Category: Thinking

Reverse The Polarity Of Your Ideas

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Last time out, we had a look together at three mental models to improve your thinking and educational innovation. Today I share the opposite ideas or at least guide you to stand in a different place and consider the three mental models from a different perspective.

Of course, you did the pre-reading of last week’s issue, right?! But if you didn’t, here is a quick primer. After all, we need these to be points of comparison:

  • Critical mass – the threshold of a large enough number or proportion that triggers a change.
  • Reciprocity – when people tend to treat others the way they are treated.
  • Leverage – the action or process of using an advantage to multiply force.

So, what are the other ways of looking at these three models if we reverse the polarity? What counterpoints or alternative concepts do we need to be aware of? If we commit to these three mental models as part of our educational innovation, what are the biases that emerge?

Social Proof

Critical mass describes a threshold, a number of people that represents a tipping point in a group. Social proof is a mental model that suggests people are more likely to do something if they see others doing it.

So if critical mass is the line to reach, social proof is a mechanism to help us achieve that point. Social proof is something we can leverage when we design new projects and implement innovations.

Social proof is a powerful bias we have to keep in mind. The tendency can be harmful and positive, and it fuels the way we see trends, fashion, commerce and why many people are likely to follow the crowd.

Critical mass and social proof are two sides of the same coin. They’re both about alignment, an idea of community and public validation.

Social Debt

When we explored reciprocity in educational leadership and innovation last week, we emphasised the links to relationships and collaboration.

The mental model of reciprocity is a valuable provocation as it challenges us to think about how our actions influence others and the expectations we frame as a result.

An alternative way to consider reciprocity is to think of ‘goal setting’ as a behaviour change strategy to make a public, discrete and shared commitment. In contrast, reciprocity is an internal mechanism or exchange, an implied obligation.

Social debt is another way to frame the reciprocity mental model. An important element to add to our understanding because

people who feel indebted tend to experience more negative emotions and feel stressed rather than uplifted, because they are worried about repayment.

How to Say Thanks Without Feeling Indebted

When we have built our social capital through positive reciprocal interactions with others in learning networks and communities, it becomes an asset to leverage for future action.

The Bias of Permanent Multipliers

What are the biases associated with leverage?

Think of leverage through the idea of multiplication (i.e. by using the advantage, we multiply the force). Then, once again, our human bias is that this multiplier will not disappear or change.

The bias of permanent multipliers is to see something as fixed when it is not. The way to challenge this bias is by considering shifts in your context and the fluid nature of change over time.

For example, you leverage the support and advocacy of senior members of your team to kick off a new project. When you consider this initial influence dissipates over time and is not fixed, we are more likely to lead a sustainable innovation.

Reverse The Polarity

This study of opposites is a strategy you can use in any of your projects. By looking at the opposites or counterpoints, we have reversed the polarity, a creative thinking technique that Marty Neumeier uses.

Related to reversing the polarity is to start from a different place, and the work helps us practice this creative routine.

When you grab for the “correct” solution, brilliant solutions will elude you. You’ll get stuck in the tar pits of knowledge, unable to free your mind of what you already know. The easiest way to escape this trap is by rejecting the correct solution—at least temporarily—in favor of the “wrong” solution. While the worst idea can never be the best idea, it will take your imagination to a different starting place.

Marty Neumeier

Take this idea into your workflow by going to a place opposite to how you usually think or start. If your thinking is generally linear and sequential, go for a spiral instead. If you typically jump in with an answer, try a question this time around.

Your Talking Points

  • What do you struggle with in terms of creativity and innovation at the moment, and how might these mental models help to shape your response?
  • How can you challenge your thinking about the assumptions of permanent multipliers?
  • Where else might we experience this bias in education and beyond?
  • On reflection, what would you add? What other advantages and ideas do we need to consider in our practice to reduce these biases before they emerge?

My weekly email helps educators and innovation leaders enhance their practice by sharing provocations, ideas and mental models. Join today, and get your copy this week.

Are you a giver, taker or matcher?

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Build Your Cognitive Toolkit With Three Mental Models From Physics

In this issue, we explore three mental models from physics that we can apply to education innovation and leadership.

Mental models are like thinking tools. They are models or rules that help us understand how the world works, see what is happening in complex situations or reflect on what actions to take next.

The three mental models from physics we explore today are:

  • Critical Mass
  • Reciprocity
  • Leverage

Let’s look at each mental model in more detail and relate it to our work in educational innovation.

Critical Mass

Increase awareness of how ready and willing your community is.

What is the critical mass mental model?

