Category: Vision
Vision leadership is transformative leadership. It involves creativity and the ability to imagine a future that is beyond the current reality. Vision – whether in schools, organizations, or personal growth. It’s the art of imagining futures beyond current constraints. This collection explores how vision shapes culture, planning, and innovation across education and society.
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Calling the Bluff on AI Doom & Gloom
The article argues that AI organizations use fear-based narratives about existential risks not to warn the public but to manipulate regulation for their advantage. Drawing parallels to political strategies employed by Obama and Trump, it suggests these companies aim to shape oversight, ensuring their interests are prioritized as they prepare for IPOs.
AI and Jobs…The Fear is False
The headlines say layoffs. The corporate memos say “restructuring.” But if you think AI is just coming for the data entry jobs, you’re missing the entire plot. We are sitting on the edge of a shift with a scope we haven’t witnessed since the dawn of agriculture. But the panic selling is wrong. The fear…
Risk Amplification, It’s all in your mind.
The post emphasizes the importance of re-evaluating how we perceive risk and opportunity. Jeff Bezos’ insight urges us to overestimate opportunities and underestimate risks while planning goals. I share a few personal experiences that highlight the value of taking risks and learning from failures, advocating for bold action in 2026.
The Drag of Over-Planning: When Your Map Anchors You
It’s a great feeling when things go as planned, isn’t it? The perfect roadmap, the seamless execution, the predictable outcome. The satisfaction of hitting the bullseye. And when things don’t go as planned? Well, it’s just not a bullseye. But what if the very act of meticulously planning is the force that prevents you from…
When Plans Don’t Matter: The Ultimate Constraint is Time
It’s a great feeling when things go as planned, isn’t it? The perfect roadmap, the seamless execution, the predictable outcome. The satisfaction of hitting the bullseye. And when things don’t go as planned? Well, it’s just not a bullseye. But what if none of it actually matters? See, a plan is only an idea of…
The Unruly Seas: Finding Strength When the Forecast Changes
Strength lies not in stopping external challenges, like storms at sea, but in mastering our response to them. A seasoned sailor illustrates this: despite meticulous planning, unforeseen chaos arises. The key is to focus on what can be controlled—our mindset, decisions, and actions—finding calm amid turmoil.
Moving Beyond Your Mistakes and Shortcomings
Sailing the oceans gives a certain perspective. It also provides way too much time to contemplate things, so I end up writing blog posts like this one (and this one about learning to live in flux), LOL. When you’re out on the ocean, you constantly have an unobstructed view of the horizon both in front…
AI To Replace the Workforce?
AI is set to replace 16% of the US workforce by 2030. 16% may not sound like much, but in 2023 numbers, that’s over 25 million people without work or in need of new training and help with career pivots! With a number that big, here are some of the opportunities for those who have…
How Artificial Intelligence Will Replace Schools
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming every aspect of our lives, from health care to entertainment. But what about education? Will AI replace schools and teachers in the near future? The answer is not so simple. AI has the potential to enhance and personalize learning for students, by providing adaptive feedback, customized curricula, and interactive simulations.…
Where the American Dream Goes Wrong
Hoping you have a great 2022! Here’s a simple opinion post. Where the American Dream Goes Wrong The Dream = Happiness in Things: College Education, Gain Career, Work Hard, Buy House, Buy Cars, Buy Vacations, Pay Down Debts, Keep up Appearances, Save for Retirement Wrong: Buy House, Fill Your House with Stuff, Buy Cars, Buy…
Anchor, Focus, and Align
My friends over in the Principals Masterclass (TJ Vari and Joseph Jones) taught an invaluable lesson on communicating with candor. In that lesson, they gave three concepts to use when giving feedback. These concepts also apply to communicating to a broader audience. Anchor. Focus. Align. We’ve been talking about story-telling this week here and again…
Future Cues
In yesterday’s post, I alluded to cueing systems. One aspect of a cueing system is a set of future cues. Think of it as a script. It tells the actors what’s coming and what role they’ll play. When planning large scale changes, or when navigating unplanned changes, create a series of future cues by scripting…
Don’t Just Get Through This Challenging Time
You and I both know that lasting change happens when two factors are adjusted: Environment Habits In our current educational dilemma, the environment has changed, but many schools are seeking temporary habit changes. Instead of building temporary plans during the COVID challenges, think about leading the way into lasting change. Create organizational habits that outlast…
Maintenance vs Subversion in Education
This might be the time for subversive curriculum and pedagogy. This is the time when our mission is larger than basic learning.
