Get Back Up. Make It Better.

The Atlantic recently did a cover story on "What Makes a Great Teacher." Specifically addressing the inner-city context, the article addressed over 20 years of research done by Teach for America, which is releasing it's research this year for the first time.

With Obama's education plan getting underway-- giving over $4 billion to essentially discovering how to create great teachers-- TFA's research is suddenly relevant to the whole country.

What they discovered was that elements traditionally thought to be associated with great teaching-- charisma, high energy, good grades and an ivy league background-- turned out to be non-issues. (for more on this phenomenon check out Fast Company's article on how interviews get in the way of making great hires).

As they looked for patterns, two traits (among others) began to emerge. Previous indicators of 1) Persistence and 2) Improvement.

As all the things that seduce in an interview-- people skills and pedigree-- evaporate what's left is a person's ability to try again when things don't work the first time and a history of taking things as they were and making them better.

This is why grades weren't necessarily a good indicator: just because you got 4.0 your whole career doesn't mean you have a good work ethic (you could just be brilliant). But if your grades went up over time that was a better indicator.

This applies to leaders as well. When we're looking to recruit or hire or thinking about things to develop in potential leaders these two things we might keep in mind:

Do they get back up when they get knocked down? Have they had previous success not just maintaining something but actually making it better?

For development we might ask: how can we help people develop the persistence to constantly figure out a way to make it work (whatever "it" may be) and how can we help people to constantly try and improve whatever environment they may find themselves in?

And of course for ourselves we might ask: do we get back up when we get knocked down? Do we grow and make things better?

The future of our schools rest in the hands of the persistent and creative.

And I add: so does everything else.

Top 10 TEDtalks.

A few years ago I was introduced to TED. If you don't know by now, TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. It represents one of the most explosive and dynamic platforms for cultural change, art and innovation. With a waiting list and a $5,000 price tag to attend (and only if you're invited) TED graciously offers all its talks online for free.

I got to go to TEDxUSC last year and met Chris Anderson (pictured below) the now Rock Star curator for TED and it was an extraordinary experience. (For details on how I embarrassingly got this picture, email me). TED has been a great source of inspiration for me and I wanted to share with you my top 10 talks (thus far!) and a little bit about why each made the list for me. Enjoy!

10. David Gallo - Underwater Astonishments
Check out minute marker 4:18. The next 60 seconds will blow your mind.

9. Elaine Morgan - We Evolved From Aquatic Apes
I love people who champion the minority opinion. Elaine displays such courage and-- interestingly enough-- insight. Inspiration to challenge the powers-that-be.

8. Barry Schwartz - Our Loss of Wisdom
If you love this talk you'll love Barry's books. This is one of the best talks making a case for values-based leadership rather than rules based.

7. Bill Strickland - Make Change with a Slide Show
A little on the long side, but worth watching 10 minutes of. The only talk as far as I know that is accompanied by music. Simply beautiful and inspiring for anyone who wants to create change in the world.

6. Robert Neuwirth - Shadow Cities
Giving dignity to the "slums" that will be tomorrow's cities. If you want to influence the future you need to understand this trend. Inspired me to skype with a "shadow city" expert in South Africa to learn more.

5. Wade Davis - Endangered Cultures
A speech where prose and poetry become indistinguishable. Begs the question: is it possible to create culture and preserve culture at the same time?

4. Jacqueline Novogratz - A Third Way To Think About Aid
One of the most influential quotes for me came from this talk: "Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth."

3. JJ Abrams - Mystery Box
The best talk on storytelling that I've ever heard. As an aspiring (and occasionally inspiring) storyteller I think about this talk often. Plus JJ is hilarious.

2. Elizabeth Gilbert - Nurturing Creativity
The best pragmatic case ever made for a spirituality outside of humanity. The world needs more women communicators and Elizabeth is a great example of what one looks like.

1. Sir Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity
I love education. My parents are amazing educators, as were my parent's parents. I teach at Pepperdine University. Years from now this talk will be referenced as a turning point in how America (and the world) looks at education. Welcome to the future.

Rules vs. Values

I have a friend who works for the government and can't tell me exactly what he does.

It has something to do with artificial intelligence and video cameras.

I begged him one time to give me a hint and he said this:

"When you look at a guy walking down the street and he gets into a car, you know intuitively that the guy is -- suprise!-- now in the car. But a computer doesn't know that intuitively. You have to program rules to tell the computer that what it is tracking is now inside something else. Then you continue to do this for every conceivable situation."

After a while, as you can probably guess, there are a lot of rules. Thousands upon thousands of rules.

This is why for the first 50 years of artificial intelligence they haven't been able to make computers that can operate at the same speed and intuition as the human mind-- unless it's in the highly regimented and specified context of games like Chess.