Critical mass describes the threshold of a large enough number or proportion that triggers a change.

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Photo by Casey Horner

The term originates from nuclear fission and refers to the minimum amount of a neutron-rich material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. We can apply the idea to chemistry, biology and many other fields.

We often use the phrase ‘critical mass’ to explain the spread of ideas, behaviours, and social phenomena within society. A group is said to have reached the ‘tipping point’ when it becomes large enough to shift the behaviour or outcome of an entire system.

As a mental model, critical mass can explain the tipping point at which an event or idea reaches a level that triggers significant results.

How does critical mass relate to educational leadership and innovation?

The critical mass mental model can be used to understand the tipping point of change.

We might consider how many community members align with a new idea. Perhaps not everyone will feel the same way, but enough people in alignment with one another might be able to create change.

When an idea reaches critical mass, there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.

~ Marianne Williamson

Critical mass allows us to think about behavioural change within a system and can help us consider whether we’re ready for certain levels of change.

Reciprocity

Provokes a reflection on what you expect from others.

What is the reciprocity mental model?

The word reciprocity comes from the Latin word ‘reciprocus’, which means mutual or exchanged.

rise and fall, move back and forth; reverse the motion of

In physics, the law of reciprocity states that an object’s action on another is equal and opposite to the reaction force exerted by it.

In all cases, we see a give and take, back and forth flow of influence between objects (or people). For example: balancing a seesaw requires two equal and opposite forces at two different points.

How does reciprocity relate to educational leadership and innovation?

In leadership, reciprocity refers to the give-and-take nature of relationships in which an individual interacts with others through a mix of cooperation and competition.

It can be used when thinking about goals for collaboration between members of different teams, departments or organisations.

The mental model of reciprocity is a valuable provocation as it challenges us to think about how our actions influence others and the expectations we frame as a result.

To dig deeper into reciprocity, I recommend Adam Grant’s book Give and Take.

Giving, taking, and matching are three fundamental styles of social interaction, but the lines between them aren’t hard and fast. You might find that you shift from one reciprocity style to another as you travel across different work roles and relationships. It wouldn’t be surprising if you act like a taker when negotiating your salary, a giver when mentoring someone with less experience than you, and a matcher when sharing expertise with a colleague. But evidence shows that at work, the vast majority of people develop a primary reciprocity style, which captures how they approach most of the people most of the time. And this primary style can play as much of a role in our success as hard work, talent, and luck.

~ Adam Grant

Leverage

Make a positive impact more quickly with force multipliers.

What is the leverage mental model?

Unless you are a police negotiator or have been watching too many Suits episodes, you might not frequently use the word leverage.

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Photo by Alex Nghiem

The definition of leverage is “the action or process of using a mechanical advantage to multiply force”. We also use the term to describe an “advantage for accomplishing a purpose” — this figurative use dates back to the mid 19th century.

In physics, leverage is described as a small force that can move a larger object. A simple machine can magnify force when applied correctly.

The earliest evidence of using the lever mechanism dates back to around 5000BC. In Ancient Egypt, engineers used a lever to lift and move obelisks.

As a mental model, the leverage principle is about how to achieve maximum results with minimum effort. We can apply it within physics to design mechanisms that are efficient and effective. When applied to education, the goal is to create systems with minimal input the most impact.

How does leverage relate to educational leadership and innovation?

We might use ‘leverage’ to describe how we apply influence.

For example, an idea might have little impact without key supporters or advocates championing it. There is very low leverage in this case, and we can consider ways to raise the force and provide a multiplying effect.

In this sense, thinking about leverage encourages us to think more deeply about how our actions might cause something bigger than intended or desired. Advocacy and support is a force multiplier — how do we use this in a considered way?

Any institution faces two basic choices if they hope to spark new ideas. One is to leverage the brains trust within their organisation by creating a special event dedicated to new thinking. The other is to look outside themselves to stimulate solutions.

~ Simon Mainwaring

Your Talking Points

In this issue, we have explored three mental models from physics Reciprocity, Critical Mass and Leverage. I leave you with some final provocations:

  • What levers can you build to multiply your impact?
  • What does reciprocity look like in your organisation?
  • How do we build a critical mass for innovation and education change?
  • How might we apply these thinking tools to your role as an education leader?

Next week we shift perspective to consider the opposite ideas and explore the biases that emerge.

My weekly email helps educators and innovation leaders enhance their practice by sharing provocations, ideas and mental models. Join today, and get your copy this week.

3 Mental Models From Economics For Educators To Enhance Your Innovation

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Enhance your innovation efforts with these three concepts.

