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~ …give that you may live, for to withhold is to perish. (Adapted from Kahlil Gibran)

Around the Corner

Category Archives: Transparency

Technological Relativity: Exploring My Journey

20 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Apple, Google, Transformation, Transparency

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When I started working at my new position at a non-profit education organization on March 21, 2016, I had no idea how I would be handling a fresh challenge–providing professional learning about Microsoft products. The team had its Google advocates, but the position that I was filling as a Director of Professional Development, well, that was meant to fulfill the partnership that the organization had with Microsoft (not that Google or Apple were excluded).

In fact, some people came up to me in workshops just this month. “Miguel,” said one young educator, “I read your Around the Corner blog. I know you write about GNU/Linux a lot, so I was surprised to see your support of Microsoft products.” I laughed at this observation that I’ve often made over the last few months. Yet, I discovered a path forward that allowed me to reconcile differing perspectives. As someone who seeks balance (hey, I’ve been labeled a Libra and grew up seeing the “scales” as my personal symbol without embracing astrology). May I share it with you?

“The journey that I have undertaken, meeting people from all walks of life and learning from them, has been my biggest achievement.” -Aamir Khan

#1 – Give voice to the Community.
Early on, a participant at a Microsoft workshop said to me, “We have been waiting for so long for someone to support us.” I documented this story in a blog entry that was published here and described it in this way:

“We are longing for a community,” said a session participant. “Most of us have adopted Office 365 tools, but we don’t see ourselves in the numerous edcamps and workshops offered. Each of us is struggling to connect.” As instructional coach and author of The Art of Coaching Elena Aguilar says, “With a powerful community I can do so much more. I am happier. I learn and expand and, possibly, I can transform.” The 5 strategies below seek to answer the challenge of community building. Read Build a Community

I detailed this journey in a Skypechat that I gave to Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) Trainers. Wow, that’s a LOT of people to connect with and I’m grateful to RH for making it possible.

I realized that our (e.g. bloggers, instructional tech specialists, edtech pundits) fanatical focus on Google Suites, via edcamps/unconferences, being buried in tweets, blog entries, books, articles, how-to videos has left an entire community of educators in the dark. Sure, there are TONS of folks using Google Suites. But there are also lots of folks using Microsoft tools and they have no interest in switching to Google Suites.

No one had stepped up to connect all the wisdom and expertise that this Microsoft-focused community had. So, there was an opportunity to reach people and amplify their voices. And, doing that has been such a rewarding journey! I can’t tell you how much fun it has been to chat with educators who have chosen to embrace Microsoft tools (whether by choice or district mandate) to make a difference in their classrooms and offices. Passion excites, no matter how it expresses itself.

Did you know? I had the opportunity to work with 369+ educators during the 2016 calendar year, exploring Microsoft solutions face to face! Isn’t that incredible? Obviously, I also worked with about 50-60 folks earning Google certifications.

And, there’s been fun in tapping into the cognitive dissonance between these two perspectives. Use one idea to ask, “How would doing this in Microsoft look like?” You can read one example in my Classroom Smackdown blog entry. Often, reading how to do something in one system inspires me to discover how it may be done in another. What fun!

#2 – Connect with a global community of educators.
In addition to building a Texas-wide community of educators, I have been awed by the global community of genuine, authentic educators excited about enhancing teaching, learning and leading with Microsoft tools. I remember my amazement when joining the various Facebook groups in support of Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) and thinking, “Wow, these folks are very committed to ‘hacking education.’ That is, they were as passionate about bringing about change as those in the Google camp. And that’s really great!”

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.”  – Izaak Walton. 

I can and do interact with people around the nation and the world every day. It has been incredible. And, the Microsoft Education Community–offering tons of professional learning in video format, badges and online certificates, empowering trainers to easily track professional development–has been fun to explore and grow into. At every turn, I have found Microsoft team members who extended their knowledge and expertise to provide assistance. Instead of an impersonal web site, there are many smiling faces willing to reach out and help.

“Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.” -Pythagoras

#3 – Warm Welcome.
What a warm welcome I’ve received since I began my journey in March. Sure, I had to learn a lot (earning Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, and Minecraft Certified Trainer) in a short time but it’s been phenomenal to be able to provide support to folks who didn’t see themselves in the flurry of professional learning opportunities available in Texas. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve enjoyed a warm welcome. And, in the meantime, I’ve also picked up my Google Educator Level 1 and Google Administrator certification. I’ve learned (again) that technology skills and ecosystems are additive, not subtractive.

For fellow bilingual educators, I need not explain that some detractors refer to learning a second language as a process that must diminish the first. Or to be inaccurate, I added Microsoft and my expertise in Google was diminished. Jim Cummins’ theory is described in this way:

Cummins draws the distinction between additive bilingualism in which the first language continues to be developed and the first culture to be valued while the second language is added; and subtractive bilingualism in which the second language is added at the expense of the first language and culture, which diminish…. (Read Source)

This isn’t true. I love the fact that adding a language, adding technology tools and ecosystems allows one to develop greater expertise and deepens the relationships one has with others.

What is Technological Relativity?
The possibility that access to different technological capabilities could result in differences in thought patterns. (Source)


#4 – On the Shoulders of Giants.
As a bilingual person, I often find myself switching between languages, looking for the right way to express an idea in my head. When I’m chatting with a fellow dual language learner, what’s incredible is that the right phrase in Spanish or English can capture a different nuance of meaning that appears non-existent in one language.

The language I use impacts my perceptions and thoughts about a particular situation or action. This is known as linguistic relativity, which I was introduced to many years ago as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:

The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ world view or cognition. Popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is often defined to include two versions. The strong version says that language determines thought, and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories, whereas the weak version says that linguistic categories and usage only influence thought and decisions. (Source)

By embracing Apple, Google and Microsoft, learning the way these seemingly opposing systems focus my learning and reflections from my experiences, not unlike the triangle magnifying glass shown above, is exciting. I’m really looking forward to sharing an unpublished blog entry with you, entitled, Dystopian Learning with Apple, Google and Microsoft.

Our brains get more efficient as we do things. Our brain function improves as we learn something, then move onto the next. If we dwell on the same activity then our cortical energy decreases as our brain gets more efficient (Source: 5 Ways to Maximize Your Cognitive Potential). 

It explores solving the same problem from different technology worldviews (e.g. Apple, Google, Microsoft). This kind of technological flexibility is fun to cultivate and keeps me learning new things.

“Every single journey that I’ve embarked on, I’ve learned something new.” -Shailene Woodley

As I reflect on my experiences with these technological companions, I wonder what’s in store next.


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Reaching for Transcendence: Servant Leaders Journey (Updated 2x)

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Gaming, Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

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When I first wrote, 4 Questions for Servant Leaders, I remembered previous opportunities for taking on jobs others found undesirable. Having been in the manager’s seat, I have had the opportunity to experience the opportunity to assign and receive jobs others felt beneath them. In both situations, the difference maker involved having a fresh attitude, without the baggage of organizational drama of “I have one more thing on my plate.” The fresh attitude enables newcomers in a position to embrace work.

What a gift, right? How do you renew your attitude, renew your spirit so that you can take on undesirable tasks like a newcomer?

Image Source

The defining question, and one that I keep coming back to reflect on, is “What are the jobs that need doing that no one wants to do?” It’s a question that can define you. Think of actors who carefully say “No” to a million different roles, seeking the perfect one that will make their career. Then, think of the actors who say, “Yes, I’ll do that.” Not only do they bring an attitude of willingness to a job that others dislike, they find a way to excel.

As I’ve gotten older, I find I’m attracted to these actors–several come to mind even now–because viewers get a glimpse into who they are each time they play a part others thought were beneath them. While these bit parts, as some like to call them, are only a small part of the actors’ career, collectively, they represent much more. At the end of their journey, these actors may get a lifetime award, never having had a single role that distinguished them. Or, it is only late in their careers that they find themselves receiving the Oscar or Emmy for the role no one wanted, but that they played masterfully.

That idea of small parts adding up to a career of winning can be eye-opening. A video game my son introduced me to, Clash Royale, suggests the value of persistence in garnering small wins leading to great success.

In the game, you square off another person somewhere on the globe. You marshal your forces to fight and win chests of gold and silver. To win, you must win 2-3 crowns, that is, overcome 2-3 castles your opponent has.

Each day, you can win a gold chest, even though you may win only 1-2 crowns per battle. Eventually, you obtain the 10 crowns you must gather to obtain the gold chest, even if you lose every match but manage to win 1 crown. Persistence is key.

Life lessons abound in this effort to win the gold chest even though you may fail to win in decisive ways. We are all beset by challenges, and some times, we are fortunate enough to escape, having learned but one or two lessons from the experience. If we persist in forward movement, no matter how painstaking, we may yet achieve the prize–a life well-lived, fraught with peril yet victorious because no small measure of wisdom has been earned.

In this blog entry at ReadWriteRespond, the focus is on servant leadership. On doing the job, of giving one’s all for others. This focus on servant leadership plays out within the confines of team leadership. Yet, much of those involved in the bit parts may play the role of follower or supporting roles. They may not be the “servant leader.”

In the end, a solitary leader may be the one who reaches for transcendence, not distinguishing herself in team servitude. Transcendence in this case means gaining wisdom from completing jobs none wanted. For this leader, a person out taking a walk without followers, reaching for the joy of lessons learned, wreathed in failure, growing successfully as a result. I suppose that such a follower isn’t a servant leader, but something else.


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Make Your Work Worthy of Sharing

03 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

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Image Source: http://tinyurl.com/hu25jue

Change jobs recently? Your experience may yield some nuggets of insight that Harold Jarche found in his gold pan.

Harold Jarche just put his finger on one aspect of them:

Would you still be a leader if you lost your positional authority? How would you know? In networks, your authority is derived from your reputation and the value of your connections to others in the network. Value and authority come from engagement with a network, usually over a long period of time. It’s the sum of many small interactions. So what would happen if you suddenly lost your positional authority? (Read more) 

The answer to Harold’s question is, “Yes, you would still be a leader if you changed your positional authority IF your authority is derived from your reputation and the value of your connections to others.”

When I worked in large urban school district and leadership changes took place, everyone on staff had to “re-establish” their value, to “prove themselves” to the new boss. Not surprisingly, only some were able to accomplish this…worse, it seems to happen frequently in schools, shaking loose existing staff (some who need to be shaken loose, others who are just frustrated, and others who are indifferent).

Protecting my team and I, at least for awhile, was a lesson I learned many years ago in my late twenties. That lesson was that you had to get your story out there, to define your projects and programs before the Central Office did it. In fact, if you could do this, then you “took the stone out of the sling pouch.”

And that story needed to be shared with as many people as possible. Not because it was false, untrue, inaccurate, but because it was worthy of being shared, warts and all. And, you had to do your best to encourage others to share their stories. Before social media, we relied on email, press releases, etc. Did I tell you about the time I won an argument with my boss because I took advantage of the Texas Education Network (TENET) to get emails out to a district-wide email list? It was inconsequential, I don’t remember what the argument was about, only that losing the argument would have hurt edtech in that District.

It’s not just about winning petty arguments with people who don’t get it. From email, we’ve moved to better tools with a broader reach. Now, social media makes sharing those stories much easier. That’s why Harold’s point is so important–we have moved beyond organizational hierarchies that control individual’s lives.

Image Source: http://tinyurl.com/gwrn8px

When you build a successful professional learning network (PLN), one that connects you to global learners committed to improving teaching, learning and leading, then what happens to you in a school district or organization is less likely to upset your apple-cart. I can look back over countless interactions with Texas educators and confess to being grateful, profoundly appreciative, for each.

Am I a leader? I’m less interested in being a leader, and more of helping others and sharing ideas and information. That’s why I really like Harold’s point here:

Do people refer to your work? How often do people quote, cite, or repeat your work? If not often, then perhaps it’s time to start working out loud and contributing to your knowledge networks.

The inclination for most folks in leadership position is to lock things down. Do you know district staff who aren’t allowed to share their district’s intellectual property, whatever they create during the day? I do. And have for years. In every case, keeping data locked down in a school district was the WRONG thing to do. Beautiful, wonderful work only benefited a few people, and because technology changes so quickly (heck, everything changes quickly), work that would have stood as a shining beacon for all to see, to recognize the organization that served things up rather than locked it in a safe, died a quiet, lonely death. What’s more, the people who made that work moved on.

The Internet now makes the shelf life of great thinking accessible and easy to share. Each of us, individuals and organizations, are building a reputation that says, “Yes, we are trustworthy and what we make is worth using to change the world.”

Harold says, “Start working out loud and contributing.” Whether you’re getting the word out via email and paper newsletters (wow, that was a long time ago) or social media, for goodness sake, get it out there. If you don’t, you may find yourself stuck with some new boss who doesn’t understand the value you bring. Harold shares more in a related blog entry, Leadership for the Networked Age:

Hierarchy is necessary for (and only for!) building compliance. It is not networked. As formal power, It is not a form of leadership – but of management. In the presence of formal power, leadership is actually quite impossible to happen. 

Influence is necessary for social density and connection. It is networked. It is a form of leadership.
Reputation is necessary for value creation. It is networked, as well. It is the second form of leadership.

The response to Harold’s question, How would you know? Your network would help you.

Thank you.


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Open to Possibility!

06 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Transformation, Transparency

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A favorite song of mine comes from the O’Shea group, Here I Am. Have a listen…aren’t they great?

