How to move from Good School to Great School?

This article is extracted from ‘From Good Schools to Great Schools: What Their Principals Do Well’, by Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly, published by Corwin Press.

In 2001, when Jim Collins went to identify what great CEOs do that others don’t (for his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don’t), he began by asking, “Why?” Why were these companies great and how did they get that way? As we started our research, we became convinced that we could use the same approach Collins used in order to gain insight into the characteristics and behaviors of our very best principals. We discovered that outstanding principals represent a wide range of personalities, and at the same time exhibit a solid core of leadership qualities and characteristics that coalesce to create startling success in their schools.

1. First, Build Relationships

In the private sector, where making a profit is the goal, leaders are not normally required to exert extraordinary effort building relationships because they usually have the luxury of getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.

Unfortunately, public education leaders do not have that luxury and must often work with a staff that they did not personally select. Student learning is the goal and people are the mechanisms for producing and sustaining student achievement. For this reason, a key prescription for principal leadership is the ability to work with people and build relationships with teachers, students, parents, and the community.

Focusing on relationships is not a gimmick for improving student test scores, but rather a means of laying the foundation for sustaining improvement over the long run. The principal’s efforts to motivate and invigorate estranged teachers and to build relationships among otherwise disengaged teachers can have a profound effect on the overall climate of the school.

2. Exercise Professional Will, But Stay Humble

While on the surface the great CEOs in Collins’s study seemed quiet and reserved, hidden within each of them was intensity, a dedication to making anything they touched the best it could possibly be.

We found evidence of this duality in every one of our highly successful principals. For example, one principal spoke very quietly. But his shy and unassuming nature was not a sign of weakness. When asked about reasons for the success of his school, he was adamant about the efforts he made. “I would hope people know that I did everything possible to support teachers in making sure students were successful at our school,” he said. “That was my Number One priority.”

Other principals exuded energetic, enthusiastic, and unreserved personalities. Still, they shared stories that revealed their humility. “The first year we created a vision and mission statement,” said one bold principal. “I had already spent a year working on my own vision. I had my rose-colored glasses on. I quickly realized we needed to spend time developing a collective school vision.”

3. Credit Others, Accept the Blame

Successful business executives talk about their companies and the contributions of others, but avoid discussion about the part they personally played. When things go well, they give credit to others; when things go badly, they accept the blame.

Similarly, highly successful principals consistently give credit to the work of teachers at their schools and take blame for decisions or programs that failed. For example, one principal we interviewed shared that some of the teachers at her school grumbled about having to implement guided reading every day. “I was pushing them too fast,” she said. “So I backed off.”

Another principal observed, “I don’t think of myself as the leader of the school. I think of myself as just one of the leaders at this school. It’s really them, not me. If they were not doing the work, the work would not be done. They are the ones in the trenches.”

4. Be Ambitious for the School’s Success First

The transformation from good to great in the private sector comes about by a snowballing process—step by step, action by action, decision by decision—until the company reaches greatness. Collins referred to this process as the “flywheel.” All of the characteristics and behaviors discussed thus far are the necessary ingredients that make up the flywheel pattern.

This process occurs in the schools of highly successful principals as well. In our interviews with these leaders, when asked what factors contributed to the success of their schools, they would reveal that success wasn’t due to a single program or event but instead was a process that evolved over time. Often the media covers the success of a school after it has made its breakthrough, giving the impression that the transformation occurred overnight. In reality, the transformative process of getting there was probably slow.

5. Resolve to Do What Needs Doing ... Then Do It!

Successful leaders identified in Collins’s study were determined to get what they wanted, when they wanted it. They adopted what Collins described as a “workmanlike diligence—more plow horse than show horse ... fanatically driven, infested with an incurable need to produce results.”

We found it easy to understand why CEOs in the private sector would be fanatically driven to produce profits, but we wondered just how school leaders would be so driven. As it turns out, all the highly successful principals in our study displayed an enduring resolve to meet the challenges of improving student learning at their schools.

For example, one principal was adamant that there be no barriers to incorporating guided reading strategies every day: “A couple of the teachers said it was a good idea but that it required too much preparation. I prepared all of the materials for them, so they had no excuse. If a teacher said, ‘This program isn’t working for me,’ I’d say, ‘Can I come in and teach it?’ I was obstinate. I just would not let them not do it.”

6. Get the Right People on board

CEOs do not need to ask permission to personally fire, demote, or reassign personnel who are not right for the organization. They just do it.

School principals do not have the same luxury, but our highly successful principals showed persistence in getting who they wanted on their staff, and in getting those teachers who did not work with their program to transfer or leave teaching. Once initial changes in staff were made, their teaching staff was very stable, with few teachers ever leaving the school. When these principals did need to hire staff, they were aggressive at finessing, politicking, and persuading to get the teachers they wanted.

7. Confront the Brutal Facts

Great leaders maintain unwavering faith that the company can and will prevail, regardless of present difficulties, and at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of the company’s current reality. Great leaders do not fool themselves or try to sugarcoat problems.

This is also true of great school leaders. The list of challenges facing schools today is long. Some of those we read about regularly in newspapers and journals across the country include accountability and the No Child Left Behind act, the achievement gap among diverse student populations, language barriers, issues with unions and contracts, student discipline, grade inflation, and the shortage of highly qualified teachers. Teachers and principals in schools everywhere can be heard commiserating about students not doing their homework, or parents not being involved in their children’s education.

However, there is hope. Mike Schmoker, in his book Results Now (2006), encouraged readers to see the brutal facts as opportunities to “blow the lid off school attainment, dramatically and swiftly reduce the achievement gap, and enhance the ‘life chances’ of all children, regardless of their social or economic circumstances.” Principals and teachers in some schools are coming together as a collaborative team to face these challenges and do something about them.

8. Be Passionate About Your Educational Engine

There’s an ancient Greek parable that says, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Collins found that the great CEOs “know what their company can do the best, what their economic engine is, and what their passion is all combined into one crystalline concept.”

For school principals, the hedgehog concept consists of knowing what teachers are best at (e.g., skill and determination), determining what drives the educational engine of the school (e.g., increasing time spent teaching reading), and then being a fanatic about driving that engine.

For example, one principal we interviewed saw his school as rich with raw material—the skill and determination of the teaching staff necessary to realize the potential of all students to be successful academically.

This principal knew what drove the educational engine of his school. He named two related factors—increasing the time teachers spend teaching reading skills, and providing more time for students to read during the school day. His staff spent more time in the school day teaching reading and giving students an opportunity to read on their own. They encouraged bright students in addition to helping students who were at risk. “We started with a school where half of the kids fell below the 20th percentile in reading,” this principal says. “Within a few years, very few scored below the 20th percentile.”

9. Build a Culture of Discipline

Most will agree that the idea of a “culture of discipline” is not new. Leadership literature is rich with support for the presence of an organizational culture that includes disciplined people and disciplined actions. Indeed, a culture of discipline encompasses all the attributes that we have examined thus far. On the one hand, a highly successful principal gives teachers the freedom to determine the best path for achieving their objectives. On the other hand, these principals say “No” to teacher proposals that fall outside of the hedgehog concept. All highly successful principals maintain a vision of improving student achievement. They are able to gather together disciplined people who are engaged in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action to support the principal’s vision.

In business, profits are the economic engine. It is all about making money. In education, it is not as clear because we are talking about educating children, not selling a product. It would be a mistake to directly apply every insight gained from fields outside education to school leadership issues. Nonetheless, it is helpful to consider business leadership successes.

To buy online: From Good Schools to Great Schools

GOOD TO GREAT - Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Jim Collins, co-author of ‘Built to Last'

About the Author
Jim Collins is considered to be one of the major American business gurus, who is like "a student of and a teacher for" great companies. He learns: how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. The author of the bestsellers has written several management books, including Good to Great and Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

A former teacher at Stanford University, Collins also works as a researcher. He frequently contributes to Harvard Business Review and other magazines, journals, etc.

