Last week I shared the information that Texas pretty much dictates what goes in K-12 textbooks—scary thought.
But change is in the wind—an amazing change that’s been a long time coming.
Math and English instruction in the United States moved a step closer to uniform – and more rigorous – standards Wednesday as draft new national guidelines were released.
The effort is expected to lead to standardization of textbooks and testing and make learning easier for students who move from state to state.
The support includes the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers so it may actually happen.
Unlike typical efforts that are diluted by politics and ideology, the new standards are fact savvy.
According to Chris Minnich, director of standards and assessment for the Council of Chief State School Officers, the foundation of the standards is hard research, instead of negotiation.
Unlike most efforts to revise standards at a state level, this document was not built on consensus, “We really used evidence in an unprecedented fashion.”
48 states are participating; three guesses which states opted out and the first two don’t count.
Right, Texas and Alaska. (Why am I not surprised?)
“Texas has chosen to preserve its sovereign authority to determine what is appropriate for Texas children to learn in its public schools,” Scott wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “It is clear that the first step toward nationalization of our schools has been put into place.”
Happily, this should break Texas’ de facto control of textbook content as well as those dreams of taking control of the government via a brainwashed next generation.
These standards were created with an eye to having kids ready for work or college, which is very different than just having them graduate.
The draft report also addresses the debate over how much should be expected from immigrants who are just learning English. An introduction to the standards explains that English language learners should be held to the same standards but should be given more time and instructional support to meet the requirements.
Students with disabilities should also be challenged to master as many of the standards as they can, the document argues.
It’s also different because Federal funding is involved, not just an edict.
I have a stack of books waiting to be read, some I buy and some are sent by publicists for me to review.
Then there is the constantly growing list of books I hear about or see a review and want to read.
But I have only so much reading time and it’s shrinking as we get closer to the launch of our new product (stay tuned).
So I created a new category called Reviews and Recommendations and included MAPping Company Success’ ‘Book Reviews’ and Leadership Turn’s ‘Reading Recommendations’. I hope you find it useful.
Today, I have some interesting recommendations for you.
The first is from Jeffrey Krames, a literary agent who tells the fascinating story of a self-published book that sells for nearly $50 with an unwieldy title that instantly became a top Amazon seller. Whether or not you want to tackle the book you’ll enjoy its story.
Two European authors—Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur—spent years putting together a stunning book on business models entitled BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION. The two authors had a great deal of help with the design and content of the book, as it was co-authored by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from 45 countries…Within 48 hours the book ranked as high as #74 on Amazon, an amazing feat for most any business book and especially this one. Since then, the two versions of the book have occupied two of the top 25 slots on Amazon’s list of bestselling management books every single day.
After reading dozens of day-by-day articles and commentary on the financial meltdown, none of the myriad of books written about it really grabbed me. However, when I read a review of Henry Paulson’s newly published On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System in Business Week I was intrigued.
What got my attention (and made me ill) was the following quote.
“All were concerned with excessive risk taking in the markets and appalled by the erosion of underwriting standards,” he writes in his penetrating memoir, On the Brink. Yet they felt forced by competitive pressure to make loans they didn’t like, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary says.
“Isn’t there something you can do to order us not to take all of these risks?” was the gist of a question posed by Chuck Prince, who was still running Citigroup as the bank bumbled toward disaster.
This from some of the most powerful business “leaders” in the country.
Last week I wrote about early-college high school and KIPP—both programs buck the trend exemplified by the Dallas Independent School District in lowering standards.
Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early… The new system of high school coursework with the accompanying board examinations is modeled largely on systems in high-performing nations including Denmark, England, Finland, France and Singapore. … Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years…
The program is organized by the nonprofit National Center on Education and the Economy.
“We’ve looked at schools all over the world, and if you walk into a high school in the countries that use these board exams, you’ll see kids working hard, whether they want to be a carpenter or a brain surgeon.” –Marc S. Tucker, NCEE President
Education reform has often been hung up by teachers unions; that seems to be changing, but the time and cost to fire an incompetent teacher is still disheartening.
Toughening standards, increasing challenge and meaningful rewards work in the adult space, so there is no reason they won’t work in schools.
There seems to be a lot of good stuff going on to provide us with hope for developing thinking, questioning innovative next generation, but, before you get too excited, please join me next Tuesday to see what is happening on the dark side.
Ask any employee at any level what motivates them the most
easy work
low performance standards
no consequences
or
challenging work
higher achievement
accountability
and 9 out of 10 will choose the second list.
So why do school boards do the opposite?
Many school districts follow the lead of the Dallas Independent School District, which follows the first list with slavish devotion.
What happens when the second list is followed instead?
One program is called early-college high school and it mixes college level courses with the normal courses taught in junior and senior years and is offered to at-risk kids, not the over-achieving elite.
