to happen.  As the children of the information age where the tiniest detail of suffering anywhere is  just a mouse click away, we do not have the luxury of pleading ignorance or innocence. We should not just sit back and use this technology for trivial fun, like I used to but instead become active.

American author, James Baldwin, said it perfectly.
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.

Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast – Even in Downton Abbey

I worked in a school that had a rule: No Hats. It was just “the way things are done around here“. In my time in the school, no issue was more hotly debated and more emotional than the discussion about whether or not students should be permitted to wear hats at any time. It was about respect, it was about tradition. The power of this cultural norm was never more apparent to me when, one day, a new staff member arrived to the pro-d day, waltzed in, grabbed his coffee and sat down proudly wearing his red tattered baseball cap proudly backwards on his head. You could have cut the air with a knife.

Peter Drucker’s famous quote about the power of culture is simple, clear and correct. Recently when someone used it at a meeting I attended, it also struck me that if someone has a strategy that doesn’t include dealing with culture, then they are seriously misunderstanding what leadership is and how essential it is to always have culture as the core part of your strategy.

For about a year I worked at the district level asking the question to our senior managers “how can the district do the best job of serving schools?” In the end, the overall themes that emerged have proven to me to be timeless in any organizatation. The themes were:

Communication – communicate effectively, in a timely manner, give background information, and don’t have multiple people in the Board Office send the same or similar URGENT memo to schools and expect them to all jump. The often used quote “a lack of organization on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” comes to mind. Nothing lands worse than the bullet from upon high saying I need this and I need it now. Communication requires planning and communication requires consciously thinking about how things land in the field.

Collaboration – people need time to connect, to get to know each other, and to be part of the process. Consider the above common email issue that happens when urgent messages come from the district to schools. Simple planning, giving the schools a heads up and rationale can go a long way to soften urgent time sensitive messages. Use the structures you have to collaborate so people know that you care and that they are part of the plan. Think of how one or two simple phone calls to key leaders in the field can help soften such an urgent email. A few moments to give a rationale and talk about the need allows the word to spread a little more effectively when talk starts in the field about why things are done.

Obstacles – those higher up in the hierarchy of things should constantly be thinking of what you can do to remove obstacles to work getting done. Sometimes when you’re looking for the enemy you only need to hold up a mirror. Often districts set up routines and rules that not only don’t make sense, they actually halt processes rather than support them. Policies created a decade ago that don’t reflect current reality but simply have become “the way we do things around here” can often be part of the problem. You need to constantly review practices, policies and procedures and ask your self if they really help. Good policy is essential, and conversly, bad policy is useless and will only end up in people doing work-arounds to actually get anything done.

These three themes could emerge in the culture of any large operation when it looks at how to work more effectively together. Classroom teachers may say we just want effective, timely and respectful communication, time to collaborate, and the autonomy to do good work. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It’s the same themes in a different context.

I spend most of my time considering and working at culture. I found a blog  by John Bernard which had the following acronym to describe culture – STAR. This acronym described culture as the Stories, Taboos, Artifacts and Rituals of an organization and it really made sense to me. I also found a good description in this paper which added ceremonies and I agree that they form an important part.

Whatever your strategy for moving an organization forward, I agree with Drucker and it isn’t as much culture eats strategy but that if your strategy doessn’t include culture you aren’t going far. In fact, you may actually go backwards as just another leadership initiative that went nowhere.

The room quietened as the young staff member arrived (slightly late) to the session for all staff, grabbed his coffee and took his seat with his red ball cap on backwards. I was standing at the front presenting at the time, just doing welcomes. What was most interesting to me was that for all our conversations about hats in our school and what an important part of the culture it was for staff, for all the passionate stand and deliver speeches I heard about tradition, integrity and the importance of our no hat rule, not one single staff member asked him to remove his hat. Instead…everyone kind of looked up at me as if to say “Well, Jordan – what are you going to do about that?” I could see that those on both sides of the argument were watching with great interest.

