This blog has moved and been added to the other blogs that I have been writing over the last three years.
Please join others in reading Shared Leadership, a blog about people and ideas that are shifting education.
Click here www.jamiereverb.com to start reading and enjoying and learning from Shared Leadership!
I am so lucky to be able to be travel and be in different schools each week. It gives me a unique perspective as I am able to compare one culture to another, from one industry to another. Yesterday I had an amazing experience visiting New City School in St. Louis, Missouri. I traveled there from Memphis to see for myself what New City Head Tom Hoerr talks and writes about, and I was impressed with the mission driven, truly collaborative, student-centered learning community that he has grown and orchestrated.
As I left my hotel, Moonrise Hotel, a new, hip, boutique entry in the St. Louis market, I was thinking about shared vision and its tremendous organizing power in a culture. I was thinking of this because of two encounters I had upon checkout. One with the room service valet in the elevator and the other with the facilities manager who helped me find my car.
I love hotels because I am so familiar with their challenges and opportunities having run my own hotel in Memphis, which we developed from back-of-the-napkin to daily operation for 10 years. Our hotel, Talbot Heirs, existed quite successfully in the armpit of the most well known and historic hotel in the state, maybe the region, The Peabody Hotel, in downtown Memphis. One reason we were did was because we had a story to tell, and we told it consistently, loudly, and widely.
The room service valet thought twice before he entered the elevator with me. I recognized him for a few hours before when he brought my tray to my room. “The breakfast was wonderful,” I said. “In fact my whole stay has exceeded my expectations. I would come back. I notice this is part of Desires Hotels?” I said. “I am not familiar with them.”
“They are an boutique hotel operator with hotels in Miami, New York, Milwaukee, and I think L.A.,” he said, which impressed me that he knew. “We are their newest. We opened only 5 months ago.” I asked him how many rooms they had and about their theme, the moon. He went on to tell me about their growing success in the city and the sleek mystique the theme of the moon offers. I was impressed that he knew the vision. “Have a great day,” we offered each other in parting at the lobby stop.
The valet was away when I needed my car. The facilities manager grabbed my keys and we set out to look for my car which the valet secured the night before. “Who owns this hotel?” I asked him. He was able to tell me the owner’s name, the other properties he owned in the area, and the strategic vision of why this area needed a sleek, hip hotel. I was impressed.
When I arrived at New City School, amazingly, I had a very similar experience. I had the luxury of spending my first hour talking with a small group of parents who were sitting in the Parents Reception Area, a designated area with an area rug, couch, chairs, toys for preschool children, and a coffee station stocked by the school where parents are encouraged to linger. Imagine the impact this has on the perception and reality of the parent-school partnership. The parents, in a very certain yet second-nature way, were able to explain to me the vision and mission of the Multiple Intelligence framework of New City School. They were able to tell me the difference between New City and the other schools in the area. I was impressed.
Tom Hoerr collected me from the conversation with the parents and handed me a facilities map. He marked where I was, told me when to be back at his office, and sent me on a self-directed tour. I was impressed, for this reason: he wasn’t worried; he didn’t seem anxious that I might not see the school he wanted me to see. In fact, he was confident. I was impressed.
As I followed the noise echoing in the wide, turn of the century hallways, I entered classrooms quietly so as not to distract. Every classroom I entered continued their work without caring that I was there. If the teacher could break free, she would warmly greet and welcome me, asking if I were a teacher or a parent, trying to instantly calculate what I might be most interested in. In each instance I introduced myself, “Hi. I am Jamie, a consultant from Memphis.” I would show the map that Tom had given me and continue, “I am giving myself a tour.”
More than one teacher responded, “Tom gave you that map and said Go for it!”
I was immediately at ease, also laughing, “Exactly!” I said. Each teacher told me about the physical arrangement of her room and how it was laid out to support the development of the nine different intelligences and grade level theme that are the organizing framework of their curriculum. She would explain what her students were engaged in learning at the moment and invite me to stay as long as I liked. Even the substitutes that I encountered could tell me exactly the overarching purpose and framework of the school’s philosophy and of their daily work.
Everyone I interacted with relished the opportunity to share with me their work. None seems annoyed that I showed up, unannounced. That is not always the case when I tour schools.
Traveling through the spectrum of grades, I developed a full version of New City’s story, and it was consistent from class to class, teacher to teacher, and it was detailed and balanced. I was impressed that Tom was so aware and confident in his colleagues’ ability and joy in telling the story of New City School that no tour guide was needed.
I knew what I was experiencing was shared vision, shared leadership, and shared responsibility. I was seeing the work of collaborative, mission-driven colleagues proud of their environment, their students, and their work. Both at my hotel that morning, and on my self-directed tour, lots of work had been down to create shared ownership and stewardship, if you will, of the story of the place and the work. I was delighted and impressed and gratified in seeing the power of story recognized and utilized by two businesses in the same day.
On one of my other blogs, I posted this great motivational video that highlights failure as the great teacher. Life is about taking risks. It is only by trying that we might potentially succeed. Take a look and then think about the risks you are taking and not taking but should be.
Why not? Why not believe in the infinite possibility of the future?
Alice says it: we don’t know how; we haven’t had practice; we fail to dare ourselves.
