Social Ecology: Creating Voracious Learners
“The starting point for management can no longer be its own product or service, and not even its own market and its known end-users for its products and services. The starting point has to be what customers consider value. The starting point has to be the assumption – an assumption amply proven by all our experience.” ~ Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker fancied himself a social ecologist. This was a person who attempts to spot major future trends in society that are discernible but not widely understood (Maciariello, 2014). I would posit that these persons are also pioneers, but that pioneers many times don’t do the social ecologist part. Drucker had a methodology the social ecologist should follow for the creation of emerging institutions that included four parts:
- Understanding their function
- Understanding the disruptions they create for existing institutions
- Thinking through how they could be made to function effectively
- Thinking how the new institution will have a constructive impact on society
As a pioneer who tries to practice artful leadership this really hit home for me. We need to make sure that in education we take the time as begin new, innovative, and disruptive innovations to really think through and strategically think about Drucker’s methodology. We must also diffuse innovation throughout the entire education system to those affected by emerging trends and help them to capitalize on those trends. We must become a “teaching education system,” one devoted to the diffusion of innovation. 
This week’s lesson in A Year With Peter Drucker prompted me to put Everett Roger’s seminal book, Diffusion of Innovations (2003) on my book reading list. Roger’s book is the standard reference on how innovations spread throughout a social system. I cannot wait to read this book! In order for our innovations which will create disequilibrium to become viable and do all the good possible we must become “voracious learners” (Jim Mellado in Maciariello, 2014, p. 301). This is key to spreading new ideas and innovations to the majority that need them the most.
“The adoption of an innovation usually follows a normal, bell-shaped curve when plotted over time on a frequency basis.” ~ Everett Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations, p. 272
We must consider abandoning unjustifiable products and activities; set goals to improve productivity, manage growth, and developing our people. This will create resources to explore and undertake new innovations. We must not forget, however, to employ Drucker’s methodology as social ecologists and become voracious learners.
Maciariello (2014) had three great practicum prompts for this: “What are the risks of being an early adopter of innovations?” What are the risks of being a laggard?” “Where is the optimal place for you and your organization to be on the innovation diffusion curve?” Make plans to get there. 
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Everett, Roger, M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th Edition). New York, NY: Free Press.
Finding & Implementing Best Practices
“So I began this concept of Just For Kids, an effort that, to me, raises the essence of the {education} problem: too often no one is focused on the needs of the education establishment, whether it is the teachers union, or administrators, or this group or that group; or it’s this group that wants school prayer, or this group that wants something else. Very seldom are things really looked at from the viewpoint of the child.” ~ Tom Luce, Founder of Just For Kids, speaking to Peter Drucker
One of the problems with public education is that sometimes people do not approach the issue from a systems-wide approach. Additionally there must be an easier, more efficient way of diffusing knowledge and innovation. In the entry this week in A Year With Peter Drucker it is discussed how educators and educational leaders do not learn everything they need to know in the schools of education (Maciariello, 2014). I don’t believe this is new to any of us in education, but I’m not sure we’ve done everything we can about it.
It is also worth noting again, as I did in my post Multidimensional Missions: Don’t Create A Flea Circus, it is necessary to meet the needs of a number of separate stakeholder groups, and meeting these needs very often requires leaders to make trade-offs. You have to affect the delivery system but you also have to affect the political environment, you have to also deal with public opinion. Sometimes, if we are honest, we also become smug and self-satisfied inward looking school systems (Maciariello, 2014). This is why having an accountability system that is appropriate and student-centered is so very important.
Education in the knowledge society is much too important to be left for schools to do alone. All institutions of society should be involved in continuous learning and teaching. Technology should be used as a tool to increase the effectiveness of education. The technology will be significant, but primarily because it should force us to do new things rather than do the same old things better (Maciariello, 2014). Technological advances in education should allow more time for our teachers to individualize instruction for our students by identifying strengths and weaknesses. We should also use technology to make professional growth opportunities more available and find better ways to share innovation.
Innovations in the form of best practice dos and don’ts must be diffused through the educational system.
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers
Teacher of the Year Learning Continues in 2015!
