Key People and Key Ideas

Our school district is small in terms of enrollment. We accept that reality and seek to exploit the potential benefits of our size by accentuating the value of relationships, cooperation, and collaboration. But, we also have a desire to be big, in terms of opportunities and possibilities. Thus, our goal of being a small school with BIG ideas!

In order for us to successfully reach that objective, we must nurture and encourage the contributions of all members of our learning community. In that sense, leadership is situational and distributed throughout the system, depending on skill, experience, and knowledge. Ideas can emerge from a variety of sources and must be respected as potential breakthroughs. Exploration and calculated risk taking are seen as worthy efforts in expanding our horizons. Influence becomes a commodity greater than power. What is right triumphs who is right. 

Such a perspective requires everyone to be perceived as essential. We need everyone to feel like a key person. Individuals count, and they can make a difference. Read the following passage and see that even though one person surrendering to a belief that they are not important may not prevent a message or movement from being successful, such a belief does lessen the rate and reach of success for the organization.

KXY PXOPLX

XVXN THOUGH MY KXYBOARD IS AN OLD MODXL – IT WORKS QUITX WXLL,XXCXPT FOR ONX OF THX KXYS. 

IT IS TRUX THAT ALL THX OTHXR KXYS WORK WXLL XNOUGH, BUT ONX KXY NOT WORKING MAKXS THX DIFFXRXNCX.

SOMXTIMXS IT SXXMS LIKX A TXAM IS

SOMXWHAT LIKX MY KXYBOARD – NOT ALL THX KXY PLAYXRS ARX WORKING.

YOU MAY SAY TO YOURSXLF, “WXLL, I AM ONLY ONX PXRSON.  I WON’T MAKX OR BRXAK A TXAM.”  BUT IT DOXS MAKX A DIFFXRXNCX, BXCAUSX A TXAM, TO BX XFFXCTIVX, NXXDS THX ACTIVX PARTICIPATION OF XVXRYONX. 

SO THX NXXT TIMX YOU THINK YOUR XFFORTS WILL NOT BX MISSXD, RXMXMBXR MY KXYBOARD.

Now, read the next passage below and find out how organizations, like schools, may miss opportunities for success in conveying their message and meaning because they get bogged down in details and neglect potential solutions and possibilities.

Subject: Typoglycemia
 
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind.  Aoccdrnig to  rscheearch at

Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a

wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be

in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed

it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey

lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I

awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Please note, I am not dismissing the importance of spelling in this example. Instead, the point of this exercise was to realize that breakthrough ideas are often discounted or rejected because they don't conform to our current beliefs or they are unfairly scrutinized for lacking convention. Brainstorming without imposing judgement or opinions is likely to produce an increase in prospective solutions to perplexing issues, or at least lead to an eventual breakthrough.

See the final passage in this Blog for examples of people who had "bad" ideas that were either accidental discoveries or mistakes but eventually converted into successes. This listing of "Bad Ideas" is courtesy of Jack Foster, author of How to Get Ideas.

WHAT TO DO WITH A ‘BAD’ IDEA

Madame Curie had a ‘bad’ idea that turned out to be radium.

Richard Drew had a ‘bad’ idea that turned out to be Scotch tape.

Vulcanized rubber was discovered by accident by Goodyear – so was antiknock gasoline by Kettering – so was immunology by Pasteur – so were x-rays by Roentgen – so was the telescope by Lippershey – so was radioactivity by Becquerel – so was penicillin by Fleming – so was America by Columbus.

The moral? Never cry over spilled milk. Find a use for it – or invent a better milk carton.

Jack Foster

How to Get Ideas