Putting Learning Organization Theory into Practice
Even though there is still much work to be done in promoting, developing, and sustaining a learning organization process; I believe in my own school’s situation we have made much progress toward developing a culture and process of a learning organization. It is important to note that through my research of both educational resources and those outside the educational field it is clear that the learning organization cannot be viewed as a “thing” or “fix” and must be internalized as a “process,” “strategy,” or “behavior”. Even as early as 1996, Robert Evans realized this when he wrote the following in The Human Side of School Change:
Most see change largely as a rational redesign of the school’s
goals, roles, and rules. They treat it as a product and, concentrating
on its structural frame, overlook its human dimensions (Evans, 1996, p. xii).
As Department Head of our Agriculture Department and member our Tiger Leadership Team (TLT – a team put together to lead our school toward becoming a learning organization), I have seen first hand the benefits of this process.
How Educational and Business Models and Literature Complement Each Other
Realizing, that my research has landed on both business and education references and models, it must be noted that the work in both entities compliment each other. There are many parallels, most important of which are the collaborative efforts to devise innovative ways of doing things and best practices. In Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work (2000), David Garvin describes how the process needs to happen both in education and business: “if an entity does not purposefully modify its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights, it does not qualify as a learning organization” (Garvin, 2000, p. 26).
Additionally, what might appear to be differences between the business and educational world turn out to be similarities. For example, one of the industry worker’s resistances to the learning organization is that of the question of “Will it make us money”? This compares to educational opponents to the learning organization asking, “Will it improve test scores”?
This is discussed in Steady Work: Policy, Practice, and the Reform of American Education. In this work Elmore and McLaughlin discuss how teacher’s openness to changes in practice turns heavily on service to students or the transmission of knowledge within a discipline (Elmore and McLaughlin, 1988, p. 43). Again, I go back to my earlier criticism of looking at “plans” or “things” for bringing about a true learning organization. True student achievement does not happen because “the reform consists of pressuring teachers to change by modifying requirements or incentives” (Evans, 1996, p. 81).
Because of requirements and incentives, teachers tend not to look introspectively at themselves, but to “seek external changes (that is, changes external to themselves) that will help them to do better what they have traditionally been trying to do” (Evans, 1996, p. 81). Traditionally these external changes have included, but are certainly not limited to, things like smaller teacher/student ratios, bigger classroom budgets, more planning time, and more parental involvement. Then, because these external changes do not work; school administrators, state agencies, and even federal agencies come up with new “things” to “make” educators better. These “things” (requirements and incentives) have included recertification programs, certificate credits, standardized assessment testing, and the list goes on, and on.
Both education and business/industry have been run in a command and control environment for so long it is tough to switch to an environment of trust, openness, collaboration, inquiry, or dissent (learning organization). Lebanon High School has instilled learning organization behaviors to develop an environment of high student achievement.
References
Elmore, R.F., and McLaughlin, M. (1988) Steady Work: Policy, Practice, and the Reform of American Education. Santa Monica: RAND Corp.
Evans, R. (1996). The Human Side of School Change: Reform, Resistance, and the Real-Life Problems of Innovation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Garvin, D. A. (2000). Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Do You Know What You Don’t Know?
Do you know what you don’t know? This week I had the opportunity to hear this statement made once as “these guys know what they don’t know and are looking for the people who do know,” and also I myself said this week, “Wow, he does not know what he does not know!” So which category would you want to have said about you? I would much rather have it said that I know what I don’t know as opposed to he does not know what he does not know.
So how do we get to a level of knowing what we don’t know? That is the focus of my post here – to talk about what my beliefs would be on how we get to a level of knowing what we don’t know and why that is important.
First of all I believe it takes studying – I think there are people who really don’t know what they don’t know because they really haven’t taken the time to really study and research the area, project, committee or task force they might be working on or leading. So first and foremost it becomes very important that we do our homework, so to speak, so we know those areas that we have expertise and experience and those areas that we don’t know and what it is about those areas we don’t know so that we can go out and find the people or organizations that do know the answers to make the right decisions.
Then, I think secondly it becomes very important that we throw hierarchies and ego to the wind. I believe there are people who just absolutely cannot handle the fact that they don’t know something and are not willing to do a project right or will even let a project fail because they are not willing to accept that they do not know something and need someone else for their expertise and tactical experience.