Book Summary: GOOD TO GREAT - Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Let me start with the first line of Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of Great.”

This book explores what goes into a company's transformation from mediocre to excellent. Based on hard evidence and volumes of data, the author (Jim Collins) and his team uncover timeless principles on how the good-to-great companies like Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo produced sustained great results and achieved enduring greatness, evolving into companies that were indeed ‘Built to Last'.

Jim Collins and his team selected 2 sets of comparison companies:
1. Direct comparisons – Companies in the same industry with the same resources and opportunities as the good-to-great group but showed no leap in performance, which were: Upjohn, Silo, Great Western, Warner-Lambert, Scott Paper, A&P, Bethlehem Steel, RJ Reynolds, Addressograph, Eckerd, and Bank of America.
2. Unsustained comparisons – Companies that made a short-term shift from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory, namely: Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid, and Teledyne

What the book tells and teaches?
1. Ten out of eleven good-to-great company leaders or CEOs came from the inside. They were not outsiders hired in to ‘save' the company. They were either people who worked many years at the company or were members of the family that owned the company.
2. Strategy as such did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison groups.
3. Good-to-great companies’ focus on what NOT TO DO and what they should stop doing.
4. Technology has nothing to do with the transformation from good to great. It may help accelerate it but is not the cause of it.
5. Mergers and acquisitions do not cause a transformation from good to great.
6. Good-to-great companies paid little attention to managing change or motivating people. Under the right conditions, these problems naturally go away.
7. Good-to-great transformations did not need any new name, tagline, or launch program. The leap was in the performance results, not a revolutionary process.
8. Greatness is not a function of circumstance; it is clearly a matter of conscious choice.
9. Every good-to-great company had “Level 5” leadership during pivotal transition years, where Level 1 is a Highly Capable Individual, Level 2 is a Contributing Team Member, Level 3 is the Competent Manager, Level 4 is an Effective Leader, and Level 5 is the Executive who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
10. Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company.
11. Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
12. One of the most damaging trends in recent history is the tendency (especially of boards of directors) to select dazzling, celebrity leaders and to de-select potential Level 5 leaders.
13. Potential Level 5 leaders exist all around us, we just have to know what to look for.
14. The research team was not looking for Level 5 leadership, but the data was overwhelming and convincing. The Level 5 discovery is an empirical, not ideological, finding.
15. Before answering the “what” questions of vision and strategy, ask first “who” are the right people for the team.
16. Comparison companies used layoffs much more than the good-to-great companies. Although rigorous, the good-to-great companies were never ruthless and did not rely on layoffs or restructuring to improve performance.
17. Good-to-great management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, yet who unify behind decisions, regardless of parochial interests.
18. There is no link between executive compensation and the shift from good to great. The purpose of compensation is not to ‘motivate' the right behaviours from the wrong people, but to get and keep the right people in the first place.
19. The old adage “People are your most important asset” is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.
20. Whether someone is the right person has more to do with character and innate capabilities than specific knowledge, skills or experience.
21. The Hedgehog Concept is a concept that flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:
a. What you can be best in the world at, realistically, and what you cannot be best in the world at
b. What drives your economic engine
c. What you are deeply passionate about
22. Discover your core values and purpose beyond simply making money and combine this with the dynamic of preserve the core values - stimulate progress, as shown for example by Disney. They have evolved from making short animated films, to feature length films, to theme parks, to cruises, but their core values of providing happiness to young and old, and not succumbing to cynicism remains strong.
23. Enduring great companies don't exist merely to deliver returns to shareholders. In a truly great company, profits and cash flow are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.

Each and every sentence of this book is inspiring. It’s really a must read research work for business students, CEOs, Managers and everyone related with Companies/institutions/organisations.

According to me ‘Good to Great’ is a valuable resource for Edupreneurs, Educational Leaders and Educators. If people related with educational institutions can co-relate and absorb some of the organisational and team building ideas mentioned in this work, our schools and colleges would have a complete turnaround to greatness. This book gives us reasonable answers for many of the ills our institutions face today. I can’t even imagine how our educational institutions would change for the good if we apply ‘Good to Great’ philosophy of Level Five Leadership.

In my November 15, 2009 posting I have introduced a book titled “From Good to Great School: What Their Principals Do Well” written by Susan Penny Gray and William A. Streshly. This book is a corollary of ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins and his team. You might have read in that posting how public schools and their leaders can use the Level Five Leadership in schools. I strongly recommend all my educator-readers to get the copy of both the books and give a try in your institution and experience for yourself how process management can leap your school to greatness and then to enduring greatness.

"IF YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING YOU CARE DEEPLY ABOUT AND IF YOU BELIEVE IN IT, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT GREAT."

Now let me windup with this message: A Competitive world has two possibilities for you: you can lose or, if you want to win, you can change.

To buy online: Good to Great

When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them by Robert Sobel

If learning from failure is key to success, Robert Sobel’s classic When Giants Stumble is essential reading.

It’s pretty easy to pick a few successful companies or people and pick out a few reasons why the boys (or boy) done good. Slap the words down, knock the pages between covers, point out a salutary lesson for business school speed-readers and, with a modicum of luck, you’ll be a guru on a neverending lecture tour.

I exaggerate of course, but it’s certainly more unusual to read a book that attempts to anatomise failure than one that claims to help replicate spectacular jackpot wins. This scarcity of books about non-success is puzzling in a way as business winners often point to their failures as providing the biggest lessons learned. A success story is nice, but a flop, a disaster even, is the gift that keeps on giving.

Robert Sobel had a 30-year career as humongously prolific author and university business historian when he wrote this book, published in the year of his death, 1999. Here, he takes a solid, no-frills approach to his theme and there’s a certain schadenfreude in this examination of contenders who ultimately failed to maintain their rise to stardom.

Not all the 15 subjects are well known these days, but you might remember Schlitz beer, stricken airline Pan-Am or personal computer pioneer Osborne. It doesn’t matter too much if you don’t know them as Sobel does a brilliant job in describing and inspecting the causes of their implosions.

It’s also a rattling good narrative as it follows the classic riches-to-rags reversed arc. As Sobel writes, “If there is any single moral to the tales it is that for all but one of these entities, failure was preceded by great success.”

So why do good companies go bad? Common threads include hiring, underfunding, overexpansion, service, market change, rules and regulations and, of course, bone-headed leadership. The last provides some painful examples with human fallibility and hubris never far from the boardroom.

Some critics argue that Sobel never really knocks off the “how to avoid them” part of his title but that criticism seems shrill. The reasons these companies failed are carefully set out; you avoid their fates by not doing the same things.

One of the attractions of this book is that Sobel is not blowing his own trumpet and coming up with some media-friendly formula of homilies or capsule pieces of advice. A bit like unhappy families in Anna Karenina, you could say that companies that fail tend to do so in their own several ways.

Sobel’s characteristic style, taking a meditative look back on the evidence in retrospect might have had something to do with his skills as a chess player; as a boy he was good enough to beat future world champion Bobby Fischer. But he was also one of the great popularisers and his books were aimed at a general audience keen to understand complex phenomena such as stock markets and the rise of computer companies, marketing and media tycoons.

As ever with bestselling writers, some have been keen to dismiss him as just another formulaic hit machine but Sobel had already mocked the academic community in For Want Of A Nail, his brilliant imagining of an alternative US history. His books might have been popular but they took the common reader deep into understanding the modern industrial age. All of his books are worth exploring, but When Giants Stumble is a fine read for those of you who have scaled Everest – and a reminder that it’s all downhill from there.

