Question 175 of 365: Where does arrogance come from?

It is impossible to know everything, or to even know all of the things that there are to know in one particular area. We all know this to be true, and yet there is a certain level of arrogance for people in positions of power that seems to imply the opposite.

Consulting and arrogance go hand in hand. You never have to stick around to see hoe things shake out. Anyone who claims to know the solution is a consultant and not a stakeholder.

Stakeholders are around for the long haul. They are interested in making sure that everything has been thought through and that backup loans exist. Consultants don’t worry about backup plans. They are never brought in again if the first time didn’t work out.

It is not to sway that consultants can’t care about the issues of the day, it is just that they are an expendable part of the community. The arrogance that comes from not doing any one thing for a terribly long time is so ingrained in their actions that they start to believe all that they are preaching. I am glad for their voices and their persecutive, but I don’t want them running anything. I want consistent voices, but ones that crack every once in a while. I don’t want the mighty voice coming down from on high and letting me in on the secret to a better work life or collaborative solution.

Arrogance comes from a place of will.

The consultant is under the impression that they can will something into being. It is their personality and charismatic leadership that are going to see us through. It is their vision and forward thinking that will place us ahead of the pack. It is their body of work that will speak for itself and show us the way.

I was once a consultant for the job that I now hold. Before I became a stakeholder, I had the chance to be arrogant. I consulted on creating an online school and provided professional development on how to create online courses. The school that I helped to first design had several flaws, not the least of which was that I wasn’t sure I would have to live with the results if I stopped consulting. I developed something that didn’t require me to exist and that made sense to do. Unfortunately, the results became readily apparent of how drastically different our vision was from what we actually implemented.

We had disjointed and inconsistent content. We had to switch learning mangement systems (3 times in two years). We had no way to insure that the tools that our stakeholders used today would be in place tomorrow, and we switched it on them many times.

All of these things come from a place of arrogance. I arrogantly thought that by providing 101 tools and resources for authentic learning that would be enough to spark the people I was consulting with to create an environment that we could all be proud of. But I was just a consultant presenting an answer. I didn’t listen to what happened before and I sure didn’t want to admit that I had never actually attended an online course. I claimed authority when all I should have been claiming was my seat at the table.

So, here is what I promise:

I will never consult on a project that I don’t ever have to see again.

I will never create a solution before I know the real problems.

I will never offer my experience as evidence that the current project will be a success.

I will never start a revolution without understanding exactly who’s head I will have to cut off to do so.

I will never stop being honest with those around me as to my bias, my understanding, and my plans.

I will listen to anyone who cares to speak with me.

I do not want the arrogance that comes along with consulting. Instead, I want to be so invested in my work, regardless of actual titles, that I feel as though I am staking all that I am with each action. “Becsause I said so” is not enough. At least not for me, and certainly not any more.

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Question 117 of 365: When should you jump ship?

Other people affect us in the strangest ways. Retirement parties are one such example. The rash of these awkward moments in my life have really been getting to me. When people decide to cash in their chips, it really makes me eye the stack I have in front of me. It makes me wonder what they know that I don’t (which, if they are retiring after 30 or 40 years of work, is probably a lot). At these parties there is cake, but it isn’t about the cake. There are gifts, but no one cares about the gifts. There is small talk, but no one remembers what was said. The entire event is centered around the vacuum that will be left in the absence of the person leaving. While we pay attention and say nice things about all of the service that was one in the retiree’s tenure, the real issue on everyone’s mind is all of the things that won’t be done in the future because of this retirement. We all play out in our heads the stories of what will never be completed or worse yet, what projects will never be started.

And the same goes for people leaving to work elsewhere (although, they usually don’t get a grand party). We all know that they will be replaced either by someone new or someone shifting into that position from within. Yet, we cannot put ourselves into that place of knowing what it is that will happen during or after the vacancy. It is entirely the fear of the unknown that creeps in on us and makes us want to run to leave too. It isn’t the peer pressure of other people leaving that makes us question our loyalty. It is the fact that we have no idea who is coming in to replace them and what the organization will look like afterwards.

The best organizations can weather any large-scale changeover. There have been many shifts in priorities and populations in large school districts and Fortune 500 companies, and with each shift comes a new identity. And yet, fitting re-assimilating that identity is hard work, and not all of us have enough energy left for it. So, how can you take control of that oncoming identity shift? You make that change first. If you leave and start work elsewhere, you get to control what you want to be a part of. You get to choose your partners and your co-workers, instead of having them chosen for you as the organization morphs into something that is unrecognizable to you.

And yet, there is a powerful force within us that makes us want to wait it out and see if it will get any better. There is always this loyal streak that seems to engage our fight or flight instinct and it gets us to recognize just how hard the flight might be. We look around us, at the economic realities of the day, and we decide that it is good just to have a job. We make do with what we have. We take on additional responsibilities. Every day, we keep our head down just a little bit lower in the hopes that everything will start to shake out and we won’t have to move too far from where we are to maintain a similar status.

And then more changes come, more uncertainty. More people keep leaving, challenging our resolve. Stay the course or head out in a new direction? All of this head-down standing still doesn’t work so well when the ground underneath us is moving.

