Riding on a long blue paper plane (Status Quo)

Photo by Sebastián León Prado on Unsplash

'Building the plane while flying it', is a saying I've heard a lot lately. 

As an aviophobia, I've never been a fan of the phrase (surprise surprise).  

To me, the idea of making it up as you are going along implies instability, freakish luck, impending disaster, unpredictability, precariousness, frailty, fragility, amateurism, a lack of confidence. 

In short an unhappy time.

I get what the concept is about, though.

The idea aligns with Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander's phrase in their (awesome, brilliant) book - Velocity.

As I've discussed elsewhere in this blog, their view is that it's easier done than said.

That is, intuition, gutsiness and iteration (as in a sequence of operations which yields results successively closer to a desired result) are rewarded.

In my opinion, a better phrase would be their idea of GET GOING, THEN GET BETTER.

Get going. Then get better. (Ahmed/ Olander)

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Cutting edge, leaders in innovation, the tip of the arrow.

Recently, I've heard those phrases a lot. What do all these phrasas mean and what's needed to attain that status, and stay there? After all - everyone is doing their best to be cutting edge, right?

George Couros is my go-to-guy on innovation in education. 

Here he is on what it is and what it isn't:

To simplify the notion of innovation, it is something that is both new (either invention or iteration) and better. Innovation is not about the “stuff”, but about a way of thinking. 

For example, it is not the iPhone that is innovative, it was the thinking that created it in the first place. Innovation is about mindset more than anything. In fact, if you made an iPhone that looked more like the first version than the current one, it would no longer be innovative, but simply replication. There is no new thinking, nor is it better than what we have now.

What qualities are needed to be innovative?

The Velocity boys (Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander)  are still my go-to-guys on this.

This is what they have to say:

It takes 'courage, focus and determination, but gives back efficiency and rewards intuition, iteration and gutsiness'.

Their warning is always one I aim to keep in mind:

For organisations with structures that sand down all rough edges and desiccate anything juicy, something terrible will happen: nothing.

We don't have to live in a world where we give bad names to beautiful things (Marillion)

During one of Jackie Barron's excellent assemblies at school she featured one of the commercials made by Always around the 'run like a girl' idea. About the same time I came across the Dove adverts. 

I was impressed with the campaigns and wrote about them at the time in conjunction with Ahmed/Olander's ideas about new advertising in Velocity.

All coming back to you? No! Shame on you but you do have a backtracking treat in store. I'll wait...

Up to speed? Groovy.

So here's another example from the good people at Dove and the text from an adweek blog post. 

A recent survey by Dove found that 96% of women do not choose the word “beautiful” to describe how they look, although 80% said they could see something beautiful about themselves. Dove wants women to make the conscious decision to embrace that beauty and acknowledge it to the world. The women who walked through the “average” door felt saddened by their decision. “It was my choice,” said an Indian woman, “And now I will question myself for the next few weeks or months.” But those who walked — or were dragged by their mothers — through the “Beautiful” door felt “triumphant”. Embracing inner and outer beauty can be a difficult adjustment to make.

 

Don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares (Yes)

Have a purpose larger than yourself- the seventh new law (of seven) for a world gone digital from Ahmed and Olander. It reminds me of that great Yes song (I've seen all good people) that I've used in the title.

Let your imagination go wild, and play from your heart but don't surround yourself with yourself.

This is a great law to finish with, it certainly plays into my prejudices:

• Always play from your heart (trust your feelings -yes- from Star Wars) 
• Be alive to being alive (Buddhism- be here now) 
• Do the right thing (Spike Lee also listened to the Buddha)
• Love what you do (Thoreau- You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand-heap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain)
• Your job is to serve (Joseph Campbell- Through sacrifice - bliss)
• Dream in widescreen, then push on in pixels (John Lennon - Imagine...) 
• Heroes can guide, teach, and encourage you (A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'Hi-Yo Silver') 

As you can tell I've loved Velocity. Here's the website with all of the seven laws again: http://velocitylaws.com/the-seven-laws/

A big thank you to Ahmed and Olander for an inspirational conversation. Bravo and more...more...

Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me (Pink Floyd)

Velocity's sixth law for a world gone digital: 
No good joke survives a committee of six (or 'have the balls to make the calls' according to Ahmed and Olander).

So this one is aimed at leaders really. 

Guess the captain and the co-pilot from flight 1549.

The guys mention a wonderful story about the captain on US Airways flight 1549. You'll remember the flight that landed unscathed in the Hudson River after a bird strike? The story goes that the co-pilot lifted off and the plane quickly ran into a flock of geese and lost thrust in the engines. As soon as that happened the captain said two words: "My aircraft".