To buy online: When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them

TOMORROW'S CHILDREN - ABLUEPRINT FOR PARTNERSHIP EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

By Riane Eisler

What will the world be like for tomorrow's children? When I look at my little two year-old granddaughter's face, bright with wide-eyed curiosity and joyful expectation of love and life, I see wonderful possibilities. But when I look at the challenges she and her generation will inherit, I see that these possibilities will not be realized unless today's and tomorrow's children learn to live in more environmentally conscious, equitable, and peaceful ways.

Today, young people often feel powerless to change the course of their lives, much less the course of the world around them. Many become immersed in ‘me-firstism’ and ‘over materialism’ that permeates much of our mass culture, futilely seeking meaning and belonging in the latest fad or commercial offering. Some bury their pain and anger in drugs, gangs, and other destructive activities, unconscious and seemingly uncaring of the effect their actions have on themselves and others. A number become violent, under the thrall of hate-mongering or religious fanaticism, or simply because our video games, television, ads, and movies make violence seen normal and even fun. And the vast majority, including the young people who expect to get a decent job or go on to college to pursue a professional career, fail to see how what we do with our lives is both affected by, and affects, our cultural beliefs and social institutions.

There are many factors that contribute to all this. But there is one factor that can play a major role in providing young people with the understandings and skills to both live good lives and create a more sustainable, less violent, more equitable future: education.

For over two centuries, educational reformers such as Johann Pestalozzi, Maria Montessori, John Dewey, and Paolo Freire have called for an education that prepares us for democracy rather than authoritarianism and fosters ethical and caring relations. Building on the work of these and other germinal educational thinkers, Tomorrow's Children proposes an expanded approach to educational reform that can help young people meet the unprecedented challenges of a world in which technology can either destroy us or free us to actualize our unique human capacities for creativity and caring.

I call this approach partnership education. It is an education to help children not only better navigate through our difficult times but also create a future orienting more to what in my study of cultural evolution I have identified as a partnership rather than dominator model.

We are all familiar with these two models from our own lives. We know the pain, fear, and tension of relations based on domination and submission, on coercion and accommodation, of jockeying for control, of trying to manipulate and cajole when we are unable to express our real feelings and needs, of the miserable, awkward tug of war for that illusory moment of power rather than powerlessness, of our unfulfilled yearning for caring and mutuality, of all the misery, suffering, and lost lives and potentials that come from these kinds of relations. Most of us also have, at least intermittently, experienced another way of being, one where we feel safe and seen for who we truly are, where our essential humanity and that of others shines through, perhaps only for a little while, lifting our hearts and spirits, enfolding us in a sense that the world can after all be right, that we are valued and valuable.

But the partnership and dominator models not only describe individual relationships. As I will detail, they describe systems of belief and social structures that either nurture and support — or inhibit and undermine — equitable, democratic, nonviolent, and caring relations. Without an understanding of these configurations – and the kind of education that creates and replicates each – unwittingly we reinforce structures and beliefs that maintain the inequitable, undemocratic, violent, and uncaring relations which breed pathologies that afflict and distort the human spirit and are today decimating our natural habitat.

Once we understand the partnership and dominator cultural, social, and personal configurations, we can more effectively develop the educational methods, materials, and institutions that foster a less violent, more equitable, democratic, and sustainable future. We can also more effectively sort out what in existing educational approaches we want to retain and strengthen or leave behind.

The partnership framework outlined in this book offers the basic design for a new integrated primary and secondary education for the 21st century. This framework draws from my research over three decades, from my own teaching experiences, and from the work of educators at many levels.

Partnership education has three core interconnected components. These are partnership process, partnership structure, and partnership content.
Partnership process is about how we learn and teach. It applies the guiding template of the partnership model to educational methods and techniques. Are each child's intelligences and capabilities treated as unique gifts to be nurtured and developed? Do students have a real stake in their education so that their innate enthusiasm for learning is not dampened? Do teachers act as primarily lesson-dispensers and controllers, or more as mentors and facilitators? Is caring an integral part of teaching and learning? Are young people learning the team work needed for the postindustrial economy or must they continuously compete with each other? Are students offered the opportunity for both self-directed learning and peer teaching? In short, is educating children merely a matter of filling an "empty vessel" or are students and teachers partners in the adventure of learning?

Partnership structure is about where learning and teaching take place: what kind of learning environment we construct if we follow the partnership model. Is the structure of a school, classroom, and/or home school one of top-down authoritarian rankings, or is it a more democratic one? If it were diagramed as an organizational chart, would decisions flow only from the top down and accountability only from the bottom up, or would there be interactive feedback loops? Are management structures flexible, so that leadership is encouraged at all organizational levels? Are there ways of involving parents and other community members? Do students, teachers, and other staff participate in school decision-making and rule-setting? In short, is the learning environment organized in terms of hierarchies of domination ultimately backed up by fear, or is it a combination of horizontal linking and hierarchies of actualization where power is not used to disempower others but rather to empower them?

Partnership content is what we learn and teach. It is the educational curriculum. Does the curriculum effectively teach students not only basic skills such as the three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic but also model the life-skills they need to be competent and caring citizens, workers, parents, and community members? Are we telling young people to be responsible, kind, and nonviolent at the same time that the curriculum content still celebrates male violence and conveys environmentally unsustainable and socially irresponsible messages? Does it present science in holistic, relevant ways? Does what is taught as important knowledge and truth include – not just as an add-on, but as integral to what is learned – both the female and male halves of humanity as well as children of various races and ethnicities? Does it teach young people the difference between the partnership and dominator models as two basic human possibilities and the feasibility of creating a partnership way of life? Or, both overtly and covertly, is this presented as unrealistic in "the real world"? Does what young people are learning about "human nature" limit or expand human possibilities? In short, what kind of view of ourselves, our world, and our roles and responsibilities in it are children taking away from their schooling?

As we will see, teachers all over the world are already working with some of these elements of partnership education. There are good resources for moving toward both partnership process and structure. There are also good supplementary materials for teaching science in more holistic ways, for bringing information about women and various cultures into our schools, and for greater consciousness about social and economic equity and our natural environment.

But still lacking, and urgently needed, is an integrated partnership curriculum that can not only help today's and tomorrow's children build healthy bodies, psyches, families, businesses, governments, and communities but also give them a clearer understanding of our human potential, our place in history, our relationship to nature, and our responsibility to future generations.

What I am interested in is systemic or long-term educational change. Certainly schools need the best new technologies if they are to prepare children for the future. But schools also need to help students look at the environmental, social, and economic challenges young people face in the 21st century from a partnership perspective.
The curriculum proposed in this book will make it possible for young people to more clearly understand our past, present, and the possibilities for our future. It integrates the practical and the theoretical and the sciences and the humanities. It brings science to life by placing it in the larger context of both the history of our planet and our species and our day-to-day lives. Because the social construction of the roles and relations of the female and male halves of humanity is central to either a partnership or dominator social configuration, unlike the traditional male-centered curricula, partnership education is gender-balanced. It integrates the history, needs, problems, and aspirations of both halves of humanity into what is taught as important knowledge and truth. Because in the partnership model difference is not automatically equated with inferiority or superiority, partnership education is multicultural. It offers a pluralistic perspective that includes peoples of all races and a variety of backgrounds, as well as the real life drama of the animals and plants of the Earth we share. Since partnership education offers a systemic approach, environmental education is not an add-on but an integral part of the curriculum.

Through partnership education, young people will learn the dramatic story of our human adventure on this Earth against the backdrop of the need and prospects for a major cultural transformation. They will begin to see school as a place of exploration, a place to share feelings and ideas, an exciting community of educators, students, and parents working together to ensure that each child is recognized and valued, that the human spirit will be nurtured and grow. Above all, partnership education will help young people form visions of what can be and acquire the understandings and skills to make these visions come true.

