We Voted!
Today was a very special day. First off, it was Election Day; a very special day for our democratic society. It was even more special because my son, Heath, chose to come home from college to vote in person. It was his first National election he was eligible to vote in. He wanted us to go as a family. Of course, I was excited to have him home and I was proud he wanted to go together to vote. From a young age Heath always went in to vote with me before we went on to school and then would proudly wear his “I Voted” sticker into school. He was such a cool kindergartner!
This got me to thinking about how much our children learn about civic responsibility from their parents and other adult role models. Heath has always seen me take the ballot seriously and we even discussed the school board and judge candidates. I’m proud that Heath understands his role and civic responsibility in the local, college, state, national, and world communities he lives and belongs.
In doing a little studying on the topic I learned that, “Civic engagement during adolescence predicts adult volunteering and voting. Furthermore, civic engagement during adolescence can promote positive developmental outcomes, particularly for marginalized and at-risk youth” (Middaugh, Clark, & Ballard, 2017, Pediatrics, 140). This really got me thinking about the civics experiences we need to be giving our children and students. They need to be given opportunities for civic engagement. These need to be project-based so the students are actually engaged in real world community experiences.
Bottom-line: parents who involve kids in elections raise civic leaders! By involving our children and our students in civic engagement and exposing them to the voting process teaches them real-life lessons in democracy, and it helps show our communities and country that families matter and have a powerful voice.
Leading With Artisanship
It’s funny to me how reading something can make me think of something that I haven’t thought about, at least consciously, for a while. When reading Lesson 10, “Surrender Overthinking” in Mindset Mondays with DTK by David Taylor-Klaus (DTK), I came across this statement:
“I don’t have a fantasy of being an artist…not in terms of painting, or sculpture, or any of the expressive arts. I do want to be an artist in how I serve people, and the work that I do in the world. If I’m overthinking, my art is compromised and my creative energy is spent spinning my wheels, or ‘catastrophizing forward’.”
~ David Taylor-Klause, 2020, Mindset Mondays with DTK, p. 98.
This got me to thinking about the work of Patricia Pitcher. Her work of studying leaders was very influential and I consider her to have been very influential on my leadership development. Her books The Drama of Leadership: Artists, Craftmen, and Technocrats and the Power Struggle That Shapes Organizations and Societies (1997) and Artists, Craftsmen, and Technocrats: The Dreams, Realities, and Illusions of Leadership (1997, 2nd edition) easily make my top five list of influential books. These books make the top of the list because they helped me understand myself as an artistic leader and be comfortable with that. Pitcher saw the artistic leader as an inspiring and visionary risk-taker, guided by an intuitive sense of the future. Now, unlike DTK who has no interest in being an expressive artist, I really want to be a rock star, but I just don’t have any talent. I do find great inspiration from studying rock bands, the inspiration for songs, and the innovative ideas they come up with.
“I am trying to think out a short story. I’ve got the closing sentence of it all arranged and it is good and strong, but I haven’t got any of the rest of the story yet.”
~ Mark Twain
The technocrat, the category which many leaders fit, is the nemesis of the artist. They are organized box checkers who use the term “teamwork” a lot, but operate with a “my way or the doorway” and “paint-by-numbers” mentality. The technocrat will be fearful of making imaginative decision and before any ideas can be thought through is already trying to fit the ideas in a box and understand how to manage it. Boy am I glad I did not end up a technocrat – I dream too much and I’ve got too much imagination for that. As an artist I do tend to overthink things, but usually not looking for problems. This was the point of DTK’s Lesson 10; we should not focus too much on what could go wrong. We need to anticipate obstacles and opportunities, but not let them hinder moving forward.
I learned from Pitcher that as an artist I will, at times, have vague, indefinable, long-term visions that get clarified by action and remaining open to new insights. Artists know where they are going, but sometimes it’s vague and more a trip that destination. This to me would be one way to keep from overthinking things – focus on the journey more than the destination. It’s why I choose to inspire with metaphors rather than with detailed descriptions of the future. Think about this:
“I claim that the visions of the visionary [artist] leader are no different in form or origin than those of an artist. If you ask a great painter what he or she’s going to paint next, it’s a rare one who will have a detailed answer and if he or she does, I doubt he or she satisfies the definition of great.“
~ Patricia Pitcher, 1997, The Drama of Leadership, kindle location 196 of 2456.
Research tells us that the best artists stay radically open as they work on a canvas; there is a continuous interaction between a vague vision and the concrete act of painting. In my conversations with the artists and song writers in rock bands I have found the same thing. For example, a riff gets written and suddenly an entire song is born. It’s why we artist leaders live for the metaphor. I am always looking for intersectional creativity – the intersection of different fields, ideas, people, and cultures. DTK told us to “Take this moment to consider that there are endless possibilities, opportunities, and forces working on your behalf” (p. 98). We need, as Pitcher taught us, to let our intuitive sense of the future take over. So as we take to our leadership canvas, let’s open our minds to creativity, ideas, and opportunities, but not overthink all that could go wrong.