Moving from one job to another, there’s something wonderful about taking a moment to reflect on the past, your hopes and dreams, and then, to re-open yourself to possibilities, to dream new dreams, to simply be open to possibility, to accept that you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen…and be grateful.

For example, as I divest myself of all the equipment issued to me in my current position, it’s a wonderfully liberating feeling to turn it all in. My hands are empty, ready to pick up new ideas, new technologies, explore different avenues of accomplishing my life goals. That’s why I love the O’Shea song…every thing that you imagined might derail you from your course actually moves you towards something phenomenal and fantastic.

RETHINKING MY PRIMARY COMPUTER
A year or so ago, someone asked me, “Would you buy a high-powered Mac if you had to start over with a computer?” My response, which I detailed in a blog entry I can’t find right now, involved investing in an Acer C740 Chromebook, loading GNU/Linux on it, and using the “Chrome” side of it to tap into the GoogleApps ecosystem. And, surprisingly, the experiment has been working great. I’m sure as I embrace a new job with different responsibilities, I’ll be using different technologies. But because I’ve always “kept my hand in” with new tech, I feel comfortable that I’ll be able to transcend the tech to get things done.

Changing jobs has given me the opportunity to explore the Acer C740 Chromebook–loading Xubuntu on it as well so that I can do Chromebook stuff, but also, edit audio, move email from one IMAP account to another, remote into Linux-based servers via ssh and more–and the experience has been fun! Cost of the machine? $300. It’s an Acer C740 with 4 gigs of RAM, 16gigs of storage, and 9 hour battery life…it’s essentially, an awesome machine that I need as a writer and Linux nut. It actually plays well with everything and is easily my primary machine that I carry around.

REPLACING MY TABLET
As my 3rd generation iPad, which I essentially bought for my previous position since they were heavily invested in iPad, I’ve transitioned from an Android phone to an iPhone 6 Plus. I had invested quite heavily ($200 total, if I had to add it up) in apps that work on iOS, and feel quite comfortable working with iOS (I facilitated workshops on app-smashing and wrote an ebook, so…). But for my personal, carry around device, I am now carrying a $30 (bought it at a discount this past Xmas) Amazon Kindle Fire, and it’s great for reading and watching videos. While my 3rd gen iPad still works, I go to it less these days…the Fire is “good enough.”

REPLACING HARD DRIVES
One of the technologies I’ve relied on in the past has included external USB hard drives. This past month, I’ve spent time “cleaning out” the junk that accumulates in files, then moving it to cloud storage. Slimming down my data, my cloud storage options has made it easy to backup everything, eliminating unnecessary apps.

As I reflect on the other changes, I’m reminded of the old saying, “Drop the old stuff you are carrying so you can pick up the new.” Looking around my home office, I’ll probably have to do some more sorting through the old stuff, to make sure I keep what will support me as I open the door to possibilities. But, you may be happy to know, I won’t be dropping Around the Corner! It is where I’ll be tracking my journey into possibility.

How are you open to possibility in your life, work, and technology?


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

A Voxer Vow: Stop Rambling

07 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by mguhlin in Transparency

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“Stop rambling!” my brain shrieks at me, jumping up and down on the sidelines as I speak into my phone, try to sound coherent in the midst of a Voxer chat. I realize, minutes later, that I have done exactly what drives me crazy–rambled on, pursuing one idea after another, never quite bringing any to completion. It’s a fun strategy when writing, pursuing one thought, then another, stringing them together in a long dribble of words that fill paragraphs, pages. Aloud, you’re left with silence as people wonder, “What the heck was he trying to say?”

Time for brevity…as the saying goes, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” This is my Voxer vow–to speak briefly, sparing with my words.

An excerpt from Speak Briefly with Compassion and Warmth:

 “Speak briefly, speak warmly, and fill every sentence with kindness, clarity, and optimism.” When I teach communication strategies to students, teachers, therapists, attorneys and corporate leaders, we practice the “10-10 Game.” You face each other, raise your fists and begin speaking and counting. The slower you speak the better…Slower speaking also improves neural comprehension…eliminates anxiety and irritability….

How do you do it?


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

When You Don’t Fit, Go Naked

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by mguhlin in Transformation, Transparency

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Upon arriving in the small, inner city school district, I knew I didn’t fit. The old saying, “No me hallo,” [S panish] or “I don’t find myself in these surroundings,” I’d learned from a childhood maid while growing up in the Republic of Panama (Canal Zone) was on target. But what to do? Six months later, it didn’t matter. I had migrated to a better place, committed to finding a place that appreciated me for who I was, realizing my present wasn’t preparing me for the future I wanted.

“When one discovers what is right and begins to pursue it, the necessary people and resources turn up.” Source: Gandhi

I’d experienced the feeling before, a form of culture shock when I arrived from Panama in a beautiful neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas where I was afraid of being kidnapped, murdered, chased by gang of wannabe thugs too rich to venture away from their Atari consoles but once a day. In time, I came to make my home in San Antonio, but there is always a sense of strangeness.

That sense of strangeness presses at you, stealing your breath, freezing your thoughts, and you realize, either you better make friends quick, islands of comfort in a place where you’ve been isolated, or leave. Worse, that sense of strangeness can permeate your interactions with others.

Once you have a critical mass of good people — if you bring someone who isn’t a fit, they self select to leave. We had to watch really carefully to see if people were a fit or not and then help them leave if they weren’t the right person. Source: Diane Greene as cited in this interview, Scaling VMware with Diane Greene

How do you survive in places where you don’t fit?

  1. Focus on the work. While insufficient for more than a short time, focusing on the work enables you to do what you were hired to do, and increases the opportunity to build relationships with others.
  2. Inventory your biases and expectations, then make sure you don’t take on work somewhere you don’t want to be. You know almost instantaneously whether you’re going to fit in or not. If you know what your expectations are, what your needs are, then you’ll be less likely to fall for that voice inside you that says, “Go ahead…stay, it will be OK. You’re not being fair.” By knowing who you are, where you stand, you can take control of your expectations and endure.
  3. Listen to yourself. If there’s a voice telling you to ignore that nagging sense of strangeness, listen to the part of yourself that senses things are quite what they need to be for you to be at your optimum.
  4. Avoid temptation. When we start a new job, it’s easy to fall for the temptation…the money will change everything, you say, for the better. Unfortunately, money can drown out the warning your senses are whispering.
  5. Pray, reflect, ask for guidance. If you find yourself wondering, “Did I make the right choice?” or trying to decide if you should take the plunge, make the time to reflect. Avoid the frenzied lists of pros and cons. This is not a matter of the intellect alone, but of the heart and soul. Less talk, more listening, allowing yourself to dwell within the moments.
Finally, when the time comes to leave because you don’t fit in, embrace the separation. It may be a little frightening but…you avoid what Robert Quinn calls “slow death” in his book Deep Change:

When dealing with slow death, deep change requires us to go “naked into the land of uncertainty, knowing how to get lost with confidence.” This journey into uncertainty results in the creation of a new paradigm, “one in which we must separate from the status quo and courageously face and tackle uncertainty.”

When you don’t fit in the pants you’ve put on, it’s time to “go naked,” to go into the land of uncertainty…get lost with confidence. When we do this, we take control back from that which urges to practice “safety,” that says, “Fit in no matter what, no matter what the cost, the emotional toll.”

Note: This is NOT an exhortation to embrace a nudist colony life. 😉


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

CTO’s Role – 7 TIps to For Being Strategic @jeantower

10 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by mguhlin in CTOsRole, Education, Leadership, Transparency

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“It’s hard to be strategic if your hair is on fire.”
-via Tweet from @JeanTower


A few weeks ago, an email request for a survey came into my inbox. I probably wouldn’t have paid attention–and usually delete these requests–but my superintendent was copied on the email. I usually see these opportunities as a way to educate leadership about the issues, so I responded immediately and was drafted to participate in the survey.

Thirty minutes later, I was simply having too much fun. In the short two years I’ve enjoyed in my new position as a Director of Technology Operations, we’ve accomplished so much and built strong foundations for future growth. It would be easy to take the credit but it all boils down to people who have stepped into more powerful servant leadership roles, great support from top level leadership team members. Whomever said it’s hard to be strategic if your hair is on fire regarding the work of a CTO or Technology Director obviously hadn’t spoken to my team of exceptionally talented individuals.

One of the challenges of being strategic is that you have to think long-term while implementing solutions that address problems. My favorite example of this involves encouraging a district to invest in a VMWare machine and storage area network (SAN) or VM-SAN altogether. This was critical because all servers were 6-12 years old, donated, obsolete equipment. By investing in the VM-SAN in my first year on the job, the District made a significant investment that has paid off many times.

Just this year (2014), several obsolete servers providing critical services gave hints they would crash. Fortunately, services were already being moved to the VM-SAN. My favorite crash was the Business server, which took a nose dive right after being virtualized. Whew! 60 more physical servers to virtualize!

While I thought my experience to be unique, I knew it wasn’t. I’d just spoken to a friend in a larger school district. His number of physical servers to virtualize this year? 324.

Some tips on being strategic while your hair is on fire–that is, implementing long-term solutions that address imminent needs–include the following:

Tip #1 – Build a strong relationship with your team. You often won’t know what’s wrong until they tell you, no matter what you do. You simply can’t know it all. That’s because being a CTO is a team sport.

Tip #2 – Adopt a modular approach to your network and storage design. When we plan for growth, we try to imagine how to add solutions that will play and work well together.

Tip #3 – Know your inventory and equipment, then ask, how can this situation be improved. If we hadn’t known what was in our MDFs/IDFs–and we didn’t when I started–or hanging in our ceilings, we wouldn’t have been able to plan effectively.

Tip #4 – Budget strategically. It’s so easy to spend all your funding on short-term solutions, that’s why I was thrilled to “map” on a calendar all expenditures for the next few years. This includes renewals, planned technology upgrades, resulting in a multi-year equipment and services upgrade plan.

Tip #5 – Be transparent about your efforts. More will be discussed about this in a follow-up blog entry, but I absolutely love the idea of putting your district’s top tech priorities online then sharing them with everyone. I know I wanted everyone to be aware of what was wrong, what needed to be done, and where we were at with that.

Tip #6 – Cultivate relationships with your leadership. I am grateful to have exceptionally awesome district leaders, and I do encourage you to develop these relationships.

Finally, Tip #7 is Let Your Organization’s Needs do the heavy-lifting. Remember that the heavy work of obtaining funding falls on clarifying the District’s needs and telling the organization the truth about itself. If it comes down to making changes that YOU want, you will fail. If it’s about the organization’s needs, then you have a better chance of seeing action taken.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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SchoolCIO – Settling for Nothing

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by mguhlin in CTOsRole, Education, Leadership, SchoolCIO, Transparency

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Thanks to the SchoolCIO for featuring another one of my blog entries, Settling for Nothing, on the SchoolCIO web site.

Last week, I had the good fortune to have two technology directors make contact and thank me for the content shared on this blog, as well as SchoolCIO. What humbling, heartwarming experiences those were, and I am grateful that what little I’ve learned is of use to another.

The experiences re-affirm the importance of blogging, a way of capturing wisdom as it spreads its wings in front of you right before it flies off, and leaves you wondering, “What the heck just happened?”

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Ask the Question – Mine for Problems

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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“Mine for conflict,” goes the old saying, but more deadly are unknown problems lingering in people’s minds.

Image Source: http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/mining-000013d.jpg

In my team meetings, my paranoia as a leader forces me to ask the question that I never get a satisfactory answer to. I always feel that there is a problem “out there” that I’m missing, that needs to be addressed. Yet, most folks seldom see a problem as a problem when they first lay eyes on it. That’s the fun part…helping others see potential troublespots before they explode in your face.

The question I ask every time I meet with my team takes various forms; here are two:

  • What don’t I know about that you do but haven’t spoken up about and we need to address? 
  • What problem or issue is there that you know about but I don’t or we haven’t discussed as a team?

The wording may vary but the goal is the same–to get at, like a man scratching in a corner for a lost artifact, gasping to extend his reach into the unknown that may hold a problem and the opportunity to solve it.

At Great Leaders Serve blog, leaders are encourage to be a heat seeking missile for truth. That blog offers 3 suggestions:

  1. Ask people for feedback.
  2. Look at your data
  3. Get out from behind your desk

While I feel pretty comfortable about asking people for feedback, I am less so about the remaining two points. Crafting metrics that you, your team and organization will be accountable for is critical, but it’s too easy to coast and say, “Yes, that project was completed successfully! Move onto the next one!” But metrics may provide better insights than just project completion.

And, of course, getting out from behind your desk is important, too. Sigh.


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Ok Alone

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Transparency

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It’s not every day that I read a blog entry that just hits me between the eyes, and yet, that’s exactly what happened when I read this blog entry, 15 Things That Introverts Would Never Tell You. As an introvert, I found every one of these points spot on.

Image source: http://goo.gl/SXn4ga

Some of my favorite ones include the following with some quick reflections afterwards:

We like to write things out.We love email because it helps us get what we need without interruptions. Interruptions throw us off course, and we need to expend more energy to get back on track. So, please don’t call unless it is a close-ended question.

One of the bad reputations I get in any organization is my penchant for writing long emails. For me, the written word rules! Forget video, pictures, etc. All of that is nothing compared to the written word. When I write email, I start with a simple draft, then quickly escalate into sections with their own headers. For me, writing an email is a way of breaking up ideas into discrete, easy to digest chunks. I even provide short abbreviated version of the email at the top in the first 5 sentences for fast-moving admins who typically don’t like to read.