As I normally try to do, in some kind of light, joking way I managed to ask him to remove his cap. He did so most willingly. But this episode reminds me of the power of culture, traditions and norms in a building. In its own way, that small red cap would have been the artifact to dominate the day if it wasn’t dealt with in the moment. Writing about it makes it sound so trivial but I can tell you that in the moment and 100 people looking on – our norms, beliefs, traditions and values were all being challenged and everyone knew it. Not only that, his reputation and relationship with many staff members was being shaken just by the act and, to this day, I don’t know if it was a simple oversight or a purposeful shot at some of his collegues. My careful strategy for the pro-d day was indeed being eaten for breakfast by a simple red cap.

Everything you do unfolds as part of the culture. Every person in the building plays a role in the culture of a building as culture is all about how we relate to each other on a daily basis. What you do today may become part of tradition tomorrow.

The wonderful series Downton Abbey is rife with great material for leadership, culture and traditions. Mr. Carson is among my most favourite characters as he staunchly clings to tradition and standards while watching the world change around him. As a study in tradition and cultural norms, the series is a gem. For the Crawleys and the Granthams, culture and tradition not only are their way of being, they are the actual strategy to secure their future. We’ll all watch with great interest how the future unfolds for Downton because one of the central struggles is, of course, that their personal strategy to maintain their own traditions are being eaten for breakfast by the changes in culture around them. As this great exchange between Shirley MacLaine and Maggie Smith shows:

Dowager Countess (Smith): “You Americans never understand the importance of Tradition.”

Martha Levinson (MacLaine): “Yes we do, we just don’t give it power over us. Maybe you should think about letting go of its hand.”

If Shirley MacLaine was watching closely, she may have seen that Maggie Smith was indeed right, but the outcome is certainly one she won’t expect and it will challenge Downton to its core. We’ll all watch with interest.

Size and Complexity – Challenges in Each Setting

Big schools, small schools, big districts, small districts, urban settings and rural settings – what are the challenges of scale and what leadership skills does it take to be successful in any setting?

People often discuss the challenges and complexity of leadership no matter how big or small the context. My best lesson on the issue of “scale” was given to me by the principal of a small elementary school years ago. Louise Jovanovic, now retired was a wonderful colleague. At the time we spoke, she was principal at Durrance Elementary which, if I recall had about 6 staff.  I was also a principal of a school which had about 120 staff and we were talking about the similarities and differences that principals face no matter what the size of their school. Her point of view forever changed my thoughts about the challenges that those in small schools face and over time I have seen those challenges also reflected in small and rural districts compared to those large and urban.

At the time of our conversation, Louise and I were talking about the ability to influence staff and have a school move along in pursuit of a particular direction. We talked of the difference between large and small staffs and how resistance to change unfolds in places with different scale. For her, the impact of having only one staff member in opposition to a particular initiative was simply monumental compared to what I may face with even a dozen staff members who also may not be in support. She talked of the absolutely critical network of close relationships that exist in small schools and it seemed like those who lead in such places would have to be so careful, inclusive and encouraging in their directions and to always tap into the particular needs and beliefs of all staff. In a larger school with over 100 staff, being in touch with every single person’s needs and beliefs is far more difficult to do but, with a bulk of staff moving forward, the momentum of such a large group of people often created such an initiative, that it was difficult to stop. Those who were not on-side or unsure often were caught up in the initiative or, at the very least, content to let their colleagues move on. The leadership task was to pay attention to those less satisfied, to listen to their concerns, adjust where able and always to include, but having a couple of staff members in opposition to a particular direction was not a show-stopper by any regard. For Louise, having one or two staff members in opposition represented a significant part of her staff.

