Comments on: Professional Schools as Incubators of Transformational People http://www.leadingwithlift.com/blog/2010/01/11/professional-schools-as-incubators-of-transformational-people/ A blog by Ryan Quinn, Robert Quinn, Shawn Quinn and Schon Beechler Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:57:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: berrett koehler publishers http://www.leadingwithlift.com/blog/2010/01/11/professional-schools-as-incubators-of-transformational-people/comment-page-1/#comment-1150 berrett koehler publishers Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:25:56 +0000 http://www.leadingwithlift.com/blog/?p=342#comment-1150 [...] Peter Berrett-Koehler Publishers Location: NTU Library 2 Call no.: HD31.B651S Organizations thatProfessional Schools as Incubators of Transformational People ...There is extensive research on what transformational people do. Yet this knowledge has not led to [...] [...] Peter Berrett-Koehler Publishers Location: NTU Library 2 Call no.: HD31.B651S Organizations thatProfessional Schools as Incubators of Transformational People …There is extensive research on what transformational people do. Yet this knowledge has not led to [...]

]]> By: Schon Beechler http://www.leadingwithlift.com/blog/2010/01/11/professional-schools-as-incubators-of-transformational-people/comment-page-1/#comment-1051 Schon Beechler Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:00:31 +0000 http://www.leadingwithlift.com/blog/?p=342#comment-1051 Bob, Thanks for your provocative post. One extraordinary example of an organization with a positively deviant approach to teaching and training teachers is Teach For America. Their mission is to help ensure that all children in America have an excellent education and they develop new teachers using their "teachers as leaders" rubric, which relies heavily on positive practices, although they don't necessarily label them as such. I think that they are a great example of an organization that has been able to examine successful teachers and create a program to replicate their success. They have their failures, to be sure - not every teacher they trains succeeds, but the majority of them do. I agree that often times, professional schools and professionals in them are asking the wrong questions and chasing the wrong goals - often unwittingly. I personally find the phrase "Imagine if...." and then brainstorming the possibilities to be a great catalyst to get away from normal. I also find that reflecting on my values and what I want to achieve in this world while I'm here help provide the positive energy to pull me away from the day-to-day and dream of the extraordinary. And of course, the more like-minded colleagues I have around me, the more successful I am in staying in the positive zone and sustaining the energy required not to be sucked back into normal. So, how can we help professional schools recruit and engage people who are willing to keep asking "what if?...." Bob, Thanks for your provocative post. One extraordinary example of an organization with a positively deviant approach to teaching and training teachers is Teach For America. Their mission is to help ensure that all children in America have an excellent education and they develop new teachers using their “teachers as leaders” rubric, which relies heavily on positive practices, although they don’t necessarily label them as such. I think that they are a great example of an organization that has been able to examine successful teachers and create a program to replicate their success. They have their failures, to be sure – not every teacher they trains succeeds, but the majority of them do.

I agree that often times, professional schools and professionals in them are asking the wrong questions and chasing the wrong goals – often unwittingly. I personally find the phrase “Imagine if….” and then brainstorming the possibilities to be a great catalyst to get away from normal. I also find that reflecting on my values and what I want to achieve in this world while I’m here help provide the positive energy to pull me away from the day-to-day and dream of the extraordinary. And of course, the more like-minded colleagues I have around me, the more successful I am in staying in the positive zone and sustaining the energy required not to be sucked back into normal. So, how can we help professional schools recruit and engage people who are willing to keep asking “what if?….”

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