Each email I write gives me a dopamine boost, I imagine, and being able to organize ideas makes it fun.

We can do the extrovert thing, for a while.We have to do that to get along. We can be the life of the party, host the networking event, and be the chairperson of the charity. We do this willingly, knowing that at the end of the day we can go home. When we get there, it may take days, or weeks to replenish ourselves, and feel ready to do that again.

This one is also particularly true for me. I hate being the life of the party, hosting a networking event, etc. While I’m told I can be charming, I don’t really enjoy it. I’d rather grab a Nook or iPad and read. Or, if I’m suffering a caffeine high, write a blog entry.

We are okay alone.We have lots going on in our heads and don’t need more. Unlike our extrovert counterparts, we don’t need others for stimulation.

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but I can be alone for extended periods of time. It doesn’t bother me and I actually enjoy it. The problem is, I have extroverts in my family and whom I work with…it seems rude to me to not want to enjoy their company as much as they may or may not crave mine (not that it’s all that special but if you’re in the same space, well, you don’t want to ignore them).


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Do What Works

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

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No matter what your level of expertise, you can always do better. The question is, “When is the status quo good enough?” It’s a trade-off between investing time and effort to improve vs learning to live with the problems of how you do (or don’t do) things.

When on a Search-n-Rescue camping trip in my teens, I remember setting up my tent, dropping my comfortable looking sleeping bag on the tarp. The scene was idyllic, beautifully setup and at the end of a long day and night of playing Capture the Flag, I laid down only to find I’d set my tent and sleeping bag on top of a rock. The choice was simple–dig around in the dark with my flashlight and move the rock or just “lump it.” You know, live with it because making the change was too much of a pain.

via Glen R

In classrooms today, as well as central offices, many of us are simply going to choose to live with the status quo. But why do we choose this? It’s human nature, I suppose, to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Making a change, though, can mean the world.

When I switched jobs a couple of years ago, I was thrilled at the differences. In one position, I was doing a lot without going anywhere. “You were stuck behind a turtle on the road.” I forget the exact characterization but you get the idea…a hare behind a slow-moving tortoise.

Now, the situation is radically different. When people complain about their problems, I look at them in much the same way dear friends (you know who you are) did when I would answer their “How are you doing?” with a sad commentary.

Life is short. Move on. The issue isn’t are you too busy to improve, it’s why do you think so little of yourself and others around you to keep doing what doesn’t work?


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Fear Motivates – The Specificity of Success

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transparency

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Over the last few weeks, I realized that I’d been motivated by an unreasoning fear that whispered in my ear, “You’re not doing enough.” It came to a head last week for me when someone said to me, “How do you remember everything and get it all done?” Of course, my immediate reaction was, “Huh? Would you like to see my list of mistakes?”

When I blog, I don’t look at my list of blank blog entries. Rather, I look at the list of ones I’ve written. The former is uninspiring because it doesn’t exist. Like vague, unreasonable fears that spur one on, they lack the specificity of success. When I fear the idea of not succeeding, it is vagueness that stifles me like a wave of bitterness and frustration. When I succeed, it is the specifics of the work, the creations and juxtapositions that inspire me. The lesson appear simple–be specific in your work to achieve success, and welcome the fear insomuch as it helps you dis-spell the vague cloud of terror.

In the spirit of acknowledging my fears, thanks to Dan Rockwell on Tapping the Fear-side of Motivation, here’s my list:

  1. I am afraid that my ideas will be discounted.
  2. I am afraid that when I share my ideas aloud, rather than in writing, they will be judged inadequate and discarded without the opportunity to explore them.
  3. I am afraid that in spite of my best efforts so far, I am not bringing about changes to the status quo that need to take place, that everyone needs to have happen.
  4. I am afraid that even though I am successful in one way, I have failed utterly in another.
  5. I am afraid that my work is already a failure, that I am a has-been, and I have been unable to achieve some goal that I should have attained.
As I review my list, I see how wrong my fears are. Let me be specific:
  1. I know that my ideas are seen by thousands each day, and some of those actually take root in fertile soil (The Parable of the Sower comes to mind).
  2. I know that if I take as much time to listen, and share my ideas aloud, that they may help all arrive to a better idea than the one suggested by my single perspective. My goal is less to my idea succeed than to see OUR idea advance the organization’s goals.
  3. I know that I’ve had significant impact on the status quo, but to achieve real change, I must enlist others and help them recognize the value of reaching mutual purpose.
  4. No person is perfect, and I must learn to focus on my strengths and “staff my weaknesses,” as John Maxwell points out.
  5. So what? I can’t achieve everything in all. I need to focus on doing what i can, where I am, blooming where I’m planted.


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Unintentional Meddling – A Leader’s Foible

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transparency

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As a leader, you have to be ready to learn from others when the opportunity arises…even when that opportunity highlights your unintentional meddling in the work of your team.

“Sir,” began the staff manager, “I want to let you know about something that happened last week.”
“Sure, go ahead. You’ve intrigued me.”
“As you know, I was out of town and I left one of my team members in charge with clearly outlined plan of what to do. When I came in and checked with my team, I found out that they had changed the plan in my absence.”
“Why did that happen?” asked his supervisor, genuinely concerned.
“You, sir, are the reason.”
“What? I hardly recall speaking to your team at all this week except to cheer them on in their work and ask a few questions about what they were doing.”
“Yes,sir, when you asked questions, they changed what they were doing. While it all worked out, it introduced some problems I had to work on when I came back in today.”

How would you solve this situation? In the case of the supervisor and manager above, the solution involved 1) Clarifying the plan between all parties so that the supervisor could affirm the manager’s plan through the questions asked rather accidentally encourage a deviation; 2) Help other team members better understand why they were to follow a plan and help educate others who weren’t aware of the details.

If you haven’t had this happen to you as a leader, or as a follower, it can be quite entertaining. Consider when an assistant superintendent or superintendent level position holder asks a subordinate, “Could you evaluate this vendor’s product for use in our district?” The request promptly turns into, without any mal-intent on the part of the high level position holder, a mandate to adopt the product. It’s the power of authority wielded without intent and carefully considered purpose…and, at it’s best, results in unintentional meddling with established process and procedures.

In the example at the top of this blog entry, the supervisor found himself laughing at the situation. But then he remembered that he’d given the exact same advice about unintentional meddling to his supervisor.

While meddling may work for Scooby-Doo and his friends, it can be a major problem for leaders and their teams.


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The Disinterested Leader – Harmonizing Action

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

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“When you go home today,” she said to me, “you’re going to blog this, aren’t you?” Before answering, my brain paused for a micro of a nano-second. After all, she is my direct supervisor. Would I be like Seinfeld’s George Costanza, worried that two worlds would collide? But in this case, it would be professional george vs blogger george?
“Oh, not for a few years,” I replied as casually as I could. “These kinds of meetings require years of reflection to process.”

The disinterested leader isn’t uninterested in what goes around him or her. Rather, s/he seeks impartiality with all the passion of a man reluctantly leaving the  stillness of the ocean deep while craving with his entire being the life-giving air of the surface. . .the deeper the experience, the longer one must take to unwrap the lesson to be learned.

Some might say that those lessons from the past echo in our present actions. When we have failed to learn them, they are discordant and mar our present. When we have embraced them, they enable us to harmonize our lives, allowing for peace amidst what appears to be chaos to others.

The ease at which some disregard life-altering lessons can be disappointing, right? Think back on one experience that taught you something, that fundamentally changed how you perceive and interact with the world. Did you stay quiet about it, or did you persist in sharing it with others?

Our experiences teach us one thing, but there is  a disconnect with the people around us. Their reality is grounded in the immediacy of the moment, the culture of the school. Our reality relies on interconnected learning and a new culture we have selectively chosen to join.

One of my greatest learning tools has been Twitter.  It has been a little over four years since I started on Twitter, and have grown to rely on it for many things, especially personal professional development.  There are so many people to learn from, resources shared, and discovery of professional learning opportunities on Twitter.  Just the number of weekly edchat topics is astounding, where educators from around the globe share, discuss and collaborate on various topics…. 

People don’t see the need, or understand the road technology has taken in education, not just for students but for staff as well, at least from what I have learned on Twitter. Ideas and thoughts for personal professional development get the strange stares and wondering on who would participate in a Twitter chat, let alone grasp the understanding of the power of Twitter.

Source: Who Is More Out of Touch? 


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Make Love through Blogging – From Experience to Learning Opportunity

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Blogging, Transformation, Transparency

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At TEFL Matters (Marisa Constantinides), the old question arises…

If we are convinced about the value of blogging, why is it that it is so hard to get so many teachers, especially trainee teachers, get into the habit of blogging?

Although I was unsuccessful in accessing Marisa’s presentation, I’d like to take a stab at answering this question:

  1. The Value of Blogging – It’s so easy to think that the value of blogging is so overwhelming that other activities pale by comparison. The truth is, blogging’s value fades for those who are non-writers (gasp, yes, they exist in education), who have other life priorities and find themselves affirmed through different mediums (e.g. an outing with friends, quiet tea/coffee stimulated chats scattered at different times during the week). As such, the value of blogging isn’t readily apparent. But for definite groups of folks, blogging does provide value. It’s a conversation with oneself, a process of developing a voice in the absence of others that is thoughtful and focuses on transforming experiences into learning opportunities. . .of a willingness to discover learning while pursuing another aim altogether.
  2. Getting teachers into a habit – We already have so many habits. Trainee teachers, also known as preservice teachers, often lack many experiences and are keen on obtaining them. However, they don’t know what is worthwhile. When everyone is an expert, how do you sort…uh, curate…the advice and information coming at you from everywhere?
The idea that blogging can help us transform an unending series of experiences that are new to us into learning opportunities, well, that holds the most appeal. Sometimes, people avoid blogging not because they don’t see the value, but because they fear that they must be perfect. They fear reflection because they don’t trust the process of sharing ideas–sunshine being the best disinfectant–and finding out if what they think in the darkness of their souls is worthy of being shared.
When I blog, I honestly ask, “Does this idea make sense? Or is it foolish?” The goal isn’t to avoid being foolish in a blog entry, but to take the raw experiences of life and allow them to change you, enabling you to learn from them. The reflection can have a profound experience on you, moving you to accept radical ideas that flow from the amalgamation of your own ideas with those of others.
We often bemoan that creativity and innovation are non-existent. Yet, what is amalgamation to one is creativity and innovation to another. The juxtaposition of ideas, information found in blog entries, when allowed to bear fruit, can foster your own creativity and innovation. Some of the best ideas that have come out of my mouth or pen, haven’t shown up because I woke up wanting to be creative. They arose through experimentation, pure chance juxtaposition of ideas and information.
If you’re a control freak, you’ll find that blogging is a different kind of writing. Your writing isn’t to make a point, but rather, to “extend yourself for the purpose of nurturing your own, or another’s, spiritual, intellectual, growth.” And, that is the definition of love per M. Scott Peck’s work, The Road Less Travelled. 
Blogging=act of love.

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Let Your Best Be

30 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Blogging, Education, Transparency, Writing

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The week my Dad took to die in October, 2006 was made a little less difficult because I could blog about the experience. Though deeply personal, the act of blogging made it possible for me to face the next day, ready to handle what came.

Many people get turned off by this type of writing in what is an “educational space”, but what I realized is that this space was never meant to be focused solely on education, but always on learning.  If you don’t think that you learn something when your dad dies that applies to the kids you deal with every day in a school, you are wrong.  How much will a kid care about math when they lose someone close to them?   The human connection that we have in schools will be the reason that schools will always be relevant and these life lessons, and how we deal with them, bring a lot to our students.  If you only teach the curriculum to a child, you have come up short. Source: George Couros, Learning and Life, The Principal of Change

While bloggers are often challenged to focus on a particular angle or perspective, I have always enjoyed being able to explore a variety of topics in Around the Corner.

The rule that poet Kahlil Gibran shares On Friendship applies to blogs also:

And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.

Or, for fun, my poor adaptation:

And let your best be for your blog.
If your readers must know the ebb of your tide, let them know its flood also.
For what is your blog that you should seek it with an empty mind to fill?
Seek to share always with pages of reflections to give.

Ah well….


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A Thousand Cuts – Healed, One Conversation at a Time

07 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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“Death by a thousand cuts,” I recall my Dad complaining after something had occurred. Then, he’d laugh and things would be OK again. But it wasn’t until much later that I asked, “What does he mean, ‘death by a thousand cuts?'” Although I figured it out, discovering it was a way of torturing people, I found this explanation quite engaging:

A failure that occurs as a result of many smaller problems…This term can also apply to a product or idea that is destroyed by too many minor changes or the failure of a plan as a result of a cumulative chain of events.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly encountered my share of these kinds of failure in implementing technology in K-12 schools (hmm, that’s a blog post on its own). In Choosing Not to Know, George points outs the following relevant to social media:

I had two administrators approach me yesterday and start a conversation.
One told me about how their IT department had closed all social media in their school and about how their fear that if they were to open it.  The fear shared was that their would be so many more issues of cyberbullying, inappropriate content shared, amongst other things.

TOUGH CONVERSATIONS
A question that I seldom asked early on in my career, but now have learned to ask, is, “How does your organization start conversations with others in the organization when they disagree?” In my own experience, conversations “shut down” after a series of incidents, when the people involved fail at finding someone on the “opposing side” that will agree with them. Or, they throw up their hands and give up. “Oh well,” I’ve heard folks say, “I’ve done my part.” Simply, the responsibility for fixing something is not their’s…they lack the authority and/or influence to bring about the desired change.