The materials that follow offer resources for restructuring primary and secondary education that can be immediately put to use by teachers, parents, and students in public schools, in private schools, and in home schooling. These resources are also designed to be useful in universities and colleges, not only in education departments that offer teacher and school counsellor education, but in all departments interested in teaching that more adequately addresses current needs and problems. Tomorrow's Children can further be useful for community-based study and action groups, both those with a direct interest in education, and those interested in personal development and positive social and environmental action.

In sum, although the focus of Tomorrow's Children is on primary and secondary education, it is for all who want to explore new frontiers and become more active co-creators of our future.

I want to close these brief opening remarks with an invitation. I want to invite not only parents, students, primary and secondary school teachers, university professors, and other educators, but also all those working for a better future to become active partners in developing partnership education from the early years on. I want to invite you to use the materials offered in this book in your own teaching and learning as well as to develop replicable materials for others. These can be lesson plans or entire units to be incorporated into existing classes. They can be whole new courses, like those being developed through the Centre for Partnership Studies in collaboration with a number of schools and universities for distribution through the Centre website, bookstores, and other avenues. They can even be curricula for an entire school. The goal is to gradually put together new partnership curricula for kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond.

Some of what I am proposing will create controversy. But without controversy there is no possibility for real change.

If enough of us are committed to personal and collective transformation — if together we keep moving forward, as Marian Wright Edelman wrote, "putting one foot ahead of the other, basking in the beauty of our children, in the chance to serve and engage in a struggle for a purpose higher than ourselves"5 — we will succeed in laying the educational foundations for a safer, more liveable, more loving world for tomorrow's children and generations still to come.

Schools That Learn

A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education

By
Peter Senge, Nelda Cambron-McCabe, Timothy Lucas, Bryan Smith, Janis Dutton, Art Kleiner

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan

In a fast changing world it is very essential for everyone to think about new paradigms in educational theory and practice. Schools That Learn gives us new approaches and system models to build learning organizations that suit the 21st century requirements of the society. Today people around the world see education as the highest form of influence to improve society. When more people than ever are concerned about the ability of today’s institutions to live up to that goal, Peter Senge and his colleagues have released Schools That Learn. This helps us to see our educational institutions in a new perspective – Learning Organisations.

“Capacity building” is a term widely discussed by educationists and policy makers to help schools in developing the skills and knowledge necessary to improve. But what is capacity building? How do schools actually develop capacity? Capacity to do what? This book provides satisfactory answers for all these questions and questions that may arise at the time of building learning organisations.

In Schools that Learn, Peter Senge argues that teachers, administrators, and other members of school communities must learn how to build their own capacity; that is, they must develop the capacity to learn. From the author’s viewpoint, real improvement will only happen if the people responsible for implementation, design the change itself: “It is becoming clear that schools can be re-created, made vital, and sustainably renewed not by fiat or command, and not by regulation, but by taking the learning orientation” (p. 5). Senge, author of the best-selling The Fifth Discipline, has written a highly readable companion book directly focused on education. He proposes five skills or disciplines at the heart of the learning orientation: developing personal mastery, creating shared mental models, establishing a shared vision, engaging in team learning, and thinking systemically. Collectively, these five disciplines represent the component skills underlying the learning process. According to him, if an individual, group, or organisation develops the capacity to do each of the disciplines well, they will have become proficient in learning itself.

The numerous exercises, techniques, and stories included in the book help the people who work with and within schools learn how to develop their capacity to find solutions to the problems that prevent improvement. Schools That Learn is presented in “three nested systems of activity” (p. 11): the classroom, the school, and the school community. In each section along with Senge, more than hundred authors contribute anecdotes about systemic thinking, exercises designed to facilitate learning the disciplines, and lists of resources to connect the reader to other important concepts.

‘Margin icons’ used by Peter Senge is very helpful to the reader to understand the material and easily connect to the related concepts in the book. Icons are used to denote individual and team exercises; the etymology of key words; practical techniques for learning the disciplines; lists of relevant books, articles, and videos; and opportunities for reflection. Three elements of “organizational architecture” are also indicated with icons: guiding ideas or principles, innovations in organisational design, and the theoretical underpinnings of the techniques for learning the five disciplines. These markings are very useful in orienting the reader to help see the connections between the nested systems and find illustrative examples of the concepts that are explained.

The author makes a powerful argument regarding the need for a systems approach and learning orientation by introducing Schools That Learn with a historical perspective on educational systems. Specifically, he details “industrial age” assumptions about both learning — that “children are deficient and schools should fix them” (p. 35), that learning is strictly an intellectual enterprise, that everyone should learn in the same way, that classroom learning is distinctly different than that occurring outside of school, and that some kids are smart while others are not — and schools — schools “are run by specialists who maintain control” (p. 43), knowledge is inherently fragmented, schools teach some kind of objective truth, and “learning is primarily individualistic and competition accelerates learning” (p. 48). These assumptions about learning and the nature and purpose of schools reflect deeply fixed cultural beliefs that must be considered, and in many cases directly confronted, if schools are to develop the learning orientation necessary for improvement.

As per my understanding, author offers no remedies for success. He believes that, in order to be effective, answers must be developed locally, not by “specialists” who sit far outside classroom and school walls. Instead, Senge presents a set of principles and activities, along with illustrative stories, designed to engage the reader in a process of learning and reflection. Schools That Learn is really a must have and read book for every one related to education because it is an excellent resource book for those working to “build capacity” in schools. Policymakers at all levels, school principals, teachers, parents, and students can benefit from the ideas, stories of inspiration, and many tools that are included. In Schools That Learn, Senge simplifies the complex conversation regarding what building capacity looks like in schools and offers practical suggestions for how to begin to do it.

To conclude in a rapidly altering world where school violence is not uncommon, moral standard and tolerance are at the brink of collapse, the value of standardised tests is questioned, where rapid advances in science and technology threaten to leave students sadly unprepared, and increased pressures cause many teachers to burn out before retirement age, Schools That Learn offers much needed fuel for the dialogue about the future of educating children into the coming decades of the 21st century.

About the Authors
• Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the chairman of the Society for Organizational Learning, and a recognized pioneer, theorist, and writer in the field of management innovation.
• Nelda Cambron-McCabe is a Professor at the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University and a nationally known expert on learning organization work in public education.
• Timothy Lucas has been a teacher and administrator in public education for the past 27 years, most recently as the superintendent of the Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey school district, and a recognized innovator with systems thinking tools in classroom and school administration.
• Bryan Smith is a vice president of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and a director of Innovations Associates; his work focuses on strategy implementation, corporate governance, and sustainable development.
• Janis Dutton is an editor, writer and educational consultant who is active in community and school change efforts.
• Editorial Director Art Kleiner is a faculty member at New York University and the author of The Age of Heretics, a finalist for the Edgar Booz Award for most innovative business book of 1996.

Essential Teaching Skills (2nd Edition) by Dr. Chris Kyriacou

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan

About the Author: Dr. Chris Kyriacou is reader in Educational Psychology and currently the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of York. He is particularly interested in researching aspects of effective teaching, the experience of being a teacher, student learning and student motivation. His other major books include Effective Teaching in Schools – Theory and Practice, Helping Troubled Pupils, and Stress-busting for Teachers.

Target Readers: Newly qualified and experienced teachers, trainers, coaches, educational leaders and for every one who have an interest in defining, understanding and exploring the concept of teaching skills and its place within the learning system. This book would make a great introduction for anyone considering taking up a career in teaching, or interested in acquiring skills that would help them in their B.Ed. or M.Ed. courses. In fact, I suspect it may already be a set work, if not, it should be.
Summary:
This book has been presented in eight chapters covering the following topics.

