Assessment and Accountability

When entering the emergency room there is an expectation that regardless of the doctor that takes your case you will be serviced with the same high quality of care. Either Doctor Alpha, Doctor Beta, Doctor Gamma, Doctor Delta, or Doctor Epsilon will provide you will the necessary treatment in the best of his/her ability. You have an expectation that regardless of the luck of the rotation or scheduling these doctors share the same knowledge, skills, attitudes, aspirations, and behaviors that will eventually lead you back to health.

When entering Best Buy to purchase a new high definition television there is an expectation that regardless of who approaches you first that you will be serviced by someone with expert knowledge of video format, field rates, screen resolution, pixels, and aspect ratio. There is an expectation that you will be provided be quality service that will lead you to make a purchase with any sense of buyer’s remorse.

As a parent when dropping of your daughter or son on the first day of school there is an expectation that the teacher assigned to teach have the same knowledge, skills, attitudes, aspirations, and behaviors with the other teachers at the school. As a parent it should not matter who is assigned to teach your daughter or son for you are confident that the areas of content knowledge, classroom management, assessment, technology, critical thinking, communication, and ethics are consistent with every member of the school. As a parent who believes of such equity, one will not discriminate or judge for he or she believes that teachers are professionals.

As a patient, consumer, parent, or teacher..is this your reality?

Team member in need

The agents of the NCIS team wake up every day to go to work. A task that hundreds, thousands, millions do each day. While the nature of their job places them at risk, how many employees would sacrifice their life for a team member? For us it’s only a question of student coverage; a far stretch from a life threatening circumstance. In this year’s season premier of NCIS we saw something different.

Each week we get a glimpse on how Special Agent Gibbs develops his team, some weeks are better than others. When Ziva’s behaviors did not match up, Tony pushed for assistance. The catalyst for her support did not come from the top, it came from a co-worker. This makes me wonder if this was the barometer that Special Agent Gibbs was looking for. What exactly do school leaders look for with their team when a teacher is in need? Who is there to assist? Who will step out of the comfort zone? Gibbs creates a culture of trust and dependence. If you don’t know where to begin that’s a start.

Where does a coach focus support?

With the Miami Dolphin regular season ending at 11-5, where does a coach focus his support? Even the home/loss record appears insignificant with a difference of 1, how would a coach know where to begin? You need to look at the details. If a coach approached improvement with a desired state that focused on just the Wins, will this provide enough information to produce results? I’m not sure, but I would not want to bet season tickets on that choice. Perhaps if the desired state focused on Takeaways then the goals can address skills related to when a defense forces a fumble or registers an interception. Improving a specific skill will eventually help with the W column.

Coaching: Nice or Helpful?

It is unfortunate that Randy Pausch’s death on last Friday led me to write this post, and I am fortunate that Randy Pausch’s life has led me to write this post.

While rummaging through the endless videos and blogs honoring Randy I found an article on mentoring by Professor Kirk Martini who shared his experience when he had Randy as a college mentor. The title of his paper reflects a belief that I have about mentoring and the relationship you have with your client, “Usually Nice, Always Helpful: A Mentor’s Approach”.

Kirk begins immediately with a belief statement that I know will rub some experienced coaches the wrong way. He starts, “Being a mentor is not about being nice, it’s about being helpful.” Now this does not mean that a coach must approach the client by providing cruel and unusual punishment, when providing support effective coaching behaviors such as building trust and effective communication skills must not be overlooked. Yet at the time of support a coach must be the one who should push the hardest, demand more, and irritate you the most. A Coach should know that as hard as he/she can push, reality will always deal a stronger blow. Kirk explains that while he felt relieved when his time with Coach Randy came to a close, he knew that “Randy understood my long-term future was more important than my short-term comfort.”

Would you rather have your coach as someone who is always nice, usually helpful or usually nice, always helpful?

Who is on your Induction Team?

Thinking about who should be on your team? Is just wanting to be there to offer support enough?

Watching the Dolphins develop their roster for the new year made me wonder about their strategy to determine who should be on the team. It was obvious that Dolphin’s owner Wayne Huizenga wanted a leader of football operations by hiring football legend Bill Parcells. The next few weeks the Dolphin’s administrative staff evaluated each player (and coach) and assessed their value and future on the team. One player I believed to have a future with the team was running back Lorenzo Booker. I was shocked to hear of his trade. What I have learned is that even though he emerged as a valuable player, he was limited to being just a third-down receiver on short passes. It was determined that the team needed a player with more depth.

When building their team it takes more than to be just productive and valued, you need to have a purpose for the good of the group.

Avoiding Relapse

Not during this lifetime did I expect to think addiction and rehabilitation had anything to do with Induction.

As Induction in Broward County is not a “one-shot orientation”, but systems of processes embedded in all that we do to grow as educators; recovery is just not a “one-shot stint of rehab”, but a system that draws upon beliefs, values, and collaboration that focuses on new learning.

When attempting to make a change in your life, Dr. Drew from VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab” points out that “Creation of Change” and “Sustainability of Change” are two completely different and equal components of growth. He not only introduces new choices in life, new approaches in decision-making and problem solving, but also prepares the patient to identify support systems that will reinforce the new paradigm after the doctor has left.

It appears that without a plan to sustain the new behavior, the creation of change might just be an exercise of futility.

The Devil Needs Induction

I am not going to bother you with a complete synopsis of the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”, but the story tells the professional adventure of Andrea, whose greatest dream is to become a journalist

This was not my first choice of film (nor my second), and I managed to watch the entire film and publicly state that it was “OK”. Translation= Pretty good for a rental.

The hook for me was the trials of Andrea’s first job: the weak orientation and and the lack of new hire support. This is a classic non-example!! If you have seen the movie, what areas of Orientation and Induction need improvement?

Instructional Coach Jedi Master

I was only nine when I first learned the way of the Jedi, and almost thirty years later there seems to be a lot more to learn. As I discovered the Jedi mentoring principles (see below), I wondered if George Lucas participated in HRD’s Induction Site-based Professional Development event.

1) Though some small Force abilities may be instinctive or learned from experience, to become a powerful Jedi you must train. For a student to learn skills at a more advanced level, he/she must be trained by a mentor. Training with a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master is the fastest way to learn and a Jedi trainee may also have multiple mentors in their lives.

2) A Jedi Master is extremely experienced in the ways of the Force. A Jedi Master can function as a teacher or a mentor. A Jedi Knight, although he knows the Force, still has much to learn.

3) When training with a teacher, the student gains the benefits of the experience and insight, which that teacher has to offer. The teacher knows what works and what doesn’t. He/she knows a proven method of learning because he has already been a student. Without a teacher, a Jedi student is at a severe disadvantage.

If you missed Star Wars on the big screen, from September 12 to December 31, the original Star Wars trilogy is available on DVD.