A Paradox within the Storm

It was after midnight and I laid sweltering in my bed listening to the cadence of the cicadas outside my open window continually interrupted by the cacophony of sirens and helicopters. This particular mix of sounds is something I hope never to hear again.  As a Houstonian who just endured the lashing of Hurricane Harvey, I found my prayers of thanks hijacked by imagined stories of worry about my staff, students and city. Memories of hours spent in a small bathroom with my wife, son and dog as tornado warning after tornado warning passed left me frazzled.  The images of familiar streets and neighborhoods flooded with water stretched my understanding of the scale of the impact beyond comprehension.

One of my top strengths is positivity.  Despite this inherent part of my nature, I found myself struggling to balance hope and optimism with realism.  My mind finally settled on an idea I first read about in Jim Collins book, Good to Great.  Collins shares a conversation with Admiral James Stockdale who survived over seven years as a prisoner of war.  Take a moment and watch the short video in which Collins explains the Stockdale paradox.  (Click here to watch the video)

There are certainly brutal facts to face related to Harvey.  Economic impacts approaching $200 billion, emotional trauma, displaced families and missed instructional time just to name a few.  What steps can we take to retain faith that we will prevail and at the same time confront our current reality?

Get your mind right – Whether we are leading a classroom, a campus or a district, our attitude and approach sets the tone.  Shifting our self-talk from, “I have to…” to “I get to...” shifts the paradigm of our thinking. Leaders make their biggest impact in times of great need.

Stay out of judgement – Human nature tempts us to blame victims.  Nothing positive comes out of this type of thought.  Conversation about what others could have done or should have done do not move us forward.  Shame and blame do nothing to heal the human heart.  Wisdom should drive us toward the parable, “There but for the grace of God, go I.”

Work to discover the true need – It feels good to give.  A real challenge for us is to ensure we are giving others what they truly need, not just what we want to give.  This requires us to be purposeful in collecting information about our friends, students and staff.  Google forms have been a big help as we collaborate to collect information about how our learning community has been affected and what specific individual needs exist.

Plan for long-term comfort and care – The flood waters from Harvey have receded but the impact will be long lasting.  We must be purposeful in providing ongoing support for those who we know are the most affected.  We have assigned specific people to serve as the point-of-contact for continued support over time for these folks.  A space will be created on our Instructional Leadership Team agenda that will allow us to keep this work on the front burner.

Exchange blind optimism with faith through action – No one can know how long it will take to recover from Harvey.  That lack of a clear ending can create depression and despair.  I believe the best medicine for this is service to others.  I realize that my service has evolved and will continue to do so.  What started with shelter volunteering shifted to pulling down moldy sheetrock and shoveling slime.  Now is the time to shift to connecting people to resources that are beyond ourselves.

Extend grace – We will come to know whose homes have been flooded and cars have been totaled due to the storm.  What will be harder to ascertain is the emotional toll. When we are swept up in the many tasks that need to be done, this can be easily forgotten. We can overcome this by focusing on the relational part of our work and extending forgiveness.

Remember the beautiful parts of this hard journey - My favorite memory during the past three weeks is of a family volunteering at the shelter I was working in right after Harvey passed.  It was late when they came in with a cooler full of chicken and food that they had just finished cooking.  Their children came behind them with arms loaded full of a variety of balls that were clearly taken out of their own garage.  This act of kindness exemplified the giving spirit I have seen repeated time and time again.  The lesson they were teaching their children was priceless.

Nothing brings people together faster than a common enemy.  Harvey was truly that. He held no bias in race, class or political affiliation.  His threat was to us all.  How fascinating it is to see how people that would not have given each other the time of day a week earlier are now in service to one another. I have unrelenting faith that our city and communities will prevail over the long term.  We may take a financial hit, but we will be far richer people in spirit.

I Hear Voices

I can imagine that some who read the title of this post are thinking that this is a strange place for me to reveal a psychiatric disorder!  I seek to be vulnerable with my writing, but that type of revelation is not my purpose here.  Folks in education circles these days know there is a strong push to hear everyone’s voice as a driver for our work.  When we consult students to inform decision-making that involves them, we make better choices.  Involving staff in designing changes that impact their role, results in ownership.  Honoring parent voice can increase the chance that they will advocate for our campuses and serve as ambassadors for the work we do.  How can we be servant leaders without seeking the input and involvement of those we seek to serve?  I value these voices.  What I want to explore here is something different.