The other day, I was fortunate to have a chance to talk to superintendents from around the province. Once again, the issue of the differences that leaders face regardless of size and scale of organization came to mind.  Just as when I was with Louise, I was reminded just how the challenges in small and rural districts are in many ways so extremely challenging compared to the things we tackle in large urban districts. Urban districts may take some things for granted like transportation, proximity to services, reasonable weather, access to staff, resources and relative ease of contact and communications. These are challenges that rural and remote areas face every day in such a different way than we do in a metropolitan area. In addition, those in rural settings are often “living in the fish bowl” and not only do people watch what you do in public life, they watch in private life as well as some towns are only so big. The local school principal is well known by almost everyone. In BC, we have some schools on small islands and for those who live and work on these island schools the spotlight can be always on regardless of where you are.

I am not suggesting that anyone can do any job, any time regardless of context and scale. What I am suggesting is that we should pay more attention to the complexity of issues that rural and small schools face and the intricate leadership that it takes to be successful in such a setting. That does not mean that I would take the principal of a highly successful elementary school of 50 students and plunk them down in a struggling secondary school of 2000 students. I do believe that would just set someone up for failure. But…when the principal of 50 speaks, I am just saying that what they bring to the leadership table should not be discounted.

As I’ve often quoted Ursula Franklin, schools are more like organisms than they are mechanisms. Schools live and breathe based on the network of relationships and interactions that emerge within. Whether big or small, urban or rural, the ability to navigate, communicate, listen and respond in settings is about the human condition, it is not about how big a place is. In my district, we have over 9000 staff. There is no doubt that communication with that size is a huge issue compared to communication with 500. We cannot easily pull all teachers together for a talk, it just doesn’t work that way. However, in smaller places, not only is it possible to meet with all teaching staff, it is routinely done. The ability to establish personal connections and relationships in larger places is much more difficult and your communication has to be so clear, concise and consistent because you don’t get many opportunities to speak to everyone. In smaller places, you can revisit, connect, clarify, meet and discuss. These are advantages that big places just can’t realize.

While leadership differences in dealing with scale are obvious, the similarities remain. The leadership journey is about influence and influence is realized by connecting and communicating. So the next time you consider a team to pull together or there are voices in the room around a particular issue, pay attention to what everyone brings to the table. Whether from small, large, rural or urban, everyone has something unique to offer. Sometimes in education we get inside our own bubble and don’t listen to what those who are outside our sector have to say or we don’t fully appreciate the perspective brought by those in completely different educational contexts. Even better, suggest that your principal of your largest secondary school spend a day in a tiny elementary and vice-versa. These learning exchanges can be a great learning experience both ways.

One of my favourite anecdotes is about a secondary principal who, in a time of need, was placed in an elementary school on virtually no notice. The need was urgent and this was the best solution at hand. On the principal’s first day, the school’s kindergarten teacher was ill and, as happens in rural areas, no replacement was available. With no prep at all and thrown into teaching kindergarten for a full day with zero experience at that level, that secondary leader learned more about valuing kindergarten in an hour than a whole graduate course could have taught. The irony, of course, is the real teachers and mentors that day were just 5 years old. As we know so well, we all are on the learning journey any given day and no matter how small some people may seem, the leadership advice they bring can be large indeed.

Articles for further interest:

• Sustainable Leadership in Small Rural Schools: Selected Australian Vignettes
• Rural School Leadership for Collaborative Community Development
• The Small Rural School Principalship: Key Challenges and Cross-School Responses

Leadership of Groups and the Importance of Going Last

Have you ever sat back in meetings or times of collaboration and watched unintended silencing unfold? Sometimes without any intent, the very sequence of talking and the roles/positions people hold can have powerful effect on how a conversation unfolds around a table. This blog urges those in positions of power to think carefully about the impact of silencing and about where and when to place your voice in times of collaboration.

