We often refer to the gaining of support as BUY-IN. Too often that phrase is thought of in the past tense, as if it's already in the books, a done deal, a ship sailed. Not so. The work of gaining and maintaining BUY-IN is an ongoing process, not an event. Masters at...
Thought Leaders
DISTRACTION
We have limited time, limited energy, limited resources, limited bandwidth, and limited attention. There are a bazillion things and many people (10s? 100s? 1000s?) that compete for our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention. We get to decide what's...
InquiryGurus
Some of the smartest people I know play dumb a lot. They steadily pitch questions at us that make us think. Then those crafty characters glean the collective wisdom that comes out of the responses to their powerful questions. Here are some things I've noticed in the...
DemandModel
The teams I have worked with over the years have likely grown weary of hearing this steady admonition from me: "If we can't model it, we can't demand it." As I think about that declaration -- while looking in my own metaphorical mirror -- several dimensions of this...
PresencePower
We sometimes get so busy being productive that we forget to be present. There is tremendous power in being present, fully present. Here are some of the things that manifest, and are perceived as, presence: Non-distracted eye contact. Interest in the person, not just...
Teacher Coach
The best teachers I know follow this recipe: Relentlessly craft lessons that cause students to acquire and retain knowledge relevant to the subject matter. On continuous loop, in many and varying ways. Persistently present students with skill development activities...
CulturalSpinnerThumping
Culture is evolutionary. The culture of our family, of our house of faith, of our team, of our organization (of any kind) was built over time, one brick at a time. The version of that culture (of whichever organization we're thinking about) we experience today is the...
NoviceDevelopment
My early years of professional service were spent pretending to be an athletic coach. I heard Nicholas Keith of the Texas Education Association speak this week to to the powerful progression recipe for learner development: > Acquisition (initial learning of the...
MatterMaking
We all want to feel like we matter. The wisest leaders I know are masters of helping us feel like we matter. How do they do that? They... LISTEN to us, intently. ASK us questions, to probe our perspectives, opinions, assumptions, values. TREAT us as equals and...
BEcoming
The day we stop learning is the day we put the first foot in the grave. Becoming the very best version of ourselves is a learning journey, from the first breath to the last. Existing, however, is not the same as living a meaningful life. Some things that help us...
