Power of Pull

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davidson attempts to define a new business practice. The problem is that a) it is not new and b) the companies that he accuses of not using it do so. For years this book has been on my shelf- unread. Not so sure reading the entire thing was worth my time.

The authors delineate two opposite views of how business takes place- push and pull. The chart below articulates some of the key differences. Any good company uses the pull concept around innovation and once the key is determined, moves into a more push concept.

PUSH	PULL
·         Top-down ·         Knowledge stocks ·         Core business ·         Maintain status quo ·         Control social media ·         Defined roles and silos of responsibility ·         Goal of scalable efficiency ·         Training programs determined by bosses	·         Bottom-up ·         Knowledge flows ·         Edge of the technology plane ·         Innovation through connections ·         Open access to social media ·         Flexible roles ·         Innovation and passion ·         Use connections and challenge to develop  and make progress ·         Establish standards to facilitate working together

When you reshape the universe by innovation- you use pull: the agricultural revolution of the paleolithic age, the iron plow, the age of exploration, the cotton gin, the telephone, the car, and so on all were characterized by pull. They were revolutionizing the world. To think that this is a new function is outlandish. The fuzziness is seen in an analogy the authors make in the epilogue:

"we do this with a very different mindset from the engineer or technocrat who thinks in terms of detailed blueprints and a carefully designed path to realization of these  blueprint. Rather, we adopt the perspective of a gardener who seeds, feeds, and weeds his garden, carefully shaping the vegetation in ways that will create a more fulfilling experience for us." (p. 236)

If being married to a design engineer has taught me anything, it is that taking a concept and converting it into a thing is every bit like gardening. As a person with a garden, to think that the shaping of a garden is any different from designing a new thing is ridiculous. Business flows from pull to push and back again.

The  last chapter talks about the dominance of pull techniques. It appears that the authors are in favor of the business model of monopoly. It is the ultimately most productive organizational concept of business. Unfortunately, this end product is often not the best for the people it purports to serve and benefit.

Leaders Eat Last

My one page version of the book.

Simon Sinek has written multiple books about leadership. He has many YouTube postings about his work and several TED talks (see an example here). The second edition of his book Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't discusses what makes an effective leader. Above is my executive summary of his conclusions. Early in the book he makes this statement:

"Those who work hardest to help others succeed will be seen by the group as the leader or the "alpha" of the group. And being the alpha- the strong, supportive one of the group, the one willing to sacrifice time and energy so that others may gain- is a prerequisite for leadership." (p. 59)

He makes frequent comparisons to the structure of the family. In a functional family the parents are willing to sacrifice for their children. Sinek would argue that truly great leaders are the same. They see the people they lead as members of their family. When leaders fail to do this, "prioritizing performance over people," (p 116) he argues undermines the free market economy. He stands up against the Milton Freidman's concept that corporate structure is all about performing for the sake of the shareholders to argue that it is all about the employees and customers. When the shareholders are the people to impress, people get fired in the tight times, decreasing the company's long term ability to be successful. Now this is what our current culture seems to be all about- short term success. Why do we not provide intensive antenatal interventions when we know that it results in lower levels of special education referrals, drop outs and incarcerations? It costs money and will not reap rewards for years. We are willing to sacrifice long term success for the short term cost savings.

He sees the lie in the statement- it is all about the customer's safety when "if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence" (p. 164-5). On one level we know that it is not about the customer or the employee's health and well being. It is about the giant dollar sign in the sky. The problem with this program is that while it may lead to short term profit, it results in long term losses- people leave (willingly or unwillingly), they are not willing to put it all in, they back bite and sabotage each other, they break the rules and laws until they are caught and protest extensively instead of quickly owning mistakes before they are caught. Not a recipe for long term success. Look at Enron or the banking disaster of 2008. He quotes a general saying "taking responsibility for one's actions must happen at the time you perform your actions, not at the time you get caught" (p. 186). If you wait, your company loses, and sometimes someone goes to jaiap He sees the disaster of golden parachutes. If the CEO is paid what he is paid to make the company successful, then when things tank, he should leave with no severance. He has been paid for his work. Corporate contracts need to reflect success- not failure rewards.

