TregoED tregoed, Author at TregoED

Know When to Fold ‘Em

October 15, 2014

Sometimes the best solution is the one we’ve never thought of. But it can be especially difficult to embrace a new solution when we have actively championed a different one. When the boss clearly has a favored alternative, they often do not get the most accurate feedback. People may support it (or not support it) just because it’s the boss’s idea. They may be reluctant to point out flaws – or they may appear supportive but actually oppose the idea behind the scenes. Leaders who forge ahead with favored alternatives while ignoring or overlooking meaningful feedback and debate send messages about their value for others’ opinions.

But what about the leader who pushes one alternative, but is willing to accept another? What messages does this send? One superintendent we work with was convinced that his new technical school needed a football team. For all the right reasons, he thought this would help the district.

But not everyone agreed. He asked a team to use Decision Analysis and make a recommendation. After much discussion and study, the team concluded that it did indeed make sense to add a sports team. However, their recommendation clearly showed that track and field fit the agreed-upon objectives better than football.

The superintendent could’ve suggested the analysis was flawed and that they had left out some objectives – even though he had signed off on them. He could’ve thanked them for their analysis, thrown it out, and done what he wanted anyway. Or, he could’ve done what he ended up doing: admitting there was indeed a better solution and that they had raised points he hadn’t considered.

Despite his prior public support of a different option, he switched gears and gave his staff credit. What message does it send when a leader is willing to do this? It lets people know that:

Their thinking and hard work is valued, respected, and trusted
Making the right decision is more important than saving face – what matters is what’s best for the district

Of course, it is not always possible or desirable to concede that you may have been wrong. But there is value in thinking through what is being communicated one way or the other. Sometimes “folding” is the most sensible, savvy and effective strategy.

Decision-Making Roadmap Prevents Analysis Paralysis

October 8, 2014

I ran across a graphic today that said “Overthinking – The art of creating problems that weren’t even there.”

Face it, we have all done it. Some of us are really good at it -lay awake nights just, well, overthinking things. You might feel that overthinking can help you make better decisions, but the reality is that overthinking can actually create “analysis paralysis” – a situation where a decision or action is never taken because the problem has been over analyzed. Perhaps “overthinking” is a misnomer, jumbled thinking is the true cause.

So, how do you avoid “analysis paralysis”? One of the reasons for that paralysis is that leaders do not have a clear vision of what they want or need to focus their thinking. Paralysis is also caused when leaders lack a logical sequence of steps to structure their thinking. Without that focus or structure, overthinking, roundabout or round-and-round thinking, often occurs.

Start with the end in mind

Steve Covey had the right idea when he said “To begin with an end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you can understand where you are now so that steps you take are always in the right direction.” Habit #2 of Steve Covey’s Habits of Highly Effective People

Dr. Ben Tregoe and Charles Kepner found this to hold true in their research of highly effective decision makers. Their Decision Analysis process does just that – starts you off with a clear understanding of your destination AND gives you the steps that will always take you in the right direction.

So where do you start?

Get a clear vision! State the decision you are trying to make clearly – What exactly are you trying to decide? Let’s say you are trying to deal with technology issues in your school. There is a big difference between these two decision statements:

a. What technology should our students be using? Or

b. What technology platform should our students be using?

You should always have a visible decision statement that clearly states your specific task. In my example, you may have to decide “Option a” before you can work on “Option b.”

2. Go in the right direction – What exactly would your best option look like? What is it that you want? This becomes your criteria. So your best option for the first problem above might be:

Portable

Durable

Internet access

Simple to use

Under $500

Compatible with grading program, etc

Using a tried and true decision making process can save you time and money. Starting your decision making by “understanding your destination” can help you avoid “analysis paralysis” and over-thinking things. There is a big difference between purposeful thinking and random overthinking.

“If the learner hasn’t learned . . . “

September 24, 2014

“If the learner hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.”

How many times as an administrator or as an educator have you heard that phrase? I know I have heard it often. At times I have agreed with the statement but just as many times I have not! I think if all things were perfect – the environment was conducive for learning, the content was of interest, the class size made sense, the teacher was exceptional – er, wait. The teacher was exceptional? Of all the elements for a learner to learn, how important is the teacher? I would suggest that the teacher is clearly the critical element in this equation. How do we get exceptional teaching that inspires exceptional learning? Let’s even broaden the thought: How do we get exceptional administrators that inspire exceptional leaders? The answer is not so difficult!

