Category: Culture
The River That Shapes
The power of a river can chisel the toughest granite and smooth the most jagged limestone. The river is what shapes the Grand Canyon. Over time, it grinds. It’s relentless and never rests. School cultures are shaped in the same way. But what makes the river? Here’s a piece of it. Forgiveness. Forgiveness is the…
Forgiveness as a Leadership Skill
Forgiveness is like the coolant in an engine. High-performance engines generate a lot of heat. Without coolant, the engine will be destroyed in a few minutes. The parts and components will warp under the pressure and heat. They will cease to function efficiently, and ultimately they will burnout. Forgiveness and empathy cool the culture. Forgiveness…
Net Zero, Negative, and Positive Messages
Imagine being told you’re going to have a salad bar for teacher appreciation week, and you plan accordingly and don’t pack a lunch. You’re thankful for the gesture and are starving after 4 hours with the kiddos! You show up to the lounge, but it’s your luck that you have last lunch. There’s a message…
Mafost Mashup Episode 1: Not So Grand Opening
Yesterday, the Mafost Mashup podcast started, and I’m thrilled it wasn’t a grand opening. Episode 1 is titled Not So Grand Opening for a reason… Think about how many times someone told you that you need to get buy-in for your new ideas. This advice is one way you might be tempted to seek out…
PBIS, Prize Factory?
A healthy conversation ensued when a friend of mine expressed concerns about PBIS (positive behavior interventions and supports). The concerns were: Constantly rewarding students to do the right thing. Reliance on incentives and frivolous rewards. A culture built on prizes. And she’s right to be concerned. When was the last time you held a door…
Shifting School Culture, Words Not Needed
Whatever you do, it must be done often, frequently, and with consistent responses. Your brain is not good with English. Mine either. That’s why it takes five years of immersion plus a decade of schooling for native English speakers to obtain a degree of mastery of the language. What is the human brain good at?…
The Rubbernecking School
Here in Houston, traffic can be horrible. It doesn’t even require an actual wreck, just a simple pickup changing a tire will suffice. For as long as the eye can see cars will stack one atop of another on 6-lane highways moving less than 3mph.[pullquote align=”right”]Rubbernecking is reactive. It’s instinctive. [/pullquote] To make things worse,…
How is Organizational Trust Built?
What was it that made humans, or the ancestors of humans, so primed for survival – no, more than survival…what was it that made them so ripe for thriving? It was the innate ability of a tribe to unite and support each other. To understand that self-interest was only filled when the interest of the…
Healthy School Culture is Built on Trust
Involved leaders create engaged people. When people are engaged, they trust that the organization will consider their human needs in pursuit of accomplishing objectives. Leaders in a school set the tone for trust by being transparent, showing vulnerability, asking questions, sincerely listening, and setting clear and predictably measured outcomes. How can you be involved in…