“Last year, half our early-college high schools had zero dropouts, and that’s just unprecedented for North Carolina, where only 62 percent of our high school students graduate after four years,” said Tony Habit, president of the North Carolina New Schools Project, the nonprofit group spearheading the state’s high school reform.
In addition, North Carolina’s early-college high school students are getting slightly better grades in their college courses than their older classmates.
Started in 1994 as an experiment with 50 fifth graders in Houston’s inner city, KIPP has blossomed into the biggest U.S. charter school operator, with 82 schools for poor and minority children in 19 states.
KIPP now has an 85% college matriculation rate, compared with 40% for low-income students nationwide, according to a 2008 report card KIPP prepared and posted on its Web site. About 90% of KIPP’s 20,000 students are black or Hispanic; 80% qualify for subsidized meals.
The difference between the two lists can be summed up in one work—expectations.
The foundation of expectations is a belief that whatever it is can be accomplished.
We humans tend to strive to meet the expectations of those around us, be they bosses, friends, parents, teachers or school administrators.
Actions more than words tell us what is expected.
List 1 = low expectations and kids live up to them.
List 2 = high expectations and the kids live up to them.
Today we have four stories that sit at the intersection of innovation and culture.
The first is the story of Nick Sarillo, founder of Nick’s Pizza & Pub in Chicago. Sarillo set out to build a culture that ignored common knowledge’ about what to expect from hourly workers. Did he succeed? You tell me.
In an industry in which annual employee turnover of 200 percent is considered normal, Sarillo’s restaurants lose and replace just 20 percent of their staff members every year. Net operating profit in the industry averages 6.6 percent; Sarillo’s runs about 14 percent and has gone as high as 18 percent. Meanwhile, the 14-year-old company does more volume on a per-unit basis (an average of $3.5 million over the past three years) than nearly all independent pizza restaurants. And customers, it seems, adore the service: On three occasions, waitresses have received tips of $1,000.
Next is commentary from Daniel Isenberg, professor of management practice at Babson College, who offers cogent reasoning to save passion for the bedroom.
Passion is up there with innovation in what people think entrepreneurs need in order to succeed. I doubt it. My experience as entrepreneur, entrepreneur educator, and venture capitalist tells me that the more scarce and valuable commodity is cold-shower-self-honesty.
Third on our list is a cautionary tale about what happens when a leader looks for external confirmation that am innovative idea is great and passes on it when none is forthcoming.
Innovation is killed with the two deadliest words in business: Prove it.
When faced with a new idea, the boardroom impulse is to ask for proof in one of two flavors: deductive and inductive.
This attitude gives insight on the difference between Apple and Microsoft—only Microsoft’s blockage is internal according to Dick Brass, a vice president at Microsoft from 1997 to 2004.
Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. …
Internal competition is common at great companies. It can be wisely encouraged to force ideas to compete. The problem comes when the competition becomes uncontrolled and destructive. At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence.
The striking difference between the culture at Nick’s and the one at Microsoft is a real eye-opener.
Innovation and entrepreneurs, subjects that offer some of them most fascinating stories around. And although they often merge to form new business, there is plenty of innovation inside existing companies, too.
I have four such stories for you today, all on wheels.
On the high end we have two airlines, Air New Zealand and AirAsia.
Coach innovations helped Air New Zealand win the Air Transport World Global Airline Awards, AKA the airline Oscars. Innovations include Premium Plus Economy with more inches of legroom, special dinning options, in-flight concierges; completely re-designed coach seats, including eleven rows of three seats on each side of the cabin dubbed “Skycouches”, Snacks on Demand, three course meals, onboard events, such as wine tasting, a destination seminar or kids story time using the 23″ mounted galley monitor.
Once upon a little boy told his father, “One day I will own an airline.” The boy grew up to be Tony Fernandes, CEO of the Malaysia based budget airline, with 80 aircraft that fly to 122 destinations. AirAsia is growing, primarily because, as Fernandes says, “Each growth spurt has always come at a time of calamity for the airline business. I think the best time to build a brand is in times of recession.”
The next wheels are far smaller. They belong to Vickie Nolting, a hair salon manager who, in 1999, found work/life balance by creating a successful business called Hair On Wheels, providing on-site haircuts to such companies as DigitalGlobe, Intrado, Seagate and the U.S. Department of Commerce in Boulder, Colorado. These days Nolting has a staff of 15 part-time stylists, four vans and a PT Cruiser.
Our final look at innovation is also focused on cars, but they are parked. Parking lots take enormous space, but that’s not necessary. Using technology, their size can be cut 80% and still create a far more safe and friendly user experience. Just watch.
ROWE stands for “results only work environment” and it means just that. No set hours, no clock watching, get the job done and be evaluated based on the results and resulted in a 35% jump in productivity
These days Ressler and Thompson run CulutreRx, teaching ROWE to a variety of companies, such as GAP.