Finally, I would share a little of my own faith here and say it’s important to start new projects and even every new day with a short prayer saying, “Lord, help me to know what I don’t know and please put the right people in my life to help me understand those things that I don’t know.” You’ll be surprised at the results!
So these three things are very important to taking a reflective and introspective view of knowing what we don’t know. Do you know what you don’t know?
As You Go, So Go Those You Lead
I was listening to WIBC radio on my way to school, as I always do, this week. One of the guest sports commentators made a comment that caused me to do some thinking. The comment was, “As Peyton Manning goes, so go the Colts.” In other words it was going to be a tough year for the Colts until Peyton returns. This got me thinking about my own role as a teacher leader and department head at my school. What would I want to happen if suddenly I was not around tomorrow?
Now, please don’t take this as me putting down the Colts for not having someone ready to just step into that role because that is not the point at all. The statement by the commentator made me think back to something that I learned from reading the work of John Maxwell. He talked about leading in a way you can be replaced. The idea is that you have been a servant leader in such a way that others have been lifted up to a level where they could actually replace you.
I realize this would be extremely tough to do in the case of Peyton Manning but we can learn from the fact that the other quarterbacks under Peyton are certainly learning from their experience. I am sure my fellow Boilermaker, Curtis Painter, has learned a great deal from working with Peyton Manning. Still, we can reflect on our own situations and think about the people we work with. Are we developing their talents in a way that they could replace us. If we are truly servant leaders, wouldn’t the goal be that if we were gone tomorrow everything would continue seamlessly?
In fact, as Max De Pree said in Leadership Jazz, “leaders have to be vulnerable, have to offer others the opportunity to do their best. Leaders become vulnerable by sharing with others the marvelous gift of being personally accountable.” De Pree also talked about how leaders work to bring the special and creative gifts out in others.
This has really caused me to reflect and determine what I would want said about me if I could not return to school on Monday. I would hate for someone to say “As Byron Ernest goes, so goes Lebanon Community School Corporation.” I would rather have those I have worked with, coached and mentored say, “Wow, because of my time spent with Byron, I am ready the the next big steps and responsibilities that come my way.”
Hopefully, this will cause you to think about becoming vulnerable to those you serve!
Autonomy – Professional Growth Must Be Personal
For me to get two posts done in one week is unheard of but after some discussions related to my post: Autonomy – A TALL Order I was inspired to write this post. A great example of what I mean when I say professional growth must be personal was a great learning experience I had a couple of weeks ago.
I had the opportunity to be involved in a professional development in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Postal Museum called, Mission Possible: Reimagining the 21st Century Classroom. This was a joint initiative of the Smithsonian Institution and Pearson Foundation. For one thing I was really intrigued by the title because I’m always amazed at how we tend to title everything to read that we are moving into the 21st Century. I hate to inform all those folks, but we are already into the 21st Century by 12 years. So, the title Reimagining the 21st Century really seemed appropriate – And, it was!
In reflecting on the workshop I tweeted several times that it was the best professional development I had ever been involved in. And, I stand by that claim. Why was it so great? Here’s a list: the great facilitators, the great teachers who attended with me, the best photographer/videographer ever, Postal Museum, the D.C. experience, and ME.
Here’s why I say ME. Any time I am asked to be a part of a workshop or professional growth opportunity I always try to put myself in the frame of mind that I am going to get as much out of the experience as possible. An example of this related to this week of learning for me was Twitter.
Before this workshop, I had not yet begun the Twitter adventure. Prior to the workshop I got an email stating that we should create a Twitter account that we would be using during the workshop. This was the nudge I needed – I am now addicted. I am learning so much from the people and organizations I am following. Also, I have grown so much professionally by, A. Needing to keep my posts under 140 characters (a tough project for me); and, B. Making the posts meaningful in the broader context that everyone who is following me reads them in – in other words, I want to make my posts meaningful. Notice the autonomy here; the workshop did not teach me about Twitter, but was the tipping point to get ME to grow professionally. Note, I am still the one ultimately responsible for my professional growth.
