hemisphere, and especially here in northern New Mexico where I have the privilege of being on top of a mountain, and looking out a hundred miles on spectacular scenery before descending on a pair of skis, but also because I know what is going on underneath the earth in preparation for Spring. That awareness itself causes a quickening of mind, heart and spirit similar to what happens when we prepare for the holidays and get ready to celebrate. The daylight hours have been growing shorter but that is all about to change on December 22 as the sun starts back on its northerly trek along the horizon. I think it's great that it's all related somehow - Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice - and maybe the common themes are about light and growth, gifts and gratitude.
Holiday Reading List
The upcoming holiday break provides all of us with a much needed respite from the hectic world of school. It may be one of the few times of year you can sit down with a good book. Of course the hectic world of home (complete with holiday guests and children with unstructured time) can sometimes be even more time consuming. So, we offer three suggestions for holiday reads - one website, one article and one book - for your reading enjoyment this break. We hope one of these might provide some inspiration, nugget of wisdom or just plain old fun!
OpenIDEO.com
More from IDEO, the cutting edge Silicon Valley Design Company. This website offers both an interactive and creative opportunity to participate in group problem solving as well as an innovative thought process for solving challenges. OpenIDEO.com poses global and local challenges to the community (anyone can join). Past challenges include How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh foods so they can make better choices? (Jamie Oliver sponsored this one). How can we improve sanitation and better manage human waste in low income communities? The current challenge is to identify the global challenge innovation leaders should solve right now. OpenIDEO invites everyone to join in this group problem solving adventure. The website explains how it works. "After a challenge is posted at OpenIDEO.com, the three development phases - inspiration, concepting, and evaluation - are put into motion. Community members can contribute in a variety of different ways, from inspirational observations and photos, sketches of ideas, to business models and snippets of code. Sometimes this can be in the form of a comment; other times, it's building off a previous person's work. People participating in OpenIDEO can provide feedback every step of the way. Between each development phase, IDEO helps shape the journey through framing the challenge, prototyping, and encouraging the conversation. At the end, a top concept is chosen. All concepts generated are shareable, remix-able, and reusable in a similar way to 'creative commons'. The hope is that some of these concepts will become reality outside of OpenIDEO.com."
This is much more than a challenge simulation, it is a way of thinking and a problem-solving model that encourages creativity, collaboration and evaluation. This could be a great project for students too. We love it!
"The Dragonfly Effect: How to use social media for social good" by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011
This article is based on the more comprehensive book The Dragonfly Effect by Aaker and Smith, but it is a good overview of the framework the authors have developed for using social media for social good. The authors combine years of "research and insights on consumer psychology and happiness with practical app
roaches for infectious action." They call it the "dragonfly effect" because a dragonfly can propel itself in any direction when its four wings work together. The proposed framework has four basic skills (or wings) that when working together can effect transformative social change.The four skills -- focusing on a goal, grabbing attention, engaging, and taking action -- can be utilized through social media to make the change even more rapid and widespread. This article made us think about leadership because these four wings are critical to making change whether through social media or within an organization. In addition, as more schools wrestle with communicating with current families and attracting perspective families, the use of social media will inevitably become more ubiquitous. Applying these four wings to school communications and marketing as well as social change is an idea to consider.
The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (2010)
The invention of the lightbulb by Thomas Edison's Orange,
NJ team of inventors sparks this book on building and sustaining a great team. There is a lot in this book that is not particularly original; the basis of great teams include goal setting, communication, trust, accountability and recognition. But the book examines specific teams at companies like Apple and Zappos that have achieved extraordinary results. Gostick and Elton argue that great teams need to commit to three main principles: 1) Wow -- the pursuit of world class performance, 2)No surprises -- open communication, healthy debate, and sharing ideas, and 3)Cheer -- rooting openly for each other, appreciating each other's work, and avoiding cynicism and disparagement. Besides the vivid examples of great teams, the authors offer many practicals suggestions for leading teams -- some suggestions require deep, transformative work on the culture of the organization other suggestions are quick and easy ideas that might motivate or inspire better team dynamics. The list of "101 ways to bring your team together" is a terrific resource for any team leader.
The upcoming holiday break provides all of us with a much needed respite from the hectic world of school. It may be one of the few times of year you can sit down with a good book. Of course the hectic world of home (complete with holiday guests and children with unstructured time) can sometimes be even more time consuming. So, we offer three suggestions for holiday reads - one website, one article and one book - for your reading enjoyment this break. We hope one of these might provide some inspiration, nugget of wisdom or just plain old fun!
OpenIDEO.com
More from IDEO, the cutting edge Silicon Valley Design Company. This website offers both an interactive and creative opportunity to participate in group problem solving as well as an innovative thought process for solving challenges. OpenIDEO.com poses global and local challenges to the community (anyone can join). Past challenges include How can we raise kids' awareness of the benefits of fresh foods so they can make better choices? (Jamie Oliver sponsored this one). How can we improve sanitation and better manage human waste in low income communities? The current challenge is to identify the global challenge innovation leaders should solve right now. OpenIDEO invites everyone to join in this group problem solving adventure. The website explains how it works. "After a challenge is posted at OpenIDEO.com, the three development phases - inspiration, concepting, and evaluation - are put into motion. Community members can contribute in a variety of different ways, from inspirational observations and photos, sketches of ideas, to business models and snippets of code. Sometimes this can be in the form of a comment; other times, it's building off a previous person's work. People participating in OpenIDEO can provide feedback every step of the way. Between each development phase, IDEO helps shape the journey through framing the challenge, prototyping, and encouraging the conversation. At the end, a top concept is chosen. All concepts generated are shareable, remix-able, and reusable in a similar way to 'creative commons'. The hope is that some of these concepts will become reality outside of OpenIDEO.com."
This is much more than a challenge simulation, it is a way of thinking and a problem-solving model that encourages creativity, collaboration and evaluation. This could be a great project for students too. We love it!
"The Dragonfly Effect: How to use social media for social good" by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2011
This article is based on the more comprehensive book The Dragonfly Effect by Aaker and Smith, but it is a good overview of the framework the authors have developed for using social media for social good. The authors combine years of "research and insights on consumer psychology and happiness with practical app
roaches for infectious action." They call it the "dragonfly effect" because a dragonfly can propel itself in any direction when its four wings work together. The proposed framework has four basic skills (or wings) that when working together can effect transformative social change.The four skills -- focusing on a goal, grabbing attention, engaging, and taking action -- can be utilized through social media to make the change even more rapid and widespread. This article made us think about leadership because these four wings are critical to making change whether through social media or within an organization. In addition, as more schools wrestle with communicating with current families and attracting perspective families, the use of social media will inevitably become more ubiquitous. Applying these four wings to school communications and marketing as well as social change is an idea to consider.The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (2010)
The invention of the lightbulb by Thomas Edison's Orange,
NJ team of inventors sparks this book on building and sustaining a great team. There is a lot in this book that is not particularly original; the basis of great teams include goal setting, communication, trust, accountability and recognition. But the book examines specific teams at companies like Apple and Zappos that have achieved extraordinary results. Gostick and Elton argue that great teams need to commit to three main principles: 1) Wow -- the pursuit of world class performance, 2)No surprises -- open communication, healthy debate, and sharing ideas, and 3)Cheer -- rooting openly for each other, appreciating each other's work, and avoiding cynicism and disparagement. Besides the vivid examples of great teams, the authors offer many practicals suggestions for leading teams -- some suggestions require deep, transformative work on the culture of the organization other suggestions are quick and easy ideas that might motivate or inspire better team dynamics. The list of "101 ways to bring your team together" is a terrific resource for any team leader. 
