Regrettably, I am not sure how much of this weeks reading really absorbed as I am feeling a bit of mind meltdown from working on the Publishing/Leadership Project in addition to a busy week at work. But I did do the reading. I really liked the idea of "lighting a spark" and getting people enrolled. The way Ben was able to get those kids to enroll in themselves, when the media was declaring them a failure before he had even stepped foot into their school was amazing. I wonder where that 10 year old boy who conducted the orchestra is today? I wonder how many of those children followed through on there education, when the previous norm in their community was to drop out at the first opportunity?
For me "being the board" was the toughest idea in the book to comprehend, just as they said it is for most people. I am still not sure whether I actually understand it. I think that I might understand it on the most basic level, but there were many parts of the chapter that felt just out of reach for me.
"Creating frameworks for possibility" on the other hand very much had the felling to me of being basic logic, the only part that had that ah-ha feel to me was when they wrote about vision. The HP example shows exactly how one basic idea or vision can act as a spark, and how a spark can become a raging wildfire. As much as we can fall into that downward spiral, one spark can be life changing.
"Telling the we story" really hits home for me, it shows as I mentioned before just how much of an impact a little change of perspective can have. It also serves to remind me that I need to remember to think in the WE and not in the I, like many other things in life this is such a basic concept that has a tendency to slip away from us. Just weeks ago I preformed a wedding ceremony for friends of mine who I dearly love. In looking back at their relationship I noticed that so many of the difficulties they have faced have been a result of one or the other thinking in the I and not the WE of their relationship. As a result as I wrote what I wanted to say in the ceremony I kept that in mind. I wanted to remind them that as a married couple that they needed to embrace that WE thinking. The very next weekend I found that I too needed to embrace that same thinking in my own life. This like "remember rule #6" is one of those thing that I need a sign over the door for, or maybe a tattoo on my forehead.
Karl, the board analogy is simply recognizing that you are a part of the fabric of reality and not an isolated particle within the context of reality – you are reality!
ReplyDeleteI hope that clears it up for you, although Zanders does have a way of leaving one thinking down a long road with so much beautiful scenery – I may have missed something too.
@ Karl
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how “lighting a spark” and getting people “enrolled’ was a great idea. If teachers were able to get their students enrolled in every aspect of the classroom, then students would be more willing to participate in their own learning without the teacher having to resort to holding grades hostage to get participation. I also did not really get into the “being the board” chapter. I think that the message is very nice in theory, but in practice I fear it may be nearly impossible. I liked a lot of the ideas in this section of reading, but actually putting some of them into actual practice on a large scale may be nearly impossible.
The Publishing/Leadership project is very consuming... so thanks for pressing on with the reading anyway and sharing your thoughts here.
ReplyDelete"Being the board" is a total mind-shift, which is why it's one of the concepts that hardest to absorb. If you're so inclined, perhaps you can revisit these chapters after graduation Karl, when you have a bit more time and energy for contemplation. :)