Out Of All People
While doing some heavy tweeting during the World Series, I came across Bible verses on Major League Baseball Players’ Twitter landings. I would then quiz myself to see if I remembered the verse and look it up when I didn’t. I did a lot of looking up. When I was tweeting out to Brett Phillips after that great Tampa Bay Rays win in Game4, I noticed he had Isaiah 41:10 listed. This Bible verse shows up a lot for athletes. It goes, “Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you” (Isaiah 41:10 | MSG).
Basically, God is telling the children of Israel, of which we are a part, that he has our backs. If God talked like me, the verse would sound like this: “Chill, I’ve got your back,” or “Dude, you’ve got this.” Then, a couple of days ago I noticed on a great Twitter connection of mine, Alain Dizon, that verse 9 was added to the Twitter landing with Isaiah 41:10. So, I looked up verse 9, which says, “I pulled you in from all over the world, called you in from every dark corner of the earth, Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side. I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you’” (Isaiah 41:9 | MSG). This verse is profound – we are all picked; we’re certainly not going to get dropped from the picture. This verse might be a bigger deal than verse 10.
In other words, out of all people, God has a calling for each of us – a mission – a reason to live and something to accomplish. He has chosen you and me, and not cast us away. Each of us has an individual purpose in life and God will help us accomplish it. We should never be afraid it’s too late to accomplish our purpose, of physical challenges, or any other obstacles. God won’t leave us hanging. We have no reason to be afraid that we can’t live up to expectations and live with purpose. Whatever the challenge, God will offer his help, and his hand. Verse 10 then ties the whole thing together and brings to mind the strong image of God as our good, best, and perfect friend. He will take our hand to help us through the challenges that we face.
So, what’s your individual purpose in life? Out of all people, it is up to you to carry out that life’s mission and purpose. We all need you!
Temporary, Quick, or Permanent
I am writing this post not exactly knowing where it will end up. I’m not sure if I will end with an opinion, advice, or just a collection of thoughts. This post, like many, was inspired in the barn this morning before the sun came up and in an hour before most even think about getting up – it’s such inspirational time for me. A lot of people spend their morning mindfulness time on a yoga mat or in a gym; mine is spent in the barn. I wouldn’t have it any other way. This morning when I got to the barn a feeder that hangs on a gate for one of our baby calves had come loose. It had come loose because I had done a quick fix the other night just using a plastic zip tie. I remembered thinking at the time, “this is not going to last very long, but I don’t feel like getting the wire out and fixing it that way.” In full transparency, I wanted to get inside and watch Game 4 of the World Series.
Well, this morning the plastic ties were broke and I was faced with fixing again. So, I got the wire out and did it “right.” This got me to thinking, “what constitutes right?” Think about all the “fix” decisions that are made whether by company, school, government, community, et cetera. Think about the names we assign “fixes”: makeshift, stopgap, salvage, life hack, workaround, and so on. Call them what you want, but almost every day we need to come up with temporary fixes and move on. I would not necessarily call this a bad thing.
Take for instance if I have one more round in a field mowing hay and something breaks on the mower-conditioner. I might be able to make a temporary fix (using wire or duct tape, of course!) and then make the permanent fix later. Not a bad thing – the job got done. Or, let’s use a school example. The internet goes down during a lesson. The creative teacher has any number of plan B’s that can come into play – learning goes on and the tech people make the fix (notice I did not say permanent fix – it doesn’t seem that problem can every be permanently fixed 😉). Additionally, sometimes there is no solution even developed yet, so a temporary fix must do.
Example of temporary fix to think about: Donut spare tires are not made for extended service, but they will get you home or to a tire store for repair or replacement of the tire you have put the donut on in place of. An innovation because it takes up very little space in your car.
The stopgaps of the temporary fix do allow for time when devising fixes or developing a whole new product. Workarounds show those we serve that we do truly understand there is a need for a solution. The one thing I have experienced first hand here, however, is that companies should not over-promise, particularly related to timeline. Do not tell the customer what they want to hear – be honest and conservative on the timeline. The old saying “under promise and over deliver” applies here.
The other thing I will note here that warrants a new paragraph is that sometimes admitting that there is not a solution available is refreshing. Sometimes there is a solution available from another provider. I do know it is very refreshing to have a vendor say, “We can’t do that, but here is someone who can.” Guess what? I will probably be back with the vendor who tells me that at some point.