That is the guy I want flying my plane. Always!

Ahmed/Olander use the story to illustrate the idea that when it comes to it somebody has to take command, make the decision.

[In a business sense, companies who want to make a shift from good to great can't do so via consensus.

In education, schools who want to improve, make a gear change from great to outstanding, can't do so via consensus.]

I think they've pointed to a great truism in life: people resist change to their routine or challenge to their expertise for the usual reason: fear.

It's been interesting tracing the move to vertical forms within our existing vertical House system at Woodford. As you know I've been posting about it since April. 

In seven months we've had many meetings, a Change Action Group, staff inquiries, consultations with staff students and parents, we've had more meetings.

Left to a consensus we would do nothing - some of the girls don't like it; some of the staff don't like it. They fear the change. 

Finally, the decision was made recently to change some of the horizontal systems for next year. The decision: vertical forms within Houses from next year.

It took a while, but it's the right decision. 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me (Aretha Franklin)

The fifth law of Velocity is as simple as it is groovy: Respect human nature.

Part of why I'm loving reconnecting to Twitter is the human contact with people I'd otherwise never know. 

I have been getting loads of follows from musicians who seem genuinely pleased to reply when I tell them they delighted me so I'm sending them a message of encouragement. 

I don't do it lightly. Their music is amazing and I've never heard of them. A very humbling experience.

Anyway - back to Velocity.

The thrust of this law is that Velocity doesn't get blinded by technology - on the other end of a tweet or an app or an anything is a person.

In terms of education this means that behind every student in my class is an extended family of people.

I well remember when this dawned on me. It was 1983. 

My first teaching job was as an English teacher at New Plymouth Boys' High School. 

When my first parent-teacher evening had finished I was pleasantly exhausted and fizzing. My students had parents. Who knew?? Parents who cared about them enough to meet me. I looked like I was 16 but I was now the 'expert' who was giving a report and advice on their son.

It was seriously cool!!

We recently had some PTSIs at school - Parent Teacher Student Interviews. It was, again, a wonderful experience.

I had indicated to the parents who I REALLY needed to see but loads more came anyway. Fab! Again - fizzing and pleasantly exhausted - and long may those feelings continue.

Sunrise over the turquoise mountains (Phish)

It's amazing how much I keep coming back to Velocity - the conversation between Ahmed and Olander. I've posted on their seven new laws for a world gone digital a few times now.

It seems that every day, something happens that makes me think about one of their laws.

Law four is Convenient is the enemy of right.

The basic message is that doing something worthwhile takes imagination and commitment.

One of my dad's favourite sayings is burned into my psyche: If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right!

Yeah baby! I agree!

Think about this though: the caveat is IF it's worth doing...

Along the way in this Velocity chapter they use a quote from Brian Wilson (yes of The Beach Boys - are you wondering any longer why I LOVE this book so much?): Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you'll suck forever.

Currently I am engaged in a curriculum mapping exercise. It was a goal that the English department had this year, something the school believes is a priority. It's a concept that I'd never come across before.  

So - what is it? Curriculum mapping takes place within a grade level and between grade levels. Mapping serves as a detailed lesson plan for the school year's curriculum.

We already had a plan for the individual year levels so this latest exercise was to make a chart showing how various skills in English progress from Year 7 to Year 13.

It took quite a while to compile and my eyes are feeling the effects of concentrating on a computer screen for hours with multiple pages open.

So - is it worthwhile? 

Short answer is a, well...yes. 

Thanks to Greg Semmens for this one

Long answer is a, well...yes, if it helps identify gaps in progression (stuff that is left out or ends in a cul-de-sac), if it prevents repetition and if it helps the alignment of the standards, content and methods across year levels. If the school takes all of the various department maps and looks for alignment between subjects then it will have even greater value. That is what a Change Action Group within the school is proposing to do so...great! 

Given that we are embarking on a shake up of the English assessment standards used in senior classes from 2015 onwards this can also be seen as a valuable activity.

So, bottom line (literally) - it's worth doing right. Hence my bleary eyes and a (shock horror probe) proposed English meeting to discuss the draft map.

Long you live and high you fly (Pink Floyd)

A banana update: 

I am balanced on the ladder, hand on the banana. I'm close; I can almost taste it.

I may have struck upon the right method to secure those bananas that I started writing about in March.

Slow and steady is the answer. It's been an eight month effort so far but I sense the school will be moving to a vertical pastoral care system for next year. Not only that - the vertical forms will be within the House structure.