Last school year we began exploring our strengths by using the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment produced by the folks at Gallup.  This survey identifies 5 of your top strengths from a group of 34.  The deeper I get into this work, the more uncanny I find it to be in describing the core of who I am.  While in a district level professional learning session last month, one of our district administrators described those individuals who have the “Achiever” strength as having to live with the “whisper of discontent.”  That sent me down a reflective path about how my own strengths whisper to me as quiet voices of action.  What I am realizing is that ignoring those voices is just as dangerous as ignoring the voices of the individuals we seek to serve.  What follows are my strengths in rank order, the Gallup generated descriptor, and my thoughts around them.

Strategic – People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot relevant patterns and issues.  My strategic inner voice constantly speaks to me about tweaking processes in an effort to increase productivity.  It hisses in my ear a distaste for the status quo.  It moans when the phrase, “We’ve always done it this way” is uttered.  It reminds me to look down the road to plan ahead. 

Positivity – People who are especially talented in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious.  They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.  “Pollyanna” whispers her perpetual optimism to me even in challenging situations.  I have worked to project this voice to those around me who I feel are worth celebrating, in the moment I hear it.  My New Year’s resolution has been to speak the positive to others, even if the timing seems awkward.  This is a commitment I intend to keep for the long-term.

Arranger – People who are especially talented in the Arranger theme can organize, but also have a flexibility that complements this ability.  They like to figure out how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.  This inner voice warns me away from hiring others who are just like me.  It celebrates and recognizes that diversity of thought and ideas creates synergy when building teams.  This whisper speaks the virtues of connecting people for collaborative work.

Ideation – People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas.  They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. This voice frequently whispers the phrase, “What if…?” It can drive me down a path to question why things are done the way they are.  This voice is pleased when pondering.  In my journey to open my new campus, this voice has become increasingly vocal!

Relator – People who are especially talented in the Relator theme enjoy close relationships with others.  They find deep satisfaction in working hard with friends to achieve a goal.  This small voice always speaks of a simple story.  It articulates complex ideas in plainspoken language that others connect to and find practical.  It rejoices when I am working with my close associates on work that truly matters. 

What steps can you take to amplify the quiet, whispering voices that speak to you from your areas of strength?

1)      Purposely discover you own strengths – Aristotle is credited with the quote, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”  Can you currently articulate your own strengths and apply them to your professional and personal life?  I don’t know of a better resource for this discovery than taking the StrengthsFinder assessment.  Tom Rath’s book entitled StrengthsFinder 2.0 not only contains an access code for the assessment, it serves as a perfect resource to begin understanding how to use your strengths. (Click here to find out more about the book) Specifically you will find that each strength theme has a number of “ideas for action” that will help you get started.

2)      Stifle that voice that drives you to be “well-rounded” in all areas – Few things disengage people more than working in their areas of deficit.  What engages us are the things that we perceive ourselves as doing well.  If you show me a struggling reader who can make others laugh, I can almost bet you he will be a class clown in language arts class!  Granted, there are some skills that we all must master such as reading.  In other areas, it is a much better investment in your time and energy to sharpen yourself in your areas of strength.  These are the areas where our passions lie.

3)      Discover the strengths of those around you and leverage them for success – Purposefully using the StrengthsFinder with those who you interact with is where the real power is in this work.  I gave copies of StrengthsFinder 2.0 to my wife and grown kids.  We then shared our strengths to deepen our connection and understanding of one another.  The entire staff at my new campus will be taking the assessment and we will be using this common vocabulary and understand to build our community.  My PTA Executive Board will be discovering each other’s strengths.  Even my students will take the age-appropriate StrengthsExplorer assessment to become more self-aware.  For this work, StrengthsFinder 2.0 has an area under each them that guides you how to work with others in THEIR area of strength.  The end goal is to create a strengths-based culture that drives our engagement and celebrates our diversity.

4)      Quiet the voice of busy – So often when I am not hearing my small strengths-based voices it is because of time pressures.  This loud, bullying voice sounds like the sassy quote from Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”(Click here for a smile) Rarely are issues as time-pressured as we make them out to be.  Do you find time each day to reflect?  Do you have a reflective partner that you regularly connect with?

We all have the voice of self-talk that we hear every day.  What do your small voices say to you?  If you are purposeful in discovering your strengths, you will have the discernment to know which voices to amplify and act upon.  