Chapter 1 - Developing your teaching skills:
This lesson provides the reader a clear perception on nature of teaching skills. How to monitor our own teaching skills and which are the areas a teacher must focus for developing essential teaching skills are brilliantly introduced by the author. Dr. Chris Kyriacou finishes the lesson with a very powerful note – “If your teaching is to retain the sharpness, freshness and cutting edge that characterises the most effective teaching, it is crucial that your skills are never allowed to rest for too long on the back burner.” In the coming lessons each of the major teaching skills are explained in a vivid manner.
Chapter 2 - Planning and preparation:
As we all know planning and preparation is the key to successful teaching. In the first section Dr. Chris elucidates the three major elements of lesson planning such as selecting and scripting a lesson, preparing the materials and resources to be used and deciding how to monitor and assess pupil’s progress. In the second part he focuses on preparation that involves the preparation of all the resources and materials to be used in the lesson. No doubt, planning and preparation go hand in hand, and many planning decisions are taken while preparation is going on. This lesson would be of great use for beginners in the teaching profession.

Chapter 3 - Lesson presentation:
This lesson is presented in three sections – the teacher’s manners, teacher talk activities and academic tasks. Author has succeeded in convincing the reader the importance of teacher’s manners and attitude while presenting a lesson. Many of the minute aspects mentioned here remind the teachers how careful they should be in the class about their manners and organisation of teacher talk activities. In the last part of the lesson various aspects related to academic tasks – activities set up by the teacher to facilitate student learning, are lucidly presented.

Chapter 4 - Lesson management:
This lesson is essentially concerned with those skills involved in managing and organising the learning activities by which teachers can maximise students’ productive involvement in the lesson. According to the author, given the large size and range of ability of most classes, lesson management is not at all a mean task. First section gives the reader a clear idea on how to begin a lesson, handle the transition within the lesson between activities and bring a lesson to a successful ending. In the later part we come across strategies for maintaining students’ involvement, handling the logistics of classroom life and managing student movement and noise in the class. This lesson is worth reading and practicing for beginners and experienced teachers.
Chapter 5 - Classroom climate:
Dr. Chris Kyriacou begins the lesson by saying, “the classroom climate established by the teacher can have a major impact on pupils’ motivation and attitudes towards learning.” Through out the lesson by giving various strategies and reference quotes he successfully presents to the reader how to build a positive classroom climate, motivate students, establish healthy relationship with students, enhance students’ self-esteem and create an excellent classroom appearance and class composition.

Chapter 6 - Discipline:
This lesson is based on the basic principle – ‘skillful teaching lies at the heart of establishing discipline’. Author’s effort to provide basic information on nature of students’ misbehaviour, how to establish teacher’s authority, how to deal with students’ misbehaviour and the principles to be kept in mind while opting for reprimands and punishments are really commendable. It’s a must read lesson for teachers who face problems in managing classroom discipline.

Chapter 7 - Assessing pupils’ progress:
One of the most important components of classroom teaching and learning is the regular assessment and feedback of students’ progress. The issues discussed here include the purpose and types of assessment and methods to improve, record and report assessment and feedback.

Chapter 8 - Reflection and Evaluation:
This lesson is imperative for all teachers who take this profession very seriously and sincerely. Reflecting and evaluating what teachers’ do every day not only in the classroom but in the school by themselves is essential to their growth as an effective teacher. Various principles and strategies involved in self evaluation and reorienting ourselves to greater heights is presented in a very beautiful manner by the author. Last part of this lesson is devoted for techniques to cope teacher stress.

It is all presented in a no-nonsense way, with the emphasis on developing and evaluating practical skills acquired during teaching practice. This is firmly backed up with constant reference to other textbooks and teaching theory.

For example, lesson management is considered from the point of view of the experienced teacher who knows from past experience how to control and encourage a class; from the point of a new trainee who might be afraid to put into practice what they know, and someone who is in the mid point between these two areas.

The skills are constantly under revision and the reader gains an understanding of how personal self evaluation, critical theory and actual practice can all contribute to effective teaching.

Indeed, some aspects of this book draw on experience and practice outside of the strict realm of classroom teaching and could be applied to other professions: how to communicate effectively or encourage rather than discourage someone, for example.

The skills covered form the basis of continuing professional assessment, which also of course includes formal appraisal and personal career development. There are plenty of reference sources for further reading at the end of each chapter, and also lists of key questions and points to consider.
There are practical suggestions as well as an analysis of teaching theory - what teaching aids may be useful in particular circumstances, how to create a viable learning environment, and how to tackle problems you may come across during your time in the classroom.

The illustrations tend towards the light-hearted, black and white drawings, neatly bringing out points from the text. If a little old-fashioned in appearance, they are apt and amusing.

There is an extensive bibliography in addition to the individual chapter resources, plus a useful subject and author cross- referenced index. An updated and revised third edition of this book which has already been published by Nelson Thornes, tells us the extensive reception of this book by educators all over the world. In short it’s a great work by a well experienced educator for all other educators who wish to master the art of teaching to make teaching-learning process fun and enjoyable.

Publicising Your School – By David Medgett

Book Review

Publicising Your School is the essential guide for school managers, teachers and administrators who care about presenting the image of the school or a department effectively in the community.

It is a practical, working book, packed with examples, illustrations and checklists to help the reader to understand and use a wide range of media and techniques with the best results.

It is suitable for beginners and experienced publicists, starting with basic definitions and building to a complete promotional package for school activities that need greater publicity.

It covers:
o Raising the profile of the school
o Creating pride in the school
o Defusing and explaining bad news
o How to work with people in the media
o Preparing for media interviews
o Appointing a publicity officer
o Improving the environment
o Open days
o School publication, badges, letterheads and logos
o Planning, advertising and staging popular school events
o Working with the community
o A ready-made outline publicity strategy

Publicising Your School is a invaluable as a step-by-step guide to a coherent publicity strategy to enhance the image of the school as a whole, a reference handbook to specific techniques for particular purposes, and an instruction manual for campaigns for special events.

To buy online, log on to ‘Publicising Your School’.

Effective Teaching in Schools - Theory and Practice (Second Edition) - By Chris Kyriacou

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan
About the Author: Dr. Chris Kyriacou is reader in Educational Psychology and currently the Director of Graduate Studies at the University of York. He is particularly interested in researching aspects of effective teaching, the experience of being a teacher, pupil learning and pupil motivation. His other major books include Essential Teaching Skills, Helping Troubled Pupils, and Stress-busting for Teachers.

Summary: Kyriacou’s ‘Effective Teaching in Schools’ presents new paradigms in effective teaching. The book has been written in three parts.

Part one covers the nature, concepts and process of effective teaching and aspects of students’ learning process. Writer has succeeded in his attempt to prove that for effective teaching there is a need to take into account the context and the nature of the learning outcomes desired. Second important take away from this part is the framework developed here on the notion of ‘attentiveness’, ‘receptiveness’ and ‘appropriateness’ act as the focus for thinking about student learning.

Part two comprises of five major divisions (4 to 8) and can be considered the heart of the book. The first topic in this section considers the different types of learning tasks, activities and experiences which teachers can usefully setup to facilitate student learning. In the next topic a number of differences between students have been explored: ability, motivation, social class, gender, race and special educational needs. According to the author ‘Knowing the child in detail’ is the key to effective teaching. In topic six we will come across key classroom teaching qualities and tasks that in effect serve as a set of basic skills involved in effective teaching process. Chapter seven convinces the need for redefining teacher-student relationship. Here the author explains how the teacher’s authority is established, the basis for developing mutual respect and rapport and the role of the teacher in the ‘pastoral care’ of the child. The last chapter in part two encompasses various strategies in dealing with students’ misbehaviour. The key task facing effective teachers is to minimise its occurrence in the first place rather than thinking about reprimands, punishments and counselling.