Today was one of my favorite days of the year. As an Indiana Teacher of the Year, I was part of the selection committee for the 2015 Indiana Teacher of the Year. Today we held the interviews for the top 10 finalists. As always, I was inspired! Click here to see the listing of this year’s top 10. I am so inspired each year by how great these teachers are and come away refreshed and rejuvenated as a school leader. During the interview I take copious notes to inform our decision making at the end of the day, but also take personal notes that I use for my own professional growth. Last year I wrote a post entitled Teacher of the Year Learning and this year I thought I would do the same. For this year’s post I am going to provide you a bullet point list of all the comments, phrases, and learning that I jotted down today.
Here is the list:
- We must match teacher goals to individualized professional development
- What steps should be taken to reach the goals?
- Implementation plan
- Feedback needs to be provided regarding progress toward goals
- Purposefully select books for libraries that give a window to the world
- “One of the things that makes me, me is…”
- “I’m either going to fail forward, or being totally successful!”
- “I’m just as much a learner as they [students] are.”
- “I [teacher] lead sometimes, and they [students] lead sometimes.”
- We should be blogging our thoughts instead of just journal-ling
- Use formative assessments before even approaching summative assessments – this needs to be balanced
- Diversity is not always visible
- Teacher effectiveness starts at the local school – the school must have a process that supports growing highly effective teachers and teacher leaders
- The community drives instruction
- Share the gifts that you have
- Read the book: 7 Habits of Happy Kids
- Read the book: Mindsets in the Classroom
- “Clustering” – bringing in students who aren’t quite ready for the High Ability program, but are close and need extra attention to get them there
- We need to make students feel welcome and loved
- We need to be writing from different points of view and exposing students to writing from different points of view
- Twice Exceptional Students – high ability students who also have learning disabilities
- “Teachers are effective if inspired” (my favorite quote of the day – I tweeted it)
- “Let me make a theme out of all of this”
- Blogging our journey
- If you cannot adapt to changes you will not be successful
- “Subject matter is important, but one to one contact and relationships are most important. Remember, what you are teaching today may not be the most important thing happening in a particular student’s life today”
- Ask your students: “What am I doing that is irrelevant?”
- You can’t put everyone in a box, you must individualize the instruction
- Find the students’ strengths and weaknesses
- “I evaluate myself every day”
- “Shine On”
- “Make kids first and everything else second”
- “Immediate feedback should be innate in everything we do”
- We need to love all the different experiences students bring to our classrooms
- Teacher effectiveness measures – ask the kids
- We need our students to do “authentic reading”
- We must be immersed in what matters
- We must create an environment where we have an investment in each other – this will build a true TEAM
- As a coach/mentor – the goal should be to work yourself out of a job
- We should have less required collaboration and more spontaneous/unstructured collaboration
- Poverty is the biggest issue facing education today
- Choice based classrooms –
Give students the opportunity to explore what they are interested in. Help them ask powerful questions. Give them time to explore. Students should be able to share what they have learned in a compelling way.” ~ George Couros
- We need to bookend creative lessons
Need I say more? Again, congratulations to this year’s Indiana Teacher of the Year finalists and thanks for inspiring me today!
I think my tweet at the end of the interviews says it all:
Converting Missions To Results
If effectively managed, social sector organizations are powerful vehicles for meeting human needs and for alleviating human suffering. They could also fulfill the needs of their volunteers for individual achievement and citizenship within a community. Sometimes we forget about the individual needs of the volunteers. This is why it is so important to have a clear mission and vision of the organization. Because these volunteers are desiring to achieve and bring good to the organization it is very important that nonprofits define performance measures congruent with the results and with their mission.
This week’s entry in A Year With Peter Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) deals with the fact that Peter Drucker believed the Salvation Army to be the most effective organization for meeting human needs and for developing its volunteers.
“The Salvation Army is by far the most effective organization in the U.S. No one even comes close to it in respect to clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use…. They know how to work with the poorest of the poor and the meanest of the mean.” ~ Peter Drucker
The management process for The Salvation Army has strong alignment. The mission is converted to results for each program. Results are in turn supported by appropriate performance measures. Programs are evaluated periodically and resources are allocated to those most deserving, on the basis of performance and need.