ROWE is a business strategy that’s been proven to profoundly improve workforce productivity (as much as 41%) and reduce voluntary turnover rates (as much as 90%). And, ROWE is a magnet for the talent you want to attract.
Best Buy’s culture is one that encourages creativity and good ideas at all levels, so it’s no surprise that another stand out came along a year later.
Julie Gilbert conceived and started the WOLF initiative in 2004 (she was given full ownership rights including the intellectual property and the right to take it outside anytime in exchange for building it first at Best Buy).
WOLF’s focus is to promote and enhance the role of women both inside the company and outside in their role as customers based on three precepts:
Commitment – to the business, customers and other members of the pack
Networking - amongst at all levels internally and externally to nurture and support one another
Giveback – giving back to women and girls in local communities.
Sound all warm and fuzzy to you? Are you fighting back a snicker and thinking that there is no way your company would ever mess with that?
If so, try shrugging off Best Buy’s results.
Revenue
$4.4 billion increase in revenue from female customers (11% increase in total company revenue)
Market Share
Highest ever female market share in company history
Females became the majority of the most “valuable “customers
Brand Reputation
Largest increase in brand perception in company history
Network
Passionate, global, viral customer networks growing market share and innovating new business offerings
Over 40,000 members in 40 plus countries
Performance Outcomes
5% reduction in female turnover resulting in a minimum of $25 million in savings
18% increase in the number of female employees.
100% increase in females in the most profitable business unit
40% increase in female General Managers & General Managers In Training
60% increase in female Operations Managers
30% increase in female Customer Experience Managers
ROWE and WOLF both came from the same company while Brad Anderson was CEO.
His response to the question “Where do you find new business ideas?” says it all.
I believe that some of our best ideas have come from the people who are furthest removed from the CEO’s office – those line-level employees who interact with our customers each and every day.
Without a culture that encouraged and supported innovation from all levels ROWE and WOLF couldn’t have happened.
The MAP that enables that culture can function at any level no matter the company’s overall culture. Yes, it’s more difficult, but you can create an environment in which your people’s creativity blooms.
I have 5 stories for you today about CEOs, two who don’t and four that do.
Pundits (consultants, academics, bloggers) are fond of lauding CEOs for their vision and skill at imparting it to their followers—Richard Fuld, Bob Nardelli, Jeff Skilling, Bernard Ebbers, Dennis Kowalski, the list is long—but after their meltdown you hear only from the Monday morning quarterback crowd.
But if you want to sort the true stars from the others, you need to take a long-term look—not Wall Street’s typical quarter or even a decade—at more than the stock price.
Moreover, you need to look at the down times; the times when the economy sucks, yet the CEO still finds ways to foster a great culture and stoke innovation—not just cut staff and threaten execs with termination if they don’t make their numbers.
For better or worse, it’s not in the vision or the leading, it’s the doing.
Our first story is should be a familiar name to all of you. Remember Sandy Weill? The man who drove the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999 and whose deal making built CITI, the colossus that never really jelled. He was named “C.E.O. of the Year” in 2002 by Chief Executive Magazine, but that was then and this is now.
In today’s cutthroat business world how many CEOs would lift a finger to save their competition? Ted Baseler, CEO of Chateau Ste. Michelle did exactly that when freezing temperatures wiped out the grape harvest in 2004. He didn’t just save his competition; he’s credited with saving the entire Washington state wine industry. Baseler is the quintessential big picture guy.
“We want Washington known. All of it. We’re not about to fight over whose bottle of wine gets sold. We’re competing with Napa, with France. We’re not competing with Washington wineries.”
My last offering is an interview with Pete Peterson, co-founder of Blackstone Group, looks back on s storied career and offers his insights as to what’s needed to “rebuild the American dream.” There’s a video (that refuses to embed) and a PDF of the interview (requires free registration). I think you’ll find it interesting.
Palindromes are far less frequent than the blue moon that occurred this New Year’s eve.
How infrequent?
“We have 12 palindrome dates this century; the rest of the world has 29,” he said. “Our 12 all will occur on the second day of the month. Theirs all occur in February.”
The U of Portland prof doesn’t limit this sort of thing to numbers. Take his name…
Print AZIZ in all capital letters; turn each Z on its side, and then swap the vowels. The result? His last name, INAN.
Now I have a suggestion for you. Share the articles with your kids in an age appropriate way, not just numbers, but words. Then play together with family birth dates, names, etc.—not as a lesson, but as fun.
As Inan says, it’s a great way to get kids interested in math and words.
Last week I shared the information that Texas pretty much dictates what goes in K-12 textbooks—scary thought.
I have a stack of books waiting to be read, some I buy and some are sent by publicists for me to review.
Last week 
So why do school boards do the opposite?
Today we have four stories that sit at the intersection of innovation and culture.
Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson started changing the work world in 2003.
I love 
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