INOCULATE

Not About Bird Flu

Most people are familiar with what it means to inoculate someone. You inject a small dose of virus into the blood stream in order to build immunity. The small dose may cause a minor illness, but the trade-off is worth avoiding a major illness and possibly death.
Leaders can inoculate their workplace to prepare employees for upcoming increases in problem-solving, workload and stress by simulating the event, or inoculation.
This is much like the two-minute drill in American football. The team must perform almost flawlessly in order to score the winning points. Teams practice the two-minute drill every week to prepare for this possibility. In the event of a rout, the team sets aside the two-minute drill for the current contest, but it will be practiced again next week.
Athletes know that if you want to perform at a maximum level under duress, you must condition your mind and body to act reflexively. You must have faced the intensity of the situation as often as possible in order to defeat thoughts of doubt or imperfect physical reactions that lead to a loss. Inoculation.
In addition to physical practice, athletes also condition their minds through the use of mental imagery. Mental imagery allows the athlete to see themselves in a pressure situations and “role play” how they will respond. The mind works like a tape recorder, replaying the images until everything feels right. The more the mind sees the successful outcome, the more it will program the body and other intangibles to be ready. Inoculation.
Businesses fail to inoculate employees and their leadership. Perhaps the thought is that it is a waste of time to prepare for something that may never happen or may happen with less intensity. Here’s the challenge: turn on quality thinking like you would a light. You know, like the image of a person with a light bulb over their head.
Well-prepared people practice thinking and procedures. Professional rescuers continually practice knowledge and skills. They know that if you don’t continuous practice key skills, you fail to respond in a timely and efficient manner. Inoculation.
Thinking is a skill and needs to be practiced. If you want to be surrounded by problem-solvers, you need to offer practice sessions. Just like athletes or rescuers, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it, so you set up simulations and classes. It is unwise to wait until you need quality thinking to get people together to think. It is not that easy to turn it on. Inoculation.
When businesses practice the “as needed” approach, chances are they will get “shallow thinking.” From an employee’s view, it’s a half-hearted effort to provide feedback. Since no one has invested in them since the last “think tank”, they are not prepared to think. Even with the best intentions, the thinking won’t provide much innovation or research. The skill of thinking has diminished.
Businesses say they look for people with outstanding thinking skills. Unfortunately, if that person ends up staying with a company that doesn’t have time to practice thinking, those skills will be wasted. And, as with the flu season, if there are insufficient doses of vaccine the outcomes could be tragic.

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

MORE ILLITERACY?

Reading Success Is A Family Affair

In a recent issue of USA Today (05-23-2006), a research study by an independent, non-partisan group stated that today’s graduating education majors are under prepared to teach reading using the latest strategies and tools. Reading, a fundamental staple in the course of our lives and our commitment to continuous education, will not get the most advanced ideas for improvement because, apparently, something else in the college curriculum for education majors was more important. Does it seem like every time we turn around, “we shoot ourselves in the foot?”
Unless you have been living in isolation or out of the country for the last 5 years, reading and comprehension scores have been a focus of No Child Left Behind legislation. Poor test results will close schools (including terminating teachers) that don’t meet annual yearly progress standards (there’s that word again; see yesterday’s blog).
There’s an old story that asks why a worker spends all day fixing bent bumpers for automobiles. Why not find the source of the problem and fix the manufacturing process? One time fix and you’re done. While few things in education can be labeled as a one-time fix, it would help if schools were choosing from a pool of innovative individuals prepared to teach reading in every subject area.
And yes, I know about standardized testing that supposedly measures a future teacher’s ability to be an expert in the classroom. Unfortunately the test does not measure the individual’s passion. Give me an emotionally charged teacher that energizes his or her classroom any day over a good test taker.
If you think reading test scores have been horrible over the past few years, you may be seeing more of the same. There is a remedy; teaching good reading skills is not a teacher’s job alone. There is no excuse for parents to shirk their duty to promote reading at home. The best readers come from homes that read. You know, little things like a daily newspaper, weekly news or financial magazine or maybe, just maybe, a book. It works.

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

MEDIOCRITY

Average: A Kind Word for Mediocre

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and lenient to everybody else.”

---Henry Ward Beecher

For years I have believed that standards create mediocrity. In school if a student meets standards, he or she can expect no worse than a “C” and quite possibly an undervalued “A”. Standards make it easy to reach academic goals. Standards limit the push students need to embrace additional accountability. Once the majority knows what the minimum is, that’s usually what they will produce. This kind of commitment doesn’t serve people very well in the “real world.”
Further, talented students tend not to realize their full potential because either they easily meet the standards or there is a lack of a challenge from the majority who are doing just enough to get by. If the only career a person will have is to be a student, then let standards rule. By all accounts, average should never be a goal.
At the workplace, standards also prevent a business from reaching new levels of success. Once a standard is set, the business has capped the person’s initiative. Standards seem to actually de-motivate people instead of encouraging excellence. Larger workforces, principally thanks to their scholastic and collegiate experiences, do the minimum.
One area of the “real world” where standards don’t dictate outcomes is in small businesses or with entrepreneurs. In this situation, everyday is about striving for excellence.
Over 80 percent of all small businesses fail within 5 years. Internet businesses fail at a 99 percent rate. The commitment to excellence is the only barrier between staying open and closing. Corporate standards are pale compared to the self-motivated drive a small business person needs to be successful (this is not to be confused with unethical practices). People in business for themselves work 24 x 7, holidays and possibly 52 weeks every year. Corporate America would love to have that type of commitment.
Beecher’s quote is the perfect mantra for everyone: set your standards high and seek excellence. For those around you, be a great role model and show them what they can achieve. Just don’t ask them to be like you.