Programs that no longer serve their original intent are abandoned (Maciariello, 2014). We could all improve the organizations we lead by taking these pages out of the The Salvation Army’s play book. For me the big takeaway was the need to convert my organization’s mission statement and the mission of the stakeholders to a definition of results for our organization and for each programmatic activity we are undertaking. Then develop appropriate performance measures for each of our direct result areas. Then the essential question becomes: How close are these new measures to existing result areas and performance measures? What changes, if any, should be made?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Multidimensional Missions: Don’t Create a Flea Circus!
“If you focus on short-term results, they will all jump in different directions. You will have a flea circus – as I discovered during my own dismal failure some forty years ago as an executive in an academic institution… What I learned was that unless you integrate the vision of all the constituencies into the long-range goal, you will soon lose support, lose credibility, and lose respect… I began to look at non-profit executives who did successfully what I unsuccessfully tried to do. I soon learned that they start out by defining the fundamental change that the non-profit institution wants to make in society and in human beings; then they project that goal onto the concerns of each of the institutions constituencies.” ~ Peter F. Drucker
As a school leader, the entry entitled “Accommodating Various Constituencies in a Mission” in A Year With Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) really hit home with me. We know that single-purpose institutions tend to be the most effective. Yet as a school leader, and for the leaders of many organizations, it is necessary to meet the needs of a number of separate groups, and meeting these needs very often requires leaders to make trade-offs. I have always compared it to a train station roundabout where the engine sits on a rotating swivel and there are many tracks leading out. As a school leader I have all of those tracks to serve as stakeholders. Some of those stakeholders include: students, parents, charter authorizer, state, state department of education, education management company, school board, teachers, taxpayers, and the list goes on and on. As a school leader this list of at least nine constituencies sees the school a little differently. Make no mistake, each of these stakeholders is crucial to the success of the school. In my case, it even gets tougher when turning a school around. There are short-term gains that must be met, but sometimes it seems those gains are at the expense of long-term gains. How then can the leader reconcile the demand for short-term performance with the demand to care for tomorrow? 
First of all, it is important for leaders to consider both the present and the future; both the short run and the long run (Maciariello, 2014). A decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future. Likewise, if the future is risked for short-term gains; that decision is irresponsible as well. Leaders must meet the critical needs of the future (Maciariello, 2014). Leaders of all organizations must try hard to reconcile the interests of each of their constituents as they manage the short-term and long-term interests of the organization. It is very difficult to reconcile these conflicting interests of constituents around short-term goals, but much easier for leaders to integrate them around the long-term vision of the organization. A clear vision is essential, but when you deal with so many constituencies it is very difficult to stay balanced in the present and future.
For success, there must be a unified, clear vision and mission for the organization. In the past this vision and mission were much easier for schools. The mission was to learn to read and do multiplication tables. Now, the vision is much broader and includes such things as development of character, personality, social tasks, citizenship, et cetera (Maciariello, 2014). Nothing wrong with any of these things, but it has sparked the argument of what learning means. Our unifying focal point has been lost (Maciariello, 2014). With so many goals to accomplish, it is hard for the organization to function according to a unified mission.
I really like how Maciariello (2014, p. 277) ties all of this together with essential questions and would like to close with these:
“List the constituents whose needs you must satisfy in your position and in your organization. How are you meeting the needs of each constituent person or group? Which demands of these various groups conflict in the short term? Can these demands be reconciled in the longer-term goals of your organization? List the constituents again. Try to reconcile the interests of each one in your long-term goals. Which, if any, cannot be reconciled with these goals? Can you release yourself and the organization from the responsibility of meeting the irreconcilable interests of these constituents?
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Matching School Work To Real Work
Andy’s Baling Equipment
Last week I had the annual pleasure of being at the county fair showing dairy cows with my son. The other great part of the week is being able to visit with friends and former students. One visit I look forward to every year is from former student, Andy Clark and his family. I had him in Fundamentals of Agriculture Science and Business and Welding Technology the first year I was at Lebanon starting the Agriculture Science program. Andy is a 2005 graduate of Lebanon High School. I love catching up with him each year and hearing about all of his successes, family, and latest learning.