As a person who is part of multiple teams, I finally realized that it’s MY responsibility to make sure the conversation doesn’t stop when it’s convenient to do so. How do you broach subjects, that if left untreated, will result in problems for the organization? As an administrator in an organization, I cannot let an issue die.

That’s why I like A Great Team, Like a Great Marriage, Fights Well. Some of the take-aways that apply to establishing the conditions for “safe” dialogue seen as so essential in Crucial Conversations:

  1. Give permission to debate freely and respectfully. “a leader should intentionally give the entire team permission to debate freely and respectfully, ensures that hard feelings are left in the room and everyone is aligned and committed when they walk out the door.”
  2. Change the culture.  “The most common dysfunction of a team facing a conflict is avoidance.   Teams cannot solve problems if their cultural reaction is to avoid them.”
  3. Get the team’s thinking. Crowd-sources the best ideas and filters out the weakest.
  4. Set ground rules for conflict. “I expect to hear differing views on this from each present, and, I don’t simply want to hear what you think is right but particularly about what you think is weak or wrong.”

Ron Alvester makes this very important point:

Just as in marriage, when conflict is perceived as a dysfunction, it results in hurt feelings, resentment, anger, division, name calling and ultimately each person feels like they’re spinning their wheels and not going much of anywhere.  When conflict is viewed as a healthy and natural part of the relationship, done in a safe environment and played by the rules, it can produce exceptional results.

As a team leader, I can vouch for the efficacy of these approaches, even when inexpertly implemented (yes, I have experience with that, too!!). Establishing a process for resolving issues–whether it be blocking social media or changing curriculum practices–is essential.

How do you get it done?




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Recalling Satisfaction

07 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Transformation, Transparency

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Note: I wrote this blog entry and it’s been sitting in my DRAFT pile. I thought I’d share it.

A few brief moments ago, I reached saturation point. I found myself “dragging,” uninterested in writing blog entries and more fascinated by reading books. Now, you may not know it, but I read voraciously. How voracious? Thousands of pages per week. Now, I’m not sharing that to brag, but I realized that as enjoyable as it was to read, it was cutting into my productivity. Instead of reading RSS feeds, I was skimming content via Twitter, sorting and organizing it without really reflecting on it.


Without reflection, nothing changes. It’s like you’re eating a meal of junk food, after which, you are left hungering for something with more substance–like meat (sorry vegetarians!). This realization helps me appreciate the problem I was experiencing–reading without reflection is unsatisfying.

In the past few years the amount of information in our various inboxes has exploded, and we all feel overwhelmed as a result. And when I say “inboxes”, I’m not just talking about email. At this point you probably have several “inboxes” that consistently require your attention.  Source: MakeUseOf.com’s Use Your Computer

The suggestion in this article quoted above is that too much information is stressful. You can’t process it all–reflect on what you get–and you feel disconnected from the conversation. I’ve trimmed down on my own intake, more clearly separating work-professional and personal-professional accounts social media accounts, sharing without a commitment to curate content forever (long-term storage in Evernote or Pocket), and trying to enjoy just the experience of ideas and information that enriches my thinking.

Harold Jarche recently spent some time reflecting on this (What is Your PKM Routine?), and I can certainly see how his approach–which ends up in his blogging–works. Unfortunately, I find myself less inclined to write a blog entry these days…it’s easier to acknowledge the learning and then move on. That lassitude and indifference bothers me. Everything seems to require a bit more effort, and I’m reminded that it may be middle age lassitude settling in.

Fortunately, I’ve discovered that when I don’t allow that lassitude to drive me to sleep on the couch or bed, I can be quite productive. My sleep patterns are changing, and I go to sleep earlier, wake up earlier…I feel like a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis, about to emerge and spread my wings. Not that my reflection in the blog needs to change, but that I’m less bound by the conventions and able to try new things.

Ah well, only time will tell.



Source:
http://activatechurch.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/metamorphosis-of-butterflies7.jpg



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Creativity Frightens Me

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

When I read statements like Harold Jarche’s below, I confess to a bit of helpless despair:

First of all, learn real skills, not just how to make it in an organization. Artists first learn the skills of their field. Learn how to code, bake, or some other defined skill. Master it, and then start breaking the rules. This is the Picasso approach. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” [attributed].

In this quote, he encourages us to learn real skills. Do those skills include writing? They must…I guess I need to get creative.

The second half of that first sentence hurts–not just how to make it in an organization. You know, I get that. That’s why an education has been valuable. How many times have I seen some young degreed person walk into a job and take over from someone who has a wealth of experience? Of course, I’m referring to department sales jobs at Burlington Coat Factory, JC Penney, and other places.

How long before teachers get pushed out because we’ve reformed their work into high stakes test administrators and RTI interventionists?


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Avoid the Quest for the Best: Playing and Learning for Fun

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

When at work, one of the profound challenges I face is remembering to have fun. It’s so easy, especially as “a boss,” to get serious about the work. When I get to present at conferences, I rekindle the enjoyment of learning something and then sharing it with others.

A few years ago, I was listening to an NPR broadcast sharing about people playing the violin. Some folks dropped it after awhile because, while they enjoyed the experience, found they would never be the best. That quest for the best, well, it’s a will-sapper.

That’s why I so enjoyed Angela’s blog entry and the points she makes in this section about rediscovering the love of what we do:

We ought to be in a constant awareness of amateur in what we do professionally.
The moment we lose our amatuer-ism, when we try to position ourselves as experts, we lose the pure love of what we do and start to drink our own Kool-aid.
When working with your team, take a few moments to celebrate your own amateur status. In doing so, you will be reminded of how to learn and how to love.

It may be that some will look at my blog, my writing, what I do as always a little short of the best. It is at those times, when I feel the unspoken challenge, that I remind myself, “Thank goodness, I’m an amateur. What I strive for isn’t to be the best, but to best enjoy what I am learning, and sharing that as I’m doing it.”

Of course, it’s not an either/or proposition. You can have fun and be the best, too.
🙂


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Confessing Mistakes

02 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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As John Buckley points out, The saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed… cover your tracks that you even attempted it!” 

“I made an $8,000 mistake,” I told my boss when I worked at an Education Service Center. Instead of firing me, she asked me why. So, I told her:
“If I’d know what I know now,” I responded, “I wouldn’t have recommended we buy that software for creating database-backed web sites.”
“But you didn’t….”
“That’s right,” I said, “I just didn’t know what I didn’t know even though I was trying.”

Source: http://johncbuckley.com/2013/04/10/how-to-survive-leadership-failures-and-mistakes/

Needless to say, she didn’t terminate me or reprimand me or even, scowl at me. Instead, she figuratively patted me on the back, and sent me on my way, to provide better service. From that conversation, I was able to create the first database-backed online workshop registration system for Area 20 school districts. It was a fantastic effort and I learned so much in that, later expanding on it when I moved to a local school district. They are still using some of that technology (obsolete as it is) to accomplish different tasks.

What process do you go through to let your boss know you’ve made an expensive mistake? As technologists, it’s easy to make mistakes people don’t know or understand. But is it OK to keep your mouth shut about them and not tell? I think not. We have to confess our mistakes as part of a process towards moving toward growth, to better understanding how we can do something differently.

While there’s always a list of things to get fired for, making expensive mistakes that are well-researched and intentioned isn’t one of them. Rather, it’s the cover-up we should fear, the decision that says, “You know, I made a mistake and I need to keep my mouth shut about it because I feared that I would be reprimanded, fired, etc.”

What we need is more bosses like the one I had. Maybe one who says, “Making mistakes is inevitable when you are trying to do new things. Do your best and we’ll support you in those efforts, even when a dead-end is the result. After all, when you think outside the box, you have to be prepared to fail spectacularly.”

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.
 Anonymous.


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The Moses Complex – 6 Tips for Leaders In Spite of Themselves

02 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

≈ 1 Comment

At this time of year, I always doubt myself (ok, I do it that more than just at this time of year). The reason why is simple–it’s job appraisal time. You know, that moment when you walk into your supervisor’s office, and explain yourself and your actions.

Pharoah (boss) vs Moses (Leader)…but that doesn’t work. Didn’t the Pharaoh lead his troops into the Red Sea?

Like Robert Quinn, author of Deep Change,  points out, it’s easy to feel like a fake. You wonder when you’re a grown-up in a job and someone will say to you, “Hey, I know you are faking it and we’re going to fire you, get someone in place that knows what they are doing.” Or, as I like to characterize this approach to leadership, “The Moses Complex.”

If you didn’t know, Moses in the Bible is one of my favorite characters. He is the epitome of the reluctant leader–which,actually, is supposed to be a good thing–denying God when He tapped Moses on the shoulder to lead the people out of Egypt. “Send someone else,” Moses pleaded. “I’m a terrible speaker. My brother Aaron can do a much better job.” God grows frustrated. That’s because God uses us in spite of our weaknesses.

Another defining moment for Moses is when he takes credit for his team’s (in this case, God’s) effort for sustenance in the desert. As a result, he leads people to the Promised Land but can’t follow along with them. He’s stuck. I love such flawed individuals in the Bible…and in life. We are all called to be leaders in spite of ourselves…in spite of our weaknesses. That’s why it’s so easy to be a boss rather than a leader. A boss, I suspect, is focused on never being weak, never being vulnerable, while a leader accepts those vulnerabilities…and decides the work is more important.

That’s why when I see posters like the one Jenny Luca and Heather KennedyPlant shared via Twitter (displayed above), I get a little defensive. Or, when I see other awesome leaders doing stuff I can’t even imagine, I get a little irritated. “I’ve gotta do more,” goes the dialogue in my head. “Why aren’t you doing more? Why aren’t we doing more?“

One can come up with lots of great ideas, but then implementation suffers because you’re not doing two things: 1) Coming up with new items for your Stop-Doing List; and 2) Allocating team expertise properly.

Is that remark too full of itself? At a time when hierarchies are flat, team members can connect and collaborate with each other whether the supervisor is there or not, who allocates expertise? The leader, the boss, or the organization’s needs?

I like to imagine that my management IS the contribution I make as a leader, but that often means sending people into work’s way. Is that so wrong? Is that too “bossy?” Posters like the ones in this blog entry make me think so. And, it jives with that voice in my head that says, “Get in there…do more!” with the feeling that “Your most will never be quite enough.” And, funny enough, that’s true.

You know, some common issues…

  1. No time – Push yourself to do one new thing a week and make it a habit. Drop something unproductive.
  2. Too much delegating – Empower people to delegate tasks that need doing to themselves.
  3. Depleted energy – Learn to recharge your batteries from the radiance of others around you.
  4. Not doing enough – Ask the people you serve to share 1 thing they would want you to do, then put it on your list of goals.
  5. Uninvolved – If someone else “owns” the project on your team, ask them what you can do to amplify or support their efforts? Essentially, “what can I do to help you be better?”
  6. Taking Credit – If you see others attributing credit to you for work your team has done, why not find a way to celebrate team contributions in a public way so that others know what the team does? Kind of make yourself appear unnecessary (counter-intuitive, I know, since we often want to justify our existence to our supervisor, especially during appraisal time!!).

Do you suffer from the Moses Complex? If you’re wondering where I fall, I’d have to get a final ruling from my team. In truth, I am a boss. That’s me behind the desk. It’s a horrible, scathing indictment of my approach to management and leadership.

Ah well, that spot right before the Promised Land…that doesn’t look as bad as I thought. And, I will have great company. At least, Moses knows how to find food and water in the desert.


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Podcast – Seven Tactics or Surviving Leadership Transitions via @coolcatteacher #ecmatters

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Podcast, Transparency

≈ 1 Comment

How exciting to see that Vicki “CoolCatTeacher” Davis‘ interview with a relative unknown, “Michael Guhlin,” has been published! Thank you, Vicki! She has a whole series going so be sure to check out her blog at http://www.coolcatteacher.com/ to get access to more content!

Listen to the Interview Online | iTunes Link | Unauthorized MP3 Version for Download

The conversation Vicki and I had so long ago (it sure seems that way now) was centered around a blog entry and article I wrote entitled,  7 Tips for Surviving Leadership in Transition. You can read the whole article for the details, but here are the tips again:

  1. Establish a baseline for improvement based on researched needs.
  2. Be transparent and visible about what you’re doing to address the District’s needs and tell everyone about it as much as possible
  3. Build infrastructure that will support instructional efforts, regardless of their source. 
  4. Encourage leaders around you.
  5. Give all credit away to the people to whom it belongs–the ones doing the work. 
  6. Connect to others outside and inside your District. 
  7. Provide leadership with informational, short-n-sweet reports about what you’re doing and how that aligns to the district’s needs.

I hope you’ll take some time to listen to the podcast and read the article, 7 Tips for Surviving Leadership in Transition. 

BTW, a special shout out to @rabbihiller (check his web site) for letting me know it was posted!


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Average is Over

17 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Transparency, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Something very, very big happened over the last decade. It is being felt in every job, factory and school. My own shorthand is that the world went from “connected to hyperconnected” and, as a result, average is over, because employers now have so much easier, cheaper access to above-average software, automation and cheap genius from abroad. Source: Tom Friedman


“Average is over.” What a profound statement and one I agree with…reluctantly. I have only to look at the lack of consulting jobs available to me. I’d often asked myself, What happens when what I know changes? You have to ask the question when you’re in the technology field. 

