Stephanie Rogen
Don’t Forget Purpose: Yours and Your School’s…
Don’t Forget Purpose: Yours and Your School’s…
Stephanie Rogen
Plan or Strategy? (Hint: You Need Both!)
Plan or Strategy? (Hint: You Need Both!)
Stephanie Rogen
Maverick -- Who’s Your Goose?
Maverick -- Who’s Your Goose?
Stephanie Rogen
Why Do You Want a Strategic Plan?
Why Do You Want a Strategic Plan?
Sarah Goldin
Back to School: Let's Reclaim Some JOY
Back to School: Let's Reclaim Some JOY

Elevate and Float: Roger Brown on Dealing with Disruption

Elevate and Float: Roger Brown on Dealing with Disruption

This week, we had the privilege of leading a deep dive workshop with approximately 75 heads of school at AISNE’s Heads Retreat. The setting (Cape Cod) was restful and AISNE staged a wonderful two day retreat that offered real time for reflection, structured work, and organic conversations.

We loved every minute of our work with Heads, and we also loved listening to AISNE’s other guest speaker. He was funny, warm, and he captured beautifully our belief that great leadership and strategy is all about making clear choices about what to do and what not to do.

On Anecdotes, Exceptions, and Outliers: Harnessing the Power of Story from Multiple Perspectives

On Anecdotes, Exceptions, and Outliers: Harnessing the Power of Story from Multiple Perspectives

I had the very good fortune this July to attend a Challenge Success Summer Leadership Seminar.  As it happened, the Principal and Vice Principal of my own children’s public middle school were also in attendance.  After a busy morning of workshops, I took advantage of the lull before lunch to share with the two school administrators an anecdote with my perspective on the preceding school year.  To sum up, my story went something like this: “I just wanted to say that overall I am very satisfied with what I assume is the school’s policy to not assign homework over holidays and long breaks, with one exception.  For the winter and spring breaks both of my children, in grades 6 and 8, were asked to complete sections of a review book for the state math assessment.  What concerns me is the message that it sends about the values of our school. We say we have a commitment to breaks as downtime for students and their families to unwind and spend quality time with one another, without the stress of homework.  But when that commitment is measured against the requirements of standardized testing schedules, we allow the test to take precedence. We are in essence communicating that we value performance on a standardized test more than we value the need of families to have quality time with one another while on vacation.”  

Fall 2018 Reading List

Summer reading lists abound with informative professional recommendations, but my attention in June and July tends to turn to good, old fashioned sagas (Saints for All Occasions), psychological thrillers (The Other Wife), and memoirs (Educated).  So I like the Fall reading list for getting back to work -- and there are a few things grabbing my attention now that are worthy of your nightstands. What I love about all four books is that they offer real insight into learning -- and the lessons can be applied to how organizations and individuals can lead and perform well -- by learning! For educators, many of the insights will inspire and inform your teaching practice - particularly Newport’s and Hoogterp’s books.

Deep Work and So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

Your Perfect Presentation By Bill Hoogterp

Strategy That Works by Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi

Engine of Impact by William Meehan and Kim Starkey Jonker

Enjoy!


Return to Preikestolen: Musings on Vision and Strategy

Return to Preikestolen: Musings on Vision and Strategy

If you’ve read Creating Schools That Thrive (and if not, please do!) you may recall my story of hiking Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen), Norway in March, 2009.  The story of the hike became my metaphor for strategic design -- for distilling the language of strategy and helping clients make sense of the process to design and execute strategy.

Taking Our Own Advice

Taking Our Own Advice

You know the joke about the carpenter's house never being finished or the doctor who doesn't follow her own advice? Last month, in a flurry of work and new engagements, I realized we had the same issue at GLP as the carpenter has with his partially built home. So - in the midst of the heaviest work schedule this year - I called for a one day retreat with the team and planned it much in the same way we would with our clients.  

Make 2018 the Year for Feedback

Make 2018 the Year for Feedback

Resolutions abound around January 1. We commit to all sorts of new behaviors, we set goals, and we feel the excitement of starting anew.

I’ve found that one resolution always worth making is to commit to better feedback practices. Make a commitment to request and offer feedback effectively.  If you are already doing it, how can you do it better? And if you are not doing, how do you start?

Data-driven decision making (NOT data-driven madness)

Data-driven decision making (NOT data-driven madness)

In December 2015, the cheekily named “Study of Maternal and Child Kissing (SMACK) Work Group” published a study titled “Maternal kisses are not effective in alleviating minor childhood injuries (boo-boos): a randomized, controlled and blinded study” in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

Although the journal is real, the study is (of course) a spoof - a mocking jab at the cool data-driven objectivity of empirical studies taken to an extreme.  

Leading from the Inside Out A Report from Leadership Lab: Cohort II

Leading from the Inside Out A Report from Leadership Lab: Cohort II

In July of 2016, GLP launched its Leadership Lab for new heads of school with the belief that a small, intimate and personalized approach to leadership preparation was needed for independent school heads. The program provides time to retreat and look inward, to build deep relationships with other leaders, and to prepare for the real work of headship. We prototyped our vision with cohort I---and this July cohort II continued this work – but with a modified design to incorporate suggestions. So together, we gathered four new Heads in bucolic Connecticut to reflect, prepare, practice and offer feedback to each other as they entered the first year of headship at their new schools. As was the case last year, cohort II was invited to be intentionally small and, though not intentional, was again all women.