I have to give a little background on Andy for context. He is, and was as a student, extremely intelligent. The challenge for Andy was that he did not find most of school relevant. He grew up on a farm and is now a partner in that family farm. Andy is one of the reasons I have done so much research on teaching science in the relevant context of agriculture. Andy’s mother and I had many a conversation about her concern for Andy graduating. That concern had nothing to do with ability, and all to with him not finding relevancy in school. He did not want to be there! He wanted to be home getting on with his life as an agribusinessman.
In contrast, Andy excelled in the classes I had him for. In fact, on a final presentation about welding, Andy said he and his partner could go into such detail he could take the whole 90 minute block class to do the demonstration. I told him if he could, and the content was great, I would give him an automatic “A.” Well, you guessed it, he got the “A!” He and his partner even bought Reese Cups to give out to classmates for correctly answered questions – now that’s student engagement. Interestingly, teachers would ask how I could get him involved and so engaged in class. It really didn’t have much to do with me, but more to do with the fact that school work in my classes matched real work in Andy’s world – Agriculture. Again, as I said earlier, Andy just wanted school to be over so he could get on with his life of farming.
Andy was not alone. Most students need the relevant connection of their real world, their school world, and their virtual world. Education exists in the larger context of society. When society changes – so too must education, if it is to remain viable. The latest movement to college and career readiness attempts to do just this. Although the phrase “college and career readiness” has become increasingly popular among federal, state, and local education agencies as well as a number of foundations and professional organizations, it can be challenging to define precisely. In today’s economy, a “career” is not just a job. A career provides a family sustaining wage and pathways to advancement and requires postsecondary training or education. A job may be obtained with only a high school diploma but offers no guarantee of advancement or mobility. Being ready for a career means that a high school graduate has the English and mathematics knowledge and skills needed to qualify for and succeed in the postsecondary job training and/or education necessary for their chosen career (i.e., technical/vocational program, community college, apprenticeship, or significant on-the-job training).
The point of this post is that Andy has gone on to become a successful businessman. Of course, readiness for college and careers depends on more than English and mathematics knowledge; to be successful after high school, all graduates must possess the knowledge, habits, and skills that can only come from a rigorous, rich, and well-rounded high school curriculum. I would also add work ethic and a commitment to lifelong learning to the list. I know that Andy works very hard every day. I also know Andy is committed to learning and professional growth. I was so proud last week to hear him say, “Knowledge is power.” Andy went on to say he was shocked at how much time he spent studying on his smartphone. He said, “I’ll sit down at night and start reading about something I want to study and the next thing I know it is 4:00 in the morning.” I just wish we would have done a better job tapping that learning behavior while Andy was in school. Once again proof that we must continue to connect school work to real work for optimal student engagement and career readiness.
Really, I wish we would just talk “student success” as opposed to just college and career readiness or any other terms that people want to add. Student success is a better way to look at it because the ultimate goal is to have our students learning to learn. We must recognize that youth will choose their own paths in life, with some young people charging forward on a traditional four- year college pathway and others moving equally quickly to pathways that are more technically or occupationally oriented. For a student to be successful, they must be able to learn, apply, and adapt in all subject areas. In order to engage the Andy Clark’s of our classrooms we must integrate higher-order thinking skills and real world problem solving into core subjects making learning more rigorous, relevant, and engaging. Both core subject knowledge and skills are necessary for readiness in college, work, and life. Preparing all students with content knowledge and essential skills will empower them to meet new global demands. Thus, setting our students up for SUCCESS.
Ideation SPAN™EX Style!
What A Great Group Of Education Transformers!
This past week I spent time with the great innovators and transformational leaders at Nureva, Inc. as part of an advisory board made up of education professionals to provide feedback and discuss new product designs, functionality, and desired solutions to educational needs. This was very astutely arranged by Kimberleigh Doyle at Nureva Education. During this advisory time we were introduced to Nureva’s newest product, SPAN™. Let me tell you, I was blown away. As you know I am a digital adoptee and believe in the power of what technology tools can do to enhance learning. Click here to learn more about my journey and click here to learn more about SPAN™.