Source: http://goo.gl/bQzecq

When I ask what the difference is, I realize what work I once did isn’t good enough anymore. My wife points out the following reasons as well:

  1. The Economy is pretty tough right now.
  2. You’re a wonderful guy and you need to market yourself better.
My son points out, “Dad, you need to write a book!” While I can’t disagree with those points TOO much, I suspect that the world being hyperconnected has something to do with the issue. After all, when you can hire a speaker from Scotland (sorry, Ewan!), why hire the local guy? But I have to be careful to not fall into the “sour grapes” trap. 
If you’re above average–and average is a much bigger group now that we are hyperconnected, as Tom Friedman points out–you probably can get a job. If you’re not, it’s going to be that much harder to close the gap. On the positive side, there are a lot of “sharp knives in the drawer” now that you can learn from and juxtaposing neat ideas can be the way forward.


As my son points out, and those of you who have written books have found, sharing your thoughts in writing is still one way to connect with audiences and earn money. This is important because while my goal is to add value, making money is also desirable.

Consider this perspective on the demise of the humanities:

What many undergraduates do not know — and what so many of their professors have been unable to tell them — is how valuable the most fundamental gift of the humanities will turn out to be. That gift is clear thinking, clear writing and a lifelong engagement with literature.

Maybe it takes some living to find out this truth. Whenever I teach older students, whether they’re undergraduates, graduate students or junior faculty, I find a vivid, pressing sense of how much they need the skill they didn’t acquire earlier in life. They don’t call that skill the humanities. They don’t call it literature. They call it writing — the ability to distribute their thinking in the kinds of sentences that have a merit, even a literary merit, of their own. 

Writing well used to be a fundamental principle of the humanities, as essential as the knowledge of mathematics and statistics in the sciences. But writing well isn’t merely a utilitarian skill. It is about developing a rational grace and energy in your conversation with the world around you. 

No one has found a way to put a dollar sign on this kind of literacy, and I doubt anyone ever will. But everyone who possesses it — no matter how or when it was acquired — knows that it is a rare and precious inheritance. Source:  The decline and fall of the English major

Do I want to write a book, as several colleagues have strongly suggested to me? Frankly, no. But if that’s the only way to make money, then that may be a motivator…or not. I like to write because it’s fun, not because I make money at it. Turning writing into money-making venture is distasteful if it requires much more than what I’m doing now. Ah, I’m reminded of Peter Elbow’s admonition–you’re not a professional writer if you’re not making money (although he didn’t say with double negatives).

So, what to do? Well, I’m considering a part-time job. And, do I really need that $600 gadget? I feel like such a whiner.
😉

Pointless Leadership – Make It Meaningful @gcouros @ransomtech @blueskunkblog

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Chromebook, iPads, Leadership, TechnologyManagement, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

“Miguel,” one supervisor said to me many years ago, “what’s the best you can propose? Let me worry about figuring out how to fund it.” Even farther back, the incomparable Dr. Larry “My Soul Quivers” Anderson, looking like a white bearded prophet dressed in an immaculate suit, shared in a presentation to a packed room of educators in leadership positions, the story of a school district and a business. One of the best speakers I’d heard in my young career posed a captivating story about audacity and hope.

The school prepared a proposal and plan for new technology in their school. They had no hope of funding it themselves, Larry pointed out, proceeding ahead in spite of funding. But then a business stepped in. Instead of buying new computers for their organization, they bought the new equipment and shipped it to the school. They kept working on their existing machines, which still had a few years left in them. Astonishing! Inspiring.

Pointless leadership. If I had to define that oxymoron, it would be a needless debate about what’s the best technology argued on the merits of the technology and its cost. Rather than taking a deep inventory of our needs in the classroom, at the campus and district level, it’s easy for pundits to argue about the right technology. As Doug “Blue Skunk” Johnson points out in this blog entry, Tablet or laptop? it’s easy to get side-tracked:

A couple days ago, my friend Miguel Guhlin posted a matrix of popular personal computing devices on his Around the Corner blog. Thoughtful and comprehensive, my take-away from the comparison is that if you work at it, you can get about any device to do what you want it to do.
While I don’t really want to fan the flames of what has come down to an iPad vs Chromebook* war among techno-enthusiasts, I’m starting to think that one’s preference may be a simple test of how one personally defines literacy.

Indeed, the highlighted point is exactly the point I hoped to make with the blog entry but failed to articulate it as succinctly as Doug’s put it above. A technologist worth their salt can easily make any technology tool as advanced as what we now have available, in a word, sing. In fact, I bet some folks can do much more within the boundaries of a particular device:

“The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.” ― Wendell Berry

If we can set aside pointless debates about who’s selling Chromebooks over machines with different capabilities/functions, whether one technology is better than another (although we must clarify that tech and how it will be used), we can focus on the important stuff, such as George Couros’ quote that Stephen Ransom has so ably captured in this image:

A great quote (@gcouros) and well-illustrated (@ransomtech) !!


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The Grateful Stoic – Grateful for the Pieces

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by mguhlin in Transparency

≈ 1 Comment

“Heck!” That was my first reaction when my wife knocked over the bottle of vinegar, which exploded into a million shards in the kitchen. We all stared aghast at the growing stain on our white floor, twinkling with sparkles of glass around our bare feet. What we would do next to avoid visits to the emergency room, clean up the mess would bring us closer together. But, in those first moments at the start of an unexpected event at the end of a long day, our reaction was, “Heck! Why did this have to happen now?”

In a thoughtful blog entry, Christopher Cozzi (A Heroic Stoic) asks, What If Things Are Great? He points out:

Today though, I ponder how I should handle those events that are generally considered good. What if things are going great in your opinion? Most of the time, things aren’t so bad. Truth be told, a lot of the time things are actually going pretty good for me. Sometimes, things are absolutely fantastic! During these times, shouldn’t I remember that it is my impressions of those things external that make them good or bad? Well, of course!  But why?

When I reflect on perspectives like this one, it’s easy to remember that quote from my 6th grade classroom – Attitude is the Mind’s paintbrush…it can color any situation. Of course, our attitude determines whether that which we encounter will profit us, or not. How we interpret what happens to us can have a significant impact. One could easily argue that something is evil or bad.When I first studied to be a teacher, I remember a sermon I listened to. The presenter encouraged us to consider what story would we tell ourselves, one of success and triumph or failure and despair. “Punch your own clock,” he said to us. The message came through loud and clear–each person determines the value of the ideas and things that happen around, and/or to, them.

Christopher Cozzi also reminds us to be mindful of impressions, to relish what actually happens:

For me, mindfulness of the transitory, impermanent nature of things, and remembering that I too shall die, brings great appreciation of the present moment…especially when things are going well. Being mindful of my impressions helps me relish the blessings I have in the moment. All that happens, good and bad, shall happen as is destined and inevitable. So, when fortune goes my way, I appreciate it all the more, and with perspective.  This is a special kind of happiness. 

When something happens, I try to remember to be grateful for it. In time, I know that habit will become automatic. This is one of the most important lessons learned early on but it’s taken years and, as the broken bottle of vinegar shows, I still have much to learn.

The Secret to Happiness

Once upon a time, a man stood crying alone on the rooftop of his house. He was unhappy, and he cried out, “I just want to be happy.” An angel appeared to him, and offered to grant him 3 wishes over the course of his life. “Grant my wish, angel!” the man begged. 

He was mourning the fact that the roof he stood upon was of a house he did not own, that his creditors beat upon his door and his wife lived in fear of furniture and vehicles being seized. The first wish the man asked for was wealth.  

For a time, he was happy but then his wife fell ill and no amount of money could save her. As he wept again at her plight, the angel appeared again and offered to grant him a wish. The man wished for health, but in spite of his health and family’s being improved, over time, he realized that this did not make him happy.

He reflected long and hard on this, even writing a few blog entries, sending out a few tweets, and checking with his PLN. 

Finally, one night as he suffered weariness of spirit in spite of riches, family, and perfect health, the angel appeared to him to grant his final wish, present at his unbidden request. “Angel,” the old man asked, “grant me my wish…teach me to be grateful for all that has happened and will happen in my life.” The angel made it so. 

At last, the man achieved happiness.


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In the Past – 3 Words to Avoid

20 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

≈ 1 Comment

“In the past,” began my veteran secretary at my new job, “we would….” Of course, I listened attentively. After all, I’ve been told that is one thing I do well. But if you imagine that “In the past” is what we continued doing, well, that would be less than accurate. 

Image Source: http://goo.gl/qvoY3H

When I started a new position in a large urban school district, one of the phrases that people were fond of using was, “In the past.” Almost every utterance that meant to forestall change began that way. As if “In the past” would actually have the power to stop impending change. 

My new boss, an assistant superintendent put in the position he was in so that he could be forgotten by the District (a mistake since he was/is a brilliant individual who made the best of a great situation), loathed the phrase, In the past. It was a personal affront to him. If you started a conversation with those words, you had to be prepared for a drawn-out discussion exploring why the past was the past, and why change was necessary. Of course, I picked up on this perspective quickly (I was new to the District) and helpfully coached my veteran secretary (she later left the team) along with my team to NOT use that phrase, even when they meant to say it.

Dan Rockwell (Leadership Freak) says that people cling to the past for one of 4 reasons:

  1. Don’t feel heard. People who consistently bring up past situations are saying, “Please listen to me.”
  2. Need validation. People who don’t feel heard feel put down. Validated people courageously move forward. Everyone else waits for validation.
  3. Fear the future. Even if it’s painful, the certain past is more comfortable than an uncertain future.
  4. They aren’t convinced your plan for the future is actually better.

Dan then offers some excellent suggestions well-worth meditating on and applying.

Since that time (over a decade now) my secretary started every other utterance with In the past, I have read Crucial Conversations/Confrontations, and my perspective on change is significantly different. Now, if it takes 6 months to bring about a change, I ask myself, “What conversation am I not having that is impeding change?” I have to reflect on what conversations that I’m not having that prevent forward movement because, sad to say, it’s easy for me to put my head down and forge ahead without really being aware of those un-said conversations. It’s so easy to make unilateral “flash in the pan” decisions.

In Dr. Cook’s blog entry, he shares this perspective from Todd Whitaker (Shifting the Monkey author):

Change does not take a long time! People love to say that it takes a long time because they don’t want to work hard. For example, have you ever had an out of control class with a marginal teacher (could be a substitute, maternity leave replacement, or even a tenured teacher)? You take another, stronger teacher and put them in that class, and next thing you know it’s a different class? Change doesn’t take a long time, unless you are averageGreat people do not see the “before.” Continuing that example from above. The great teacher that comes in, and turns things around does not need to know what happened before. They take ownership of the class, and move forward 

I suppose I might change that highlighted section. Our notion of teaching is still centered around the one person who controls everything from the front of the room. Maybe, we could revise that to read:

The great leader that comes in, turns things around, does need to know what happened before. Only, that leader finds a way to share ownership of a future that others can support, then moves forward, enabling others to see what they couldn’t before–a future that captures the best of who we and the organization can be when we “synergize.”

Ok, that’s probably a terrible revision, especially with the fake word “synergize.” But this is a blog entry not a peer-reviewed journal and I’ll leave it for today.


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Comment Hoist: Being Forgiven

20 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by mguhlin in CommentHoisting, Leadership, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

In response to my “How To Say You’re Sorry” blog entry–thanks to all for reading it!–I received various Retweets (one from Todd Whitaker, author of Shifting the Monkey)  and remarks, as well as these two emailed comments:

It’s important to keep it simple and to take full responsibility.  We don’t want to say something in an apology that will exacerbate the original offense.  We also need to understand that, though it is the words people respond to, there may be something deeper—our attitudes, other things we have said or done, and, especially, the prior experiences of the person we’ve offended.

If we keep it to: “I was wrong, would you please forgive me?” then we give the offended party the opportunity to be in the driver’s seat.  Then we need to keep a careful watch on our tongues in the future.  James 4: 1- 12.

BTW I made the deliberate choice not to go into administration as well when I decided to go for library media specialist certification.  There are many reasons why I don’t want to be a principal, but the primary one is that it’s a truly thankless job for most and they daily have to do things that I don’t want to deal with.

Have a blessed Christmas!

and

Miguel,
Thank you for bringing this subject up. That’s why your are loved and admired by so many people. You just bold “step into it” and then you process it in your mind for us in print. Thank you!
Merry Christmas

Thanks to these two commenters for sharing their feedback! BTW, while looking for a nice summary of Shifting the Monkey to link above, I stumbled across these quotes. Great stuff…it reminds me that you can make change in 6 months if you’re willing to put the time and effort.

  • Change does not take a long time! People love to say that it takes a long time because they don’t want to work hard. For example, have you ever had an out of control class with a marginal teacher (could be a substitute, maternity leave replacement, or even a tenured teacher)? You take another, stronger teacher and put them in that class, and next thing you know it’s a different class? Change doesn’t take a long time, unless you are average
  • Great people do not see the “before.” Continuing that example from above. The great teacher that comes in, and turns things around does not need to know what happened before. They take ownership of the class, and move forward 


via Dr. Cook’s Blog



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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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How To Say You’re Sorry

18 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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Image Source: http://goo.gl/VzQfhS

During a conversation with a principal, in response to the question, “Why aren’t you a principal?” I replied in the following way:

“A principal’s impact is small…” I began, “And,….”

Before I could say anything else, my colleague pounced.