Part three addresses the three most pressing professional concerns challenging teachers. The first is to develop the school curriculum so that it meets as fully as possible the educational aspirations held for it. The second is to develop systems of teacher appraisal which will foster more effective in-service professional development. The third is to develop ways in which the levels of stress experienced by teachers can be reduced.

Chris Kyriacou concludes that all this to happen it requires time for teachers to engage in the necessary planning and preparation. This means that schools need to create an organisational infrastructure to enable such time to be made available. From the part of the teacher commitment to being effective and professional pride in the quality of their work are also very essential.

Conclusion: ‘Effective Teaching in Schools’ would make a great introduction for anyone considering taking up a career in teaching, or interested in acquiring skills that would help them in their Teacher Training course. This book will be of great use for teacher trainers, educational leaders and also for people aspiring for educational leadership. Recognising the shift of teacher training towards more classroom practice, the book combines depth and authoritative coverage in its treatment of the teaching experience. Each chapter has its own Objectives and Summary to help guide independent learning. Highlighted checklists summarise the key issues. Chapters conclude with discussion questions to help students reflect on key teaching issues and detailed guidance on further reading to help them research key topics effectively. In short it’s an amazing book on effective teaching that takes us from an idealistic world of imagination to a real world of practicability. The hard work and research time spent by the author should be appreciated from the bottom of our hearts. It’s the duty of each and every teacher to read and execute the wonderful ideas presented by the author to make teaching-learning process in our Indian classrooms really enjoyable and fun oriented for our children.

Wish you a happy reading!

Total Quality Management in Education (Second Edition) – By Marmar Mukhopadhyay

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan

Today quality in education is a matter of global quest. High levels of knowledge, competencies and skills are considered to be the basic conditions for active citizenship, employment and social cohesion. Lifelong learning is an important means of shaping one’s future on a professional and personal level, and high-quality education is essential in the light of labour market policies, and the free movement of professionals throughout the world. For India quality quest is all the more important for it to become a global player. In order to succeed in this and to attain global standards in local settings, it is necessary for Indian educational institutions to both improve and sustain quality.

In this context, Marmar Mukhopadhyay’s ‘Total Quality Management in Education’ (second Edition) offers a unique and reliable method to design and implement quality in educational institutions. He has succeeded in beautifully covering the philosophical underpinnings of total quality management, its instrumentalities as well as methods of strategic planning and implementation in educational institutions.

Summary of the book: The book has been divided into eleven chapters followed by six appendix titles covering all aspects of MIPQ. Chapter one and two analyses the concept and dimensions of quality management in education in the Indian and western perspective. Chapter three gives a clear picture of system thinking and organisational micro-analysis. Micro-analysis will help us to understand the unique personality of our institution. Author points out that plans for quality management may vary from institution to institution depending on its unique personality.

Customer focus and the need and techniques of involving every one in the planning and management process have received much attention in chapter four. According to the author the purpose of education is “the optimisation of students’ physical, mental, emotional, intellectual and moral potential”. Customers focus means developing an educational programme that can simultaneously facilitate development in all five facets of human living.

In chapter five he explains in a vivid manner how assessment of the institution should be conducted, what should be the criteria and different tools for assessment such as SWOT. For the proper implementation of TQM sound understanding of the institution is very essential. I am sure that this chapter will help the readers in assessing their institutions.

Next two chapters are devoted for new style of management and HRD for quality institutions. These chapters help us in building awareness for quality as a culture in our educational institutions. In the beginning of chapter eight author states “it is the quality of decisions that either make or break organisations”. And the author has very clearly succeeded in convincing the various phases involved in quality decision making.

Chapter nine is very special for present educational leaders and also for people who aspire for future educational leadership. According to the author ‘leadership is all about influencing – motivating and inspiring people to create vision and achieve it’.

Chapter ten presents various strategic plan models for TQM. Every process involved in strategic planning is explicitly explained with illustrations and examples. The table on sample questions for developing planning for implementation (page 177) will be of great use for a true TQM leader.

The last chapter gives us a clear road map for implementing TQM. Here the author makes it clear that implementation of TQM takes time and reaches a stage where quality becomes culture.

Appendix given at the end of the book will be of great help for educational institutions for assessing and preparing their institutional profile. Institutional profile questionnaire undoubtedly tells us the deep insight of the author in this topic of study.

Conclusion: This book incorporates the author’s rich experience (at both the micro and macro levels) in the actual implementation of TQM in various educational institutions. In short he has skilfully adapted the TQM philosophy and methodology-which originated in industry-to suit education, and anchored it in the Indian context. A practical guide to the management of quality education through TQM, this book covers the philosophical underpinnings of TQM, its instrumentalities, as well as methods of strategic planning and implementation in educational institutions, promotes a human-intensive quality management approach, calls for long-term planning, as opposed to piecemeal efforts, emphasizes the optimization of the human resource potential in educational institutions, proposes a very practical and adaptable management model. Comprehensive and lucid, this book will help educational planners to build on their beliefs, fine-tune their mission and work towards the goal of providing quality education. An indispensable resource for educational administrators, teacher and heads of universities, colleges and schools, this book will also be of interest to researchers in quality management and education. In all sense it’s a great work and Prof. Mukhopadhyay deserves our congratulations and gratitude for making such a pioneering effort in this vital field.

Brief Introduction to ‘Create Your Own Future’ by Brian Tracy

By C. Radhakrishnan

Today while browsing, I got a chance to peep into some of the major extracts from Brian Tracy’s latest release ‘Create Your Own Future: How to Master the 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success.' Here is a very brief introduction to ‘Create Your Own Future.’

Brian Tracy is known for his simple, concise, easy to understand books based on self-help classics. ‘Create Your Own Future’ is no exception. He has included materials from his other works and the likes of Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie for one reason, it works. I am very optimistic that people who read this book would experience a wonderful life-change.

There are five chapters of interest to people who want to improve their communication: chapter 1 (Success Is Predictable), chapter 5 (Attitude Is Everything), chapter 7 (Relationships Are Essential), and chapter 13 (Fortune Favours the Brave). This isn’t to say that these are the only significant chapters to communication, but they are the most powerful.

In chapter 7, Brian Tracy shares effective principles on how you can successfully network with the big players in your career and industry. He shares the secrets of how you can get influential people on your side to help you succeed in your chosen career path. If you don’t already know, networking is the key to most people’s success. Having the people and resources available to you at your request helps you overcome problems they have already solved.

The focus of ‘Create Your Own Future’ appears to spotlight on succeeding in your career; through the principles like attitude, clarity, and knowledge are tailored to many situations. Tracy provides interesting insight into the conscious, subconscious, and super conscious mind and how you can use each mind to improve various areas of your life.

If you have not read other books of Brian Tracy on personal development, you will find a lot of new teachings in this book for your growth. There are few repetitions of principles and points from his other well known books. However, you are bound to learn a few life-changing principles from the many in this book.

With the many easy to understand and brief personal development principles in ‘Create Your Own Future’, it is a book worth reading to improve yourself. So go for it.

Happy Reading!

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ - Daniel Goleman

Reviewed by C. Radhakrishnan

Is having a high IQ indicative of future success? Not necessarily.

Goleman's research studies the factors at work when those with high IQs struggle and those with only modest IQs excel. These factors represent another way of being smart - one Goleman refers to as "Emotional Intelligence".

Daniel Goleman's 1995 bestseller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ has managed an achievement not many bestsellers can generally boast: it has influenced society and public policy -- from business practices to teaching pedagogy to parenting techniques.

