Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage, tells us of four disciplines that healthy organizations have. When an organization possesses these four disciplines, they also have a business advantage: Discipline 1: Build a Cohesive Leadership Team Discipline 2: Create Clarity Discipline 3: Overcommunicate Clarity Discipline 4: Reinforce Clarity Here are common communication mistakes that leaders […]
Creating Clarity
What do we mean by having clarity within an organization? Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Advantage, describes clarity as the alignment of values, goals, strategies and behaviors so that there is little possibility for confusion, chaos or infighting within the organization. Lencioni tells us that there are six critical questions we must answer with […]
Building A Cohesive Leadership Team
Patrick Lencioni in his book,The Advantage, asks us to imagine two organizations. The first is led by a leadership team whose members are open with one another, passionately debate important issues, and commit to clear decision even if they initially disagree. They call each other out when their behaviors or performance needs correction, and they focus […]
Is Your School A Healthy Organization?
The single greatest advantage any company can achieve is organizational health. Yet it is ignored by most leaders even though it is simple, free, and available to anyone who wants it. Patrick Lencioni The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business What is organizational health? Lencioni tells us that health occurs when an […]
What Are Sensitive Periods?
Before the age of six, human beings are in a unique period of learning and development. At this time in our lives, certain information is absorbed by our personalities without conscious effort. Young children learn to walk, talk and do hundreds of things without formal instruction or being aware of learning. Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), […]
The Art Of Observation
One of the key principles of Montessori philosophy is observing the child involved in a self-selected activity, which Dr. Montessori referred to as “work.” To observe, we should make sure that the children we are observing have something interesting and meaningful to do. Plus, we need to target specific behaviors. Montessori teachers are trained to […]
My Black Hole Valentine
Three eight-year-old boys in my classroom created a serial story of comic strip characters. Set in another universe, each character had special super-hero qualities. Some abilities were unique. Other attributes emerged only in conjunction with the skills of associates, or the task at hand. These characters’ adventures focused on helping each other out of problems, […]
24 Top Leadership Challenges
What are your leadership challenges? These are the challenges that leaders of all types have said were their top issues. Developing managerial effectiveness Inspiring others Developing employees Leading a team Guiding change Managing internal stakeholders Succumbing to easy Shifting from me to we Feeding the action addiction Conflicts of priority Virtual team globalization Internet […]
Read The Children’s Literacy Series
Here are ten articles from my Children’s Literacy Series to help you understand the process of how children learn to read. Most reading difficulties might be avoided if we as parents and teachers knew the importance of the right kind of preparation for reading we could offer to our young children. If you have a […]
What Should Our Children Learn?
In the hubbub that is our world, where should we focus our efforts as parents and teachers? What are the most important things for our children to learn? Here is a series of articles that I hope will stimulate your thinking and generate discussion within your family and school community. Download the entire series in […]