“What, are you saying I don’t influence people across the District?”

Obviously, I’d goofed. The conversation had stumbled into an area that I hadn’t thought through very well, and it was unfortunate. Not because I was pounced on–and rightly so–but because, as I pointed out, as a writer, I like to use my writing to figure out what I mean. When you do that aloud, there’s no backspace and delete. There’s no revision. The words are…out there. You can’t pull them back.

What I meant to say–which was also poorly considered–was the following:

A principal has a small impact because the number of people they interact with on a daily basis is much less than a district staff member (yes, you can see the hole getting deeper in writing, right?). When you work at a district, regional or state level, the potential impact of your work is greater. Today, though, folks can capitalize on social media to have a broader impact.

Again, as I read this, I realize what a goof I’ve made of the conversation. As I reflect on experiences and interactions with principals via Twitter, I realize how stupid my remark is. The more I think on where it came from, the more I realize it’s a left-over statement from something I heard long ago and internalized. And, it’s no longer true.

One friend put it to me this way: “We adopt opinions and beliefs as our own, giving no further thought to their veracity, then at a certain point, slap a coat of shellac on them and that’s that. These perspectives endure until life rocks our world and makes us rethink them.” The value of perpetual learning is that we are often forced to re-examine our perspectives.

 Yet, even knowing that, I failed to re-examine something I’d held true for a long time…years in fact. It’s a ill-conceived mess that shows my bias against being a principal and my preference for being in a district, regional, state leadership position that interacts with more people. Yet, that’s a preference, a bias based on information that is no longer true, thanks to social media, it’s even less true than before.

As I reflected in the moment, I realized what a terrible thing I’d done to my highly-esteemed colleague. How to apologize?

CRAFTING AN APOLOGY
When I apologize, I believe in doing it in this way:

  1. Be emphatic in your apology. Half-hearted apologies are for wimps. Fall on your sword.
  2. Be specific about what you’re apologizing about. The point of specificity isn’t so the other person will remember how you wronged them, but so that YOU will remember and offer an apology that addresses what you did wrong.
  3. Assume complete responsibility for you’ve done wrong. Obviously, you’ve messed up. Don’t walk softly after having trampled over everything. Own your mistake (or know when you can do nothing to repair the damage, another blog entry in itself).
  4. Ask for forgiveness.

As I read my four points, I wasn’t surprised to find that others have elaborated on The Key Components of an Effective Apology.

To really internalize this process for the future, and apologize as I explored a dark, half-formed chaotic thought and voiced it, I’m going to write an apology with those components above.

Here goes:

1) A clear ‘I’m sorry’ statement.
“Jennifer, I have reflected on what I just said, and I want to sincerely apologize for what I just said. I’m not sure that explaining what I was thinking–and not thinking–will be effective, so I want to say “I’m heartily sorry for having offended you.” (Who said the Act of Contrition doesn’t come in handy in daily life?)

2) An expression of regret for what happened.
Knowing how small my poorly considered remark made you feel, and how poorly it reflected what I think about you, I want you to know how much I regret what just happened.

3) An acknowledgment that social norms or expectations were violated.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that I shouldn’t have said something like that without giving it more thought ahead of time. There’s an expectation for civil discourse, and I just crossed the line. I want you to know that I know it.

4) An empathy statement acknowledging the full impact of our actions on the other person.
In your shoes, I can only imagine what an impact my foolish remark had on you. I hold you in high esteem, and I hope that my poorly considered remark will not damage our relationship. The work you do is critical and your influence stretches far beyond the bounds of your campus and your role as principal. 

5) A request for forgiveness.
Having said all that, I humbly ask for your forgiveness. I am also grateful that you were able to help me better understand my own prejudice and bias in this situation. Will you forgive me?

Ah, there’s nothing like a solid apology to remind one that each of us is fallible, and one action away from foolishness or worse. I’m grateful to have a forgiving colleague and friend, but having made my share of mistakes, there’s nothing that fully takes away the sting of stupidity than an authentic, heartfelt apology followed by a request for forgiveness.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Words to live by.



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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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The Crucial Difference #savmp @skfuller @8amber8

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Crucial, Leadership, savmp, Transformation, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

Note: Slideshow appears at the bottom of this blog entry.

“Do you ‘pick’ your battles with staff?” Ah, what a delightful way of avoiding the issues that can move your team forward or not. In my own work, I’ve found that the crucial conversations/confrontations that you have successfully move your team forward, while those you fail to have or are unaware of, stop growth. As a leader, I have “mine for conflict,” a term that Patrick Lencioni introduced me to in his books. One of my favorite quotes about conversations comes from the VitalSmarts folks:

Whenever you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, it’s likely that a crucial conversation is keeping you stuck. Whether it’s a problem with poor quality, slow time-to-market, declining customer satisfaction, or a strained relationship, if you can’t talk honestly, you can expect poor results.

Don’t get me wrong, mining for conflict is a good way to lose a limb, get burned, unless you have a plan that works. Having been a poor conversationalist in the past, I’m grateful to the Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations books for providing a framework that works for me. What’s more important is that your team members are looking to you to handle these issues. When you do, there’s a collective sigh of relief. When you do not, people won’t meet your eyes, avoid uncomfortable topics, and/or find subversive ways to get things done.

Dan Rockwell (Leadership Freak blog) points out the problem with administrators who “pick their battles” with staff:
Weak leaders choose manipulation over honest exchange. Wise leaders choose tough conversation over mediocrity.
Excellence is a function of confrontation.

The more uncomfortable the conversation the more important it is. The more it matters, the tougher it is.

Successful leaders address issues others avoid. 

Mediocrity is the result of avoidance.

What a delightful evening I have planned for tonight! As I write this in the wee hours of the morning, I am looking forward to this evening’s podcast with friends like Amber Teamann (@8amber8),  Shannon Fuller (@skfuller), and colleagues I haven’t met yet, Ben Gilpin and Gerald Hudson.

This is the second time this year I’ve been asked to share my insights into “Critical Conversations,” so called because they are necessary, perceived as tough to have (best measured by your blood pressure and the gobs of time they consume, so it’s a bit of an endurance challenge), and critical because without them, you simply can’t move forward at work and/or life.

Here are the directions Amber shared with me last night, long after I’d already passed out for the evening:

Thank you again for agreeing to be a part of the #SAVMP process. Last week’s message was on Crucial Conversations. We wanted to do a hangout where we gave several scenarios and have you respond with how you, as a lead learner, would respond. In the course of answering about the scenarios, you can also share any words or wisdom that you have with our audience. The hangout will be live, and then also accessible for those who miss it on the SAVMP blog,
The three scenarios I’ll ask you about are:
1. The perpetually late employee
2. The staff member who isn’t pulling their fair share of the work load

Update: You can view/listen to the conversation we had as a part of SAVMP via YouTube:



Show Links:

  • “Presume positive intent” – lots of references to this, but check out this chapter excerpt from What Successful Principals Do!
  • Achieving Transformational Leadership with Wikis – http://tinyurl.com/nur2xp9 
  • Happy Feet2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw7R_RGAd9I
  • “Who will do what by when?”
  • Our Iceberg is Melting

Although I’ve been interested in the SAVMP conversations, I admit I haven’t really kept up with them due to a busy schedule and herculean tasks I’ve been involved at work and for personal. Still, as I reflect on this evening, I am reminded of previous blog entries on this subject that I’ve written, including my own set of scenarios:

  1. Old Friends, Fresh Reflections
  2. The Way of Disinterest
  3. Grow Towards the Light
  4. Scenarios:
    1. Crucial Confrontations – End of Year Slideshows
    2. Scenario #1 – Confrontations that Lead to Excellence
    3. Scenario #2 – Hungover Teacher Wearing Sunglasses in Class
    4. Scenario #3 – Peer Accountability
    5. Confrontation Protocol for Principals
  5. Resolving Tough Conversations
  6. Good Enough
  7. Sucker’s Choices – How Tech Can Succeed in Schools
  8. PBL Your Way to Crucial Conversations
  9. My Notes on Crucial Conversations
  10. Just Jump In – Exploring Options for Netbooks, iPads and More
  11. The Undiscussables of Tech Leadership
  12. 7 Tips for Surviving Leadership in Transition (or, two tips for new leaders)
and, finally, here’s my Haiku Deck slide show on the essentials of being crucial:
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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7 Tips for Surviving Leadership in Transition (Edited)

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by mguhlin in CTOsRole, Education, Leadership, Transformation, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

“Miguel,” a dear friend and colleague asked me, “have you read the new superintendent’s book?” At my blank stare, she pointed to the purple book in her hand entitled, 5 Temptations of a CEO.

“Oh,” I responded, “Yes, I have. But have you read the other 5 books he’s proposed the Cabinet read?”
“No,” she replied. “There’s more?”
Unfortunately, there was. While I wasn’t asked to read the books, I read them. In the end, it didn’t matter because while my friend and I were ready to adhere to the principles of the books, no one else–including new leadership–was. The end result? Hypocrisy. 
Maybe we could revise Amy Mayer’s tips and change them up…for 6 steps to make book studies sticky?

The books were great and would have brought about great changes in the organization, if the leaders who read them had bothered to put them into practice. In time, I learned that too many leaders read whole series of books with their teams but nothing sticks. Each leader ends up with a hodge-podge of self-help leadership advice that seldom is codified or institutionalized. That’s not the approach I’d recommend.

WHAT NEW LEADERS SHOULD DO?
What can new leaders do to get things going?  First, you have to decide what to do, then you have to hold the team accountable–yourself included–for doing it.
We’re talking about a changing of the guard, or passing on the keys to the kingdom. What can a new leader do, no matter how experienced? I like these ideas from How To Get Things Done:
  1. Craft a 150-day plan that lets people know what to do and what not to do.
  2. Go public by being transparent about your goals.
Under #1, it’s important to be accountable and I like every meeting agenda-action item to have an answer to this question:

Who will do what by when?

It’s a straightforward way of setting each of us up for accountability. 
Under #2, going public and being transparent is critical. After all, one of the biggest complaints against new leaders is that no one knows what the heck they are thinking…and people want to please or remove ambiguity from their lives. 
So, now that we know what a new leader should do, what about the rest of us who have to “survive” the leadership transition?

Image Source: http://goo.gl/I43QCi

Having worked in multiple school districts, I’ve seen the reins of power change hands multiple times. Given the fact that superintendents change quite frequently these days–every 3.6 years as of 2010 according to one report, which cites that as an improvement from 2.5 years in 1999–having any one leader on hand for awhile can be fortunate.

…one of the key elements in running a successful district is stability. So if you have a revolving door, it’s counterproductive, and there’s never a chance to establish reforms or create programs that make a difference. Even a three-year period of time is inadequate.” (Source)

I can’t help but agree that 3 years is too short a time to bring about the desired changes. In my time, I’ve seen several types of leaders and witnessed the transition. For example, consider these types of transitions:

1) Visionary leader hands the reins to hatchet person.
In one district, I had the opportunity to work with a visionary leader who engaged well with staff and community. His words were honey and he backed it up one on one. In fact, I look back at my time with this leader as incredibly educational and inspiring.

When he left for another school district, all of us were shocked. What would happen next? For some, their worst fears were realized as the job passed to the second-in-command, the assistant superintendent who did all the “tough, dirty” jobs that the visionary leader appeared to side-step. One had velvet hands, the other, hands of steel. In fact, the latter’s reputation was “hatchet man.” In spite of this horrible reputation, the hatchet leader turned on his charm and established a firm foundation for future work. Those who had been frightened by his arrival realized that the job of superintendent came with its own demands and expectations, and those moved their once-feared “hatchet man” in a different direction. Instead of a despot with the power to execute, he became a beloved leader, an able executive.

2) Behind the scenes, hierarchical manager gives ways to EdReform Leader.
Alas, if all stories had happy endings, we might not have the opportunity to learn. A Behind-the-scenes leader or manager can be quite powerful, cutting deals and ensuring that projects get done in spite of the rivalries that exist between the powerful personalities of a superintendent’s cabinet, especially in a large urban district. When the hierarchical manager left the organization, he queued up certain individuals for top leadership positions. Unfortunately, these individuals were cut from the same mold as the previous leader.

…a top-down reformer,” said Julian Vasquez Heilig, an associate professor at the University of Texas who wrote one of the studies. “They come in with disruptive change. This is the management approach with a one-size fits all approach to every school in the district.” 

(Source: Research papers criticize Dallas ISD Superintendent (ouch, poor guy!)).

When the edreform leader arrives, he found himself overwhelmed by individuals who knew their power and weren’t afraid to wield it to achieve their own ends. While he’s trying to get them to read leadership change books (honestly, how many of these books do leaders need to read before they know what to do? After all, no doctor prescribes every medicine in the pharmacy, only what’s needed…and that varies from patient to patient!), they are trying to anticipate how to soften the blow of that leadership.

It’s a normal, human thing to do what every change agent has to be on guard for:

“How can I do the minimum to be compliant while still doing what I want to do and staying in my comfort zone?”

This ended up with a group of rivals who had learned to behave in public, but in private, whip-sawed the organization this way and advocating for their hidden agendas with associated budget. You have to wonder if the “edreform” leader was so blinded by the machinations of his underlings, an amiable team in his imagination that had great book studies, that he didn’t see disaster looming on the horizon.