That Man in the Mirror

Inspiration for creation happens in unexpected moments.  A case-in-point would be this blog post.  Last week while shaving, my wife’s make-up mirror was serendipitously aligned with the mirror over our sink and the mirror that is on the wall adjacent to it.  The image that formed was of me from the side and slightly from the back.  I was momentarily startled by the way I looked from this angle, which was unique to me.  My first instinct was to shift the mirror in such a way so that I didn’t have to see the poor posture of this aging fellow, which was me.  I reflected on this reflection (pun intended here) and I realized how ridiculous that impulse was.  This was an angle of my true self, which everyone else is quite accustomed to seeing.  In this moment of revelation, I shifted my focus from avoidance, to really looking at my posture.  A slight shift in my shoulder position and the image improved dramatically.  In fact, my neck even felt better.  This experience sent my mind down the path of how this tendency to avoid reflection on our true self interferes with our ability to grow as educators.

With this tendency to avoid discomfort in mind, what are some small steps educators can take to begin leaning into self-reflection?

1)       Listen to audio recordings of yourself.  I still remember being a kid and listening to my voice on a tape recorder for the first time.  I was convinced that there was something wrong with the machine because of the strange way my voice sounded when I played it back.  It took a great deal of convincing from my mother and friends that this was truly the way I sounded.  With the availability of voice recording on our electronic devices, capturing your own voice is easier than ever before.  My favorite go-to app for ongoing asynchronous conversation and collaboration is Voxer.  A side benefit of Voxer is that it allows you to listen to your own dialogue.  For me, I was struck by the number of conversational tics that were embedded in my messages.  With that in mind, I am working to reduce the number of times I say “umm” and other repetitive, distracting language. 

 

2)      Watch yourself on video. If you are looking to really grow in a reflective way, hit the record button and sit back with a bucket of popcorn and watch yourself do the magic!  I suspect that the first time you do this, it won’t feel very magical.  I have a painful memory of the first time I watched myself on video.  It was back in the mid 1990’s when the district I was working in made the shift to portfolio assessments for evaluation purposes.  One of the expectations for the portfolio was to include video recordings of three lessons and a written reflection for each. So I fired up the 40 pound VHS camera and captured my first lesson.  Awkward!  If listening to your conversational tics is disheartening, watching one’s body language and movements is even more of a challenge.  I was humbled, yet driven to do better.

More recently, my experience into using video was posting reflections on Twitter to #EduIn30 hashtag.  I attended a conference where I had the privilege of seeing George Couros.  George is the author of the best-selling book, Innovators Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity. George challenged the audience to begin capturing short video reflections of our professional learning and posting them to Twitter using the hashtag #EduIn30.  It is a challenge to distill “big” learning into a 30 second clip.  Much like Voxer, this provided the side benefit of listening as well as watching myself communicate when I viewed the video.  It takes some serious courage to tweet these out, knowing that your thinking is now visible to a global audience.  Courage comes in many forms!

For teachers looking to challenge themselves to grow through the use of video, check out the work of thought influencer Lisa Westman.  In her blog post, “Mom, Can You Please Record Me?” Lisa deeply explores the why and how of leveraging video for instructional reflection.  (Click here to read the blog post)

3)      Develop reflective partnerships. As educators, we frequently find ourselves isolated in silos as we exercise our professional practice.  In the principalship, this is especially true.  I frequently receive positive comments.  What I lack is the critical feedback that will lead to my growth.  In an effort to combat this isolation, I have established a small network of people who will speak the cold, hard true that I need to hear.  These folks range from friends, colleagues, and family.  They all mentor, support and challenge me in different ways.  My relationship with these individuals is characterized by authenticity and vulnerability.  They are trusted treasures both professionally and personally.  Have you identified these folks in your life?

In a world that is dominated by the selfie, I believe it is ever more challenging to embrace a mindset in which we see our true selves.  We can edit our appearance and create stories of our lives through social media that can greatly skew reality.  I think that our integrity has been greatly challenged by this.  Until we are willing to embrace the discomfort of seeing ourselves as we truly are, we are doomed to stagnation in an imagined world that is only our perceived reality.  I would love to hear about the reflective practices you are involved in that are leading to your growth.  Feel free to leave a comment!

Lessons from the Happiest Place on Earth

“Happy New Year!”  As we enter into 2017, how many times have you heard or expressed these three words?  Like many of you, I have been thinking about my resolutions for the coming year.  Specifically, I started thinking about what would make this New Year “happy”? I couldn’t help but think of a recent experience that was joy-filled.  Last November, my wife and I took Max on a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico to celebrate his 3rd birthday.  Not just any cruise, but a Disney cruise. For those of us who have been conditioned by marketing, you know that Disney strives to create, “The happiest place on earth.”  As we set sail, it became apparent that the staff was purposefully attending to our joy.  As I reflect on the voyage, I realize that there are many lessons to be learned for creating a positive climate and culture in our schools from the folks at Disney.