Don’t Be Afraid of Endings
The funny thing about endings is that they are natural. Yet we seem to constantly fight the inevitability of an ending. However, when we embrace the idea that endings are necessary part of the process – the process of growing, the process of getting better, the process of life – then we readily accept the…
5 Things That Plans Are Good For
Plans aren’t good for everything, and the complexity of a plan is inversely related to the success of its corresponding actions. Here are 5 things that plans are good for: Knowing what A/B test you’re running next. Having a foundation from which quick and decisive action can occur. Having a benchmark from which you make…
Opportunities Right Now
At this moment the change has set in. A new normal has reached its stride. This is the moment where innovators have grasped a vision of what could be. The opportunities right now are immense. Can you see them? Can you create them? I believe you can. The first step is simply knowing that the…
Unanticipated Change
Change is like a rushing river. Unanticipated change often triggers the amygdala. When the amygdala is activated, the long-term vision has a tendency to shrink. When we react, when there’s chaos, or when we scramble, it’s likely that well-intended plans have unintended consequences for our long game. It’s an easy time to get swept away…
Novus, New Not Successful
The Latin root of innovation is novus. It’s the same root for novelty or new. It doesn’t have a relationship to success. That’s because most innovations and new ideas fail. Successful then, is not a function of innovation. Its roots are altogether different.
Plans and Execution
All plans start with great ideas. The challenge of great ideas lies not in their ideation but in their execution. So then there is always that moment when plans come colliding into reality, and their only value lies in the execution. Here’s an updated list of posts, to help you with execution.
Imagine Classrooms That Are Filled With…
Imagine classrooms that are filled with students who: Choose to be in that classroom for a specific purpose. Laugh and cry as their creations inspire, compel, and challenge each other to do more – to do better. Work alone on their own pathways at their own pace. Work together creating connections that enrich their lives.…
Restarts and Planned Ends
The end of the year is a great time for restarts. In reality, any time is great for a restart. The reason we often think of the end of the year as a time for new goals, new habits, etc. is that it’s a planned end. It’s anticipated. Unanticipated ends make for chaotic restarts and…
The Filter: Any Engine Can Run On Fuel, For a Little While
Any engine can run on fuel for a little while, but there’s one small component that makes or breaks an engine. The filter. When sailing an open ocean, it’s all wind and sails. It’s coasting and cruising. But upon arriving at port the sails come down and the motor comes on. This is usually when…
School Improvement Plan or Compliance Plan?
Or is it a school improvement plan? Look, a one-page essay is hard for many students to write. A one-page poem is hard for most adults to write. And a one-page improvement plan is hard to find in most schools. That’s because most schools don’t have improvement plans. They have compliance plans. Compliance plans are…
Blurred Vision
When was the last time you stayed up too late working, reading, or browsing the web? What happened to your eyes? Likely, your vision blurred. Blurred vision can happen when we get tired. The same is true for your school. This is the time of year where teachers and staff start getting tired.
Your Vision, An Anchor
I’ve recently taken up sailing. Funning thing, sailing is a lot like race cars (another old hobby) in that brakes are more important for speed than engines. For sailing, the anchor is also the most important component of the sailboat. The anchor will keep the boat hooked to the seabed while you’re fast asleep. Without…
Fall and Initiative Fatigue
What can leaves teach us about initiative fatigue? Fall is upon us (well, not yet here in Houston). Leaves are going through their annual changes, and in some places in the Northern hemisphere, they’ve already fallen. The dying leaves are a necessary part of growth. Old leaves die and make room for new growth in…
Freedom, Reality, Possibility
We’re just short of 20 years since that day in world history where freedom came under attack. What role does freedom have in schools? What are the realities and possibilities for freedom in schools? Freedom implies the responsibility to direct, the power to act without constraint, the will to act within a self-selected intent. Independent…
Educational Leadership, At What Cost?
A quick Google search revealed the following: 1,030,000,000 results for Educational Management 454,000,000 results for Educational Leadership That might be shocking considering the trend in the last decade to replace all vestiges of the term “management” in education with the more amiable and aspirational term “leadership”. I revised the search to include only the past…