Nine Percent

What percentage of companies actually come out ahead of the competition following an economic downturn? Nine percent, this according to a yearlong research study published in the February issue of Harvard Business Review.

In "Roaring Out of the Recession," business writers Gulati, Nohria, and Wohlgenzogen report that companies that came out ahead reduced their operating costs, but it's what else they did that separated the 9% from the 91% of companies that fell behind. They invested. That's right, they invested by spending even more than their competitors on marketing, research & development, and assets.

This got me thinking about where we find ourselves here and now. In my 30-year career, the pressure to cut costs in public education have never been greater. And the cuts are hitting home. TLA districts' central service staff and special programs have been particularly vulnerable. Better the ax fall there than schools, the thinking goes. No argument. But are we making a sucker's choice? 

A sucker's choice, as students of Crucial Conversations know, is a fallaceous either-or statement. From where I sit, it's beginning to sound like this: Either we cut TLA from next year's budget or we fail to address our schools' immediate needs. The anectode is to pose an "and" question: How can we invest in school leadership, second only to classroom teaching in its impact on student achievement, and balance our district budget?

I do not presume to know the answer to your question. I do know that leadership matters and that leadership is the one and only thing TLA worries about. You have our undivided attention. Continued membership will take courage and discernment but that is exactly what got the post-recession leaders ahead of the rest. For you, it means better led schools and increased student acheivement. Can you live with that?

New Expectations and Straight Talk

It has been a great week. Monday and Tuesday found me in Durham Public Schools, working with assistant principals on the new North Carolina School Executive Standards and Evaluation Process. On completing my second day, I got a standing ovation. Why, I wondered?

After careful consideration and deep reflection, I think I have an answer for why people rose to their feet at the end of a simple training session. It had nothing to do with Steve Jobs-like presentation skills. I think it was this: I talked straight. I talked straighter even than straight-talking John McCain, if the election results are any indication. And here is what I said:

Be you business executive or school leader, you are not in Kansas anymore. Your world is flat and getting flatter. In an internet instant, your customers can learn about you faster than you can learn about yourself. It has been said, "The eye cannot see itself." You are the eye.

My point is this: We must expect more of ourselves. We must set future-ready standands supported by a future-ready performance appraisal process. With the help of our State Board of Education, school leaders are finally getting the message. Now that is straight talk.

Prepare. Practice. Present.

I have spent many hours this week just watching. The subject of my observation has been Sharon Dulaney McCleod and her Greenroom colleagues, Kim and Page, deliver to new Triangle-area principals a workshop we call "Media Training." This is one of many professional learning experiences for school leaders that TLA offers each year as a privilege of Academy membership. My time observing has been well spent and I want to tell you why.

We all know that leaders speak out and speak up. That is true whether you own a chain of restaurants or lead a system of schools. What is not as well known is that speaking out and speaking up may be classified and evaluated just like Sears paint brushes--"good, better, and best." To have become the leader you are now, you have had to have been at least good. Right?

But what separates the merely adequate from the awesome, the good from the great? Sharon and her colleagues would tell you that the difference is one of conveying to your audience a reactive, defensive message versus a message that is proactive, positive, and compelling. Sharon talked to the principals about body language, tonality, and affect--the very essence of what connects one human being to another.

None of these skills come naturally, however, but to less than 5 percent of the population. The rest of us have to prepare, practice, and then present. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with having to do just that. To be consciously competent is the place of the teacher and that's a pretty good place to be. We can't all present like Steve Jobs but with a little practice we can come pretty close. Aren't our schools and businesses worth it?

Just in Time for the Past

I read an interesting article in the paper this morning. It was a real, folded-up newspaper left at my doorstep in the dregs of the last snow event. And it was bliss. But I digress. According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the rate of blog readership among 12- to 17-year-olds has fallen from 25 to 14 percent in the last three years. The study found a similar drop among 18- to 29-year-olds. Tech experts, wrote the reporter, do not believe that blogging is going away; rather blogging "has gone the way of the telephone and e-mail--still useful, just not sexy."

Hmm. With my new blog, it seems as though I'm just in time for the past. The only thing I have to say is that I'm glad that my audience, members of TLA boards, are neither young nor particularly interested in sex. Outliers feel free to object.

Seriously, educators born before 1977 have a problem. It is generally acknowledged that the so-called Net Generation, those individuals born in the last quarter of the 20th century, have never known life without the personal computer and the Internet. On the other hand, Baby Boomers like me who have an analogue default mode often manage people whose default mode is all-digital-all-the-time. There are bound to be problems.

So with problems come "probletunities,"| claims TLA friend, seminar leader, and recent Triangle visitor, David Langford. I intend to revisit this topic in the near future. For now, fetch your weekend newspaper, be the mature reader you are, and enjoy it with a good cup of coffee!