What Not to Wear and How Do I Look?

Have you ever noticed how these shows take one person at a time and transform them in what? two days!

Is there something here that we can use in education? Is there a reason for their process? Why do they go from clothes, to hair to make-up in that order?

Here's what I notice -
1. A group of people recommend or encourage someone they care about who is in need of a makeover.

2. There are strong facilitators throughout the change process -Stacy and Clinton are direct, but supportive and dare I say, even funny!

3. How they go about the change process is basically the same, but tailored for each person. In one episode I saw of How Do I Look?, Jeannie placed the person in an experience to help the person understand how others perceived her and the light bulb went off! Simply telling the woman did not work! Seeing examples did not work! It is deeper.

I have seen value in being engaged in an experience to offer insight into the internal change process. I have heard teachers say they are afraid of technology, so does designing an experience to help them face that fear have value? I think so. I tried this and boy did they get angry! Were there tears? You bet! Some even got sick, but I have never had more respect for a group of people than these teachers who bravely went forth with learning technology because they truly cared about their students. That is what I call commitment!

What I noticed afterward was growth in confidence. The teachers were able to get past the fear and knew that they could face challenges that technology brought - and we know there are many. The cool thing about it was they kept moving forward - at their own pace. It stuck.

If you look at the shows, the transformation sticks, too.

What I am wondering about is how this connects to staff development. If Stacy, Clinton and Jeannie are able to transform a person's point of view in 3 days, why can't we?

National Letting Go of Stuff Day

Did you know that today is National Letting Go of Stuff Day? My teammates designed a really fun way to start "letting go" of the past. Each teacher found an item in their classroom that they really didn't need, wrapped it up as a present and then at a staff meeting, we exchanged gifts! It was hysterical to see what we've been holding on to. What's brilliant about this though is in the design. We hold onto things because there is usually an emotional attachment. Once we gave it away, the other person hasn't built that emotional attachment and therefore had no problem getting rid of this item from the past which we did. We then gave away all of the gifts and they either went to our rummage sale coming up or got thrown away.

Come to think of it just now - I didn't even think twice about missing my old stencils that I used to use to make bulletin boards : )

Does letting go of things from the past open up minds to letting new thoughts about education in?

adding value

I was going through the Top 25 Apps on my iPhone just to see what was out there and I found the app by CNN. The cool thing about this app is that anyone can register and submit a story. So here's the deal. I was eating supper with my daughter at this wing place and glanced at a news story that read - How to Fix Education. I told my daughter and then my friend who is also a colleague of mine that one day, we'd be on CNN with the real scoop on education.

The plan? To submit our stories along the way until we get notice by CNN : ) We will see what happens.

But wait - there's more! I am reading the news and come across a story called San Diego Zoo is Connecting People to Conservation submitted by Chris Morrow. Now this is what I call adding value. There's tons of these examples in the world, so why isn't it happening in schools enough?I think it could be and what's significant about it is that it adds value and it is based on something that is important to someone - and therefore builds connections between people.

What is the trick for tapping into this passion so that learning adds value?

conversations and listening

Listening is a fascinating discovery process. What I find fascinating is listening to the same person speak in different contexts. One observation I had the other day was listening to a passionate teacher in a traditional sharing session. Out of the traditional zone, she expressed what she loves about her teaching and when asked to explain her teaching in front of a group of educators in a traditional context, she immediately went to a traditional way to respond. It was politically safe and her summary was very articulate, but I didn't hear her passion come out like I had earlier - I didn't hear "I love...!"

My question is do traditional contexts have a pre-established and subconscious expectations/protocols for participation and would changing the context change the nature of the discussion thus fostering different kinds of thinking?

transformational leadership

Understand, I am a teacher. Or at least, I define myself as a teacher - and a learner. Somewhat confusing to me is that now that I hold a different title, others see me differently, as an administrator. What does that mean? So I am going to my learner side and doing research. This morning I found the idea of transformational leadership off of A Blueprint for Reform which led me to A Systemic View of Transformational Leadership by Russell L Ackoff.

Let me take you a step back. I am working in an organization that is attempting to be innovative by completely empowering teachers to lead their way. Yes. I adamantly believe that teachers are competent professionals who have the ability to do this, but I am struggling with believing that they can do it alone. One of the reasons I left the classroom was the create opportunity for teachers and facilitate this change - with the ultimate goal of providing a safe and inspiring space for all children to learn. My question stems around the facilitation of change.

How change feels and what it looks like is fascinating! Being able to design experiences that inspire and facilitating conversations by asking the thought-provoking questions engage people in the discovery process and create deep learning that are part of development and transformation- these experiences can be fun and uncomfortable. I am collecting evidence of this, but are there others who have philosophies to support it?

Here's what I found:

According to Jan Carlzon (1987), who provided SAS Airlines with transformational

leadership, a leader must encourage and facilitate formulation of an organizational

vision in which as many stakeholders as possible have participated. He must create

an environment in which employees can accept and execute their responsibilities with

confidence and finesse. He must communicate with his employees, imparting the

company's vision and listening to what they need to make that vision a reality. To

succeed...he must be a visionary, a strategist, an informer, a teacher, and an inspirer.

(p.5, italics mine).

My concept of a vision is a description of a state that is considered to be

significantly more desirable than the current state It is a state that cannot be

approached without a fundamental change of direction, a change of the status quo. It

takes courage to lead such a change and it requires instilling courage in others. This

involves more than persuasion; it requires the ability to inspire. Unlike persuasion,

inspiration evokes a willingness to make sacrifices in the pursuit of long-run objectives

or ideals. Therefore, visions that induce others to pursue them must be inspiring. An

inspiring vision is the product of a creative act, of design. Inspiring visions are works of

art and those who formulate them are artists.

Leadership also requires the ability to implement pursuit of the vision. Inspiration without

implementation is provocation, not leadership. Implementation without inspiration is

management or administration, not leadership. Therefore, leaders must be both

creative, in order to inspire, and courageous, in order to induce implementation.

Positive visions that can mobilize transformations can be produced by idealized design.

In this process those who formulate the vision begin by assuming that the system being

redesigned was completely destroyed last night, but its environment remains exactly as

it was. Then they try to design that system with which they would replace the existing

system right now if they were free to replace it with any system they wanted.

The basis for this process lies in the answer to two questions. First, if one does

not know what one would do if one could do whatever one wanted without constraint,

how can one possibly know what to do when there are constraints? Second, if one does

not know what one wants right now how can one possibly know what they will want in

the future?

Summarizing this much, then, a transformational leader is one who can formulate

or facilitate the formulation of an inspiring vision of something to be sought even if it is

unattainable, although it must at least be approachable without limit. The leader must

also be able to encourage and facilitate (inspire) pursuit of the vision, by invoking the

courage required to do so even when short-term sacrifices are required, by making that

pursuit satisfying, fun as well as fulfilling.