I took part in a great activity this week. We pulled in a group of administrators and teachers for two days trying to get clarity between and among our district practices of Collaborative Inquiry, Assessment, Social and Emotional Learning and Differentiated Instruction. It was a great session and in the end reaffirmed how strongly we all felt about the importance of empowering teachers through time to collaborate with the overarching purpose of improving student learning. In our culminating activity, we were forced to choose one proposition for action. At our table, we had two finalists from our sorted list. Everyone tossed their pen onto the pile that they were voting for. As I threw my pen into the minority pile, people laughed about where I voted and joked about moving their votes to align with mine. It was a joke. I was amongst colleagues and peers. I wanted to be viewed an equal but I am acutely aware in the hierarchy of order, my voice is not equal.

I have often shown this FedEx commercial in presentations both as a joke but also one with an important point. When you are the person who has power of authority, you have to be so cautious about where and when you place your voice in a conversation. Leadership is needed. People want a summary, they want a clear direction out of collaboration but speaking early, speaking decisively can do more to kill a conversation than it can to continue it.

Daniel Wilson was at the BCSSA conference recently speaking of powerful collaboration. He showed research that spoke to how strong teams and weak teams perform in times of stress and uncertainty. I very much liked his summary framework of information, meaning-making, and action and thought it a good framework for how any person in a position of authority enters a conversation which is intended to be collaborative. If you are in a position of authority, whether that be principal or district staff and you find yourself in a conversation that you wish to be collaborative, then construct any input you offer in a way to build upon the conversation rather than draw it to a close. Wilson found that “the use of connected and cognitively open language” was a key determinant of high performing teams. He also found that in a truly collaborative conversation, leadership flowed within the group.

To go back to the beginning, I very often watch people who are good leaders. They are knowledgeable and supportive people. Sometimes when meetings begin or group conversations start, people look to those in authority to “kick it off.” The very manner in which things are initiated, whether the tone is set to be open or closed has almost everything to do with the language you use. Wilson reminds us of the importance of keeping questions open and to be cautious of being declarative which can quickly close a collaborative session thus making it less effective.

Those in authority play critical roles. They are ultimately responsible for decisions that are made. If you want to truly collaborate and to make your decisions the most effective, then rely on your skilled collaborative efforts in getting the most out of group time. Keep questions open, ask for clarification, create space for people to contribute, watch for those who may silence others and re-open the conversation. Then, when the time is right, allow for summary and action for next steps. So the next time you are either in a meeting or are the one ultimately responsible for the outcome of a meeting, try talking a little less, carefully choose you spots and consider yourself a facilitator of strong process rather than a key contributor to the outcome.

If you really want collaboration and group input, you may learn way more about an organization’s structures by going last in a conversation rather than first and in the end, it gives you an opportunity to reaffirm and support the important role that all those in an organization play.

DBA – Death by Acronym

A while ago I wrote a post titled “Nothing you say matters if people can’t understand you.” Recently, we were talking with a group of parents and I was reminded of how easily those in education jump at acronyms and often this leaves those to whom you are speaking simply in the dark. So this post is a reflection on all the acronyms we use and a reminder to just speak plainly with no jargon when talking to parents or others who don’t live in our daily world.  All that education jargon doesn’t help convey the meaning of the real message.

We had a good DPAC meeting last week where we presented on the BCedPlan. After the meeting I met a couple of ABA parents who had questions. I reminded them that in November, there is a joint BCSTA, BCSSA, BCASBO, BCPVPA, FNESC, MoE, and BCCPAC pro-d meeting. I don’t think that the ABCDE are co-sponsors of the event but I believe the event will also be the BCSSA’s AGM.

BCPSEA and the BCTF both commented recently on the LIF monies districts have received from the MoE. Many districts will hire ESL support, LST’s,  OW’s, ICSSW’s, EA’s or SEA’s and we make sure that the focus is on students with an IEP, some who may need an SLP or OT. In our district, we met with CUPE and the STA to debrief the process.  With LIF, we think our SER will be down.