Build your cognitive toolkit with this trio of mental models from economics and explore their relevance for innovation in education.

  • The Network Effect
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy
  • Compounding

We will look at each model and consider ‘How does this connect with education innovation and leadership?’​

The Network Effect

A commodities’ value grows with the number of people who use them.

This is labelled the positive network effect. As more people use something, more people are also motivated to join.

Think about the mobile technology that we use. Any person with an iPhone can communicate easily with another iPhone owner.

The network effect has helped Apple’s growth, but there is also the benefit to us. We perceive and gain more value from a phone when others are part of the network or technology ecosystem.

The Network Effect breaks down to another level of influence.

  1. Direct network effect
  2. Two-sided network effects
  3. Intra-personal network effects

Take a look at Apple’s Success and Network Effects to find out more.

How does the network effect connect with education innovation and leadership?

The network effect is all about how people’s acceptance of an idea or innovation.

Take any new initiative or programme you plan to establish at your school. It could be a new structure for professional learning, reading comprehension routines, assessment expectations, or a design approach in your curriculum.

Have you got an example in mind?

Great, now think about how you might share stories of success within the initial phase. A few reports of success at a staff session might help kickstart the network effect.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

If you have ever ordered too much food and then attempted to get your money’s worth by eating too much, you have experienced the sunk cost fallacy.

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Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20

Sunk Cost Fallacy is a cognitive and behavioural bias that sees us continue an endeavour due to previously invested time, money, effort or resources.

The sunk cost is part of the experience we can’t change, yet we continue onwards as if we have no other choice.

I have never had much appetite at breakfast, but I miraculously eat all sorts when I have a buffet breakfast at a hotel. I hear myself say, “I may as well.” This behaviour is the sunk cost fallacy.

Here’s a thought experiment from Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman:

Imagine that you have two tickets to tonight’s NBA game in your city and that the arena is 40 miles away. But it’s begun to snow, and you’ve found out that your team’s star has been injured and won’t be playing. Should you go or throw away the money and skip it?” To answer that question as an economist would ask yourself the following question: Suppose you didn’t have tickets to the game and a friend were to call you up and say that he has two tickets to tonight’s game which he can’t use and asks if you would like to have them. If the answer is “you’ve got to be kidding, it’s snowing, and the star isn’t playing,” then the answer is you shouldn’t go. That answer shows you that the fact that you paid good money for the tickets you have is irrelevant — their cost is sunk and can’t be retrieved by doing something you don’t want to do anyway. Avoidance of sunk cost traps is a religion for economists, but I find that a single college course in economics actually does little to make people aware of the sunk cost trap. It turns out that exposure to a few basketball-type anecdotes does a lot.

Taken from Richard Nisbett’s article in This Will Make You Smarter.​

How does the sunk cost fallacy connect with education innovation and leadership?

I often wonder if we have commitment issues in schools.

I have witnessed lots of irrational reluctance when it comes to abandoning ineffective programmes, which is the sunk cost fallacy at play.

We want to keep every programme running, rather than clear space and resourcing for an innovation that might be more appropriate.

My challenge to you is to consider your school programmes that are still running, despite the ineffective impact they create.

If you want space for innovation, you have to stop putting energy, resources and time into ineffective alternatives.

Compounding

Compounding is all about how small habits over time make a big difference.

When we think of compounding, we typically think of finance and positive returns, as in “good compounding.” But compounding just reinforces what’s already happening — good or bad. There is no judgment. And compounding works outside of finance. So while we can compound money positively and negatively, we can compound ourselves as well. ~ Shane Parrish​

This email is the 237th time I have researched and crafted about 700 words in a weekly issue.

In terms of knowledge, mindset and skillset, the gains from such a habit are not just increasing linearly. The improvements would be an example of exponential growth.

But we find it difficult to wrap our heads around longitudinal exponential or non-linear growth.

Consumer psychologists Craig McKenzie and Michael Liersch showed that people could not accurately estimate the outcome of such non-linear processes. Instead, they believe that savings will grow linearly and underestimate how much their current savings will be worth in the future.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day, yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent. ~ James Clear — Atomic Habits via FS​

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Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20

An element of this mental model that has piqued my curiosity lately is that the compound effect is neutral.

It works for negative and positive behaviours, choices and habits. It is making me think more carefully about which personal or professional routines I have on repeat.

How does compounding connect with education innovation and leadership?

Innovation does not have to be at a pre-defined scale to be worthy of our time.

Implementing a novel idea that adds value can be at a small scale or a whole organisation level.

I am talking about scale because to establish a routine and habit that compounds a positive outcome, we need an achievable output.