I do need to explain the title of this blog post. With Smart Technologies we had SMART Exchange; a community of SMART Technology users where we could upload lessons, share lessons, and collaborate. Of course, I argued that we would need this for SPAN™. And…of course, I thought it should be called SPANDEX! You know, for SPAN™ Exchange! Can’t you just imagine the website? Anyway, I settled for SPAN™EX, but I am not sure I convinced everyone else.
Nureva, Inc. was founded by technology veterans David Martin and Nancy Knowlton in 2014. They are friends of mine and were also the founders of SMART™ Technologies. As a SMART™ Exemplary Educator I fully understand the functionality and power of interactive white board technology. The designers and innovators at Nureva have transformed the way we can use interactive technology with SPAN™. Basically, there are two interactive projectors and 20 feet of interactive space. The projectors employ solid-state illumination, SSI, and the projectors provides a useful life of 25,000 hours. As the user, you are provided with different backgrounds, called a canvas, then an entire collaborative group can be adding and manipulating content at the same time.
The technology makes “ideation” possible. “Ideation” is a disciplined process of generating ideas and then working those ideas in a team or group environment over a sustained period of time. You have more than likely participated in ideation activities even though you may not have labeled them as such.This group does not even need to be at the same location – as the leader of a virtual school with students in all 92 counties can you see where my thoughts went immediately. Click here for an FAQ about SPAN™.
Check out these videos to see SPAN™ in action:
More importantly, however, Nureva made a very smart move and hired two high school interns to work on the project. In fact, they were the ones who taught us how to use SPAN™. They had learned it in a week’s time just by using it with no training. We had the chance to work with Mathieu Chin and Jathaniel Ong during the time we in Calgary and gain insight from them. Let me tell you; I learned a lot from them. I asked them to name the top five important uses of SPAN™ they would advise teachers to use in effective facilitation of learning. Here is their list:
- Collaboration – they believe they learn more when collaborating with other students. I hope this sounds familiar to all reading as we move to college and career readiness standards. Business and industry stakeholders continue to tell us we need to facilitate learning in a way our students learn to collaborate.
- Creation – these two very astute interns recognized the importance of being able to create and produce during the learning process. We were able to witness collaborative creations they had made during learning of chemistry, World War II history, literature, and food science.
- Student Centered – these interns wanted to be involved in the lesson, not just watching a teacher present.
- Transportable – our interns valued that they could collaborate and work in their groups from anywhere. They really saw value in being able to take the learning anywhere and have 24/7 learning. This product is cloud based and changes and collaboration are done in real time.
- Full class involvement – with SPAN™, unlike traditional interactive products, all students can be working in the collaborative space on their computers at once and 10 can actually be manipulating on the projected image at once. Talk about engagement!
I Learned So Much From Mathieu Chin & Jathniel Ong!
As you can see, I am very excited about SPAN™ and its possibilities for facilitating highly effective learning for students. It was so great to be a part of testing the product and providing feedback, but the most important point I want to make here is the power of the insight of students. This experience reminded me how important it is for us to seek the input of our most knowledgeable stakeholder – our student. Kudos to Nureva, Inc. for modeling this for us as they transform the way we use technology in education.
Having A Little Fun With SPAN™
Connecting The Dots
I had the opportunity to spend time this week in Calgary, Alberta Canada as a guest of Nureva, Inc. as part of a group of education professionals for a discussion about education technology. As a newly appointed Indiana State Board of Education member it was great to be meeting on the top floor of the Calgary Board of Education building. It was humbling to be learning from a group of outstanding educators from all over the United States and Canada.
It was so exciting to be working with a group of individuals and education technology company that believes in and practices “holistic adoption” of projects and initiatives; whether those projects and initiatives are related to business technology, educational technology or other academic processes.
This “holistic adoption” must include professional development. This adoption must also include strong involvement of community and stakeholders, both in the decision-making and adoption/professional development phases. Of course, the most important piece of holistic adoption is the impact on the children we serve.