September was the end of student enrolment for funding. Likely some will be talking of the recent comments by FISA about enrolment. Speaking of enrolment and FISA, FTE versus HC is always critical in September. We need to make sure there is no GAAP as we head to spring and the time for FSA. We were watching the number of IDS courses but not so concerned about CAPP. 

At our recent NID, teachers had Pro-D events on Web 2.0 technologies supported, of course, by PLN. There were no workshops on BCeSIS. There was, however, a workshop on EBS. Another workshop that would be helpful is for educators to understand FOIPPA and all the info that is held by a PEN. Perhaps if we did that on a NID, it wouldn’t require as may TOC’s.

Ok, enough. All of the above tongue in cheek of course.

So the next time you are talking to a parent, a community member, or even an educator from another jurisdiction please remember that acronyms that fall so easily off of our tongues do not mean anything to those who aren’t “in the system.” If want people to truly understand what we say, we need to take the time to communicate the full message.

After all, DBA can come as easily as ABC if you don’t watch your P’s and Q’s.

Leading from the Inside Out: The Power of Why

Recently, I spent some time pulling apart Simon Sinek’s TedTalk on leading from the inside out. I really enjoyed his message about leading from the inside out or starting with the “why” and not “how” of a task at hand. While first part of the Ted video has poor sound, his message is very good and worthy of the time to listen and consider his message. He links his theory to brain research and trying to lead by tapping into the limbic brain. It’s a straight forward video talk with some good messages for all those who attempt to lead from wherever they stand in an organization. In this blog, I’ll review his message from leading from the inside out through to thoughts on the diffusion of innovation. I incllude the chunked out videos for your viewing pleasure.

Leaders Think from Inside Out

Sinek talks about how many great leaders have thought in similar ways. These similar ways of thinking explain why some great leaders inspire while others fail to do so. He has taken these similar ways of thinking and broken them down into what he calls the Golden Circle. In the Golden Circle are three concepts: Why, What, and How.

Sinek suggests that this very simple idea describes how successful great leaders differ from other leaders. He speaks of how everyone who is in an organization likely knows what they do but very few can describe why they do it. The role of a leader is not about linking the direction of the organization to what is accomplished, it’s about tapping into the moral purpose of why the organization does what it does. Leadership is about understanding and communicating the moral purpose.

People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it

The moral purpose not only inspires those who work within the organization, it is also the most important way to engage the public in your enterprise. Sinek says that people “don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Thinking of our application in education, very often we embrace a new endeavor and sometimes we really don’t spend enough time talking about the why of the initiative not just the “how” of how do we implement some program or change. Sinek suggests again that if you really want to inspire those within, then you would be well advised so spend much more time on the why than the how.

Brain Research and Emotion

It is suggested that the link to his Golden Circle is supported with brain research. The neo-cortex is the logical/rational part of the brain and despite every logical reason for an argument or directive, you are more likely to be successful if you can tap into the limbic part of the brain which is more about trust, loyalty and gut decision making. He suggests that when you talk about facts and figures, people understand what you want to do, but when you communicate from the inside-out, you get at people’s values, beliefs and instincts. It is the why that ultimately controls decisions and loyalty, not the what. Sinek says you don’t want to attract people who need what you have, you want to attract people who believe what you believe.

Again, as a leader, you need to know why you do what you do – if you know the why and communicate it to those who work within the organization, there is a higher likelihood that people will be loyal to your cause and want to be part of what you do. You don’t want to hire people who need a job you want to hire people who believe what you believe.

People will work if they believe in the cause

If you hire those who believe in your cause and understand the purpose behind your organization, then people are far more likely to contribute in significant ways. It is also implied that employee morale will be higher. Sinek uses the example of Orville and Wilbur Wright who believed that their pursuit would change the course of the world. Those who worked for them worked for the cause.

The law of diffusion of Innovation

The next portion of this talk is a very nice link to the diffusion of innovation. If you are trying to get employees to embrace a new direction or innovation, it is even more crucial to enage people in the why of the initiative and not just the how.