"Leadership is not about being right all the time ...It is a responsibility that hinges almost entirely on character. Leadership is about integrity, honesty and accountability" (p. 187). When we look at things in this light. Our politicians tend to fall woefully short. They are in it to be reelected. They do not take a stance based on morals or what is good for their constituents. It is about money. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not make many constituents happy, but it was the right thing to do. Upstanding politicians were willing to take the hit for the greater good. How many of our current leaders would be willing to do so?

Finally a note on legacy.  When a leader leaves his organization- be it a governmental position, principalship or business leader- what shape do they leave it in. Can it carry on the good things that were happening? Good leaders train up their people to be good leaders. To seamlessly fill in when they leave. Responsibility and blame are shared. "A leader's legacy is only as strong as the foundation they leave behind that allows others to advance the organization in their name" (p. 211). Your legacy is your people, not your stuff.

Of note, Sinek talks about selfish and selfless neurotransmitters. He compares cell phones and social media to other addictive substances. They increase dopamine, a selfish neurotransmitter that makes you feel good. It is addictive. Problematically, however, if you are addicted to it, you are not likely to be successful at other things. We need to teach people to put it down and focus. I see this especially with our children. Parents think they should be able to be in touch with their children 24/7, but is that good for either the parent or the child? No. We need to teach some delay in response in order to increase our ability to interact with people and release selfless neurotransmitters that make us feel good because we are sharing, cooperating and helping others. Those are the ones that drive positive action in our society. He advocates having cell phone and digital device free meetings. Notes can be taken by hand (the better for processing and remembering) and transcribed if necessary. Enabling the entire team to focus without distractions is essential for maximizing success. No we are not, as a species, good at multitasking and we should not allow young people to promote that concept.

Forward of Leaders Ear Last

I just picked up Simon Sinek's Leaders Eat Last and read the forward, something I would not have done as a college student or young professional- a habit we should teach our youth. The forward of the book is slightly more than two pages written by Lieutenant General George Flynn of the Marines (not the Flynn who pleaded guilty to charges under President Trump). What he wrote made me really think about the leadership I have witnessed in the last few weeks as CoVid 19 has inundated our country.

Flynn explains that leaders are focused on people. He writes:

"These organizations have strong cultures and shared values, understand the importance of teamwork, create trust among their members, maintain focus, and, most importantly, understand the importance of people and relationships to their mission success."  (p. xi)

When I think about the press conferences given by our president and my governor (I live in New York), a stark difference emerges. Our President comments often must be stepped back by the team on the stage with him, he wants the focus to be solely on him and demonstrates limited acceptance of the vision of what success looks like. He has cast blame on the Chinese, the Democrats, the media, and the previous administration. Three years in, those approaches grow wearisome. His team must be cautious because they are all likely to be thrown under the bus.  He is focused on lets get the economy going in spite of the overwhelming health crisis we are going through. His metrics for reopening is in his head not with his team.

My governor said create social distancing and it was so on the stage. He talks about the metrics from the doctors and scientists and defers to the CDC. He presents a vision that while not rosy or pleasant, will be endured and survived. He trusts his people to do the hard work necessary for success. He put together a team of East Coast governors to look at reopening the economy and gave each of them equal time to speak on the call that introduced the idea. He leads, respects his team and trusts his people.

While my political leanings may not favor either man, I recognize the leadership game has been won.

Flynn recognizes that no "organization has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led" (p. xi). This worries me for the country, but I am lifted by the governors responses to it all. We will make it through this time with scars no matter what. Our leaders can help it to not be a catastrophe.

Sorry about the political commentary. It is just how this world is being seen and emphasized by my reading.

helping young people learn self regulation

Brad Chapin and Matthew Penner wrote Helping Young People Learn Self-Regulation: Lessons, Activities and Worksheets for Teaching the Essentials of Responsible Decision Making & Self-Control as a set of instructions to teach young people how to better manage their emotions and behaviors. The book is in three parts: a lengthy introduction that explains the purpose and intent of the text, a series of lesson plans with worksheets to address physical, and emotional strategies for self-regulation and an appendix. The book originally comes with a CD, but my used copy did not.