I think it goes to another cliché: “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” So, how do you become the exceptional administrator, leader or teacher? Simple – Professional Development! Or, in simple terms, continuous learning! If we think about our own personal lives, every few years we open a new chapter. Most of us don’t remain the same at 30 as we were at 20. We have life experiences, we evolve and mature, we grow as individuals. So, why would we not want to grow and evolve as an administrator, leader or educator? I challenge each one of you reading this to ask yourself: “What have I done for continuous learning to make me an exceptional ___________(fill in the blank)? Whether it is formal – like attending a training to hone your leadership skills or joining an education community, such as this, to numerous other experiences that build your capacity and your knowledge base, that is how I believe we become exceptional. Don’t wait for others to inspire you – you inspire others by growing, evolving and being just plain exceptional, so the learner truly does learn because the teacher has truly taught!!

Pat Schwarber is Director of Leadership Services at TregoED. Pat designed and facilitates workshops in a variety of areas including: strategy formulation and implementation, skill development, team building, and productivity improvement.

The Gravity of “Good Enough”

September 10, 2014

Think about the best teachers, bosses or leaders you have known. Are they memorable because they let you off easy or expected little of you? Probably not. How often have you mused, “I am grateful to Ms. ___ because she didn’t require too much of me”?

Not expecting enough of ourselves – and of others – is an insult. Sure, it is uncomfortable to fall short of goals, but it’s not as damaging as not setting the goals high enough in the first place. Of course, it feels good to fulfill expectations. But does it really feel as good when we know those expectations were too low? If it does, we are selling ourselves short – and allowing others to do the same.

Perhaps what is most troubling about a pattern of low expectations is that it can easily become institutionalized. Pervasive low expectations can create a culture where we feel entitled to achieve or exceed expectations. We may become content with – even demand – “good enough.” We may resent being asked to do something different or more difficult. When important goals aren’t ambitious, we don’t reach far enough. And when we fail to reach far, we atrophy. Like gravity, “good enough” goals bring everyone down.

How do you want to be remembered as an educator, leader, parent? As someone who helped people achieve more than they thought possible – or as someone who settled for “good enough”?

Cynthia Richetti is co-author with Ben Tregoe of Analytic Processes for School Leaders and a consultant for TregoED offering workshops and training for school leaders.

Are We Therrrrrrrrre (sic) Yet???

August 27, 2014

Although summer vacation is over, parents know that any car ride still carries with it the possibility of hearing the old, familiar and much dreaded plaintive cry…”How much longer till we get there?”

Moms and Dads can find many ways to quell the commotion coming from kids, but school leaders who find themselves asking themselves the very same question as the new school year begins have no source of comfort! The road stretching from September to June is long and winding…and, often, full of delays, detours and difficulties that are not even on the radar screen on Labor Day weekend! Gertrude Stein observed, “When you get there, there isn’t any there there.” True enough…or in today’s vernacular…”true dat!” If only getting “there” in schools were as easy as plugging in a GPS destination!

In the past, schools and their leaders had a clear cut sense of what they needed to do in order to achieve their goals: teach the reading, writing and math fundamentals that would allow kids entrance into either higher education or trade/technical school. Communities valued the concept and delivery of education to children. Parents operated with the belief that “the teacher is always right.” Teachers entered the profession recognizing that their salaries would be low but their respect within communities would be high.

None of that sounds like America in the 2014-2015 academic year…does it?

Schools must envision their own “end game”, balance the shrinking budgets with expanding expectations, brace for the burgeoning national conversations about tenure, accountability and performance…and do it all with less parental involvement. Explosions of alternatives to the traditional school model abound: charter, cyber, home-schools, private, parochial, etc. Each of these has a place in the large dialog about the best way to educate kids, but the sheer number of entities has ratcheted up the volume of dialog about what schools are, what they should be and what they need to do in order to be successful.

Being able to clarify the actual questions that should be posed at the beginning of a year is not always easy.

But NOT being able to ask salient questions insures the probability of confusion standing in the place of clarity and negatively impacting both performance and morale.

The ability to survey the school terrain and isolate the most pressing issues for administration and staff is a skill set that may not come naturally to leaders.

However, it is a skill that can be learned.

TregoED has an unparalleled ability to teach school leaders HOW to assess their immediate environment and, subsequently, how to prioritize the pressing questions so that all stakeholders feel validated . When school leaders discover how to harness the power of process via situation appraisal, they are better able to focus on the destination AND chart a reasonable way to reach the common goal.

In other words, the trained facilitators at TregoEd can help school districts and school leaders determine where their institutions are headed…and how to get there asap!