No matter how good a new innovation is, it is very likely that a few people will adopt it just because it is “new” or novel.  This first wave of those who adopt a system change or innovation are called the innovators and they represent about 2.5% of the population. There is a next wave of about 13% of people who will adopt an innovation and these are called the “early adopters.” Beyond these first two waves is the next portion of the population who represent the tipping point for a system. Getting this next wave to adopt an innovation is not easy. Sinek suggests that the law of diffusion of innovation tells us that you have to have between 15 and 18% of a population to accept an idea before you hit the tipping point. So if you cannot get past the first wave of innovators and early adopters, then you will never get to the tipping point.

The Failure of Diffusion of Innovation

There are many examples of those who do not manage to get to the tipping point. One example from television and technology is TIVO. TIVO was ahead of its time in the development of digital video recording. However, because they focused more on the how features for users rather than the why of the need for customers, the product never took off like it should. Originally developed in 1999, its market share has dropped by 50% since 2006 as other brands and tools have come online.

Sinek says the message about the failure of diffusion of innovation from TIVO is that they “told us what they had but they didn’t tell us why they did it.”

What you do serves as proof of what you believe.

Success in Diffusion of Innovation

Successful stories of the diffusion of innovation are from those who inspire by leading with the why. Martin Luther King did not tell people what they need to do to seek change, he told people what he believed and began from there. As a result, people accepted his cause in mass numbers with a quarter million showing up to hear him speak.

Martin Luther King “gave the I have a dream speech not the I have a plan speech.”

In conclusion, Sinek tells us that there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders are people who hold positions of authority and role responsibility. But those who truly lead are those who inspire us. Whether we are individuals or organizations, the why is more powerful than the how.

So the next time you need to make a presentation, the next time you want to inspire those around you, don’t start by telling people what you want to do or how you want to do it, lead from the heart and begin with why it is important to you. In the end, you will be far more likely to inspire those around you and be successful in your leadership journey.

September Stories – Education in B.C.

The office staff greeted me warmly as I entered the school. It was lunchtime. Kids were everywhere on this hot September day. After introducing myself, the admin assistant told me that I would likely find the principal on the upper field supervising students and I headed that way. As I wandered to the top field, a child in tears was coming down the hill. He was very young, kindergarten I guessed as he stopped in front of me to seek assistance. Something had happened, he wasn’t injured but he was upset. I felt rather helpless standing there with this weeping young child at my feet. Keenly aware that I was an “outsider” I looked around for a helping adult. Coming my way, only a few short steps from me was a young staff member who saw the situation and arriving at my side she knelt at his feet. She asked him what was wrong, comforted him and they began to move inside. She said thank you to me for helping and she was off. I knew the boy would be well cared for.  This was the start of a reminder for me of how great and caring our schools are. In this post, I devote a few stories to the beginning of school this year and what these stories tells us about the quality of our schools and those who work within.

I walked up the hill glancing back to see if the boy had stopped crying. He already looked better and I felt more at ease knowing that he was in good hands. As I got to the top of the hill, a gravel soccer field was before me. It hadn’t rained for quite a while and grey dust filled the air as groups of children moved to and fro on the field in search of the ball. What was immediately obvious was that this was not eleven a side soccer. This was a game for all comers regardless of age or ability and a great time was being had by all. Children of all sizes and shapes were laughing, running, and chasing the ball in the mid-day heat. Teams on each side were so large it was impossible to count. Through the dust, on the far end of the field, I saw a man in an orange safety vest. Whistle in his mouth, blowing from time to time, he called out the names of children, guided them in their play and watched with interest. It was the principal, I realized and I went to say hi and to chat, carefully dodging running children on the way. After a short talk, I left him to his most important task which was supervision of this large group and to let the play continue.