So, without putting too fine a point on it, I would like to enumerate the things that I look for in deciding whether or not to jump ship on any given day:

• I must be able to see myself in my leadership. This doesn’t have to be all leadership, however. It can be a single leader that I can look to and see that his or her values align with mine. I need to feel as though I am not working against the entire system at any given moment, and I need to know that someone will have my back if I take a risk.
• Reorganization doesn’t take people for granted. In any reorganization effort, I need to be able to see that the people who are working the hardest to create and innovate within the system are not passed over for people who either want to obstinately keep the status quo or folks who would rather forget everything that has been done before. I don’t want anyone else (or myself for that matter) to feel like someone’s pawn or bargaining chip in the Org Chart.
• Cost savings isn’t getting in the way of progress. You cannot put an entire organization on pause. Cutting can lead to better reflective practice, but it can also lead to better blinders. I opt for continuing what was promised and then delivering more.
• Sitting down and pounding things out becomes the default option instead of waiting things out. I will only stay on board so long as people are willing to sit down and write out what they want. I will not hesitate to jump if I start seeing people wait on the sidelines for too long, hoping that someone will come and solve their problems for them. Hardship is the time when collaboration matters most. It isn’t that you need to communicate more, you need to listen and be in the same space with other people as much as possible. You need to rewrite the organization and ratify it with everyone who is capable of putting their name to paper, even if we know that it will change again. Not knowing, believing, or creating the next generation of an institution is unconscionable.

Because I know that each of these issues is of value to me, I don’t have to live out one my favorite Clash songs on a daily basis. I am loyal and hard-working, but there I also know what is worth fighting for.

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Keynote for leadership meeting

Our superintendent is speaking about the morivators for students: parents, teachers, and technology.

He is highlighting video games and cell phones.

He made an HR person play guitar hero (didn’t do so well). Then he had a 4.0 student play (very well).

He talked about android. He is talking open source cell phones in education.

This is the kind of leader I love working for.

“We want to get into the kid’s heads.”

We have to use the tools that they are using, but we have to lead them. Is that possible? Yes.

Leadership conference for dcsd

We start off with our logo doughboy. It is amazing to see a logo come to life like this, especially with a high school band going on in the background.

We get some more band music (elenor rigby).

Our superintendant is up next. (along with some previous supers.) They all wrote there names on different surfaces: chalkboard, whiteboard, and smartboard.

He is taking a pulse of the audience. Asking about things people might remember, “how many of you have never used a typewriter?”

-pictures of years gone by.

He is going over the minutes of board meetings from the 50s (held every 3 months): my favorite discussion was whether or not to have school (because of budgetary concerns)

The stories that are coming out of today are amazing. I love the fact that we have a history to be proud of. The moments that these people have held together are meaningful. I want to build this in my career, and I am proud to have started here.

Community requires tending.

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a story mostly about tyranny and the corruption of utopian ideals, but in the very beginning there is a passage that means something very different to me. It deals with the leadership of Mr. Jones before the rebellion, before the animals decide to take the farm into their own hands.

“The fields were full of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals were underfed.”

This quotation represents all of the things that happen when Mr. Jones gets too distracted to work, to maintain his environment, and to make life better for all those involved. To me, this is about not tending the community. It is about letting things lie fallow which must be uprooted and overturned to see what is underneath them.

Our communities are just like this I think, both in our classroom and outside of them. The communities within our classroom, especially the collaborative ones that we are all striving for, require an immense amount of tending. The Discovery Utopia wiki that my students are working on (and the reason that we are reading Animal Farm in the first place) is not an exception. If I do not constantly draw attention to the great things that are going on there, the community seems to just pass right on by them. If I do not look for the troubling points, the issues that nearly every student seems to be struggling with, students stop using the community. They find other ways to occupy their time. And that is one of the most interesting parts about our communities. They are communities of choice.

All communities of choice are ones that can be thriving in one minute and vacant in the next. So, how do we tend for consistency? Well, we feed the animals (is it weird that I am referring to my students as animals). We put up new buildings for them to play in. We design the space so that it is inviting and provokes the best kind of authentic creativity: their own.

I think that the lesson is pretty clear. If we do not tend to our communities, they will fail. The inhabitants will rebel and either stop using them, or turn them into something that rejects their purpose. And, if Animal Farm is any indication, the inhabitants of a untended community will become just like us and not tend to their communities. I mean that in both a virtual and real-world sense.

I hope this comes across as something other than a Language Arts teacher’s metaphorical analysis.

Vision for Everyone

Just like Wesley Fryer did for this post, I too will cross-post a comment.

Your vision of leadership (or perhaps just the one that we are talking about now) is something of an enigma to many people. The idea of articulating what the believe in does not strike most people as the best way to spend an evening. It is, however, the only way that we will move forward. It is the way that next steps become possible. Only after the process of reflecting upon what you believe will really be able to see if it goes against what I believe. When you haven’t analyzed your own thoughts on education, when you lack vision, anyone’s vision will do.

I would take this even further, now. Everyone should be going through this process, not just “leaders.” All educators should have vision and be able to articulate it well. It gets everything out on the table and allows for a high level of discourse. There is no way to persuade someone to change unless they know what they are changing from.

