The challenge of changing how we think

Leadership is always about the conversations we have with others. The words we use, the stories we tell, the topics we discuss, the ideas we challenge - these are the ways we lead. Let's never forget that. Every conversation we have provides a leadership opportunity. Leadership is not necessarily about followers but how the listeners hear what we say. Thus each conversation we have, each story we tell, each relationship we have offers an opportunity for us to "re-think."

In class we talked about the fact that written language is constructed from symbols (letters) that were developed from images. These symbols have a long history of development that is well described in this article:

http://ilovetypography.com/2010/08/07/where-does-the-alphabet-come-from/

Let's remember that written language is a product of our need to describe a picture or thing that we already know. It only makes sense then that in learning kids need the picture before the words (comprehension before decoding). This makes the primary task of teaching more about building the pictures, images and concepts first - then teaching the letters (symbols) that describe them. Thus, we use symbols, pictures, stories, and experiences to shape language skills, not the other way around.

Behind the curtain....

Paul Thomas, writing for the UK based Guardian newspaper, has, in my opinion, "pulled back the curtain" on the smoke and mirrors of the corporate/political "wizard" of education in the U.S.
He talks about the numerous leaders in education that have no academic or educational experience - Arne Duncan, outgoing and incoming Chancellor for New York Schools Joel Klein and Cathleen Black, Michelle Rhee who recently left Washington D.C. And, clearly educational policy is not written by educators.
He goes on to assert: " The standards, testing and accountability movement is built on a claim that education can change society. The corporate support for the accountability movement and the "no excuses" charter school movement seeks to reinforce that claim because, otherwise, corporate America and the politicians supporting corporate America would have to admit that something is wrong with our economic and political structures."
We are currently struggling to "see the future" and are trying to design, define and develop concepts by which we can affect the future in education. The piece that is missing is what Thomas points out -
"The real failure, which is the message being ignored here, is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world refuses to face the inequities of its economic system, a system that permits more than 20% of its children to live in poverty and to languish in schools that America has clearly decided to abandon, along with its democratic principles."
True Leadership in education is our only hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/15/education-schools

Reading another blog today, I found this article:

The Top 10 Leadership Qualities

By David Hakala on March 19, 2008

In the middle of the list of ten were the following two. What struck me was, after the conversation about making change might get someone fired, I came to realize another reason why now is as good a time as ever to change our thinking. In order to have a boss or supervisor be able to "OPEN" to new ideas they have to have the trait of openness. And, it is openness to creativity that , for now, is our final frontier in education. Our problem is that we don't have enough leaders with these two leadership qualities. That is what we are doing right now.... building those leaders!

"Openness means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the usual way of thinking. Good leaders are able to suspend judgment while listening to others’ ideas, as well as accept new ways of doing things that someone else thought of. Openness builds mutual respect and trust between leaders and followers, and it also keeps the team well supplied with new ideas that can further its vision.

Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions. Creativity gives leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead followers in new directions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, “What if … ?”

From:

http://www.hrworld.com/features/top-10-leadership-qualities-031908/

"Moments of Greatness"

As I read I find these great little pieces to share with you.... this is another good one.

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ARTICLE (exec summary)

Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership

by Robert E. Quinn 
12 pages. Publication date: Jul 01, 2005. Prod. #: R0507F-PDF-ENG

"When we do our best work as leaders, we don't imitate others. Rather, we draw on our own values and capabilities. We enter what author Robert Quinn calls the fundamental state of leadership. This is a frame of mind we tend to adopt when facing a significant challenge: a promotion opportunity, the risk of professional failure, a serious illness, a divorce, the death of a loved one, or any other major life jolt. Crisis calls, and we rise to the occasion. But we don't need to spend time in the dark night of the soul to reach this fundamental state. We can make the shift at any time by asking ourselves--and honestly answering--four transformative questions: Am I results centered? (Am I willing to leave my comfort zone to make things happen?) Am I internally directed? (Am I behaving according to my values rather than bending to social or political pressures?) Am I other focused? (Am I putting the collective good above my own needs?) Am I externally open? (Am I receptive to outside stimuli that may signal the need for change?) When we can answer these questions in the affirmative, we're prepared to lead in the truest sense. Of course, we can't sustain the fundamental state of leadership indefinitely. Fatigue and external resistance pull us out of it. But each time we reach it, we then return to our everyday selves a bit more capable, and we usually boost the performance of the people around us. Over time, we create a high-performance culture--and one that can be sustained"

I especially appreciate the concepts of the value of being "other focused" and "Am I open?" I think Quinn is reminding us to stay aware of our patterns that may limit our abilities to be open to opportunities for change.... which, in my humble opinion, is one of the most difficult of all leadership skills.