I headed down the hill toward my car. I began reflecting on all the schools I had visited in September. While not having visited all 125 of our schools, I was now well over 30. The stories I heard and the sites I saw showed me a system that is welcoming, focused, open, and inclusive. It left me with so much hope and simply reaffirmed all that I know about schools in BC. Some of what I saw:

• The Special Education Assistant who stopped me to introduce herself and to tell me about her startup and the joys of watching children progress. From tiny steps to giant leaps, the joy with which she told the story showed me how much care our adults have for those with whom they work.
• The group of 42 teachers, administrators and district staff who spent the afternoon talking about how we can work together to ensure that our district commitments are focused on the needs of teachers and schools. Their level of engagement in the task and their resolve for improvement was palpable.
• The principal who with his fellow administrators spent the better part of the morning doing a barbeque for students to welcome them to the year and to support them in their journey ahead. It was more than the gesture, it was the open commitment to the well-being of students and working to ensure that they connected to their school.
• The four boys, who leaving their school at the end of the day stopped, opened the door for me and welcomed me to their school as they headed out. Smiles, a warm greeting and truly pride in welcoming me to their site.
• The office staffs who in the opening weeks managed to deal with the pace and frenzy of competing demands from parents, students, staff and the public, yet in each and every case welcomed me to the school, clarified who I was, what I wanted and pointed me in the right direction.
• The PAC at one school who ran their local fun fair that night. Reaching out to the community, engaging parents, students and staff all in the interest of building community and yes, raising funds for a specific school need.

These are only a few of the many stories I could share. The essence of this post was that I was so struck by the quality, care and integrity of our programs and sites that I felt compelled to write.

So if you want to know about the quality of education in BC, it’s easy. Visit your neighbourhood school. There you will likely find the same caring teachers, support staff, administrators, students and parents that I see every day.

Education in B.C., it’s something of which we can all be proud.

Does Technology Make a Difference?

This summer I had someone ask me to convince them that technology is making a difference in the quality of education for our children. They wanted to know how we were accountable for our investments in technology and, in particular, computers. In essence, were we getting good “bang for our buck” so to speak. During the discussion, I said to them that I wasn’t sure this was the right question. We talked more but over the summer I thought a lot about that question and it helped me probe my own beliefs about why I would say it’s the wrong question. I thought I would take the time to blog about the topic as a way to delve more into the subject of the role of technology in our schools.

I believe that the origins of the question – how do we know that technology is making a difference? – came out of the times when these devices were relatively new and were indeed costly. Network infrastructures, internet access, the cost of hardware and software purchase, installation and support were all were huge cost items and were fairly new to districts. At the time, as teachers and schools we were inundated with questions about the use of computers, the relevance, the cost, and the future. Computers remain a major cost for districts but they are not new anymore, they are simply part of business. The explosion of technology’s impact on society over the past 30 years has seen devices move from a tool to be “like the air we breathe” – they are everywhere and more than ever becoming an essential part of life.

With that context, the question that has always been there is how do we evaluate the quality of our learning environments and the quality of our schools? The fact that technology is part of those environments in support of learning does not necessarily mean that we should single it out as an isolated entity for evaluation on its impact on learning. Twenty years ago when it was new – yes. Today – I’m not sure. The reason I say this is that I feel it distracts us from the main question which has been unyielding – how do we create engaging and supportive learning environments for our students?

For those who still want to ask about technology because of its cost – I think about the costs incurred by districts in learning resources in any given year. As a secondary principal – we spent about $40,000 a year on textbooks. Every year, we had to deal with loss/damage in the range of about $5000. I don’t think this was highly unusual. I never once had someone phone me or inquire whether textbooks were making a difference in education and the quality of student engagement. In British Columbia, no doubt we spend tens of millions of dollars in a year on learning resources. That’s a big number by anyone’s books (no pun intended). When I was a principal, and as a district leader, there were few questions about whether some specific items in that list of learning resources were having a positive impact on learning. But there were always questions about how we provide tools and resources that teachers need to engage students in learning.