Some time a quick fix is needed, if nothing else, to make the customer happy in the moment. Think about about my zip tie fix; I knew it was not permanent and that it would not last, but it got me through a moment that I was not wanting to spend a lot of time repairing something. We are such creatures of instant gratification and sometimes the quick fix just seems to be the way to go.
Lastly, there are many instances that temporary and quick fixes that were very creative, have turned into innovations. Some would argue that most individual attempts to innovate are makeshift, quick fixes. I even recently saw the term “improvised quick fix” used. As a farm kid I know that farmers have been doing this for years. In fact, really paying attention to quick or temporary fixes needed, might be the best way to monitor customer needs for new innovation.
No doubt we should always be looking toward the permanent solution, but we don’t want to forget to really put thought into our temporary and quick fixes. They have value as well. In fact we might just be devising the next great breakthrough idea.
Do Not Look Outside Yourself
Too often we wait on others to do for us, our communities, or the world what we should be doing for ourselves. In other words we need to step up and be the leaders that we have, for so long, been hoping for. Our choices do not, and have never just affected ourselves. I am reminded of what I have heard Gene Simmons say of what drove him during the founding years of KISS; he wanted KISS to be the band he’d never seen. Mission accomplished! We need to become the leader we’ve been hoping for.
In chapter nine this week, entitled “Take the Lead“ in Mindset Mondays with DTK, the Hopi Elder’s Prophecy was referenced. DTK quoted the Hopi elders, “we are the one we’ve been waiting for.” This caught my attention because I spent some time in the late ‘80s learning about the Hopi in Arizona. The Hopi are a Native American tribe located in northeast Arizona. They are believed to have one of the oldest living cultures in the world. They are referred to as “the oldest of people” by other Native American nations. It was incredible to visit and learn in the Hopi lands.
A Hopi Elder’s Prophecy
“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.”Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time!”
“There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.
“Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
“The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Hopi Elders’ Prophecy, June 8, 2000
I’m glad I took the time to look up the Hopi Elder’s Prophecy and read and study it in its entirety because I found another stanza that jumped out at me: “And do not look outside yourself for the leader.” This is a call to be the leaders that we have, for so long, been hoping for. Our choices affect so many more than just ourselves. True leaders lead from inspiration and purpose. We need to seek guidance from within, rather than from without. And share with others in the spirit of servant leadership. As DTK told us, “Leadership starts with you. It’s time to take the lead in your own development” (p. 93). If we are to do this we must take DTK’s advice and lead ourselves first so we can grow to then lead others. We can become the one’s we’ve been waiting for.
Knowing The Water
Yesterday I assumed the role of Chair of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Board of Directors. The day before, in a meeting, I was introduced with the byline that in 24 hours I would be taking the helm. I’m not sure why, but I shivered a little at this. I even said, “I’m not sure what to think about that.” Then, our NASBE Northeastern Area Director, Dr. Audrey Noble (Delaware State Board of Education member) who is an avid boater/sailor said, “You’ll be fine. The key to success at helm is about knowing the water, and you know it well.” She had made a powerful statement there and had said a lot.
Later, as I reflected on that interaction, I remembered an awesome story that came out of World War II. And, of course, the story involves the great leader and 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The story goes that he went to the tent where his soldiers were mapping out a location for the troops to cross a river. Eisenhower pointed at a spot on the map and said, “We will cross here.” One of his troops said, “We cannot cross there, Sir.” Eisenhower asked why not. They told him they were not sure how deep the water was. Eisenhower pointed to his dampened pants leg and said, “It is this deep.” Clearly, he “knew the water.” Eisenhower had taken the time to actually get his feet wet and know where he was sending his troops.
Leadership by example and working shoulder to shoulder with those you serve continue to be the most successful forms of leadership. These concepts can take many different forms, but is expressed well with the phrase that is on a picture that hangs in my den, “Walk The Talk.” Walking the talk is one of my core values. It really speaks to the fact that our character is our legacy. If we say we believe or will act in a certain way, then our actions should prove that. I blogged about this in Walk the Talk!
A helmsman relies on his knowledge of the water he is in, visual references, GPS, other technological tools, and a rudder angle indicator to steer a steady course. Leading in an organization is no different. One must “know the water.”
In The Zoom Where It All Happens
We kicked off our National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Annual Conference week today with our New Member Orientation. This is usually a two day institute that we converted to a half day virtual event. It was awesome with lots of great new state board of education members in attendance. I continue to be amazed at the great learning and relationship building that can happen #learningtogetherapart virtually. As I do many times with events like this, I will attempt to do a blog reflection each day on my learning. As we were getting started today, NASBE’s CEO, Robert Hull, made a play on words from the musical Hamilton and said, “In the Zoom where it all happens.” Of course this was in reference to Aaron Burr’s desire to be in the room “where it all happens.” If we want agency we must be in the room.