We must be able to measure the impact. We also know, the most important person affecting our students is the teacher. Therefore, I would submit the most important essential question, from a school perspective, when holistically adopting new strategies is: What does that mean to a teacher who has never done this before?
As I reflected on my essential question, I thought about the “connect the dots” sheets we used to get in school. You remember – those numbered sheets that if you follow the numbers with your pencil, it creates a picture. Anytime we bring on a new project or initiative, we must connect the dots to previous initiatives; or, it will look like we, as leaders are abandoning the ongoing initiatives or initiatives from before. We must connect all of the dots for those we lead.Those dots may be past to present, connecting initiatives to student learning, connecting what the intitiative means to teachers and students, or connecting the initiative to the mission, vision, strategies, and action plans of the school/organization. In other words, making sure we connect the dots for those we lead to what his or her role is in accomplishing the mission.
Are you connecting the dots for those you lead?
Network Society
This week’s lesson from Peter Drucker (Maciariello, 2014) dealt with how many organizations in our society are becoming network organizations. A networked organization is one that operates within a system of interdependent organizations for the purpose of achieving objectives that are agreeable to partner organizations. Many schools, including my own, have a number of partner organizations, whether outsourced services or community partners. This lesson really gave me an opportunity to think about the behaviors necessary to make a network successful:
- Trust
- Shared Values
- Integrity
- Commitment
- Goal Alignment
- Continuous Communication
- Conflict Resolution Processes
In the partnership of a network there can be no command and control (Maciariello, 2014). The questions must be, “What are the objectives?; “What are our values?”; and, “What are our ways of doing things?” Networked organizations are demanding to lead, and rely on developing and maintaining strong personal relationships among the partnering organizations. A network is somewhat like a team, except the network builds the team out of a wide variety of organizations.
Reference
Maciariello, J. A. (2014). A year with Peter Drucker: 52 weeks of coaching for leadership effectiveness. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Nervous As Kittens
As I was reading during my personal professional growth time this morning, I read a comment by Richard Branson in his great book The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership where he said he was nervous as kittens. After reading this I thought about our six newborn kittens we have in the barn right now. What a fitting phrase “Nervous As Kittens” is, because they are just that – nervous. It must be noted that I love cats. I believe what is attractive to me is the fact that they are not pack animals, like dogs. Cats are perfectly content to play by themselves or with other cats.
One thing I learned growing up on a farm that valued having an abundance of cats is the mother cats role. Mothers are key to having happy, secure kittens. Well socialized cats are more likely to have well socialized kittens. We always work very hard at spending time with our cats so they are socialized to people. Kittens often mirror their mothers’ calm or fearful attitude toward people or other animals; this is a normal part of their socialization. In other words, we play a vital role in the development of kittens. By petting, talking to and playing with our new kittens, we can help them develop good people skills. Then I read some startling research: kittens who are gently handled 15-40 minutes per day during their first seven weeks are more likely to develop larger brains. That really got me thinking about the connection to leadership, which was what I was reading about in the first place.
So, I compared what I learned and reflected on with kittens to that of leading people in an organization. What I thought about was modeling and exemplars.
Modeling and Exemplars
Kittens learn many important lessons from their mothers. They learn from their mothers by observing. Research shows that kittens taken from their mothers at weaning are much slower to develop. As leaders, we need to learn from this and model for those in our organization the proper behaviors. Make no mistake, I am not saying I do this well. If being honest we would probably all say we need to be much better at this. I certainly do!
I am a big believer in using exemplars in education and learning. Sometimes people want to argue with me and say that the student will just do the assignment exactly like the exemplar. Well, duh, that is exactly what I want them to do. It amazes me how people will resist this with students, but in real world, real work we are given templates and exemplars all the time. In fact we would not think of beginning many projects without them. That is why I believe they are even more important for our students.
How many times have you said, “Let’s not reinvent the wheel.” What you were really saying is we need a model or exemplar. Certainly nothing wrong with that! Next time we reflect on those we lead and the students some of us educate, let’s not forget the lessons of the nervous kittens and make sure we are providing the modeling and exemplars we have learned to be so very important from the mother cat.
Byron's Babbles 
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