Leading Today

Scott LittleMichigan School Business Officials

517-327-2582slittle@msbo.org

“Who Moved My Cheese?”

• “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

» General Eric Shinseki, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, 1999-2003

• Distinct versus Extinct» Re-imagine, Tom Peters, 2003

The Flattening of the World• American Chinese Language Students:

–50,000• Chinese English Language Students:

–Same as people who speak English as 1st language in U.S., Canada, U.K. –combined

• Demonstrates how slowly schools adapt to important change

• China, Inc, Ted Fishman (2005)

–“Certainly anyone who has seen how deadly serious Chinese families are about the education of their children, or who has seen how rapidly China has refashioned its best high schools and universities, would immediately grasp how nontrivial education is to the Chinese.”

China, Inc 2005 pg 314

• Many jobs going abroad are high-end research jobs– The talent is cheaper and a lot of it is as well

educated, if not more so, than American workers

• “The sky is not falling today, but it might be in 15-20 years if we don’t change our ways, and all signs are that we are not changing, especially in our public schools”

• The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman(2005)

New global labor market

• Swiftly integrating world-wide labor market at ALL skill levels

• Poor countries producing large and growing numbers of HIGH SKILL, LOW COST workers

• Internet makes them available to the world’s employers without moving

People doing routine work most at risk

• If your job is routine, it can be reduced to an algorithm

• If it can be reduced to an algorithm, it can be automated

• Cost pressures to automate jobs are high and increasing

• For every job being offshored, ten are being automated

The Challenge

• Coalescing global labor market pushing wages down at all skill levels

• Result will be continuous downward pressure on American standard of living as smart machines and low-paid, well educated people compete with American workers in the global market

Profile of Successful U.S. Firms in the Future

Source Information Here

International Attainment

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Education at a Glance, Table A1.2a. (Paris: Author, 2006).

Why The Current System Isn’t Up to the Job

• We’ve tried:– More money– Countless programs and initiatives

• Only thing we have not changed — in over 100 years — is

THE SYSTEM

The Report’s Proposals

Building A NEW System

for the 21st Century

First Principles

• Recruit teachers from the top third• Let students go on when ready• Reprogram funds for higher payoff• Create lean, performance-oriented

management system• Create incentives for schools to perform• Give schools room to innovate

First Principles, Cont’d

• Create a fair financing system so all students have a shot at success, and those who need the most resources get them

• Reform our 19th C. governance system to reflect 21st C. realities

• Use fewer, much higher quality tests• Create the same opportunities for adults

• Reprogram funds for higher payoff

• Create lean, performance-oriented management system

• How we provide School Facilities Services will change

360 Degree LeaderJohn Maxwell

• 99% of all leadership occurs from the middle of the organization

• Anyone can choose to become a leader wherever he or she is

• Average tenure of a superintendent?

• May not be inventor of the vision – usually the interpreter

• Interpret Vision - include– Clarity– Connection of past, present, and future– Purpose– Goals– Challenge– Passion

• Vision = Passion

“Good is the Enemy of Great”

Good To Great

Jim Collins

Copyright 2001

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

• If we are not great now, how do we become great?

The Transformation

• Build up followed by Breakthrough• Three Broad Stages

– Disciplined People• Level 5 Leadership• First Who…Then What

– Disciplined Thought• Confront the Brutal Facts• Hedgehog Concept

– Disciplined Action• Culture of Discipline• Technology Accelerators

Flywheel

• Wrapping around the framework• No single defining action/grand

program/one killer application/solitary lucky break, etc.

• The idea of relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, building momentum until breakthrough and beyond

Level 5 Leadership

• Level 1-Highly Capable Individual– Makes productive contributions through

talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits

• Level 2-Contributing Team Member– Contributes individual capabilities to the

achievement of group objectives and works effectively with others in a group setting

• Level 3-Competent Manager– Organizes people and resources toward the

effective and efficient pursuit of pre-determined objectives

• Level 4-Effective Leader– Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous

pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards

Level 5-Executive

• Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will

First Who…Then What

• Get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus)

• Then decide where to drive the bus

• The key is who before what

Confront the Brutal Facts(yet never lose faith)

• Lead with questions, not answers• Engage in dialogue and debate, not

coercion• Conduct autopsies, without blame• Build “red flag” mechanisms

The Hedgehog Concept

• Foxes vs Hedgehogs– Foxes pursue many ends at the same time

and see the world in its complexity. However, they are scattered or diffused, never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision.

– Hedgehogs simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything.

Hedgehog Concept

• Flows from understanding the intersection of the following three circles– What you can be the best in the world at

(and what you can not be the best at)– What drives your economic engine– What you are deeply passionate about

Culture of Discipline

• Culture full of self-disciplined people who take disciplined action, consistent with the three circles

• Diminish need for suffocating bureaucracy when the right people are on the bus

• A duality-requires people to adhere to consistent system; and gives people freedom and responsibility within the framework of that system

Seven Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations do that

Others Don’t

• Commitment to Purpose– A Customer Service Culture

• Commitment to Analysis and Feedback– Data-driven Strategies

• Commitment to Action– Adaptabilty; willing to change, but also know

what not to change

Why?

• It’s no harder to build something great than to build something good– Not easy, but no more suffering required

than to perpetuate mediocrity– By definition we can’t all be above average

• If we have passion for what we do; we love and care about it:– Why not?

A Whole New MindDaniel H. Pink

• Pink discusses 6 key “right brain” senses –Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning– Story - fact-finding has been democratized. Anyone can find

information. What matters more is putting facts in context and delivering them with emotional impact.

– Symphony – seeing the big picture; how do things work together in our organizations

– Empathy – seeing things from others point of view; employees?, customers?, superiors? Forge relationships, care for others.

The Future -Hot Skills for FM

• Be a Change Agent• Be a Decision Maker• Be a People Leader• Be an Entrepreneur• Set and Follow through on priorities• Develop and Maintain a Network• Cotts lists “Hot Skills” for future Facility Managers from a 1997 article in Facilities Design

and Management magazine (no longer published) by Anthony Zulkeski

• Get Knocked Around (be visible, be open to criticism, and manage by walking around)

• Don’t Confuse Truth with Conventional Wisdom

• Be the Type of Person Who Other People Trust

• Be Flexible

Leadership Thoughts from John Gardner

• Affirm Values• Envision/Determine Goals• Renewing• Explaining• Management• Unity• Represent the District Externally• Symbolize

Ongoing

• More growth oriented than goal oriented

• Keep learning – you will be better tomorrow than you are today

Think Like a Leader• Constantly Refresh Ourselves With New

Information

• Great Leaders Tend To Be Great Thinkers

• Make Time To Think

You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader – Mark Sanborn

TTWWADI

• That’s the way we’ve always done it

Stretch• Participate in upper level meetings

• Present to the board

• Plan for transition/succession– Mentor

• Read to kids

212 Degrees

• Water boils at 212 degrees – generates enough force to power a machine

• At 211 degrees it is just very hot

• Seemingly small things can make tremendous differences

It is imperative that FM professionals commit themselves to asking the appropriate questions and putting in place the tools with which to demonstrate the value of their decisions. Why? Because in the future, those who don't add value won't matter; and those who don't matter won't survive.

“Tough Choices and the Road Less Traveled”,Today’s Facility Manager, June 2004, Tim Springer

Finally