When you lack the power that comes from strong reporting relationships, you can supplement your influence by engaging responsible parties in going public with clear and measurable goals. (Source: How To Get Things Done)

Instead of mining for conflict, putting the skunks on the table for public airing, problems were buried and pressure built-up until the volcano exploded. Now, people can’t wait to escape the lava-scarred landscape. When the Board tired of edreform leader’s failed efforts, he was outed, and everyone wished for a strong, firm, friendly hand to provide direction.

Image Source: http://goo.gl/NXJj1P

Ah, if only he’d read Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations…before trying to implement a variety of “leadership self-help” strategies for large organizations.

What happens when new leaders arrive?
In my experience, this is what happens when new leaders arrive:

“Put the skunk on the table.”
  • An uneasy respect for the new leadership is granted by the governed, but few are willing to speak up…except for the kiss-ups or those willing to step up and say what they need to say. It’s a bit funny to consider that the ones who speak up are often the ones who are retiring, have other jobs they can transition to.
  • The new leader either tries to maintain the status quo–and fails because new relationships have to be built that acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of the team that s/he will have to rely on–or sets out boldly to create a new vision. The key is to try and accomplish both, building relationships AND creating a new vision that flows from the led and the needs of the organization.
7 Tips for Surviving Leadership in Transition
My plan for dealing with new leadership is the same as dealing with old leadership. Ready? Here we go:
  1. Establish a baseline for improvement based on researched needs. In other words, it’s not YOUR initiative or idea, it’s what the District needs. Take advantage of tools like these:
    1. Dr. Chris Moersch’s Levels of Teaching Innovation (LOTI)
    2. Apple and Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s Education Technology Profile (ETP) based on the SAMR Model (contact your Apple rep for more info)
    3. Have an outside firm (like Ed and Polly Gifford) do a technology assessment of your technology infrastructure and network.
  2. Be transparent and visible about what you’re doing to address the District’s needs and tell everyone about it as much as possible…especially when you or your team is goofing up or moving slow.
    1. Put together a web site (e.g. blog, google site announcement hooked up to IFTTT.com) that auto-tweets what you and your team are doing.
    2. Conduct webinars with anyone who will listen and/or attend.
    3. Send out those old-fashioned print newsletters with links to more information on your web site.
    4. Try to get teachers and students to present to the school board.
  3. Build infrastructure that will support instructional efforts, regardless of their source. Simply, it doesn’t matter who the new leadership is–help them get done what needs to be done for a district to be successful.
    1. BYOD/BYOT wireless infrastructure (100% wireless district-wide)
    2. Sufficient, low-cost desktop computers to complete state-mandated assessments
    3. A plan for how to encourage the use of mobile learning technologies and the creation of online learning spaces that foster communication, collaboration and creativity in a highly connected, global learning environment.
  4. Encourage leaders around you. It’s so easy to take the lead yourself, to fall for the “quarterback has the ball” approach. Just remember, nothing happens until he throws it or hands it off.  The truth is, I still like We Were Soldiers leadership (the part where the leader is taken out of the equation, and the next person has to step up and so-on). Make sure that you, as a leader, make yourself progressively unnecessary by building your team up. If they stink, then that’s a reflection on you. If they are excellent, you shine, too.
    1. In a crisis, decide on communication plan so you aren’t the weak link if you’re unavailable, and 
    2. Empower them to figure out who will do what by when.
    3. Delegate your authority.While everyone can be responsible, delegating work enables individuals to take responsibility and be accountable to the group (and, ultimately, you).
    4. Be accountable to your team. Don’t be afraid to admit when you’ve messed up and then take corrective action.
  5. Give all credit away to the people to whom it belongs–the ones doing the work. The best quote I heard came from my current superintendent (no, I’m not pandering or engaging in flattery). The quote goes something like this: “As leaders, you aren’t remembered for what you do, but for what you get others to do.” While some will argue that “get” is manipulative, it encompasses words like “empower, inspire, or enable.” In my role as a team member, it was on me to bring my technical, how-to skills to the table to get the job done. In my role as a leader, it’s critical I do everything I can to empower team members to give their all in ways I can’t imagine because I’m not them…and not be afraid to praise them for being smarter (not hard) than me. 
  6. Connect to others outside and inside your District. It’s so easy to be insular, to enjoy the comfort of “inside my district.” The world is always changing and not only will the world benefit from your struggles but you will benefit from the feedback they provide.
    1. Take advantage of social media to share what your thinking is about a project.
    2. Present on what’s going on in your district and don’t be afraid to start with roadblocks and then elaborate on detours.
  7. Provide leadership with informational, short-n-sweet reports about what you’re doing and how that aligns to the district’s needs.
    1. Executive summaries are one page documents that present and quantify a need, explain what you intend to do about it, and identify funding sources available (or not). Consequences for inaction are also included.
    2. One page status updates on all initiatives aligned to district goals. I’ve seen–and made–some reports that include percentage complete, or feature Gannt charts. Again, what the metrics will look like depends on your situation.
What other tips would you offer? And, I’ll offer my standard disclaimer…I’m not an expert at all of this. Even when following my own advice, I fall short. It’s too easy to get caught up in one approach or another and stall. How would you grade yourself with these 7 tips?

And, take advantage of the padlet below to quickly share your tips!

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DO AND/OR DELEGATE – CTOs Role

14 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by mguhlin in CTOsRole, Education, Humor, Leadership, Transparency

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This is an interesting article about how the role of the Technology Director is evolving – in District Administrator (November 2013) magazine. More superintendents and administrators are being exposed to the idea of a technology director who is instructional, collaborative, support, decision-making, and service-minded. This hybrid director is part of the decision-making leadership team (not just the Powerpoint slide-advancer). Source: Joel Adkins (@mradkins) 

What an excellent article! I definitely agree with the points and love the contrast drawn between that new CTO and the PPT slide-advancer.
At a district leadership team meeting yesterday, my Superintendent shared what I immediately recognized as a quotable quote; it resonated so strongly with my concept of leadership as focused on delegation rather than only doing. It went something like this:

“As admins we will be remembered not for what we do, but what we get others to do.”

The transition may be from the person who had all the expertise to DO stuff to the person who delegates the work, keeping sight of the big picture. It’s not an either-or situation for anyone, though. You don’t just DO or DELEGATE. 
And, some folks (Judith Epcke) I shared the quote above with pointed out that “get” might not be the best word. In truth, in some situations, “get” is accurate even as much as we work to use other words like “inspire, engage, empower, enable, require,mandate” instead of “get.” Get covers the gamut of words that fit in. Some are appropriate some times, another is appropriate at others. The role of the CTO now tends to be more collaborate with and empower these days. Since I often fall short in this area, I’ve tried to focus in on this. 
A few weekends ago, my 19 year old Aggie daughter said to me, “Dad, what’s your personality type?”
“I don’t remember,” I replied, “It’s introvert something or other.”
“Take the test and then tell me.”
“INTJ.” 
“That’s just like me! Get Mom and James (my 14 year old son) to take the test.”
“Both of you are ESFJs?” I asked incredulously. “That explains so much.”
“Extroverts,” my daughter observed wisely, “suck our energy, Daddy! We require solitude so we can recharge our batteries.” She then went to her room and shut the door. I went to the office and let silence settle in. My wife and son hung out in front of the television downstairs. But our perceptions of each other had changed (and they changed again when we saw this diagram). It’s amazing how many times this comes up in conversation now.
When I asked my team at work to complete the personality assessment and share their results, I was astonished at how well the results matched the personalities. Personality types aside, each team member is incredibly valuable for what they bring to the team and the work we do for the organization.

What powerful insights we all gained into each other. I can’t help but wonder at what “new” CTOs must be like compared to the same people 5 years prior, who may have been more focused on boxes and wires. Would those be introverts and the new CTO be more extrovert? Maybe you’d like to report your results?


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Why Work is Like Nutella, NOT Peanut Butter

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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Plodding through the beautifully organized world that is LinkedIn.com, I stumbled on an intriguing article–Why Work is Like Peanut Butter by J.T. O’Donnell. Fortunately, I hate peanut butter. When I discovered nutella (thank you, dear daughter), I realized I’d found something altogether wonderful. Before jumping into that, though, let’s get a better understanding of Peanut Butter and Work connection…this is my imperfect understanding of the article, BTW.

WHY WORK IS LIKE PEANUT BUTTER
If you began your job enamored of it, then fell into disillusionment, then you’ve realized an important truth–work is like Peanut Butter. Huh?

Here’s why says the author:

  • Peanut butter (work) is a surprise to your taste buds that have had to make do with boring healthy stuff (your old job). You put in effort to get a new job, and your brain is wrapped up in unwrapping the surprise.
  • Peanut butter (your new job) gets to be boring since you over-indulge, enjoying it for lunch every day. No matter what variations you try, the new job is as eventually as bad as your old one.
  • In spite of your realization that your new job has unpleasant crunchy parts, you realize it’s your job and you accept it for what it is–a flawed, imperfect occupation in a crazy world that provides a paycheck.
Again, I hate peanut butter. I’ve hated it since I was a child, and even trying it again as an adult, I find peanut butter…repulsive. In fact, I usually know when a job is repulsive to me or not. I either like it, or start planning a move.
Realizing that this doesn’t sound like your work because your job is sweeter? Then, maybe…
WHY WORK IS LIKE NUTELLA
Rather than dwell on why jobs you hate are like peanut butter, I’d rather focus on why work is like nutella. This past weekend, I found myself buying an extra jar of nutella at the local grocery store. My daughter, an avid bibliophile, had requested a jar for herself. “Oh Dad, it’s awesome! You’ve gotta try it!”
When I did, the blend of cocoa, hazelnut, sugar and other ingredients threatened to overwhelm me. No, don’t get me wrong. This job, er, nutella, wasn’t too sweet or sour. Rather it was a creamy, enchanted exploration of what peanut butter could have been and fell short.
Work is like nutella because of these reasons:
  • Peanut butter work is just you over-doing it, pretending to be someone that you’re not. Nutella-work is accepting who you are and how you can enrich the lives of others.
  • Nutella work makes every job task a joy to perform, rather than a chore to crunch through with sticky residue.
  • Peanut butter work is all about YOU, while nutella work is all about listening to others and sharing positive, delicious experiences with new foods/tasks.
  • Work is like nutella because, instead of having a bunch of sticky junk stuck to your teeth, nutella oozes into every crevice in your fingers, making you grateful that it spreads–and cleans up–so easily. Simply, because work is so darn wonderful, you’re not afraid to pitch in and get your hands dirty.
  • Work is like nutella because even though it comes in a small jar, you realize that you want to share it with others. You want others to experience nutella, that new job, because it’s so heavenly.
  • Work is like nutella because when you have some place to be with exceptional people, you realize that you want to DO MORE NEW THINGS with those people. Variation is desirable in combination with nutella so that you can achieve new experiences that help define you as a team.
  • In the end, if you have to leave to leave your work, because nutella goodness has been exhausted, you realize that you’ll spend every waking moment looking for the right set of circumstances to experience it again…and again, and again.


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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Collaboration

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transparency

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What a powerful quote! What if we changed it a bit?

“…the time CTOs devote to building the capacity of their tech dept team to work collaboratively, the more effective those individual members will be.”

I shudder to think what would happen if we failed to learn to work collaboratively in schools and technology departments. For example, in schools, we’d probably have the following situation:

  • Teachers plan alone then meet each other once a week to exchange lesson plans that don’t make sense to anyone but the individual who wrote them.
  • Adversarial relationships are setup between campus admins and teachers.
  • Crucial confrontations about poor behaviors–on the part of admins and teachers–would never occur.
In Technology Departments, what might it look like if we succeeded in working collaboratively? Hmm…
  • We would develop a common vision based on a strong foundation of team synergy rather than individual dysfunction.
  • We would challenge mundane ideas and welcome a little crazy in to help us all think outside the box.
  • We wouldn’t be afraid to express our ideas because our goal was to improve the ideas, achieve common vision, rather than avoid crucial confrontations. 
  • We would make sure that our team mates were affirmed, not just by the boss, but by each other.
What do you think?

Source: http://www.alleywatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/collaboration.jpg

Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Twittering Fritterring – Affirming Twitter at Work

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by mguhlin in TechTips, Transparency, Twitter

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‘Some are concerned about the amount of tweets you send out during work hours and are questioning if that should be something you are allowed to do during the day while you are at work.’… First thing the next morning I was in my superintendent’s office to defend myself…
Source: Justin Tarte, I got in trouble for tweeting at work, Life of an Educator

If you haven’t experienced this, you are fortunate. Consider the attitude reflected below, which is an excerpt of a longer comment:

…I would be concerned if I was the building admin and I saw an exorbitant amount of tweets being shared during the school day from one of my teachers. A simple conversation about how/why social media is being used during the school day is all that is needed, as you experienced .Here’s the good news – all of the great scheduling tools out there- Buffer and through TweetDeck and the like – make it possible to “connect” during the day with minimal real-time effort. So those are other options to consider for those of us who are swamped during school hours but would like to continue sharing.