WHY? IT’S YOUTH

And The Young Shall Lead

The reality of our lives as we get older, it’s the young that keeps us motivated an excited. Regardless if it is a baby, puppy or kitten, the energy and excitement the very young bring is “priceless.” Take an “old guy” and a new puppy and you just shaved 10 years off his life. Sure it’s demanding but the rewards will last for a very long time.
So why have a melancholy start to this article? Well, we “oldsters” need to adopt another gift from the young: asking “Why?” You know how it goes: “Why not? or Why is that?”
It seems like we stopped asking Why? after we heard No or Just because for the thousandth time. At work, it’s more subtle: it’s the old, My way or the highway. We got the delivered message that someone either knew better or there wasn’t time to allow your thoughts to enter into the decision.
Well, take back some of your control and ask “Why?” Keep asking “Why?” until you get an answer that fits your framework or at least makes sense. The more we discover, the better the outcome.
In sales, people with good sales numbers usually ask 3 times for the sale before ending the sales attempt. In your meetings or your relationships at home, ask “Why?” at least 3 times to see where the discussion leads. If the thread of conversation begins to fall apart doing the “Why’s?” then the other side needs to do more research (or have a better presentation) in order to “sell” you.
This is not an encouragement to be obtuse. Rather, thinking is a skill and asking Why? may lead to new alternatives that would go undiscovered if you only shrugged your shoulders.
It will seem odd at first to ask “Why?” and then repeat it several times. That’s just the adult part of you trying to dismantle kid part of you. Take it from the young: it’s not embarrassing and it’s worth the effort!

THE MYTH OF EDUCATION?

Got a BS and Unemployed? That’s BS

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

– Albert Einstein

It appears that sending young people to college is unemployment funded by parents. For 5 years (the new standard for completing an undergraduate degree) parents pay out over $40 thousand to keep their son or daughter out of the house and “on their own.” The result is a $32,000 a year job that is insufficient for independent living. And those that have that low paying job are considered the “lucky ones!”
After college over 50 percent of students are returning to the nest because college loans are due and low-paying service jobs are inadequate to cover payments, rent and other expenses. (Less than 30 percent of college graduates are finding jobs in their field of study.) A large percentage is now choosing to go on for a Master’s degree, thinking that more education will open the door for higher paying jobs. (More debt and disappointment?)
Why are parents “funding unemployment?” They believed in the myth of higher education: get a good education and get a good job. Before the launch of Sputnik in 1958, college was not big business. It was for a minority of students that had different ambitions from those who would go into agriculture or manufacturing. At least before the advent of Reaganomics, there were career choices!
When the Russians shocked America with the launch of Sputnik, Americans rallied by making a college education a priority. College attendance got another boost by the VietNam War. With a military draft hanging over the head of every male 18-year old, choosing college provided a deferment and a better alternative to jail. College attendance never waned after the 60’s.
Today, the loss of high paying jobs that came with manufacturing and the loss of small family farms make attending college a must for over 65 percent of all high school seniors. The battle of where to attend is now one of the modern rights of passage.
So is this an anti-college rant? No it is leading to the idea that college should be an integrated part of life rather than the focus. My idea is that students after high school seek work experiences that will serve them for life. They could work as carpenters for Habitat for Humanity. They could be personal assistants for the elderly and those confined to their home. If Mom and Dad are supporting them anyway, why not make a contribution to society? (BTW: they could learn high paying vocations such as plumbing or truck driving.)
Considering that today’s 18 year olds are projected to live into their 80’s, what is the rush? They just finished 12 to 15 years of public/private school; take a break. I understand that around 30 percent are too driven to take a break and that’s OK; go to college. The classrooms will be less crowded and you’ll get a better education. For the other 70 percent, take courses part time and build a résumé. Once you figure out what is working best for you, then begin to focus.
Imagine what the unemployment rate of the US would be if all high school graduates were counted. According to unemployment guidelines, a person is counted as unemployed if they are collecting benefits (that takes one year of steady employment) or are actively pursuing work through a state sponsored career placement service. If students are not meeting either criterion, they are not counted.
It appears that the old saying, Get a good education and you’ll get a good job has become a myth. Why not embrace a different course of action and see if the results will change?