Control

If there is one thing I have learned by serving in the military, working in business and continuing to learn in the education field is:

“Control your own life or someone or something else will.”

                                                                                                  qg
         

           It's all about Balance!

Social Media and the "River of No Return"

Social Media, Dictionaries, Newspapers, Radio Talk Shows, etc… are about information, opinions and someone’s ideas. They are NOT knowledge or wisdom. Let’s not confuse them!! We are headed down the “River of No Return” by believing statements made by non-thinking people who post without thinking or understanding.


qg

Rating and Raking Accomplishes "Nothing"

Like most states Michigan educators, parents and lawmakers cannot come to grips or even a small amount of agreement as to where we should be headed with our education system as it relate to common core standards, testing and evaluation.

Hardly a week will go by without a story like this:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/04/21/michigan-standarized-test-teachers-union/26162827/

No one is looking at it from a systemic or systems thinking perspective in trying to determine where the process starts and ends and what it should look like when it is done. All of the sub-pieces have their own interest (i.e., Teachers don't want to be rated ranked), nor do School superintendents want their districts rated and ranked with what they believe to be faulty testing and data.

Lawmakers have no idea of what really goes on in an educational system yet they pretend to do what is right and change their views as often as the weather.

All I know is Rating and Ranking accomplishes nothing but creating fear and despair. Our purpose should be to help people learn and improve. Evaluations of this type are beneficial. The problem is too many people in leadership or decision making roles want to use evaluations for rating and ranking to get rid of people (Justified/non-justified). So what if there is a bad employee or if he/she not doing their job? How do you get rid of them? I say - you should have not hired or placed them in that position in the first place. Leadership did not do their job upfront in the hiring process. Too often Rating and Ranking are used as a tool for poor leadership decisions. If some people have to be let go through a good evaluation then at least try and place them in a position where they will be successful. If they are a "bad" employee then fire them based on a sound evaluation from fact-based data and not a cowardly way by using ranking and rating.

Rankings and Ratings are for sports entertainment and other games. They should not be used for something as important as the education of our children and the future of our society.

The Systems Thinker's Prayer

O Holy Spirit Paraclete of Life please grant me the wisdom and profound knowledge to better serve the benefit of ALL as opposed to oneself.

 Once I was asked what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge. In my understanding I see knowledge as being an expert in a particular subject area were wisdom can only be gained over time that is developed through many trials, tribulations, exultations and experiences of life.

I dedicate this to the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming - 

qg

Educational Leaders Operate in a "Command and Control" Environment

I am totally convinced the majority of educational systems in the Untied States operate in a Command and Control environment.

The problem lays in the fact that people in positions of authority think they are Leading (They are Commanding). However, they operate in a short-term vacuum that expects immediate results from non-systemic thinking. They think they are Managing (They are Controlling).

So what does that mean? It means many educational leaders do not understand how to run an organization (School. District) from an end-to-end-process philosophy.

So what does that mean? They have no concept of "By What Method?" It's about just doing rather than thinking and planning for the long-term based on factual data and talking to customers and employees (Parents, Students, Teachers/Staff). It's about as a leader stop thinking you know what caused the problem from your office and get your butt out in the classrooms and teacher lounges and parent committee meetings and stop tampering with what might be a stable system (Stable does not necessarily mean good).