Another approach to artificial intelligence has emerged over the past 20 years or so and it approaches things very differently. Rather than programing thousands of rules, they program simple machines with 3 or 4 rules. Then they give the machine a goal and then give it memory-- so that it can learn.

A few rules.
A goal.
Memory.

What they've discovered is that when these machines are put into mazes and other complex and even dynamic learning environments they are able to learn, adapt and progress to a goal much better than the rule oriented A.I. They can improvise and even surprise the people who invented the machines as they evolve in unpredictable ways.

Leadership in organizations exist in much the same way.

You can create a long list of things you want people to do. You can create lots of rules in a manual or training binder, etc. Or you can help people embrace a handful of values and then be surprised at their innovation. You can train people to death or you can throw them in the deep end and teach them how to swim.

One of the worst things you can do in an entrepreneurial culture is over train. Mostly because what you teach people by over training is "you can't do this yet." But if you give people a goal and help them embrace your values they will find greatness and ingenuity inside of them that they didn't even know they had.

On the flip side, if you're not getting the output you want from people or teams there are 3 possible reasons. 1. The team doesn't know what the goals are. 2. The team doesn't have the same values. 3. The team isn't learning as it makes mistakes and successes.

So how about your work environment? Do they (or you) over train or do they (or you) struggle with one of the 3 problems above?

And how about the cultures you lead-- friends or family or teams or clubs-- do you lead by creating rules or by instilling values?

From Volunteer to Vigilante

What is the first thing you think about when you think of the word "volunteer"?

Here are some responses from a recent facebook poll:

"Knocking on doors getting people to donate canned food."
"Doing something good."
"Helping others."
"Not paid - but that's OK." (Thanks, Mom!)
"To give away your time and energy with no tangible reward or recognition."
"It's always more hours than you anticipated, but sometimes there are unexpected results that make you glad you did."
"Giving up your time to give back to those in need."
"Civic duty, college applications."
"Service."

And several people thought of Tennessee basketball.

Some common themes to these definitions were this: It's something I do here or there. It's helping out. Collecting goods, moving boxes, handing out food, filing, passing out fliers, cleaning bathrooms. It's something I do for college applications.

What I discovered is that, without a serious face-lift, the word "volunteer" has little sex-appeal. And almost always "volunteer" and "leader" are not used in the same sentence. Volunteering is something you do for or with leaders but it is not generally thought of as leading in and of itself.

But why not? How did leadership and volunteering get put in separate categories?

This is why I think volunteering is a good place to start, but eventually we must shift from volunteers to vigilantes.

[vij-uh-lan-tee]: one who is alert, watchful, takes responsibility of.

Vigilantes are people who don't wait to be recruited. They don't serve a little here or there. They don't help a cause. They own a cause. Vigilantes are volunteers who lead. They say "this is something that needs to change and I'm not going to stop serving until it does."

We need volunteers. But we're desperate for vigilantes.

The Music Of Your Life

Once there was a man who was struck by lightening and suddenly had an insatiable appetite for music.

Another man had the worst case of amnesia in recorded history but could still learn and play classical music on the piano.

A third man suffered from Parkinson's disease and could not even button up his own shirt...unless he was humming a tune that he knew from his youth.

These stories in Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia tell of the power of music.

I'm still in the process of finishing my short film. Post-production is the biggest pain in the rear for anyone who has absolutely no skills in it.

My friend Dave is helping me with the score.

I liked my rough cut even without the music. My Assistant Director, Director of Photography and my Editor were completely amazing and helped me get the shots I needed to make what I saw in my head.

Yet when Dave put music behind it...

Everything got better.

Earlier in the year I wrote a blog about how PIXAR can be tempted to do visually what bad after-school specials blatantly do audibly: they use their craft to tell you how to feel rather than the enhancing how the story feels.

Whether you agree with that or not isn't really the point. The point is that music is so...powerful.

Music is like nitrous oxide in the gas tank of a story. Put it in an empty tank and the tank might explode. But combine it with the gasoline of good storytelling and-- watch out-- your soul will soar, dive, weep, laugh, reflect, live in ways you didn't know was possible.

Music is like nuclear power: it can create unbelievable good and can be used for unbelievable harm (i.e. the Jonas Brothers).

Just kidding.

Music not only adds to the stories we tell. Music adds to the stories we live. Like the man with Parkinson's who literally needs music to put on his clothes. Or the man who tragically cannot remember who his wife is but can find joy in Beethoven's 5th.

Music can be a healing balm, or water in a desert that helps parts of us grow that are too fragile to stand up on their own.

What is the music to your life? What's your soundtrack? And what parts of you do you keep hidden that only music gets to see?