I appreciate the approach that the authors take- focusing on the progression from physical to emotional to cognitive strategies and the idea that you cannot really teach later skills before physical ones are in hand. Their strategies seem like they would be effective for young people. It is worksheet dependent. Students who cannot compose or read would need modifications to the tasks. They include instructions for using the approach with both individual and small group settings. Students with extreme issues would probably need more support than the 8 week cycle they present. Ideally if a child were going through the program, home and school would be notified of the skill that the child was working on, how to do it and reminders to practice it. This would be particularly important as children might not buy in and be willing to practice on their own.

The book is short, a mere 109 pages including the appendix and references. It is easily read and the instructions are spelled out well so that just about anyone could use the approach.

blogging about books

April's Educational Leadership contains an article by Jennifer Stewart-Mitchell "Blogging about Books." In trying to encourage student participation in meaningful discussion, Jennifer utilized blogs and a framework- 3C's and a Q. I was unfamiliar with this strategy and see lots of ways it could be used in a classroom.

• C- compliment
• C- comment
• C- connect
• Q question

Sentence stems could be made available to help guide a discussion. (An abundance of online sources of starters are available.)
Compliment:

• I liked how...
• You did a great job …
• Using that image/quote/video/etc really helped to showcase...

Comment:

• I agree that...
• I disagree about...
• You make a good point about..., but I want to point out that...
• We are in agreement that …. because …
• While …, it must be said that …
• One exception to that idea is...
• It should not be forgotten that...
• This brings us to another issue. …
• What makes … even worse is …
• From this we can conclude that …

Connect: (text to self, text to text, text to world, text to media)

• When you mentioned ..., it made me think about...
• When you say..., it reminds me of...
• I also have seen this when/where …
• Doesn't that make you think of …
• I understand how … felt because …
• If … happened to me, then I would do/feel/say...
• I am different from …, because I …

Question:

• Why do you think … so far?
• What do you mean when you say...?
• If that is the case then …?
• What evidence supports the idea that …?
• Since the characters said …, what do you think will happen next? Why?

This kind of framework would help student craft responses that are better than "He's right" or "Good job." They encourage continuation of the conversation. For students with executive function challenges, it provides a jumping point and sense of security because they know what is expected. The teacher should definitely model using the framework for students and have both hard copies and posted copies of sentence starters to use.

Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Behavior

This enforced time alone has me watching both archived and new webinars. This one by Barbara Kaiser through Early Childhood Investigations is particularly pertinent as it addresses trauma. The webinar is entitled Understanding the Impact of Trauma on Behavior and runs about 90 minutes. You can register and watch the webinar here. Many programs are now trying to be trauma sensitive or trauma informed. This is in recognition that the lives of many of our children are subject to incredible perceived challenges. Children who are exposed to these ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) tend to struggle in school. While the target audience is teachers and caregivers of preschool, the webinar is appropriate for everyone.

Before discussing trauma, she talks about the adults. Adults who care for or teach children need to build their personal resilience because it is hard to be around struggling youth. Common phrases we hear are compassion fatigue and secondary trauma stress. By opening with the importance of caring for yourself, she highlights that if you are not in a good emotional state, you will not be able to help children who are not in a good emotional state.

Some of the ACEs that Barbara describes include abuse, neglect and dysfunction such as divorce, parental (or other child) mental illness, substance abuse. Risk factors also include having a parent in jail, poverty and poor attachment. She gives a good description of an assortment of challenges that students may face and the way they react to them. She includes disaster effect in her description. CoVid19 certainly falls into the category of a disaster that has upended children's lives- school is canceled, day cares are closed, parents are working from home or are isolating.

One important consideration she discusses is how trauma and chronic stress change the brain and our genes. We like to think of our genes as stable and unchangeable. Yes, mutations may happen, but that is the exception. Random mutations do occur at the somatic cell level all the time, but this is not what we are talking about. When we expose cells to high levels of adrenaline and cortisol, they change how cells work over time. People become locked into the fight or flight cycle with the amygdala primed to be in charge. The thinking brain is turned off. Since we as teachers need to interact with the thinking brain in order to teach, we need to discover strategies to help students deescalate their stress.

She offers many suggestions for working with trauma exposed children including providing consistency and routines and being flexible. A child may truly be incapable of dealing with something and then safe alternatives need to be found. (I worked in a program where we visited Santa- some kids needed to be nowhere near Santa and that was ok.)

A great overview with many positive suggestions.