You might even say Emotional Intelligence has started a small revolution ‘the revolution of emotional awareness’. The focus of Emotional Intelligence is on a series of skills, mostly having to do with social interaction and self-knowledge, that Goleman and plenty of other persons argue make up a neglected sort of smarts. The argument running throughout the book is that to be intelligent in the ways that schools and colleges measure such things is certainly advantageous, but it's much more important to your general success in life-and health and happiness - to be emotionally intelligent: to be able to do things like identify and label your feelings, to be empathic, to delay gratification, and to be able to read and interpret social signs.

This book focuses its attention on that most indefinable of human theatres of emotions - leads one to imagine that it is perhaps a self-help guide, full of half-cooked ideas and feel-good philosophy. But, pleasingly, it is a book that in its best moments is firmly rooted in psychology and neuroscience research findings, and by and large it is a book that makes sound sense. In its not-so-enjoyable moments, incidentally, it sometimes slips over research implications, fails to define its terms, and relies, in places, too heavily on unsubstantiated story. But these shortcomings are largely the result of the huge ambition of the book and should by no means prevent anyone from picking it up.

What has made Emotional Intelligence possible are the amazing advancements made in the brain sciences in the last few decades of the twentieth century? The human brain, like some newly discovered continent, has rapidly been brought into focus in recent years and the process of mapping every circuit of its immensely complicated system is underway. Daniel Goleman has capitalised on all these developments beautifully.

The most compelling parts of Emotional Intelligence are the result of Goleman's bringing scientific research to bear on the questions of emotions and on what an early researcher in the field, Eileen Rockefeller Growald, first called "emotional literacy," a phrase that suggests the importance of these skills to get on in the world. In Part One, Goleman explains in detail what is included in the functional emotional brain -- particularly, the limbic system's amygdala and its interface with the prefrontal lobes -- how the emotional brain evolved, and why it still plays such a dominant part in our lives despite the ability of the neo-cortex-what Goleman calles "the thinking brain" -- to reason. This part of the book, being a student of history, I felt very boring and difficult to understand even though he explained it very well.

The concept of emotional intelligence, we come to understand, is surprisingly far reaching - it is not, as one would expect, just the ability to get along well with others. Goleman includes sections on the emotional differences between men and women in relationship with one another (and the fascinating physiological-based testing methods used to define them), on the neuroscience of post-traumatic stress disorder (an emotional brain illness, of sorts), and the way emotional deficiencies are passed down through families by example. One of the most appealing chapters of Emotional Intelligence handles the role of emotions in medical health. He writes that "People who experienced chronic anxiety, long periods of sadness and pessimism, unremitting tension or incessant hostility, relentless cynicism or suspiciousness, were found to have double the risk of disease-including asthma, arthritis, headaches, peptic ulcers, and heart disease."

The argument of the book - that emotional intelligence is a real if not wholly solid thing and that it is likely more important than current methods of weighing potential success - is a compelling one. Everyone, after all, knew someone growing up who was "booksmart," who may be toped the Entrance exams and marched through a college engineering curricula as if asleep, but whose success in the workplace has been moderate, and who never really learned how to participate in a conversation. These are the people we might say are "poorly adjusted." Goleman argues that these people have a deficiency in emotional intelligence.

After all the bad news ... there is some good. Goleman believes that emotional intelligence is not "fixed at birth". He gives instructions and examples on how we can as parents and teachers help our children improve their emotional intelligence thereby improving their lives and opportunities. For those of us past the age of adolescence, it is also possible to make improvements and changes in our lives.

The identification of emotional intelligence and the implementation of emotional intelligence courses into our schools and jobs will undoubtedly not be the answer that Goleman and others hope it to be, our emotional life certainly seems like something most of us could stand to think a little more about. But one thing I am very sure as an educator, after reading the chapters related to learning and emotional intelligence; some drastic changes must be introduced into our curriculum to impart some training to our children to develop this new arena of intelligence, otherwise the whole exercise we carry out in K-12 system may go in vain.

This book gives other qualities besides just intelligence recognition for their importance. Keep reading!

Frames Of Mind: Theory of Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner

Target Readers: Teachers, trainers, coaches, parents, students of psychology - those people who have an interest in defining, understanding and exploring the concept of intelligence/intelligences and its place within the learning arena.

Summary of the Book: Howard Gardner's 'Frames of Mind' - The theory of multiple intelligences challenges the traditional views of "IQ", in which intelligence testing is solely on specific measurable traits; like general problem solving skill and comprehension. He puts forward the idea that there are seven or more intelligences and that it is not 'if you are smart' but how you are smart.

The book has been written in three parts. Part one summarises the principle themes of frames of mind and explains where multiple intelligences is situated within the history of intelligence and he then reviews 'what is intelligence?’.

Then in part two of the book he describes in details each of the 7 intelligences: the 'Linguistic', 'Logical', 'Mathematical', 'Musical', 'Spatial', 'Bodily, 'Kinaesthetic' and the 'Personal Intelligence'. Following the introduction of the intelligences and a description of their perspective 'modes of operations', he presents a critique of the theory in terms of "those deficiencies most evident at the time of writing this book"

In part three of the book Howard Gardner concludes with some considerations of how intelligence can and does develop within a culture, and how they can be utilised in various educational settings.

Must Read Lessons:
Howard Gardner's theory on 'Multiple Intelligences'.
Chapter 5 Linguistic Intelligence
Chapter 6 Musical Intelligence
Chapter 7 Logical Mathematical Intelligence
Chapter 8 Spatial Intelligence
Chapter 9 Bodily Kinaesthetic Intelligence
Chapter 10 The Personal Intelligences
Chapter 14 The application of Intelligences

My Views: This excellent book really opens up the world of so called 'Intelligence' and how the educational world appears to evolve around one or two intelligences. It looks at how the world could look if we were to consider the idea that there may be more than a couple of intelligences. This book requires time and concentration to read but is well worth it.

If you want to know only 'What are Multiple Intelligences then I would suggest only must chapters above. If you are someone who also needs to know what has led Howard Gardner to 'Frames of Minds' then it is important to read the first four chapters. This is one of the books from which 'Accelerated Learning' has been developed. Therefore, knowledge of 'Multiple Intelligence' could answer some of the questions that we have as teachers, trainers, coaches and managers and as parents.

Wish you happy reading!

Principle-Centered Leadership - By Stephen R. Covey

This article is based on the book: Principle-Centered Leadership By Stephen R. Covey

The Big Idea
When things go wrong - whether in your personal or professional life - chances are you resort to quick-fix plans, strategies and techniques for altering and improving your environment. Often, the problem is caused by a misalignment of your actions and decisions with the correct principles. To solve it, you need to alter not the external circumstances but your perspective.

Best-selling author Stephen Covey introduces a new management paradigm that can help you transform, not only your organization, but your personal relationships as well. He reveals how you can achieve effective personal and organizational leadership by centering your actions and decisions on a set of time-tested principles.

Part One: Placing Principles at Your Center

Do most of the following apply to your organization?
• Interdepartmental rivalries
• Subgroups polarized around key philosophical issues
• Back-talking and bad-mouthing
• Cosmetic niceties on the surface exchanges
• Unionized; with people working on two cylinders
• Deep, entrenched interests between departments
• Special contests and promotions constantly going on to make sales quotas

These are signs of imbalance or misalignment. They indicate that you are using the wrong paradigm in your organization, that you are centered not on solid principles but on distorted values and beliefs.

Principles vs. Values
An example of a value is: The more profit we get, the better our organization will be and the better the lives of our members. An example of a correct principle would be: Profit should come second to ethical considerations.

Both values and principles can dictate our behavior and how we judge and evaluate our environment. How are they different?

Values are subjective, temporary maps that show us where to go or what to do given a particular situation. They can become obsolete when the situation changes. Values represent our cultural influences, personal discoveries and family scripts. They vary from person to person, or, more accurately, from role to role. A single individual can carry with him several sets of values for each of his different roles - child, sibling, parent, spouse, friend, lover, executive - and these values can contradict each other, and change over time depending on the person's newly acquired experiences and insights.