So, how do we get everyone to articulate their visions? Assigning it is inauthentic. Dictating it is counterintuitive. It has to come from a place of passion. It has to come from the heart.

Any Thoughts?

The Most Change For The Most Kids

The most change for the most kids Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (136)

June 27, 2007 12:30PM

It is with some hesitation that I post this podcast. I am a teacher, and I will always be a teacher. However, I have been given the opportunity to do more. I have been recruited (although not formally given the position) for a Technology Integration Position in a nearby school district. This podcast is all about coming to terms with the idea of leaving the classroom so that I might create change and achieve School 2.0 in a larger way. At this point, I am very much interested in following my passion for finding solutions, and if this job provides solutions for more teachers and more students and also for my family, I don’t know that I can do anything other than pursue it. I am, however, still looking for others who have either made this transition or who have rejected it in favor of the classroom. Please e-mail me at benwilkoff@gmail.com if you have any questions or ideas.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Intro to the Great Transition
  The Podcast Blog
• 00:00:58: Karl Fisch put me up to it.
  The Fischbowl
• 00:01:59: Why is the first wave leaving the classroom?
  Slow Motion Distributed Car Wreck
• 00:05:28: The Long Haul Teachers
  Cool Cat Teacher
• 00:07:15: What Should School 2.0 Leadership Look Like?
  Leadership Development for Educational Technology Leaders
• 00:09:27: What happens to the classroom I leave behind?
  My classroom Website
• 00:10:51: Other Factors
  My Daughter’s blog
• 00:11:55: The most change for the most kids
  My Blog

Visions of Change

Visions of Change Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (123)

April 24, 2007 06:10AM

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. We have received funding for our School 2.0 within a school idea, The Academy of Discovery. So, what do we do now? How do we continue to articulate the vision in the face of overwhelming support. Adversity I can handle, but what do we do now that everyone is behind us, just waiting to see how we can pull this off. It leaves me very excited to have the freedom of collaboration and experimentation within my community, but it also leaves me scared for blank page that we have been given to write on. I just hope all of our posturing and framing doesn’t signify nothing.
Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Introduction to Successful Proposal
  The Academy of Discovery
• 00:02:00: What happens if you get what you want?
• 00:03:05: Framing School 2.0 for Success
  Inquiring Minds Want To Know
• 00:04:03: Starting a new School
  The Science Leadership Academy
• 00:07:24: Overwhelming Support
• 00:09:13: Gcast Example
  Gcast
• 00:12:10: A Voice of Vision, A Voice of Change
• 00:15:12: Remote Access Challenge
  Remote Access
• 00:16:57: Conclusion to the Vision
  Podcast Blog

The Most Change For The Most Kids

It is with some hesitation that I post this podcast. I am a teacher, and I will always be a teacher. However, I have been given the opportunity to do more. I have been recruited (although not formally given the position) for a Technology Integration Position in a nearby school district. This podcast is all about coming to terms with the idea of leaving the classroom so that I might create change and achieve School 2.0 in a larger way. At this point, I am very much interested in following my passion for finding solutions, and if this job provides solutions for more teachers and more students and also for my family, I don’t know that I can do anything other than pursue it. I am, however, still looking for others who have either made this transition or who have rejected it in favor of the classroom. Please e-mail me at benwilkoff@gmail.com if you have any questions or ideas.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Intro to the Great Transition
  The Podcast Blog

• 00:00:58: Karl Fisch put me up to it.
  The Fischbowl

• 00:01:59: Why is the first wave leaving the classroom?
  Slow Motion Distributed Car Wreck

• 00:05:28: The Long Haul Teachers

  Cool Cat Teacher

• 00:07:15: What Should School 2.0 Leadership Look Like?
  Leadership Development for Educational Technology Leaders

• 00:09:27: What happens to the classroom I leave behind?
  My classroom Website

• 00:10:51: Other Factors
  My Daughter’s blog

• 00:11:55: The most change for the most kids
  My Blog

Visions of Change

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but I really didn’t expect it to happen this soon. We have received funding for our School 2.0 within a school idea, The Academy of Discovery. So, what do we do now? How do we continue to articulate the vision in the face of overwhelming support. Adversity I can handle, but what do we do now that everyone is behind us, just waiting to see how we can pull this off. It leaves me very excited to have the freedom of collaboration and experimentation within my community, but it also leaves me scared for blank page that we have been given to write on. I just hope all of our posturing and framing doesn’t signify nothing.

Show Notes:

• 00:00:00: Introduction to Successful Proposal
  The Academy of Discovery

• 00:02:00: What happens if you get what you want?
• 00:03:05: Framing School 2.0 for Success
  Inquiring Minds Want To Know

• 00:04:03: Starting a new School
  The Science Leadership Academy

• 00:07:24: Overwhelming Support
• 00:09:13: Gcast Example
  Gcast

• 00:12:10: A Voice of Vision, A Voice of Change
• 00:15:12: Remote Access Challenge
  Remote Access

• 00:16:57: Conclusion to the Vision
  Podcast Blog