Future Driven: Adaptability is Key!

Adaptability

Yesterday, I finished reading David Guerin's "Future Driven". Tremendous book! Enjoyed how Guerin breaks down the need for our schools to evolve and the insights he provides regarding how his school has taken steps to move forward. We cannot wait on the system to change. We are the system! We are the change we need! It's up to us to promote diversity, creativity, ideation, critical thinking, problem solving, and responsiveness. It's our responsibility to be the change! 

With all the reading I've done around redesigning schools and transforming learning, I've sat with what is my role as a leader in making this happen? As I took in "Future Driven" the one word that jumped off the pages for me was ADAPTABILITY. 

Inflexibility is failing our schools. Rigidity of the mind is the seed of destruction. Just ask Blockbuster, who stuck with their in store movie rental model and passed multiple times on purchasing Netflix. How did that turn out for Blockbuster? Not good. While I don't see schools going the way of Blockbuster, we have to truly ask if our current model is best preparing all learners for their future. In my opinion, test-prep, drill and drill more and test based accountability are Blockbuster strategies. Our world is changing rapidly and our schools are slow to adapt largely because of rigidity, inflexibility and a fear of change and the unknown. 

What I know is this, teamwork and personal rigidity don't mix. It's essential in 2018 to be masters of change, to reorient ourselves and others activities into untried directions to bring about higher levels of achievement. Lauryn Hill on Interlude #5 of her Unplugged Session said "anything that's not growing is dead, so we better be changing." Take a look around your classroom, your school, your school district? What's changed in the last year? In the last 5 years? How about the last 10? 20? 30? In some cases around the country, it's not that much. And that, is unacceptable. 

This got me thinking, what skills do I need? What skills do I need to develop in others? What skills do I need to hire for? 

Diana Nyad, who once swam from Cuba to Florida said "I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see the experience will take me to a new level. Being teachable is imperative to being adaptable. You have to be teachable. You have to be willing to work through the discomfort in order to grow. 

How many people have you encountered in life that see just about everything as a challenge or a threat? Change should not make you nervous. It should excite the daylights out of you. I would be more afraid of not changing. Staying the same. You need people who are emotionally secure on your team. They are able to adapt and move into the future without being stuck in the past.

When difficulty comes, and it will come, you need to find a way. Creative people find solutions and do not make excuses. Failing is a part of the process to a creative person. It moves them forward. You need creative people on your team that are not afraid to think differently and try. You cannot win a race if you never get out of the starting block. How often do we see paralysis by analysis in our schools? Too often!

Lastly, you have to be service minded. Self-centered people who are in it for themselves are less likely to make changes for the betterment for others. We need to move past the "well, my observation rubric says I need X". Accountability is a poor reason to not make changes to our practice and our school design. I'd argue the whole test-based accountability movement is a load of junk science based BS. Perhaps another blog for another time. Here is what I believe. The greater my skill capacity, the more accountable I am to others. We got into education to give back to others. When we improve our capacity, we are able to give back to others at a higher ability level. Hence, greater accountability. 

It's vital to get in the habit of learning. Try to learn something new every day. Try something that you have been thinking about doing. Take a risk. Imagine what you could learn just in one week if every day you tried something new! Multiply that by every week in a year. That's a lot of learning! 

We need to start thinking outside of the lines in Education. Look for unconventional solutions every time you meet a challenge. I sat in a bond meeting today and the topic of portables came up. We have two unused portables on our campus presently. I asked, "what is the plan for the portables"? The gentleman I met with said there was no plan to take them off our grounds. I said, awesome - I am turning one of them into a food pantry to serve our community. Some would have seen two empty portables and thought nothing of them. Others would have wondered when they were going to disappear. I saw the portables as an opportunity to meet a need in my community. 

Think outside of the box. Do not accept the status quo. Like my friend Hamish Brewer says, "change the game." There are no limits on us other than the ones we place on ourselves. Take that step, do the one thing that you've been holding back on trying. Take a risk. Fail forward. If we are to be a Future Ready and Future Driven education system, we need to be adaptable and do things to better serve all of our students.

Later.

CJ