Reflect on the scale of your school’s innovations and consider how these might break down to more minor actions or micro-commitments.

For example, a leadership team might be planning to redefine the meeting structures and transform their impact.

Yes, we need to think about the whole programme of change. Still, to take advantage of the compounding effect, we might consider one question at every meeting or a single protocol for collaboration as a starting point.

What small innovative commitments can you make that will compound into a significant change?

Your Talking Points

Three mental models, so I leave you with three summary provocations for your educational innovation efforts:

  • Who can share a story of success? [Network Effect]
  • What are you going to stop doing? [Sunk Cost Fallacy]
  • What could be part of an innovative micro habit? [Compounding]

31 Days of Reflective Journal Prompts

Speaking of habits and routines, I have a new Reflection Workbook on sale.

Download a free copy of my 31 Days of Reflective Journal Prompts to help you build a habit of healthy thinking and compound some gains about reflective practice.

Use the link below to visit the landing page and get your download.

Download A Month of Journal Prompts

If you enjoyed this article, please share a few 👏 below. I always notice your generosity and support.

This article is a Dialogic Learning Weekly. ⚡A weekly email designed to build your cognitive toolkit and enhance your practice. It saves you time and provokes your thinking.

Exactly the nourishment I need on a weekly basis.

⚡️ Subscribe now and get started this week.

Detached, Distracted and Disillusioned? Regain Control Of Your Boundaries

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Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20

Detached, distracted and disillusioned.

There have been times in my life when my career was happening to me.

It seemed that the control over the direction, intensity and pace of teaching and leadership was out of my grasp. This lack of control and agency coincided with times when I suffered the most with poor mental health, and I was detached, distracted and disillusioned.

The change in my career — I became an education consultant and now run my own business — pushed me to develop boundaries around my work time.

These self-authored boundaries were (are) even more critical because I could work from anywhere, and it was easy to take the laptop into the kitchen and answer the email from the school excited to start a partnership.

Work did not have the same physical pattern as teaching, and it took on a different type of rhythm and cadence, unbound from a timetable.

Work did not have physical premises, and to this day, I have always worked from home. The lines and thresholds intertwined.

Looking back on my teaching life, I can see that the distinction of boundaries was just as blurry. I took work home, and there was always something more to do, weekends engulfed in planning and other spreadsheet related leadership responsibilities.

Do What You Love Until It Kills You

There is that phrase that you are lucky if you can do what you love because it doesn’t feel like work. The downside people don’t speak about is how boundless this can become.

A never-ending vista of possibility that excites terrifies and induces tension, in a heady mix of simultaneous endeavour.

We are victims of Parkinson’s Law: work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

To counter this, establish clear boundaries that give you cues to align with.

  • What is essential?
  • What are my priorities?
  • When am I overstepping the mark?

Here are some strategies that resonate with me you might have a go at adopting.

Strategies To Help You Regain Control Of Your Boundaries

Say No

This strategy has been a work in progress for me for a decade, but I improve all the time. The key is to understand the most fulfilling work to make a better decision when opportunities arise.

It is much harder to say ‘ no’ if you are unclear about your Northstar, how you have the most significant impact, or what you truly care about.

“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage — pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically — to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.”

Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Shut The Door

One of the first pieces of advice about working from home after leaving the classroom was from serial educational entrepreneur Ben Barton.

“Find a place that allows you to shut the door on your work.”

We have all noticed the physical location as work has come home during these troubled times.

By creating a physical boundary at home, I could walk away, take a break, move to another place for a different activity and ultimately close the door on ‘work’ at the end of the day.

“No is a complete sentence.” — Anne Lamont

Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20

Control Your Calendar

I block out periods in my calendar for writing, research and sometimes for reflection after workshops or intense periods of client work. For this weekly email, I often block the time.

A difficult tactic for teachers and educational leaders to apply because there is so little scope for change in work patterns.

Once again, though, we can abstract a deeper insight about purposeful time and intentional work to help and instruct us. Try on some of these questions for size:

  • Which time of the day or week are you most open to new ideas and insights?
  • How do your disposition and mental energy change throughout the day?
  • For every face to face meeting, do you have an equivalent amount of time for reflection and to process the experience?
  • When do you get to create?
  • Look at the time you spend at home or work and consider the categories of activity. What proportion is operational, relational, creative, research, exploratory, learning, teaching, preparation etc.?

A critical insight I have learned is that we need to be intentional and proactive in organising our time.

Wrestle back control of your calendar.

Share Clear Expectations

You see this all the time with the email Out of Office reply — I will be slow to respond until I return if it is urgent.