The whole bunch of bananas is safe though, as I suspect the horizontal deaning structure will remain in place for a year to make for a successful transition. I was shooting for the whole bunch - vertical, House, House deans in a fully vertical structure.

I'm happy if this transpires though because, personally, I think this is one of those times where it is easier done than said.

This was one of Olander/Ahmed's seven new laws for a world gone digital.

Basically 'it is easier done than said' means - get going and then get better or 'do and learn, don't wait and see'.

Say you just can't live that negative way (Bob Marley)

I wrote a post recently about my experiences regarding the past ERO visits I'd been involved in.

I am well aware that the blogosphere has been holding its collective breath for my report of my most recent bout of ERO.

Except...I have to exercise a large dollop of discretion and self censorship for this post.

All I can say is that it was... underwhelming.

They seemed to have little capacity to review a technologically innovative school so the less said the better.

And that's all I'm saying - as my mother said - if you can't say anything nice - don't say anything at all.

So - Next topic: We have a visit next week by our Minister of Education.

I've written about Hekia Parata in the past and so...I'm going to exercise another large dollop of self restraint on this one too.

Instead - another next topic: I wrote a post on my Wozza's Place blog recently about new forms of advertising in the digital age. Here's an excerpt:

The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).

The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them; 

This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.

At a recent school assembly we were shown an advert made by women's personal care brand Always.

http://www.always.com/en-us/home.aspx

You'll be stunned to know that the video itself wasn't about personal care products for women at all!

Instead it takes on the outdated idea of 'running like a girl, throwing like a girl' and promotes the worthy concept of women's self esteem. A self esteem that has been battered by the 'throw like a girl' pejorative term (or so says the advert).

I haven't heard the term for years but there you go.

As we were watching the advert I was getting the growing feeling that I was being manipulated. I couldn't help wondering what this video was selling. What was Always? 

Unlike the ANZ advert that I featured on my Wozza's Place blog - this one was more insidious. The brand name Always featured only at the end and only in a minor way.

See what you think.. http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/07/01/viral-video-of-week-an-ad-that-challenges-what-it-means-to-throw-like-a-girl/

This article mentioned a Dove advert that also effectively targets women's perceptions of themselves:



Clearly these are great examples of the shift from selling a product to selling a service. Who wouldn't want women to feel better about themselves?

I'm sure the Always advert's makers would be delighted to know that their advert was being shown to a school assembly.

My question - when does selling a service stop and selling a product start?

Hide-and-earth bound but there's no tether, on a zephyr (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

I'm reading an amazing book at the moment: Velocity by a couple of young whipper snappers - Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander.

It's subtitled The seven new laws for a world gone digital. Don't let that put you off; the seven, the new and digital are tags to get you hooked.

I'm not sure where the idea that seven was the desired standard for these things. I'm pretty sure the seven deadly sins came before the dwarves but I'm a little hazy on these things.

Whatever, everybody's at it these days. I mentioned in my last posting that I'd finished reading Deepak Chopra's The 7 Spiritual Laws of Superheroes and of course there are Seven:11's; seven days in a week; seven notes on a musical scale; seven wonders of the world; the Buddha first walked seven steps; the magnificent seven; highly effective people have seven habits according to Stephen Covey; and, of course, there is that enigma wrapped in a riddle that is Seven Sharp. 

But I digress.

Velocity is written by two whizz kids. Ajaz Ahmed founded AKQA (https://www.akqa.com/). Have a look if you get a chance - their business is future innovation so it's interesting to see what their website looks like - big on graphics, high on mystery.

Stefan Olander has one of those what-the-hell-does-that-actually-mean job titles at Nike - Vice president of digital sport.

Together they talk about stuff in Velocity and it's terrific.

Lesson one/Law One (in a chapter called a Smith and Weston beats four aces) - trying to protect what you've already got is a mistake.

They obviously mean in a business context but I think this applies to other things like schools. School's have a brand association whether they like it or not.

I was filling up the car's petrol t'other day and the shop lady knows I teach at Woodford House. She was chatting about schools in general. When I asked her where she went to school she said 'Colenso College', followed by it was good then but it's not now.

And right there the brand suffered. Who knows the truth. Anyone coming in contact with this lady is going to get one version only.

Schools go through ups and downs. Public perception is fickle. Schools want to protect their brand if it's a good one but Ahmed/Olander say that's a mistake. Innovation/ continual improvement is a must.

I'm lucky to be at Woodford House. We are currently involved in some potentially major change to the brand but we appear to be quite fearless about it right now. Fantastic!! Long may that continue.