Here are some other major points that were developed during this wonderful event:
-The great part about using social media in education is a student’s work becomes important to others. Students love this.
– Students must be coached to critically review all sides of an issue.
– We must facilitate active learning where all students have a voice.
– Teachers approach lessons with a specific objective, but we must coach to allow learning to be iterative
– In education, its not about the tool/technology, but what you are going to have the students do with the tool/technology.
– The goal is to create 24/7 learning for our students.
– Effective teachers connect, extend, and challenge their students!
– The three C’s of education: Communicating, Collaborating, & Creating
– We must all learn to be Strategists
… – And many, many more!
I think you get the idea. Anyway, next time you go to a workshop remember that a large percentage of the success of your professional growth starts with you! We all need to put ourselves in the frame of mind that events happen every day that can be professional growth moments! So, make your professional growth personal!
Autonomy – A TALL Order
I’ve read two great books in the last week,Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and The Modern Meeting Standard: Read This Before Our Next Meeting. These two books caused me to reflect on a process I had the opportunity to develop and champion at Lebanon High School called TALL – Tiger Academy of Lessons Learned. 
Allow me to share the process (it’s not a thing or initiative, it’s a process) in this week’s post.
In the last three years many changes have been made in the way our school-wide professional development activities are planned, organized, and presented. The primary concern was that teachers should have ownership of the professional development process – Autonomy.
The Lebanon High School staff meets two times per month for professional development in Tiger Academy of Lessons Learned (TALL) groups. TALL was started in the spring of 2009. TALL is modeled after the U.S. Army’s Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) (Garvin, 2000). It is a process with no hierarchy, which has teachers working in groups of like interest and knowledge to learn new techniques, study research, try new practices/technology, and discuss professional literature. Any teacher may propose a topic to be addressed and groups form according to the appeal of the topic. As Pink (2009) said, “As organizations flatten, companies need people who are self-motivated. That forces many organizations to become more like, er, Wikipedians. Nobody sits around trying to figure out how to “motivate” them. That’s why Wikipedia works. (Kindle Location 452).
Groups meet formally every other week during time set aside in the morning, and report in diary form to our common computer drive. Groups can form and dissolve as necessary. Members are also able to freely switch groups as the need arises. Many groups meet outside of the normal school day to work. All individuals and groups had total autonomy (Pink, 2009) to pick their topics and groups they work in.
TALL has enabled the development of communities of practice in our school. One advantage of this process is that it provides a forum where teachers learn from each other. Teachers, according to their needs, choose TALL groups. This strategy enables teachers to use the group genius created to improve teaching skills and acquire best practices from each other, thus improving student achievement. Another important facet of TALL is that it includes the entire staff. All principals, support staff, and teachers are involved as equal participants. The groups with principals have learned to discuss sensitive topics and share opinions without fear of repercussion. TALL has helped our school by moving our staff toward an environment of risk taking and trust.
Another important outcome of TALL has been the opportunity for cross-curricular collaboration (Dufour, 2008) or development of learning organizations (Garvin & Edmondson, & Gino, 2008; Garvin, 2000) between all teachers. Garvin (2000) defines the learning organization as, “an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting, transferring, and retaining knowledge, and at purposefully modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights” (p. 11). Becoming a learning organization is an important component of our school’s culture change toward improved student achievement and performance (Warnick & Thompson, 2007).
References
DuFour, R. D. (2008). Revisiting professional learning communities at work.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Garvin, D.A., Edmondson, A.C., & Gino, F. (2008). Is yours a learning
organization? Harvard Business Review, 86(3), 109-116.
Garvin, D. A. (2000). Learning in action: A guide to putting the learning
organization to work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York,
NY: Riverhead Books.
Warnick, B.K. & Thompson, G.W. (2007). Barriers, support, and collaboration: A
comparison of science and agriculture teachers’ perceptions regarding integration of
science into the agricultural education curriculum. Journal of Agricultural Education,
48(1), 75-85.
Reverse Mentoring
- 2010 Wyoming Teacher of the Year
I realize that the buzz word has changed from mentoring to coaching, but I have been advocating reverse mentoring for quite a while now, so I am not changing terminology. In my field of teaching, it seems that everyone is hung up on the tradition that experience equals qualifications and effectiveness. Even though this might be true in some cases, I propose that mentoring goes both ways. In other words teachers with less experience may be more effective teachers and have knowledge/skills to share with those of us with more years experience.
