Author Archive

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working by Dan Heath shows how you identify leverage points that can improve any organization. He encourages you to look for bright spots, reallocate your resources, start with a burst, recycle waste, tap motivation, and let people be more autonomous. These principles apply to any organization so school leaders should take note and get a copy.

Introduction

• Dan starts with a story about a hospital mail room that went from taking three days to deliver packages to delivering all packages the day they arrived. They went from dysfunction as the natural state of affairs to resetting and getting unstuck. Sometimes it takes more resources to sustain a bad system. The key thing is to look for and find a leverage point to transform the way you work. Part one will help with this. Learn how to shake off bad habits so you can go from spinning your wheels to rolling forward.

Section I – Find Leverage Points: 1. Go and See the Work.

• If you are a manager of others, or a school administrator, you need to go see what people and students are doing in person. Sitting around a table and talking about something is not the same as seeing it up close. (Doug: As a principal, I prided myself on managing by walking around, which allowed me to see what students and teachers were doing.
• In some cases, the work people are doing may not be visible. This is when you have to get creative and make it visible. Be sure to check out the links in this book at Reset-Links.

2. Consider the Goal of the Goal

• Before you sink effort into a difficult task, make sure it’s the right task. If you lock into a goal too quickly, you may be blind to the bigger picture and alternate routes. Dan introduces the concept of the miracle question, which helps you identify the first productive steps to take. Be skeptical about the goals you select. Asking what’s the goal of the goal helps identify your destination and why it is important.

3. Study the Bright Spots

• Bright spots are your most engaged employees. You need to analyze them and do what you can to replicate them.

4. Target the Constraint

• Constraints are limiting factors or bottlenecks. They are standing in the way of greater success. As you deal with one constraint, the constraint will shift to somewhere else. Dan tells the story of Chick-fil-A and how their constraint shifted from ordering to food prep as they worked to maximize their drive through business. If you don’t direct investments at your constraint, they may be wasted. If you change your goal, your constraint may also change.

5. Map the System

• Sometimes you have to take a big picture view of a situation to improve things. One approach is to look at multiple silos at the same time to see if a change in one can help the other. There is a story here that shows how this can work. There is another story about how a methane monitoring satellite launched in 2024 is helping the industry find and plug leaks of this greenhouse gas. Be sure to ask questions like why do we do that and can we do it better?

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Tony Blair on Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century summarizes what Tony has learned as prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007 and consulting with leaders in many other countries as head of the Tony Blair Institute. Although this book is written for aspiring politicians, I believe that each short chapter contains timeless lessons for leaders and potential leaders in any field.

Introduction

• When leaders take over, most listen carefully as they know they have a lot to learn. The second stage occurs when they have become acclimated and start to think they know everything. In the final stage, they realize that what they know is not the sum total of the necessary knowledge associated with their leadership scope.
• Tony has concluded that the key attributes of leadership are the same whatever the leadership position. While politics has its place, it isn’t the same as leadership. Giving people what they want is not always what they need. Leaders need to do what is in the best interests of the lives they touch.

Part I: Taking Power – 1. Be the Leader with the Plan

• You must have a plan. It needs to contain your destination, milestones, and priorities and accurately describe the essentials of what you want to achieve. Priorities are essential as if you try to do everything, you just might do nothing. Change takes time and you will need to consider mid-course corrections as you move along. Not all of what you plan is likely to work as intended.

2. Make the Center Strong

• The skill set you need as a leader is not the same as the skill set that gets you the job. A strong center is needed to initiate and carry though on a change. The most important person is the one who runs your schedule. Leaders are constantly being asked for their time and if they can’t say no, they need someone who can. Meetings and events can be real time suckers. Leave them as soon as you can. Be sure to make time for yourself to recharge and time for your family.

3. Prioritization: Try to Do Everything and You Will Likely Do Nothing

• Once you get your leadership position, ask what you would like to accomplish the most. You can work back from these items to set your priorities. Tony sees five as a good number. Your followers will all have their pet projects. While they may not be at the top of your list, they don’t need to know that. Priorities have to be doable. Be sure to perform a feasibility check on each one. This process may not be easy, but it deserves your attention along with all of the uplifting rhetoric of hope you can summon.

4. Good Policy Is (Nearly) Always Good Politics

• Always put policy first and politics second. Avoid maters of ideology and convenience when crafting policy. Policy should be evidence-based. Work hard to do research so you know what you are talking about. Always think about a topic as if you were the person most impacted. Good policy strives to make change that will last rather than a quick splash. Be sure to look outside of your organization (country/school) for bright ideas and be sure to think ahead.

