Lessons Learned
Not That There's Anything Left To Say, But....
In a word, metrics. How do
we measure up? Are we faster, better, or stronger than the last time we
checked? Are all of our measurable qualities demonstrating continuous
improvement? Success of any organization or entity, these days, boils down to
numbers and can readily be assessed on the pan balance of comparison. Good
numbers constitute good work, and good work is the all in all. Eons and
billions are spent monitoring and managing metrics, and profit empires are
built on such. This is humongously meaningful for countless things such
as those that are inanimate, but what of those that are not? What about people?
With respect to people, there are a number of immeasurable qualities
which significantly influence successful outcomes. Many of the immeasurable qualities
that powerfully contribute to success are contingent on the affective culture
or mindset of the people involved. In the flurry of checklist assignment
dispensing, deadlines pressing in, paper gathering, number crunching, outcome
analyzing, and bottom line ramifications, where are the people? Where are the
feelings of the people? Machines heartlessly and most effectively produce
brilliant metrics. The human variable notches down the effectiveness because
this pesky variable has feelings; unquantifiable feelings that can and do
unpredictably tip the balance. Drat and double drat. Take schools, for
instance. Are all of the boxfuls of voluminous paperwork generated and
tabulated for each student honestly, truly honestly improving that student’s
understanding of content, application of understanding, and capability of
producing connection building scaffolding? I do not think so. From my vantage
point of thirty years in the classroom, I see the areas in most dire need of
bolstering among students to be relational. Feelings, communication,
empathy, and compassion are all immeasurable and they all lead to
understanding. Understanding leads to meaning-making which suddenly brings
relevance into the educational picture. Encouragement is another immeasurable
but remains by far the single most important and long-lasting motivator. We can
try to motivate extrinsically but when the novelty of the incentive wears off
we’ve lost. Encouragement, on the other hand, cumulatively builds confidence
and commitment and requires no paperwork, simply words spoken from one heart to
another heart. A leader comprehends this human need and harnesses its
power as a strong motivator of people. A leader comprehends that to create and
to innovate, which exist at the top level of Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning
domains, the affective environment needs to be one of encouragement. The
affective environment of a metrics driven organization is fear, fear of the pan
balance upon which each one’s efforts are regularly measured. Fear can
surely be a motivator, but in a very sad, unhealthy, and dysfunctional sort of
way. Fear binds creativity. The data obsession of a metrics environment
aligns all efforts on an efficient and lock-step path of conformity which is
neatly quantifiable, but deals the death blow to all things time-consumingly
creative. The pendulum swing of those cultural values to which we most
deeply cling is presently at its widest arc in metrics glorification, but it
will swing back because historically it always does. Numbers can never and will
never paint the whole picture when the hearts and dreams of people are
involved.
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