     -     Maintain a relational focus over a transactional one.  They assigned us to a different dinner location each night of the cruise.  On the first night, we were greeted and cared for by a small team of servers.   They quickly learned our names and were spot on in attending to our needs.  We sat with a family with two children.  My surprise came on the second night when we went to a different restaurant.  The serving staff had moved with us!  Additionally, we were seated again with the same charming family that we met the night before.  What a great way to allow time for relationships to form!  The dining experience was not just about getting us fed; it was about making connections AND getting us fed.

How can we be purposeful about this in schools?  One way is to ensure continuity with people on the campus.  Assigning assistant principals and counselors to specific students by alpha, sets up this dynamic. Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to have three assistant principals and three counselors at my junior high.  Rotating them, as partners, through the grade levels gives three years for them to grow relationships.  They are able to serve the same group of kids and grow their professional relationship as well.

     -     Provide a range of experiences based upon interest and readiness.   Each day we were provided a paper copy of the day’s schedule of activities.  The “Navigator” was also available as an app for those who are tech-savvy.  It was easy and exciting to select which experiences we would engage in.  Disney clearly knows that differentiating experiences creates happy cruisers. 

As educators, we are wise when we use choice to motivate our learners.  Even though our learning targets may be dictated, there is no reason our students can’t demonstrate their mastery in multiple ways.  Moving beyond simply differentiating by choice, we need to level our classroom activities to meet the kids where they are.  Simply teaching everyone the same thing, at the same level, the same way, is a sure bet to disengage most everyone in the room.  Imagine if the folks at Disney only offered one standard type of arts and crafts activity that was appropriate for 12-year-olds all day.  There would not be many returning cruisers.  This type of standardization of activity happens in many schools, every day. 

  

     -     If something goes wrong, take responsibility and work to make it right.  On the first day in our cabin, we noticed a loud banging noise coming from the outside of the ship.  It sounded like the angry ghost of Davy Jones beating on the hull with his rusty chains!  I called the concierge to see if it could be addressed.  Within five minutes an attendant was down and in the room listening for the banging to repeat itself.  As you might imagine, Davy Jones decided to give his banging a break.  Much like the noise your car only makes when the mechanic is not around, we waited and waited.  After 10 awkward minutes, Davy began banging once more with wild abandon.  After hearing this, the gentleman left with a promise to investigate.  Shortly thereafter, we received an apologetic phone call from the concierge stating that they would not be able to address the issue until they were in port.  She offered us another room, on the other side of the ship.  Not only that, they sent an attendant to help us move our luggage, and gave us a $100 ship-board credit!  The final act of goodwill came in the form of a precious Mickey Mouse plush toy for Max.  Clearly the folks on this ship knew how to take responsibility for shortcomings and what steps to take to correct the issue.

Too many times, we fail to model ownership of issues with our students.  This is not just an issue in schools, it is widespread in our society.  The need to seem perfect and deflect responsibility for our mistakes is at the heart of many of our current struggles.  When we are vulnerable enough to say that we made a mistake, and work to correct it, we humanize ourselves and draw closer to our learners. The same is true when we work with parents.  Admitting a shortcoming and then demonstrating the courage to work through it builds respect and trust.  We only get what we model.

     -     Find joy in the journey, not just the destination. Of all the lessons that the Disney folks reminded me of, I believe this is the most important.  Because they attended to relationships, provided engaging experiences, and worked hard to make things right, we enjoyed each day.  When we arrived at that tropical paradise folks call Cozumel, it was wonderful, but not necessarily the highlight of the trip.  The trip was the highlight of the trip. 

How do you ensure that your students are enjoying their journey as a member of your classroom or campus?  Engaging students through clubs, and extracurricular activities gives them the strong sense of belonging that creates emotional engagement.  I believe that it is the job of every adult in a school to cultivate relationships.  It starts with a smile and acknowledgement every day. 

All this leads me back to how my resolutions can bring about a “Happy New Year”.  I have recommitted to my own personal health with the typical focus on diet and exercise.  Upon reflection, I realize what will really make this year happy is to bring joy to others, specifically the students and staff that I lead.  This is at the heart of happiness for me, as a servant leader.