Principles are like compasses that point us to our true direction. They are objective, unchanging natural laws that are correct and relevant regardless of the external circumstances. They are timeless, universal behavioral standards that have governed the social values of all the great human societies and civilizations. They apply to all people and all roles at whatever time and place and in whatever situation. Examples are fairness, equality, justice, integrity, honesty and trust. .

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is still on the bestseller lists having sold some fifteen million copies. And, people want to know more about Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. So, I decided to review The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in more detail.

Borrowing slightly from the concepts of Quantum Mechanics, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People begins with the astute observation that people perceive the world differently, and because we view the world with our own unique "lens," it is difficult to separate the observation from the observer.

Covey says that we all have our own paradigm, which is our own map of how we perceive the world and how we think the world should be in our ideal view. Covey writes, "The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act."

Covey goes on to explain: "...[T]hese paradigms are the source of our attitudes and behaviors. We cannot act with integrity outside of them. We simply cannot maintain wholeness if we talk and walk differently than we see. ... To try to change outward attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which those attitudes and behaviors flow."

So, part of achieving insight involves making a "paradigm shift" which causes us to perceive things differently. Covey notes that life threatening experiences or a major role change in a person's life can change a person's paradigm. Sometimes, just a little more knowledge might help us examine our paradigms.

Covey says that although many people want to be effective in their lives and achieve certain goals or dreams, they are unwilling to honestly examine their own paradigms. They are unwilling to look at the way they look at things.

Among his many examples, Covey tells the story of a manager who has taken management training classes and seminars and who is friendly to his employees. Yet, he doesn't feel that his employees have any loyalty toward him. He feels they lack independence and responsibility. If he took a day off, he believes his employees would goof off and stand around the water cooler talking all day.

Covey suggests the manager ask himself, "But is it possible that under that apparent disloyal behavior, these employees question whether I really act in their best interest? Do they feel like I'm treating them as mechanical objects? ..."

Our paradigms will affect how we interact with others, which in turn will affect how they interact with us. So, Covey argues, any effective self-help program must begin with an "inside-out" approach, rather than looking at our problems as "being out there" (an inside-out approach). We must start by examining our own character, paradigms, and motives.

Covey writes that the inside-out approach says "[I]f you want to have a happy marriage, be the kind of person who generates positive energy and sidesteps negative energy rather than empowering it. If you want to have a more pleasant, cooperative teenager, be a more understanding, empathic, consistent, loving parent. If you want to have more freedom, more latitude in your job, be a more responsible, a more helpful, a more contributing employee. If you want to be trusted, be trustworthy. If you want the secondary greatness of recognized talent, focus first on primary greatness of character."

Hence, character and principles are keys to success, effectiveness, and happiness in life. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People points out: "Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value. ...One way to quickly grasp the self-evident nature of principles is to simply consider the absurdity of attempting to live an effective life based on their opposites. I doubt that anyone would seriously consider unfairness, deceit, baseness, uselessness, mediocrity, or degeneration to be a solid foundation for lasting happiness and success."

After discussing the importance of character, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People jumps into the habits you should work toward creating as a part of your life. The first three habits, Covey says, are habits of independence. They will help you achieve a private victory of being more personally effective and independent.
Stephen Covey's Habits of Independence:

Habit 1: Be Proactive
Covey says you must use your resourcefulness and your initiative to work toward your personal goals. In particular, each person has both a circle of influence and a circle of concern. Worrying endlessly about things outside of your circle of influence isn't particularly productive. Working within your circle of influence is productive. Further, the more effective you become, the more your circle of influence will expand.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Covey starts with the extreme example of considering your death. What do you want people to say about you at your funeral? How will you be remembered? Note to budding, self-help writers: Leave the funeral spiel out. It's not particularly motivating!
Covey says that many people climb the ladder of success only to find the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. He writes, "We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind."

To succeed, Covey suggests visualization. He points out many peak, athletic performers are visualizers. Covey writes: "You can do it [visualization] in any area of your life. Before a performance, a sales presentation, a difficult confrontation, or the daily challenge of meeting a goal, see it clearly, vividly, relentlessly, over and over again. Create an internal "comfort zone." Then, when you get into the situation, it isn't foreign. It doesn't scare you."

Habit 3: Put First Things First
Put First Things First is the habit that became a book. But, we'll wait for the movie. While we strongly recommend The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the book, First Things First, didn't really seem to add any significant insight to the basic theme. Big rocks, sand, jar. Put the big rocks in the jar first, so they will fit. Same old, same old.

The key to putting first things first is to understand that you have many things you can do which will have a significant, positive impact on your life. But, you probably don't do them, because they aren't urgent. They can be delayed. Of course, so will your success.

Covey stresses that you must balance Production (P) with Productive Capability (PC). You must keep the engine producing, but also maintain the engine. You must allocate time to improve your Productive Capability. You shouldn't spend time doing unimportant things.

Covey says that all time management can be summed up by one short line: "Organize and execute around priorities." He's correct. And, that's why you don't need to read First Things First! The first-things-first chapter in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People will teach you all you need to know about time management.
Interdependence

The remaining habits in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are habits of interdependence. Rather than being dependent upon other people, or trying to be totally independent, we learn how to be more effective by effectively working with others.

Covey writes: "Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality."
Stephen Covey's Habits of Interdependence.

Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Thinking Win/Win means seeking mutual benefit in your human interactions. Covey points out that many people think Win/Lose. They internally believe, "If I win, you lose." Such people focus upon power and credentials, but have trouble building meaningful relationships. Such people drive other people away and are seldom extremely effective. Such Win/Lose thinking is encouraged and programmed into us by society.

Covey writes: "[A] ...powerful programming agent is athletics, particularly for young men in their high school or college years. Often they develop the basic paradigm that life is a big game, a zero sum game where some win and some lose. 'Winning' is 'beating' ... ."

To be successful you should learn to leverage the strengths of others. To do this effectively involves being able to find Win/Win deals. No deal is better than any non-Win/Win deal.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood
Covey observes that few people have training in listening. Most people don't listen. They wait to talk. But, how can you discover Win/Win deals, if you aren't even listening to the other party? Covey also suggests that you don't read your own personal autobiography into the lives of other people. Listening shouldn't be selective listening. Nor should we only pretend to listen to others.

Covey writes: "Communication experts estimate, in fact, that only 10 percent of our communication by the words we say. Another 30 percent is represented by our sounds [tone? Or, does he mean "sounds" like chortle, chortle, grunt, grunt ?], and 60 percent by our body language. In empathic listening, you listen with your ears, but you also, and more importantly, listen with your eyes and with your heart. You listen for feeling, for meaning. You listen for behavior. You use your right brain as well as your left. You sense, you intuit, you feel."

Habit 6: Synergize
Covey writes: "What is synergy? Simply defined, it means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Covey goes on to discuss synergy in the classroom and synergy in business.

To be effective, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People emphasizes that we must value the differences between people and how they view the world. That difference can be used as a source of insight.

Covey says: "Valuing the differences is the essence of synergy-the mental, the emotional, the psychological differences between people. And the key to valuing those differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are."

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
The final habit discussed in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is "Sharpen the Saw," which focuses upon self-renewal. There is an analogy with Habit 3: Put First Things First, where we learned that we must balance Productivity (P) with future Productive Capability (PC). Just as a machine will wear out quickly if not properly maintained, the same is true for your own personal productivity. You must take care of yourself.

Covey breaks personal renewal into four dimensions:
• Physical Renewal covers topics such as exercise and stress management.
• Mental Renewal discusses the need to read, visualize, and plan.
• Social/Emotional Renewal involves interacting with others to build our own sense of well-being.
• Spiritual Renewal involves possible religion, study, and meditation.