We may not be able to ride along on your next vacation, but we surely can help your next faculty planning session feel less like an unending car ride and more like a non-stop, first class flight!

Please reach out to us…no passport needed!

A To-Do List for a Grand Re-opening!

August 13, 2014

Yesterday I visited a school principal who was in his office, despite being on vacation, because there is just so much to do. He kept apologizing for “the mess” – which was not really a mess at all, it was just the business of transitioning a school from summer activities to fall. Summer, a time when orders come in (boxes in the hallway), maintenance projects take place (lockers were being switched out for larger lockers), tech gets updated, curriculum is written, summer “camps” use the building, teachers are in and out, meetings are held, and the building is cleaned top to bottom; and Fall when buildings, grounds, and classrooms are clean and welcoming, parent, student (and teacher!) anxiety is high, and everything (transportation, scheduling, food services, technology and security) is up and running smoothly. At least that is your hope!

School districts have a Grand Re-opening every year. In preparation for this, everyone involved has a to-do list: superintendents, principals, assistant principals, guidance personnel, teachers, child study teams, secretaries, maintenance staff, custodians, food service people, transportation, IT staff, parents and students. Most of these to-do lists overlap and depend on other people doing their to-dos.

Managing the Grand Re-opening

How do you manage all of this? One person does not have to do all of the work, but shouldn’t someone be responsible for organizing and keeping track of the work so that the right hand DOES know what the left hand is doing? How do you plan for success? One way to organize your Grand Re-opening is to use a process that will go much deeper than the traditional to-do list using these steps:

Start with the right people in the room. Pull together a team or task force of stakeholders that can help you understand all of the issues that need to be taken care of. These may not be the actual do-ers, but those that can help determine what needs to be done and will take ownership.
Once you have your list of “actionable items” (the “to dos”), clarify those steps by asking “What needs to be done? By whom? By when?”
Use simple tools to keep communication going in both directions – google docs and a shared calendar can help keep everyone informed of your progress towards opening day.

Using a process or critical thinking strategy can help you organize your thinking to keep the big picture in focus while bits and pieces are taken care of. Think of those separate tasks as puzzle pieces that have to fit together to get to your main goal – the grand opening. As when you help to put together a jigsaw puzzle, it feels great when your section falls into place to be part of the “big picture.” Make sure you include “celebration” as one of the tasks to prepare for! Planning for a smooth transition between summer and fall can help you set a positive tone for everyone in the coming school year.

Looking to Kill Creativity and Innovation? It’s Easy! (A Tongue-in-Cheek Perspective)

July 28, 2014

Tired of people taking initiative or developing creative solutions? Feel like putting a stop to that? It isn’t hard to do. Envision the crestfallen look on a young person’s face when we tell them that despite a well-intentioned effort to do something in a new or better way, they did it wrong – and they must never do it again. Once may not be enough to permanently squelch enthusiasm, but repeated criticism or correction will ensure less creative problem-solving and initiative.

Don’t Rock the Boat

What messages do we send in our own workplace about those who take initiative and generate creative solutions? Typically organizations want people to follow procedures, operate within certain norms, and not rock the boat. All of these things do serve a purpose – and they are especially effective at maintaining the status quo. However, if improvement is in order, some other expectations are required. Doing things differently or for the first time almost guarantees there will be mistakes made and failures along the way. The question becomes: do we have a tolerance for imperfection? Do we have the fortitude to do what is right or best – even if we know it won’t be done perfectly?

Kevin Eikenberry, leadership expert, says that mistakes are OK as long as they:

Lead to learning
Aren’t repeated
Are done in pursuit of goals and objectives.
Don’t violate or conflict with your values

3 Ways to Squash Creativity in the Workplace

Change and improvement will almost always lead to making mistakes – what matters is how we handle them. Squelching creativity, initiative, and enthusiasm is guaranteed when you just follow these simple guidelines:

1 –Don’t do anything new – stick with the familiar – doing new things increases the likelihood of mistakes and requires all sorts of changes in multiple areas. And in the long-run, trying new things encourages others to come up with new ways of doing things which can create a vicious cycle of improvements.

2 – Whenever someone proposes a new or different way to do something, focus on the reasons the idea will not work. Frequently you can use the “we’ve already tried that” card – if you invoke the name of a failed prior initiative, you often do not need to provide any additional rationale.

3 –Fixate on and micro-manage the details – details are not unimportant, but they can be all-consuming. If everyone is managing the details, they will have little opportunity to “see the bigger picture.” Seeing the bigger picture only invites ideas and new ways of doing things.

