Yesterday I posted some reflections on how schools can more effectively move from broad vision statements that sometimes sound formulaic or canned to a real pathway of strategic implementation. One critical step is to paint a picture of what success looks like in the future. Innovative organizations recognized two elements of painting this picture: The [...]
Last week I reviewed the visioning and strategic planning documents for a school with whom I may work in the fall. Taking out the specifics for that school, I thought I would share my reflections on “how might we improve the path from forward leaning vision to sustainable, system-wide implementation of our strategic goals?” I [...]
As I reported in Independent School Magazine in 2014 ("Zero-Based Strategic Thinking"), we are living through a rapid global shift in producer-consumer relationships across most industrial sectors. Companies that deliver generic, higher cost products and services are being replaced by lower cost competitors that can tailor products and services to individual consumer demands. According to people [...]
What if, like Hollywood, schools had a “Black List” of ideas that educators love but that schools have shunned out of fear, reluctance to break with the past, or collective uncertainty? What if the list already exists? Like Hollywood, would we find numerous Academy Award winners and box office smashes amongst that list of ideas [...]
How are three school leaders and their respective schools staying at the leading edge of the innovation wave? How are they successfully transforming away from the assembly line model of "school"? I had a 90 minute video chat yesterday with Bo Adams of Mt. Vernon Presbyterian in Atlanta, Thomas Steele-Maley of the new GEMS World [...]
The conveners of #FUSE14 chose the perfect image as metaphor for the event: a swimming pool. I was a swimmer growing up; learned how to swim at age three and was competitive in all four strokes by age five. Am still at home in the water as I am on land. Like our students in [...]
There is passion, noise, and emotion in the room here. There is learning. People are pumped with the range of possibilities they are uncovering, their heads pushed in somewhat new directions. There is also discomfort here. Some are past the edge of their comfort zone, probably not radically so, but past it nonetheless. What will [...]
What if faculty and staff viewed their individual and collective affinities through the lenses of learning and pedagogy rather than the silos of class, department, division, or office? What if faculty, staff, students, parents, and trustees engaged in strategic-level thinking together, on a frequent basis, collaboratively and transparently aligning school resources directly in support of [...]
Design thinking is not a product, a deliverable, or a stand alone process. Used to maximum advantage it is a mindset, an approach, a system of practice. An analogy comes to mind: some see yoga as stretching or working out in a hot gym. Those who embrace the mindset of yogic practice reap greater rewards than [...]
What would schools look like if educators could challenge, change, or discard something significant at their school? As many of you know I have challenged a wide variety of educators to contributed to a crowd-sourced knowledge base by asking "What if...?" questions that reflect this kind of expansive thinking. Over the last 15 months I [...]