In fact, I’ll be the first to tell you that I would not be where I am today without the learning that has occurred from those with less years experience, but with skills, knowledge, and abilities far exceeding my own. For example, I would not have near the skills using technology to enhance student learning if it were not for a former student, Matt Ladd, who served as our technology guy at my high school. Now, amazingly, I am looked to as a leader using technology. Make no mistake, there were many others, including my students who played a role in moving me into the 21st Century. Just one example of Reverse Mentoring at its best.
The picture I chose for this post is very special because it is of a teacher with nine years experience that I, with 27 years experience, learn from every time I am with. I was blessed to get to know Christina Mills, 2010 Wyoming Teacher of the Year, two years ago during my year as Teacher of the Year. She is amazingly talented and effective in the classroom, and I value every chance I get to be around her. I was thrilled last week when I was a part of the Smithsonian Institution and Pearson Foundation’s Mission Possible: Reimagining the 21st Century Classroom in Washington D.C. and through the door walked Christina. Neither one of us knew the other was going to be there. This four day conference provided plenty of opportunity for learning; much of which came from collaborating with Christina.
So if you are reading this with many years experience in your field, do not forget that those with less years experience may just have more experience in areas you need mentoring. Or, if you are reading this and have limited years experience do not forget you have valuable knowledge to share with those of us with more years. The goal should be to learn from each other. I guess I should call it Two Way Mentoring – learning from each other.
Disengaged Students
I was asked today by one of my doctoral professors to define disengaged students, where the problem is, and how do we begin to deal with it. Here is the answer that I posited: A disengaged student is one through some external source does not see the relevance of school. WE have in so many ways let our children in this country down, and that is why they have become disengaged. Rafe Esquith (2007) said it best, “I am sad when I see so many good teachers and parents surrender to forces that sap their potential excellence. The demons are everywhere. Those who care deeply often fall outgunned by apathetic or incompetent administrators and politicians. Expectations for children are often ridiculously low. Racism, poverty, and ignorance often reign supreme on campus. Add to this mix ungrateful students, and even mean-spirited people in the teaching profession itself, and the hardiest of souls can be crushed. Each defeat usually means that a child’s true potential will not be developed” (p. x), There is no simple solution to education’s complex problems, but I am so encouraged when I listen and observe my cohort developing research based solutions, not just simple band-aid fixes.
As to how do we help the unengaged student achieve; again, I believe we must continue to create learning organizations where our teacher leaders are constantly learning and improving. Our traditional professional development practices focus only on acquisition of new information (Weinbum, Allen, Blythe, Simon, Seidel, & Rubin, 2004). We must create an environment where deeper learning is occurring and our teachers have multiple best practices, the appropriate pedagogy, and an understanding of how students learn (Weinbaum, et al., 2004).
We must also remember that a focus on rigor, relevance and relationships works. It costs nothing for us all to be an appropriate role model and form positive relationships with our students – which in turn helps in them become engaged. Relevance is also so very important for student engagement in learning. In regard to my own research proposal our nation must improve the way our students learn science, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) communities must work together to achieve this goal (STEM Education Coalition, 2010). Complex science systems must be presented to our students in a relevant context in which students can understand their importance (National Research Council of the National Academies, 2009). By providing a context that is relevant to the student (in my case agricultural science)
, there should be improvement in student performance and achievement in science. The model of science and agriculture has the potential to improve the content knowledge skills and professional development of the teacher workforce and improve the resources available in science classrooms and other learning environments.
Byron
References
Esquith, R. (2007). Teach like your hair’s on fire. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
National Research Council of the National Academies (2009). Transforming agricultural education for a changing world. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
STEM Education Coalition (2010). Objectives. Retrieved on October 13, 2010, from: http://nstacommunities.org/stemedcoalition/objectives/.
Weinbaum, A., Allen, D., Blythe, T., Simon, K., Seidel, S., Rubin, C. (2004). Teaching as inquiry: Asking hard questions to improve practice and student achievement. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Byron's Babbles 
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