Change and improvement are risky business, avoiding those risks will ensure your organization will stay right where it is!

Cynthia Richetti

What’s your Next Play?

July 18, 2014

Isn’t it amazing how often we get so caught up in the moment, we do not think about what is coming next? Sometimes it may be a crisis, but other times it may be something that just takes your breath away – like actually getting the technology grant!

Coach K ( Mike Krzyzewski) of the Duke Blue Devils fame (and Olympics), has one mantra he uses with his teams (at Duke or at the Olympics). What is that mantra? Next Play. Whether a player has scored a fabulous dunk, or the team has given up a turnover, Coach K does not let them celebrate – nor lament – too long. It is always about Next Play.

In the TregoED world, that would be called Potential Problem/Opportunity Analysis. We believe in not being ‘reactive’, but actually being ‘proactive’. Why? Because you are prepared for the “What If’s?” What if they steal the ball in the red zone? What if they lose the rebound? Or, what if we have a teacher who resigns two weeks before the start of school? What if we have more students that enroll than we planned? What if we get the Impact grant? What if we win the Blue Ribbon of Excellence for our school?

We don’t wait until those circumstances occur to take action. We think into the future and put actions in place to either prevent those potential problems, or actions that will seize the opportunities. This is not rocket science – it is just common sense!

If we think about the What If’s, and encourage those on our team (within the school, within the district, within our board, within our community ) to think about and plan for the What If’s, we can also begin to adopt Coach K’s mantra – Next Play – as our own!

Discover a Better Decision-making Approach

June 13, 2014

How are you most likely to approach a controversial or difficult choice? Do you typically open up the process to others and their ideas – or batten down the hatches until ready to present your conclusions? Undoubtedly, you have experienced the challenges involved in either approach. However, the answer to this question, though, may well determine the outcome.

In “Why Decisions Fail”, Paul Nutt outlines two basic decision-making approaches. A “discovery” approach involves: confirming true needs (not simply reacting to what the squeaky wheel says is true), establishing decision goals, being open to new and better ideas, and listening to and involving stakeholders. The “idea imposition” approach involves making an important decision in isolation or with a select group, then rolling it out and convincing other of its value. Nutt finds that this latter approach is 4 times as likely to fail as an approach that is more collaborative and open to new possibilities.

In the Sewanhaka (NY) Central High School District, ambitious educational goals, needed capital improvements and funding pressures suggested that a bond referendum might be necessary. The Board could have just announced that a referendum was needed and gone about holding public forums, etc. to explain why and air concerns. Instead, they employed TregoED strategies in a discovery approach to engage in dialogue with their communities. This approach helped: reaffirm goals the communities held dear, explore other approaches and ways of saving money, and ensured concerns were listened to. Based on the inputs received, the District modified its approach to better meet new concerns and objectives. In addition to listening closely to its publics, the District ensured that it openly shared information, plans, and concerns with every stakeholder group. Ultimately, both the budget and referendum passed overwhelmingly. Congratulations, Sewanhaka!

It’s called Collaboration!

May 27, 2014

My son recently was ‘inaugurated’ as president of the University of Akron Graduate School Government. In the ceremony, the associate provost, Dr. Becky Hoover, shared her experience with the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra from New York. This Grammy-winning orchestra has never had a conductor!

As one observer, David Pearce commented, “In a conductorless orchestra, the musicians have to make the decisions and agree on how they will play each part of a score,” he said. “That requires team emotional intelligence. The orchestra members have to relate to each other in a very mature way to get results, and everyone has to participate.”

Orpheus has garnered worldwide attention in the corporate sector for its unique approaches to creativity, innovation and self-management. The “Orpheus Process” is built on individual responsibility, shared leadership and workplace democracy, principles that are highly valued in today’s progressive corporate environment, Pearce said. These principles have enabled the orchestra to unleash the talent, vision, creativity and leadership potential of each member of the group, and brought the group international acclaim over the last 28 years.

This made me think of the introductory workshop offered through TregoED, Collaborative Decision Making for School Leaders in the education environment. It truly is the collaboration that makes this as distinctive as the critical thinking skills we teach. Collaboration is the way the world works – or should work! As part of 21st century workplace readiness, collaboration is at the top of the list. So, how often do you intentionally collaborate? At work, at home, your place of worship? And, how often do you encourage others to collaborate? Identify those times where collaboration will add value, both to you, personally, as well as those with whom you will collaborate. Watch and see how the results are more than you could have imagined. You just might have a conductorless group in your environment!