5. It’s All About the People

• The people Tony refers to here are the people who directly report to you. They need to be smart, hard working, loyal to you and to each other, and able to handle stress. Internal debate is healthy, not disruptive. Don’t reject someone just because they are smarter than you. Be sure to promote your most talented people. They are more likely to challenge you if you don’t. Effort you put in to finding the right people may be the most important thing you do..

6. Curb Your Bureaucracy by Cultivating It

• As a leader, you will have a bureaucracy to deal with so you need to get to know what it does and doesn’t do. bureaucracies tend to be permanent while the leader tends to be temporary. They are not known for creativity or innovation. Be clear about results, delivery, and on getting things done and the system will adjust. Look for opportunities to re-skill and retrain it. Don’t expect it to be a substitute for a leader and a team.

Part II: Delivery – 7. Democracy or Not, It’s All About Delivery

• As a leader, your success will be judged by what you deliver. The real test of government is making change that works, which is delivery. If you can deliver a higher quality of life with improved health care, education, and security, you should be reelected. Governments turnover due to instability, which is caused by the failure to deliver. People sometimes accept a strong man because the know that something will get done. Corruption is the enemy of delivery.

8. The Supreme Importance of Strategy

• Strategy assists in the long-term fulfillment of your overall plan. Without a strategy, failure is likely. Tactics are the smaller decisions that you make on a daily basis. It’s important that they align with your long-term strategy. You have to reconcile your day-to-day tactics to your core strategy. When fundamental facts change, but sure to see if you need to adjust your strategy. You should seldom discard it altogether.

9. Be a Change-Maker, Not a Place-Holder

• The world is changing fast. If you are standing still, you get left behind. If you are an elected leader, you probably got elected by promising to make some changes. Appointed leaders may have the same expectations. You need to create a constituency for your change so you have some support. Consider how you can break big changes into a series of smaller ones and take them incrementally. Consider how changes will benefit the consumers rather than the providers.

10. Le Suivi: Delivering

• Two things are necessary here. The priorities you choose must be measurable and you must be able to harvest reliable data so you can show that you accomplished your priority. When it comes to delivery, the leader needs to be actively involved. The leader need not do all of the work, but the leader must know what’s happening.

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Image: Freepik

Practical Strategies to Manage Stress in Daily Life by Emily Graham

offers great advice for teachers, parents, and kids. Please share.

In an era where demands on our time and energy are relentless, managing stress is not just beneficial but essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The pressures of modern life can lead to overwhelming stress, affecting both mental and physical health. However, by adopting practical strategies, individuals can mitigate these effects and foster a more balanced existence.

Limit Exposure to Social Media

Social media often amplifies the pressures people feel to meet unrealistic expectations, fueling self-doubt and anxiety. The constant comparison to curated snapshots of others’ lives can distort perceptions of personal success and happiness. Overexposure to idealized images and narratives may also contribute to feelings of inadequacy or fear of missing out. These platforms can blur boundaries between reality and projection, leaving individuals vulnerable to heightened stress or diminished self-worth.

Find Stress Relief Through Hobbies and Recreation

Engaging in hobbies and recreational activities can be a powerful way to manage stress, offering both mental and physical benefits. Activities like painting, jogging, or even gardening can release endorphins, your body’s natural mood enhancers, which help reduce anxiety and elevate your mood. These pursuits also provide a mental break from daily responsibilities, allowing you to focus on the present moment and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. By incorporating hobbies into your routine, you not only improve your physical health but also foster a more positive mental state.

Try Holistic Approaches to Stress Management

Alternative therapies offer a natural approach to managing stress and fostering relaxation in everyday life. Magnesium is a vital mineral that helps relax muscles and calm the nervous system, making it a popular choice for stress relief. Ashwagandha, an adaptogen, supports the body’s stress response by balancing cortisol levels and promoting a sense of calm. CBD and THCa diamonds interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system to reduce tension and enhance relaxation without causing a high.

Leverage Technology for Effective Stress Management

In our fast-paced world, utilizing technology can be a powerful ally in managing stress. Wearable devices with biofeedback sensors, such as those that track heart rate, offer insights into your stress patterns. By pairing these devices with meditation apps, you can enhance relaxation and maintain a consistent sleep schedule, both crucial for reducing stress. Additionally, stress relief apps provide immediate interventions during high-stress situations, potentially improving your quality of life.

