“Changing the view to change perception”

Perspectives as well as perceptions change with a change of view. Changing your view is not something that comes easy. In fact, it is extremely difficult to purposefully change or shift your view. View shifting is closely if not exclusively precipitated by "life" events.

Consider the impact that perceptions have in framing or informing our realities. Perceptions shape how we see or interpret events. They shape our worldview.

Arguably, perceptions albeit accurate or not determine often how we approach life let alone work.

The degree of accuracy of perceptions is where conflict, confusion, and chaos lurk. How many times have you experienced a difference of perception or perspective and conflict erupts? A major cause of the aforementioned is both a need to be right as well as a false belief that you can convince, persuade, or "bully" your perception or perspective of an event, situation, issue, or etc.

I recall the moment that I realized that you don't argue perspective or perceptions. They are what they are. However, seeking to understand the view is the first step towards possibly creating a new perspective or perception.

In leadership, all too often, issues escalate due to unresolved conflict. Yet almost always you can trace the escalation to the lack of understanding the "view".

Understanding the "view" takes discipline and a keen understanding of listening and hearing both words and the "heart" underpinning the emotions, feelings, and yes, perspective or perception.

Shifting view in addition to the discipline of listening and hearing requires wisdom of discernment.

Discernment develops from experience, knowledge applied, and humility.

Humility may be the most important aspect of discernment and probably the most lacking.

I offer this personal story I believe combines all three – experience, knowledge, and humility.

We had just arrived in the country (Germany) and our car and household belongings were still in route. Our daughter was two and half. We had been delayed in New York completely messing up our arrival times and biological clock. The good news was the staff assigned to pick us up patiently waited ‐ rank sometimes does have privileges.

We were assigned temporary quarters. Not sure how you put a married couple with a child in Bachelor Officer

Quarters (BOQ) but this was the U.S. ARMY. I still needed to in process. To do so we needed to navigate between four different posts with a two and half year old. Again, why would each of the departments and offices responsible for in processing be on one post?

Without a car, we only had the legendary "green" buses as our transportation.

On one such trip to secure our off post housing the “meltdown” occurred. Our daughter was tired, it was hot, and it just happened ‐ she just dropped on the floor of the bus and went DEFCON 5. She didn't care who was watching, listening, or what.

However, we did.

We were embarrassed. There was nothing we could do except try to console and let her wear herself out.

Eventually she did. I vividly recall the conversations during this memorable life event.

"When did you get in?"

"Where's home?"

"Where are you billeted?"

"How old is she?"

As we were desperately wanting to be invisible, others were engaging us in conversation as if this was just a normal every day event. As we would soon learn, it was. During our two‐year tour, we witnessed many situations similar to ours and as was the case with our fellow passengers that day, we found ourselves reassuring others that this, too, was normal.

Go figure, do two and half year olds have the skills to navigate let alone cope with the changes we were experiencing? Of course not!

In this case our view had been very limited. The experience including the reactions and responses of others shifted our view changing forever our perspective and perception of the natural tendencies of two and half year olds. We were humbled.

Though this life event was part of our learning, our understanding, and our journey as parents, we nonetheless gained valuable insight into perspective as well as perceptions – our own and those of others.

We all view events, activities, circumstances, challenges, and well, life differently. The challenge remains shifting our view to develop awareness and understanding.

The work ahead includes working to shift perceptions and perspectives by changing first our view and then work to create a different view for others.

"Reverse the Process"

I was recently challenged to think differently about communication with respect to process.  The easy to say but not so simple to do suggestion of reversing the process was given.  Huh?

Too often communication begins with what we want to say, right?  In doing so, we are often responding, reacting to an event, issue, question or conflict or attempting to persuade, convince, or motivate others to do what we perceive to be right, good, and true. 

Seldom does leadership have the opportunity to be proactive.  Even when we attempt to be proactive it is vulnerable to criticism of being self-serving, spin, self-promoting, or attempting to influence perceptions – sounds a lot like politics and marketing. In fact, 10 minutes of television or Internet makes my case and point.

Reversing the process requires an awareness, understanding, and artful delivery of what the listener needs to hear.  Reversing the process of what needs to be heard from what needs to be said is a game changer with respect to creating awareness, understanding and support for the work of transformation especially with the work of transforming teaching and learning.

Failing to meet or exceed the needs of the listener creates the potential for significant disconnects with the purpose or mission of the organization, program, initiative, or practice let alone the vision or preferred future we are desperately attempting to create.

This may, in part, explain the lack of ownership, responsibility, and accountability of, for, and by performance results to date. This is both an internal as well as external stakeholder issue.  For example, if our community has not embraced fully the mission of the “all means all – whatever it takes” we are hard pressed to authentically engage in conversations to improve education in our schools.  The same is true with civic leaders, business leaders, faith leaders, and with citizens that do not have children in the public schools.  Additionally, if the staff including administration, teachers, and support personnel have not internalized the mission they cannot engage others in conversation let alone act, behave, and make decisions that are aligned with the mission. 

