Where are our Educational Leaders?

Tactics emerge in state budget fight

The Title above was the headline Friday in the Detroit Free Press. Below you can read some of the cuts proposed by state lawmakers.

RELATED INFORMATION
Controversial cuts
* Promise scholarship grants: $120 million - qg says ... so much for "Promises"
* Aid to K-12 public schools: $348 million (solution could cut it in half)
* Mental health programs: $40 million - qg says ... Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon says over 60% of people in jail in Wayne County have a Mental Illness!
* Job retraining programs: $35 million

It continues to amaze me whether it is leaders in education, business or government on how they follow each other like Lemmings when it comes to creativity and innovation – THEY HAVE NONE!
I am referring to proposed cuts in education and job training. Why do we sacrifice our future for present and past mistakes? The reason is because our leaders have no foresight except the next election or the next bottom line quarterly report.

Another reason, it has to do with incompetence and taking the easy road out to make them look good. Why can’t for once you represent the people you SERVE! In case you don’t know who they are they are your constituents and employees.

We never learn, result measures for education improvement and business measures go month to month, quarter to quarter and year to year. Like traffic accident reports these are nice to know (What) but in education I never see action plans and measures (How) to improve the system.

Short term educational results are not an indicator of good leadership. Business leaders for years have shown us that it is easy to show results by cutting training, removing workers and providing meaningless measures.

Current educational result measures do not help students learn math or how to read. They make no contribution to improvement. They only make conversation of ignorance.

School accreditations and assessments are nice but the attention and focus given by leaders are before, during and for a short time after the accreditation or assessment is done. In between the visits, reports and so-called improvement measures it’s business as usual and no means of actual improvement is done except for annual standardized reports that are not process improvement but a means used for recruitment brochures.

Certifications and Assessments of an educational system (school) are result measures. School official’s year and after provide results and “cursory” plans that have no structure, time or means of measurement to show they are implementing process improvements or if they do that they actually work.

Education Improvement will not come from accreditations or certifications, it will only come through improvement to the on-going improvement of the system (end-to-end) and this can not be done through actions that are result driven and not a combination of process and result measures led by an “active” leader.

Many Governmental and Educational Leaders are EXPENDABLE. What value do they bring? Are they more important than your customer facing and producing employees?

Does Sara Lee “pay” more attention to their Finance VP because of the paper results or to the employee who makes and sells the company products? People who create and present paper results do not make bread.

I continually look to see some improvement in local, state and national educational systems. All I see are roller coaster plans, targets and goals with no one taking charge, responsibility or accountability.

Educational Czars and State Educational Leaders are like CEOs that come in from outside the system for a short-term and change direction that actually deprives the educational system for lasting improvement. Why does this happen? It’s simple, they do not know the interdependencies of the system nor do they take charge they delegate their responsibilities to committees, task teams and assessment teams that use subjective measures that do nothing but continue to tamper and already out of control system.

qualityg says ... "CUT COSTS ---> NOT EMPLOYESS"

Enough already, it is time for Management to start earning their money for the remainder of 2009 by developing or benchmarking ways by which to improve the bottom line by cost cutting as opposed to cutting their number one asset --> people.

You hear it almost everyday – a company laying off part of its workforce - to improve profitability or as the last resort to stay in business. Why does it reach that point? Why do leaders resort to this method? Why can’t companies reduce costs without getting rid employees? The answer is they can. But it can’t be in response to short-term thinking or a crisis. It must be hands-on approach, it must involve "Hands On" leadership. Cost cutting must become an on-going objective that is as important as any other Accounting or Finance effort.

It is so easy and shortsighted to cut employees regardless of what Management will tell you or what you read on-line, magazines and newspapers. So-called leading experts from top rated business colleges do studies and research on the best ways to remove people from the bottom line with little impact on the organization. They are full of crap and when they do instruct (instead of just research with no application) they fill the next generation of leaders and managers with the same crapola. It has been going on for years, I am a product of that schooling and I’m just lucky I found the teachings of Dr. Deming to help set me straight in 1980.

I have personally been involved and had to make decisions as to how many and what employees should be let go. Each and every time I fought for other ways by providing examples of other companies, ideas and probable solutions other than cut people. The problem with my input was it took too much time according to other decision makers and the charge to get rid of heads was to be done soon, quickly and above all quietly. Do not let employees and the most feared of all “The Media” get wind of what was in store for the company. Again, a bunch of crap, “GUTLESS” is the optimum word for these type of managers and leaders.

What I propose you do for the remainder of 2009 is to form a cross-functional team that represents all departments under the “Active” leadership of a decision-making Vice President.

The type of cost cutting will be Discretionary and Headcount related (not cutting employees but may involve different jobs, movement, reporting structure, etc…).