Try Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy taps into the powerful connection between scent and emotion, using essential oils to promote relaxation and balance. Certain fragrances, like lavender or chamomile, are known for their calming effects, while citrus or peppermint can uplift and energize. These oils are often diffused, applied topically, or added to baths, offering a simple way to create a soothing environment. Engaging the senses through these natural scents can ease tension and encourage a sense of well-being.

Integrate More Exercise into Your Routine

Exercise provides a natural outlet for stress, channeling physical energy into movements that promote mental clarity and calm. Activities like walking, swimming, or strength training stimulate the release of endorphins, which elevate mood and reduce tension. Beyond these immediate benefits, consistent physical activity helps regulate sleep patterns and build resilience to everyday challenges. The rhythmic nature of many exercises also creates a meditative state, offering a mental break from worries.

Seek Help from Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals are essential in managing stress-related health conditions, offering a comprehensive approach that addresses both physical and psychological aspects. By collaborating with specialists like endocrinologists, they can tackle underlying metabolic issues that may worsen stress. This holistic strategy is crucial because stress can lead to significant physiological changes, such as altered hormone levels, potentially resulting in chronic health problems. Addressing these issues early can prevent the escalation of stress-related disorders, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes.
Stress management thrives on consistency and intentionality, weaving small but meaningful habits into daily life. By fostering mindful awareness and embracing supportive practices, it becomes easier to navigate challenges with greater ease. These approaches empower a stronger sense of control and emotional balance in the face of life’s demands.

Emily Graham
Emily is the creator of MightyMoms.net. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family. You can email her at emilygraham@mightymoms.net. She lives in Arizona.

Visit DrDougGreen.Com to explore curated book summaries and educational resources to enhance your professional development.

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The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition: Advanced Methods to Learn, remember, and Master New Skills and Information by Peter Hollins

– This is a self-published book that has no copyright date, citations, or index. It does have a summary guide at the end. The content rings true to me and fits well with other books summarized on this blog. Give it a shot. It’s a easy read.

1. Learn with Rapid Skill Acquisition

• Information on almost any topic is almost instantly accessible cheap or even free. We just need to learn how to learn. Traditional schools mostly engage students in passive learning, which is inefficient. You need to start with goals that are important to you. These goals will either help you on the job, gain you a new job, help you with your life outside of work, or give you a new hobby.

2. Strategic Planning

• You need to start with a well constructed plan. Most new skills can be broken into sub skills. You need to determine which sub skills are the most important and focus on them first. For example, if you want to learn another language you need to learn the most common words first. As you gather learning resources and weed some out, make sure they follow this idea. It may be easy to find written material, so be sure to also search for videos and ways you can learn actively.
• Reading or listening to a lecture may provide 5% TO 10% retention. Audio/visual content can take that up to 20%. Demonstrations are more like 30% and group discussions may take it to 50%. Real-life experience takes it to 75% and teaching others is at the top with 90%.

3. It’s Just Practice

• Practice needs to be deliberate. This kind of practice is focused. Try to catch yourself from being mindless or sloppy. Determine the proper amount of time for the skill you are working on. You should interleave the practice of several skills rather than doing just one for a long period of time. Such practice should be repeated over time, perhaps daily. Doing some practice each day is much better than cramming. Try to work on recalling or self-testing rather than rereading if you can.
• Problem-based learning is more effective as it deals with the real world. It requires that you determine what you need to know that you don’t know yet and devise a plan to learn it. This lends itself to group work. As you work you need quality feedback from someone who knows more than you do like a mentor or a coach. You also need to learn how to self access. There are 10 questions here that can help with that. Be sure to schedule your learning and Peter recommends five-minute breaks every 25 minutes.

4. Deep Comprehension

• One way to deepen your comprehension is to engage in elaborate interrogation. This can be likened to a child asking endless “why” questions. As you interrogate yourself, you can discover gaps or blind spots. One kind of elaborate interrogation described here is the Feynman Technique. The keys to it are to simplify how you explain something and creating analogies.
• As your learning progresses, you will go through the six steps of Bloom’s Taxonomy. They are remember, apply, understand, evaluate, analyze, and create. If you fully understand something you can use it to create something brand new. Curiosity isn’t required to learn something, but it makes learning easier. It can be the simple joy of learning something new. It can be apprehension due to lack of knowledge. It can be the stress you feel when you gain knowledge that is stressful. It can be the curiosity you feel while getting to know other people, or it can be the knowledge you gain while engaging in thrill seeking experiences.

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