When I consider my tweets and when they come, they fall into two categories. When at work, I view tweets in the following way:

  1. Intentional tweets that seek out help or build relationships that will help me be more productive and informed to the benefit of my organization.
  2. Auto-shared tweets that occur as I work my way through content that is relevant to the work of my organization.
Obviously, I am sensitive to tweeting at work about topics that are unrelated to what I’m about. While I may want to tweet about the NSA and encryption protocols, unless those tweets are relevant to work, then I will probably hold off on that (thankfully, work and the NSA don’t quite go together). If I should run across these in my occasional ventures into twitter (colleagues DM me at work about work stuff) to check messages, then I add them to Pocket but I don’t tag them.
What I will usually do is tag items with one-word descriptors, but if I don’t want them to be tweeted or shared at that time, I don’t add the “tweet” tag in Pocket. If I do, then IFTTT.com will share the item that is tagged “tweet.”
In the course of my day, though, I am often digging around for content related to facilitating writing instruction, server and/or network administration/support, etc. These do fall into my areas of organizational interest and as such, I add them to ReadItLater‘s Pocket and if they are worthwhile, then I will share them as tweets.
These work-related tweets get tagged with a variety of tags, including one-word descriptors but also targeting my audience. Here are some examples:
  • Tag: pln for Professional/Personal Learning Networks
    Anything tagged with pln automatically gets shared to campus staff using a hashtag on Twitter, #hfsoars. That way, I can tag stuff for them and they get the benefit of my reading. And, even though I may have read something on my personal twitter account, it gets “pushed out” via my work Twitter account.
  • Tag: team for Instructional Technology Team members (3 people)
    Anything tagged with team automatically gets re-tweeted to 3 people on my Instructional Technology team. This makes it easy for me to share content that’s relevant to their work.
  • Tag: tweet for items that I want to share via my personal twitter account
    When I tag something with tweet it doesn’t matter what else it’s tagged with (e.g. team, pln), it gets tweeted out via my personal account. I suppose I could make a “weet” (work+tweet) tag that would post anything that I describe that way to my work account.

All this happens through the magic of If This Then That (IFTTT.com) web site which scans my ReadItLater.com Pocket account for certain tags, then takes appropriate action by posting via HootSuite.com (excellent service!). I avoid for pay services like Buffer..after all, this is for fun and learning.

For those worried about tweeting during the work day, I simply add the “tweet” tag when I’m not at work and those items get shared within the hour, if not faster, as the tags I’ve added indicate.

Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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SchoolCIO – The Undiscussables of tech leadership

07 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, TechnologyManagement, Transparency

≈ 1 Comment

Read the article online

Every time I read this article, I find new examples of how I came up short. It’s easy to remember one’s failures, and critical to the future that one remember success, too. Jean Tower was kind enough to leave a comment:

Re: DAILY INSIGHT: The undiscussables of tech leadership
Miguel – You frame the discussion really well, and whether people recognize themselves in it or not, I think it applies to us all. There are days when I have the courage and the stamina needed to take things on, and there are days when I let some things ride. But in the large sense, in the big picture discussions, we have to be willing to put ourselves out there and challenge some established practices and ways of thinking.

By Jean Tower on   10/3/2013 5:26 AM

My response is, “Yes, absolutely, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Some days, we’re bone-weary of the effort of working through issues, and yet, it’s only when we don’t that we truly risk exhaustion. Exhaustion of our sanity, our ability to rebound. When we fail to confront the issues that are holding people back, stopping the organization from moving forward, we exhaust the resource most important to us–our spirit.

For that reason, it’s uplifting to always put ourselves out there because only when we risk failure can we hope to achieve success.

Thanks to SchoolCIO for publishing it!


Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Insight through Insecurity @8amber8 #cpchat

05 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by mguhlin in DisinterestedLeader, Leadership, Transparency

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Amber Teamann (@8amber8) asserts that, Your Insecurity will Destroy You! As a person in a leadership position, I can honestly attest to the veracity of this statement. One’s insecurities–no matter the source, internal or external–can spread like weeds, and even when rooted out, remain to grow again. Insecurity is like a drug that you dare not take because it signal instant addiction.

After all, who wouldn’t be captured by a parade of nightmare stories that feature them as the primary protagonist? As Jerome Bruner points out, “Personhood implicates narrative.” And, “neurosis is a reflection of either an insufficient, incomplete, or an inappropriate story about oneself” (Source).  Do not let insecurities into your mind, stop them before they take root…but don’t be afraid to gain insight from them.

While the simplest solution is to not allow insecurities to take root, there is another way–to learn from what makes you insecure. One way to accomplish this is to write them down (blog it!) and allow the starkness of black ink on the white page show them for what they are, twisted shadows of future success.

Source: http://www.pncsites.com/wealthinsight/images/backgrounds/The_Insight_Story_1.jpg

As a person in a leadership position, my success as a leader, the organization’s success in achieving it’s objectives was 100% dependent on maximizing leadership ability in my team, helping them appreciate that they had more “power” than they imagined possible. The problem is that every team member has their own set of insecurities, and if those are heightened or dealt with, they will turn into shards of razor-sharp glass that will slice your team to pieces.

Source: http://goo.gl/1ddbXl

Worse, as others’ insecurities twist reality in their broken reflections, your own leadership will come under question. I’ve never had a single day as a leader that I didn’t have the opportunity to gain insight through my own insecurities.

Make peace with your insecurities…

  1. When others ask where you are at with an initiative, it’s not necessarily a negative indictment of one’s work but an opportunity to clarify deadlines and expectations.
  2. When others get upset or challenge ideas, it’s not YOU they are challenging, but rather, an opportunity to recognize that conversations can be had that value expression of ideas and are founded on a commitment to dialogue even when intense emotions are at play.
  3. When others question if a course of action chosen is the best, it is an opportunity to ask again, “Did we all agree on this course of action, did we all make an equal commitment to the work, and a steadfast decision to take action with the information available at the time?“
  4. When you doubt your leadership due to other’s actions, ask yourself, “What can I do that will gain other insights into this situation, and help me better understand what is best for the organization and all involved?“
Yes, I know quite well the demons of my insecurity…I find they provide me with some of the best insights into my character. They have become tell-tale reminders that I must not stray from the way of disinterest.

Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Atrocious Acts @BrylynCowling

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Crucial, Education, Leadership, Transparency

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A comment left on Techpathy has me asking myself a few questions:

Mr. Guhlin, 
My name is Brylyn Cowling and I am an elementary education major at The University of South Alabama. I will be summarizing and sharing my thoughts on this blog post on my personal blog on 9/15/13 as an assignment in EDM310. Would you be willing to share with me your ideas on how to keep a positive attitude towards political issues involving the school system? Also, when do you find it appropriate to speak up when you have concerns? I am a junior in college and I have honestly never considered how I would handle such situations until after reading your post. Thank you for your time and I look forward to receiving your response to my questions. 
My twitter address: @BrylynCowlingMy blog: http://cowlingbrylynedm310.blogspot.com/EDM310 blog: http://edm310.blogspot.com/

Welcome, Brylyn, to the edublogosphere, a place of excitement and danger, where your work can get you mythologized as a legendary hero or cast down into the depths of despair. When do you speak up, how do you do it, and should you speak up?

To begin with your second question, when do you find it appropriate to speak up? As educators, we are called to a public life, where every act we take should be one that lights the path ahead. When I started writing for publication many years ago, I realized that I had to focus on the positive. It is so easy to write “negative.” Critics strive for witty negativity but educators must find ways of laying bare the facts that promise growth and maintain relationships.

We must continue to protest, to question authority, to jam a spoke in the wheel. That means performing a revolutionary act…telling the truth. We do it, not because we want to be revolutionary, but because we are ourselves compelled to speak. The act of speaking is its own reward, more powerful than anything else. I was puzzled by Ursula Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea, by a statement in the text (a fantastic story I recommend even now), that said, “as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower; until, at last, he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do….”

It is a statement I understand anew each day. Quinn reminded me of it with these words:

We must create for the sake of creating. We cannot fall in love with our ideas if we live in constant fear of judgement. When we create, we experience deeper meaning. We begin to do the thing because we must…because we are doing something we love, we can let go of the concerns that drive our egos.
Source: Quinn, Changing the World

The act of creation embodied in this blog, in everything I write, are powerful antidotes to the poison we encounter in the wilderness of despair, of fear, and hypocrisy (especially our own). The act of creation does not negate my own acts of despair, fear, and hypocrisy. Rather, it allows one to transform them, like the dragon in my favorite story of St. George and The Quest for the Holy Grail. I share it below because it doesn’t hurt to share a good story again.

Beginning a modern day quest for the Holy Grail, George encounters a dragon named Igor. The dragon and George have a long talk and eventually, George gets a ride back home on Igor’s back. George shares his observations that…

From my position high on the dragon’s back, I noticed that the dragon’s body was covered with old wounds. Whenever the dragon breathed forth fire to light the path in front of us, I noticed that the wounds glowed golden-red in the dark. When I asked about them, the dragon replied, “Oh, my friend, I have been slain a thousand times, but I have always arisen again. These old woulds are the source of my power and my insight. 

Our greatest and worst enemies are not the monsters who roam the forest or even wicked witches or evil wizards. No, it is our scars, our wounds, and old injuries that we must fear. As we journey through life we have all been injured–hurt by parents, brothers or sister, schoolmates, strangers, lovers, teachers. Each wound has the power to talk to us, you know. They speak, however, with crooked voices because of the scars.

All of us have wounds–old ones and new ones–and whenever the monster appears, when hell breaks loose, we know that our old wounds are talking guiding us. It is these wounds that must be confronted (Hays, 1986).

Like the dragon later told George, we must find a way to transform the power of the wounds, and not give weight to the voice of the times when we did our best and were rejected. The power to lead lies in the transformation of the crooked voices, in the confrontation of the wounds. Crucial conversation and confrontations is the way ahead–the art of maintaining relationships while reaching agreement and dealing with disappointment in ourselves and others.

How can we share the truth AND maintain relationships? How can we retool schools for creativity without razing them to the ground first, avoiding a slash-n-burn approach to teaching, learning and leading? That is a question I’ve struggled with in this blog.

To answer your question, I find it appropriate to speak up when I have found a way to to reframe the problem in such a way that it focuses all stakeholders in solving it. Books like Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations should be required reading for new educators who know a lot about their content, pedagogy, but little on how to negotiate people relations. After all, the reason I’ve spent so much time on this is because *I* am so lousy at it. Here are my notes on the subject. Do not misunderstand me, I am a rank beginner who commits atrocious acts of conversation every day.

To answer your first question, keeping a positive attitude is often about focusing on the whole problem–acknowledging the negative and the positive and how they feed off each other. There is power in this approach, and a healthy attitude takes a disinterested approach. If you don’t speak up, you will never know the difference between a poor situation and anything else.
😉


Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Wrong-headed and Stubborn

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

≈ Leave a comment

“Miguel,” my wife asked me recently, “are you sure you bought your reading glasses here? The store manager says you didn’t.”
“Of course, I did!” I replied angrily. I get tension headaches when I have to depend on my progressive lenses to read the computer screen (thank goodness for iPad). . .and, grumpy. Fortunately, my wife and I have reached an understanding. Grumpiness and humor are ever-present companions.
“Well, he doesn’t think so.”
“Ok, forget it,” I sighed, “I’ll do it.”

It wasn’t until much later that I had an epiphany while shaving, my progressive lenses perched dangerously on the bridge of my nose, the arms angled above my ears. The epiphany? I’d bought my progressives at the store I sent my wife to, but my reading glasses from the eye-doctor. I was flat out wrong.

How often can we be wrong in a day? Many times. In fact, years of marriage have taught me a lesson that must be relearned periodically.

The lesson is simply, as the video illustrates below, “You are probably wrong when you most believe you are right. Back up and check the facts.”


Check out Miguel’s Workshop Materials online at http://mglearns.wikispaces.com


Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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Getting Along

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

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“What the heck has Beth all riled up?” I growled to a dear friend, who happened to be a 2nd grade teacher where I taught 3rd grade bilingual in East Texas. “Did you hear how she cut us off at the knees?” We both watched the blonde-haired 40 year old heading down the hall, her trim figure headed straight for the principal’s office. I don’t even remember what the discussion was about today, but I remember what my friend told me.
“You know,” spoke the folksy, small town, worldy-wise voice Nancy used, “sometimes it takes everything people have to just make it to work. We don’t know what she’s going through so we’ll let her settle down.”
Sure enough, the issue defused itself over time, and Beth regained her composure, even apologizing for her earlier behavior. Still, I haven’t forgotten the shock my 20-something year old self had at a middle-aged woman losing her temper over work. As I’ve gotten older, begun to suffer some of my own aches and pains, emotional trials, I realize now what valuable advice Nancy shared that day. Experience and time only deepen my appreciation of the wisdom delivered in her laconic style. 
It all came back to me when I read Joe’s blog entry, Everyone is always going through something:

Whether one of our staff members loses a friend or family member, a pet, their child is sick or must have surgery, working at school that day is oftentimes not their number one priority. Many say that coming to work when something horrific is happening in life is easier because of the distraction, which might be true – but we’re all human and we need to check in on each other. Principals must have a finger on the pulse of their staffs, student and families. Teachers must do the same for their colleagues, students and families. If your school truly invests in relationships then you are encouraged to seek support, personally and professionally and “it’s OK to be human.”  

The day to day work of being an educator is tough, and the lines between work life and home life are often blurred. Treat people the way you’d like to be treated. Set goals for yourself and your school to discuss when your staff returns in a few weeks. We need to be stubborn in creating a culture that will withstand the toughest of times. They are inevitable.

Getting along…I read sometime in the last week or so that “culture trumps innovation.” Or, as my team mates in one workplace said, “Crazy trumps _____” where you fill in the blank, which would be whatever the latest innovation was. It underscores the importance of culture building, of ensuring people do feel safe in sharing. As much as I think I know or understand, I remain a humble student.

Maybe, that’s OK for now.

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