The opportunity is to use the auto-reply email strategy when we are in the office to help set clear boundaries for focus and communication.

There is, of course, this strange assumption with email communication about the response time and what is deemed polite and acceptable. Our appetite for instant messaging does skew this expectation considerably.

One of the best examples I have seen with email expectations was in the signature line. It stated the times of day when the responder checks their inbox.

I only check my emails at 930am and 330pm

Whether it is in meetings, emails or how you speak with colleagues, setting clear expectations about what is appropriate for you is proactive — you control the pace and timing of your activity, not someone else.

Your Talking Points

  • What opportunities do you care about the most?
  • Reframe your situation to understand what you can control.
  • You cannot hold people to expectations that are not shared.
  • What are you saying no to, so you can say yes to what motivates you?

Time To Move On From The Battle Between Productivity and Presence

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The collision of commitments caused by COVID restrictions highlights our priorities. What we once thought was important dwindles in our estimations. 

The structures of life are stressed and challenged, which reveals what we value and what remains true.

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Photo by travelnow.or.crylater on Unsplash

I know you grapple with the ‘great struggle’ of our times, the ‘ultimate juggle’ of professional and personal commitments intertwined. Or perhaps it is the equilibrium between productivity and presence, as Maria Popova describes it.

Of course, we are talking about our work/life balance. I endeavour to update my mental models around this concept, and I want to share some progress.

You will be pleased to see we begin on a practical footing. Your first step to updating your mental model for professional and personal commitments is a ‘find a replace’.

Find what: balance

Replace with: cycle

Yes, replace all.

The current understanding of work-life balance is too simplistic. People find it hard to balance work with family, family with self, because it might not be a question of balance. Some other dynamic is in play, something to do with a very human attempt at happiness that does not quantify different parts of life and then set them against one another. We are collectively exhausted because of our inability to hold competing parts of ourselves together in a more integrated way. ~ David Whyte

Let’s move from seeing this as a binary or opposites to a cycle of change and inquiry.

What could a cycle of inquiry look like?

Here are five phrases to reflect, adapt and take action (repeat). I summarise and adapt the work of researchers Ioana Lupu of ESSEC Business School in France and Mayra Ruiz-Castro of the University of Roehampton in the UK.

Ioana Lupu and Mayra Ruiz-Castro

1) Pause and denormalise.

  • What am I sacrificing?
  • How are they impacting my personal life?
  • What is currently causing me stress, unbalance, or dissatisfaction?
  • How are these circumstances affecting how I perform and engage with my job? 

2) Pay attention to your emotions.

  • Do I feel energised, fulfilled, satisfied?
  • Or do I feel angry, resentful, sad?

A rational understanding of the decisions and priorities driving your life is important, but equally important is emotional reflexivity — that is, the capacity to recognise how a situation is making you feel. Awareness of your emotional state is essential to determine the changes you want to complete in your work and your life.

3) Reprioritise.

  • What am I willing to sacrifice, and for how long?
  • If I have been prioritising work over family, why do I feel it is important to prioritise my life in this way?
  • What regrets do I already have, and what will I regret if I continue along my current path?

4) Consider your alternatives.

  • Are there components of your job that you would like to see changed?
  • How much time would you like to spend with your family, or on hobbies?

Before jumping into solutions, first, reflect on your work and life aspects that could be different to better align with your priorities.

5) Implement changes.

Ioana Lupu and Mayra Ruiz-Castro describe two different action settings.

  • a “public” change — something that explicitly shifts your colleagues’ expectations
  • a “private” change — in which you informally change your work patterns, without necessarily attempting to change your colleagues’ expectations.
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The key takeaway is not the phases — you can create whatever suits you — after all, it is a simple inquiry sequence. You know this cycle already.

What is critical is the change in your mental model from balance to cycle.

Change starts with your mental models and the language frames you use. It is not a balance +/- it is a continuous reflexive process of review and improvement.

Your Talking Points

Beyond the critical questions highlighted above, here are some further provocations:

  • What assumptions are you holding on to?
  • Why does the balance mental model not work for you?
  • What will it take to shift to a sustained level of practice?​
  • How do other people’s expectations of you create pressure?
  • What are you going to stop doing to make this work a priority?

If you enjoyed this article, please share a few 👏 below. I always notice your generosity and support.

This is a snippet of my Dialogic Learning Weekly. ⚡A weekly email designed to build your cognitive toolkit and enhance your practice. It saves you time and provokes your thinking.

Exactly the nourishment I need on a weekly basis.

⚡️ Subscribe now and get started this week.