Last but not least are the parents and students.  If they are not authentically connected to the mission, see himself or herself in the mission, and experience the mission, the likelihood of improvement is extremely low or inconsistent at best.

Reversing the process begins with asking two questions.  The first,  “What do you expect and require from your schools?”  The second, “What evidence are you willing to accept that the schools are meeting or exceeding your expectations and requirements?”

These questions are neither new nor profound.  They are, however, different when asked with the desire to understand “what” our internal and external stakeholders need to hear – not what we want to say.

The answer to the first question opens both a window as well as a door into what others think about the purposes and outcomes of teaching and learning.  The responses to the second question provide insight into “what”,“when”, “how” and “how often” communication occurs.

The responses to both questions are central to connecting the mission especially as we listen to what the listener needs to know – not what we want to tell them.  Before I go too far with this reverse the process thinking, I need to be sure that we don’t confuse what the listener needs to hear with telling the listener whatever will pacify, satisfy, or in any way placate the situation or circumstances. 

We need to be truth tellers but we also need to be truth listeners.  Understandably, we know truth telling is not always received in the spirit intended and we wonder why. We underestimate as well as overestimate the capacity of listeners to listen as well as hear honestly, sincerely, and without preconceived judgments about a topic.  Yet, the inability in most cases to share what listeners need to hear is, in apart why there are issues with truth listening.  Simply, we have not built capacity in authentic, two-way communication that has at its very core the desire to build mutual awareness, understanding and support for the, in our case, the mission.

Reversing the process is exactly the strategy we need.

"Rising to meet Expectations"

Two areas of our recently completed organizational assessment indicated a decline in performance.  Both related to communication.  In many instances, there are little or no excuses or explanations for ineffective and inefficient communication.  Yet, here we are once again in a situation where communication and its’ effect is akin to describing “good” weather.  We know that communication like weather has individual preferences when it comes to “how” as well as “how effective and efficient” it is.  That being said, it is timely that we revisit the nine (9) ways, nine (9) times communication practice.

So what is it about the number nine?

A search on the Internet will produce myriad research, examples, applications and implications for the use and interpretation of the number nine.   In this case, I simply want to emphasize that nine different strategies for communication and the frequency of nine times may increase both effect and import of communication. 

The efforts to inform, make aware, build understanding, and generate support both internally and externally to our organization did not realize the desired or expected impact this past year.  The tendency to affix blame or cast judgment on others especially if the message sent was not the message received is as fruitful as blaming the meteorologist for the weather.

We are making time to systematically and systemically reflect and review communication.   Central to our improving communication is first clarity of purpose.  Too often we engage in communication efforts to convince others of our position, perspective, a decision or rationale for a decision.

Let’s take our mission, “all means all” as the purpose of our communication.  We desire and therefore believe the purpose of communicating “all means all” is for our parents, community, staff, and students our actions, decisions, practices, and programs are centered on each being successful.  Simple, straightforward – “all means all” in all we say and do!  Yet, the following findings from the OA suggest that the message is not as straightforward let alone universally understood, owned, or evident.  Consider,

·  The small numbers of parents involved in their children’s education and the lack of participation in community forums, parent-school organizations and district activities suggest there is not a universal understanding or commitment to the vision.

·  Many staff members do not have a clear understanding of the vision.

·  Many staff members do not understand what the mission looks like in practice.

·  Many stakeholders lack clarity about the district’s direction.

These are sobering and humbling.  In as much as we have provided opportunities albeit forums, mailings, civic presentations, and the like, there remains an overall sense that awareness, understanding, and support for the “all means all” mission is lacking.  Hence, the nine ways nine times practice.

Two strategies that are in motion to address these deficits involve 1) a communication campaign and 2) a series of Key Partner meetings.  The communication campaign is akin to a marketing strategy to expand awareness of success and accomplishments, promote the mission, goals, and expectations, engage stakeholders and partners, and expand student, parent, staff, and community understanding of the vision, mission, commitments, and strategies to achieve results. 

The Key Partner meetings will be facilitated by the Anson County Chamber of Commerce and will focus on two critical questions:

1. What do our businesses, faith community, health care, banking professional, farming, and etc. expect and require from their school system; and

2. What evidence will they accept as progress toward meeting or exceeding their expectations and requirements?

The communications campaign is very specific and timely.  Our community (internal and external) will through several mediums experience an increased presence of information about the Anson County Schools.

Each of these strategies will incorporate the nine ways nine times to increase awareness, understanding and support for the Anson County Schools.  I am confident that the 2013 Organizational Assessment will yield different findings than those found this year.

Next week, I will have more on the strategies to increase effective and efficient communication.