To rediscover, or discover for the first time how to defeat your pragmatic critic, I recommend reading Rosamund Stone Zander with her husband, Boston Philharmonic Conductor Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility.
How can we create the futures we desire for our students and ourselves if we cannot clearly see what is possible?
Did you Google anything today?
Did you notice today’s Google logo?
Did you realize for whom it was a tribute?
Did you seek to find out, if you didn’t know?
Once you found out, did you Google Hans Christian Ørstead?
Did you find out why Google choose to honor this person?
Here’s some help:
The who: Wikipedia entry on Orstead
The why: Google spokesperson Anne Espiritu expressed that honoring Ørsted reflects the Google’s personality and love of innovation.
Now, be reflective. For me, today’s Google logo poses two questions:
Are you mindful?
Are you a learner?
Retro headphones, originally uploaded by Toni Rantanen.
I was recently a guest on a podcast, my first! What great fun it was and how marvelous is the ease of recording and producing useful content.
The podcast was produced by the National Association of Independent Schools and here are the details:
“Beyond a Flicker to a Twitter”
Host:
Jefferson Burnett, NAIS, VP for Financially Sustainable Schools
Guests:
Lorrie Jackson, Director of Communications, Lausanne Collegiate School
Jamie Baker, Reverb Consulting
Description:
The new social media are not only re-shaping school communication strategies, delivery, and content, but prompting changes to institutional leadership.
Audience:
Head of School, Strategic Leadership team, Communications team
Purpose:
Awareness and strategic understanding of social media
Listen here: NAIS podcast
If you are not an NAIS school member, you will not be able to listen to the podcast, so let me expound upon just a few of the main points.
Social media consists of all of the tools that we hear about as adults yet often resist and are irritated by. At least, many busy adults are. The central question is why do I need to bother, a the leader of a school or any organization? Lorrie Jackson and I make the strong case that we all need to bother because the revolution in social media represents a fundamental change in the way we, as a society, prefer to communicate. And, for businesses, like independent schools, that are working toward sustainable messaging, product and service offerings, and relevant organizational values like strong interconnected communities, tools like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, Delicious, Diigo, Yelp and more are the language of the day.
Why bother? Let me put a question back in return, what do you stand to lose by not bothering? And further, do you see every opportunity as a “bother” first?
photo by P. Davis Baker
I want to keep this list of strategies from a recent post by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, so this blog is a great place for that. I like this list because it is varied and long enough for me to find something different to do each week to stay fresh, inspired and primed to be able to see things in an interesting way. Zen Habits is a famously successful blog and the original post was entitled The Little But Really Useful Guide to Creativity.
Most people have a very limited and confined understanding of creativity. They imagine being creative as being able to draw or paint or write a short story. To me, being creative is about being able to summons great energy and passion and skill toward any project. It could be to cook a meal, to set a table, to meet someone new and carry on a real conversation. It could be in designing the culture of an organization, which is one of my creative outlets. Creativity at its essence is about being alive, lively, and engaged. We would each be healthier, happier, and better contributors to our communities and the world were we all more creative.
Here’s the list of how to start to grow your understanding and skill of creativity. And, my hope for myself and anyone reading this is that we all intentionally undertake creative growth! Growing my own vision, talent, compassion, ideas, and generosity remind me of one of my grandmother Georgia’s nuggets of wisdom:
Your life is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.
Increasing one’s creative capacity in any field is treasuring and stewarding our wonderful humanity.
Vast selection of Voo Doo Donuts!
From John about his donuts, “Totally worth the trip!”
My old buddy John in Portland with his Voo Doo Donut! The Memphis Mafia: banana cream filled with chocolate and peanut butter on top! YUM!
(photo by advicepig)
Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Reflection, observation, and synthesis are the skills that we use to think about ourselves and about ourselves in any given circumstance or system, like a relationship or an organization.
An important place to start to become “metacognitive” is to start gathering insights through non-judgmental, non-rationalizing observation of one’s actions, behaviors, and beliefs. A good first observing task or actually place to research is to look into one’s own strengths, weaknesses, interests and passions:
What am I good at?
What is hard for me?
What types about things do I always procrastinate in doing?
What areas do I like to learn about?
What do I love to do, places I love to be, things I love to think about?
How would I choose to spend my time if I had absolute freedom?
How do I learn best?
Do I like to learn alone or with people?
Do I like to learn from books, audio, video, or hands-on?
Do I like to know things or do I like to learn things?
Do I like sharing my knowledge?
Do I like using my knowledge as a badge, weapon, or barrier?
What do I know about how people learn and specifically about how I learn?
Do I arrange situations so that they fit me, my strengths, and my learning style?
How do I manage my time?
What do I not know about me that I would like to know?
What have I not considered? (usually this is what really bugs you about other people)
Metacognition is similar to Gardner’s intrapersonal intelligence where one constructs an accurate self-perception and uses it to make decisions. Knowing yourself helps you become more strategic, more effective, and more perceptive and understanding of others. Deep self-knowledge creates the space and acceptance for the fact that others can and will be really different for us.
Knowing oneself well allows each of us to pinpoint those beliefs and skills that are just too small anymore, too limiting. It is by growing these skills and beliefs that we are able to adapt to new challenges, new people, and new directions.
Looking inward is the first best step to creating and leading new outward direction that is sustainable.