Over the years, in times of declining enrolment, I have been a part of many conversations about school organizations and structures and what makes an effective school. Many people want to point to some specific configuration or structure as being more effective than another. The reality of the research is that if you want to find an article that says that something makes a difference – you can easily do that. You can also find contrary articles that say the opposite. In the world of school structures, we know that there is a substantial body of research that tells you what makes an engaging school, but that research doesn’t dictate a structure, it dictates qualities the of these cultures of excellence.

The research on learning is solid – we know that the biggest difference maker is the teacher. I have no doubt that the role of the teacher is changing dramatically because of technology. That change is about providing students with access to content in ways that link to life outside of school. If we want to evaluate whether or not technology is making a difference, I still think that question should be embedded in the larger question of how we create rich and engaging learning environments for children. However we go about creating those rich environments, I know that is money well spent when students are engaged and the learning is relevant to them in their lives not only now, but in the years to come.

From the current reality to a future vision – The BC Education Plan

Each year, the BC Superintendents’ Association has an annual Summer Academy where we consider educational issues in the province and network about our varying district needs and directions.

On one of the days, we looked at the direction for curriculum in the province under the BC Education Plan and we worked in groups giving feedback on the proposed direction. At our table, we talked about possible starting points as a district. We talked about various options and one possible starting point as a district was for us to first come together to reaffirm what we believe about where we are and where we need to be. A group conversation about “From a current reality…to…a future vision.”

As a district and with our administrators and teachers, if we really tease out these desired future visions, the conversations can lead us to what this future vision really looks like in a classroom and how to address those challenges and opportunities inherent in the BC Education Plan.

As an example, such discussions about current reality to future vision might look like the text below. We didn’t, at our table, have much time to flesh this out in depth, but the discussion explored options for the coming journey. I thought that it was worthy of a blog posting just to share some thinking that we had.

Our theoretical understandings and beliefs

FROM…An complex(dense) curriculum that promotes the overly prescriptive industrial revolution model of education…TO…an enabling broad-strokes curriculum that has the flexibility to allow teachers to explore their own individual strengths and the passion of their students.

FROM…Text-based linear resources that serve to reaffirm and prescribe a set “path” along the curriculum path…TO…multimedia learning resources and information in a variety of forms that support the exploration (by teacher and learners) of multiple pathways of learning within a broader context of enduring understandings or ways of knowing.

FROM…Reporting to parents in discreet segments that break learning into measurable units…TO…sharing demonstrations of processes and competencies that show the growth of the learner and that provide confidence to the parents about the quality of learning in the classroom and the progress of the child.

FROM…a curriculum framework that is based upon learning consisting of a set of disconnected parts (subjects) that do not form a whole…TO…core competencies that transcend subject areas but are at the heart of being an educated person and participating in a healthy society and democracy.

Then…From theory To practice

We talked about the next layers of conversations. If one possible starting place is to reaffirm our current reality and our desired future direction in curriculum, then we need to have similar conversations about our current reality and desired future in instruction, assessment, evaluation, and reporting to name a few more areas central to our ongoing daily work. These are huge areas and the proposed changes are significant.

If we are to help the plan become a reality, that journey begins with a conversation. We talked about how those conversations really need to begin with the Why of the proposed changes and then lead to the How of making the changes happen.

The intent of this post is just to sow the seeds of conversations ahead. In my experience, when you begin looking at system-wide change, that beginning starts from the common ground on which people stand.  When you take the time to have these conversations, there often are substantial shared understandings between all those who have taught children through to adults. The difficult procss of change is taking those common understandings through to a practical reality of how those beliefs unfold in classrooms on a daily basis. In the end, it still is that interface between teachers and students that is the gold in any educational system as we have been reminded so many times.

I look forward to the discussions ahead.