This really got me thinking how our ability to expand the number of people we can have have in the [Zoom] room. It is one of the silver linings from what we have learned and our adjustments caused by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. On Day 222 of the Pandemic we know ways to connect virtual and still have deep conversations and the ability to form relationships. This really gives us even a better way to Lead Collectively, which was one of the topics of our New Member Orientation. We must remember that our voice matters.
Also, when we add our voice to the collective, there is power in our collective voice.
We still have a voice when we become part of a group, organization, or board, but it can become even more influential as part of the collective.
By leading collectively we can make a policy ecosystem that is best for all.
As citizen leaders we take stock of the world around us and help to shape the world for those we care about. A citizen leader is an active participant in her world – not a passive observer. We take on the role of citizen leader because we care deeply about the people and places that stand to benefit by our actions. To be an effective citizen leader we must determine who we are and what we stand for.
Approaching The World With A Sense Of Childlike Wonder
The Creative Mindset: Mastering the Six Skills That Empower Innovation by Jeff Degraff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sometimes I believe we need to eliminate the word “innovation” from our vocabulary because we inhibit deep innovation by skipping the more important “being creative.” This book reminds us and guides us through practical and everyday creativity. We are also reminded that achieving a creative mindset is possible for everyone and what we need to do is simple – approach the world with a sense of childlike wonder.
I’m not going to talk about all six skills covered in the book, because I want you to read it, but as a person who leads and works by metaphors and analogies I found the guide of the skill “Associate – Connecting Ideas With Analogies” extremely helpful. By using the associating techniques of direct analogies, personal analogies, symbolic analogies, and fantasy analogies we can reverse analogies, use idea bridges, and use adaptive reasoning to tap into our creative mindset.
This then leads to the other skill that provided a great deal of personal growth for me: “Translate: Creating Stories From Ideas.” We are reminded in this part of the book that for us to translate creativity to innovations we must have all key stakeholders as a part of the process. A case study is used to describe how just leaving one stakeholder outbid the project caused a wildly creative and successful innovation to fail.
If you want to become a leader with a fully honed creative mindset who enables that same creative mindset in those you serve, you must read this book. Your first step to accelerating down the runway of your creativity taking off is to make this book a part of your personal growth plan.
View all my reviews
Hidden In Common Firewood
“There is a legend of an artist who long sought for a piece of sandalwood, out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to carve his Madonna from a block of oak wood which was destined for the fire. He obeyed and produced a masterpiece from a log of common firewood. Many of us lose great opportunities in life by waiting to find sandalwood for our carvings, when they really lie hidden in the common logs that we burn.” ~ Orison Swett Marden
During my morning study time I came across this passage from Orison Swett Marden. There is a lot to unpack in this short paragraph. Then I thought about the value of this as a prompt. So, instead rambling on with my thoughts, I’m going to employ a best practice from my friend and great author, Bob Tiede: ask you all a question. What lesson do you take away from this Orison Swett Marden passage that you want others to think about and act on?Please add your answer as a comment to this post.
Focused Perspective
Have you ever noticed a cat’s ability to focus like a laser on something that interests them? There is never a challenge to get them to focus, but they become oblivious to what others around them are focused on. This is one of the things I love about cats; they do not need constant attention. But, when they do, you better be prepared to give it to them because that will be their sole focus. If you’ve ever been around cats you know that when they want some affection, they will not notice that you may be focused on something else. I was watching one of our barn cats this morning sitting on a feed pan I had just moved and flipped upside down after a show heifer was done eating. He was hyper-focused on something and I could not take his attention away (see picture).
When working with developing leaders I always talk about the effective leader is focused on self, others, and the wider world. The art of being self-aware and self-managing is about being centered. This enables us to notice our thoughts and feelings, label them, reappraise things that do not serve the situation and lead forward. This centered perspective is important so that understand our own values and how those values fit in the big picture. This also determines what lens we are looking through to bring context to situations. Perspective enables a leader to clearly assess the reality of today while also envisioning what is possible for tomorrow.
We also need an empathetic perspective that has the heart to understand others and identify those who might be struggling and provided compassion. Remember, empathy plus action equals compassion. We need to give people space and permission to take care of themselves. Particularly right now, everyone is in just a little different place dealing with the pandemic. We must remember that their reality is just that, their reality. Asking those we serve what they need and then truly being prepared to help them is crucial. Just thinking through priorities and plans for action can many times do the trick. We don’t have to tell people how to do their job, but syncing frequently on priorities and plans of actions can be very supportive.
How about you? Are you so focused, like a cat, that you may be missing opportunities to focus on those around you and the wider world?
Byron's Babbles 
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