Here are some examples and ideas that if looked at closely can save a company large amount of dollars and not lose efficiency or effectiveness of operations. Some may seem harsh but I’m betting the majority of employees (don’t say NO until you ask them) would rather keep their jobs with some signed assurances and agreements with the leaders of the company.

· Freeze all Salaries (until you no longer have to cut people)
· Renegotiate and cancel consultant agreements (trust me, you have the
knowledge inside your company, look for it, use it, trust your people)
· Your employees will always make better company decisions than 99% of
business consultants out there. Why – because they care and LISTEN!
· Reduce Company Picnics and Parties
· 2 Week - Month Vacation w/o Pay
· Giving up monthly Reimbursement Perks (i.e., phone cost, car allowances)
· Use Internet as source for cheaper fares (car, plane, train) and hotels
(cancel contract with travel agencies)
· Turn in all unnecessary pagers and cell phones
· Revisit who needs cell phones and update cell phone plans to best provider
· Reduce Travel Per Diem allowance unless dining with customers
· Discontinue company-paid annual dues for professional organizations.
· Give employees the option to work 37 1/2 hour workweeks, which allows a 20%
reduction in salary. Work in combination with flexible work arrangements
· Discontinue funding for all Business Resource Groups (including registration
for annual conventions, travel fees and annual gala balls)
· Remove unused and outdated Telephones and Lines (computer, fax)
· Renegotiate supplier contracts to single-source suppliers
· Remove all copiers (and contracts) and use local printers
· Return all unused equipment to vendors and free up space
· Reengineer Work Stations to save on space (sell or lease free space)
· Carefully look at an effort to move towards virtual office to realize real
estate cost savings
· Re-negotiate cost of leased space (if applicable)
· Cancel Coffee and Bottled Water contracts
· Cut out goofball training by consultants
· Prioritize work place upgrades (i.e., cafeteria, gyms, conference rooms)
· Change Sales Compensation Plan to pay at in-effect with additional incentive
for Sales to sell high margin
Allow employees to work from home 1-2 days a week saving on energy costs.
· Revisit Procedure staff guidelines / Processes / Contract. Too many mistakes
occurring and nothing can be corrected and we the company is paying for the
consequences - we pay people to make mistakes (poor processes/machines) and we pay other people to fix them with no prevention for the future

The above items are just the beginning … C’mon do something good for the remainder of 2009, give your employees a chance to determine their own destiny, don’t punk out and take the easy academic bottom line management way.

"Quality Leadership"

I'm always asked about Leadership and I have written much on the subject (Click on Leadership Label in Left Sidebar).

It is just as important to know what happens when Leadership does not exist and what is the result.

qualityg says:

No Leadership

means

No Aim

means

No Plan

means

Chaos

means

Absolute Power

means

Stagnation

means

Ultimate Failure

No where is this scenario more prevalent than in government and our secondary and

higher level education systems

What are the qualities and characteristics that a
Dream Mentor should possess?

I developed the following graphic to explain it best:

Click on Picture to Enlarge

To read all posts on my Dream Mentor Program click here: http://qualityg.blogspot.com/search/label/Dream%20Mentor

To see my website on Dream Mentor Program click here: http://dreammentorprogram.com/

"WIIFM" The most popular radion station in the United States needs to be cancelled!

Over the past 20 years I believe this is the most popular radio station in the United States. Unfortunately I don’t mean this in a positive way.

It is worse than any station you can imagine because the results are selfishness, dishonor and no loyalty to anyone or anything except oneself.

It has caused what Dr. Deming said is the “Demise of the American Management System.” It also ingrained in our educational system and it has caused additional strain and damage to system already in distress.

What do the call letters stand for – What’s In It For Me.

Too many Business executives make decisions on what changes have to be made by first thinking what will happen to me? Will I be Ok? I feel bad for others but that’s just the way it is. Once I know I am OK then I will make sure others are OK, but many will be not.

This is not Servant Leadership; this is Selfish Leadership that breeds long-term negative results.

Many Educational decision makers (Admin, School Boards & Teachers) also use this decision-making policy when changes come their way. The first reaction is “How much more work will this cause me because I am already overloaded?”

I would like all you folks who think this way and put the same thought process toward decisions that affect your family. Do you make decisions based on how you will benefit even at the expense of your loved ones? Most of us do not but we don’t take that same caring logic to our workplace. We have instilled this thinking in the next generation who will leave a job in a minute for short-term gratification.

We don’t think of the whole (systems thinking) and how we are not SERVING our employees, organization the communities we serve.

This thinking is rabid in many companies that push for cheaper labor in places that serve no purpose to the whole (employees, organization and communities).

Don’t give me your bottom line crap. Your bottom line sucks because of your short-term narrow Wall Street thinking.

So stay tuned folks because this radio station is playing in your company, your school and in your home. Please don’t advertise anymore, this station needs to be cancelled NOW!