T&L Advisor Guest post by Henry Thiele, Chief Technology Officer for District 207 in Park Ridge, IL
Change and time are the two of the most difficult factors in our lives. There is no negotiating with either one. How we manage them and use them to our advantage impacts our path through life. Although one of my responsibilities is to act as an agent of change, I am not always so quick to embrace it when it shows up at my door. I responded with sour tones when
Google announced it was purging some products this spring. However, after an opportunity to reflect, I believe educators can learn from companies that abandon products and make changes like Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook while growing their organizations. We too need to evaluate the value of where we spend our time and change accordingly. We must determine if a strategy or program is “profitable” by the impact it has on learning. Setting aside tasks that are no longer powerful to create ones that will lead us forward is an essential use of time. Investing precious time this summer to prune away the dead and dying branches to allow stronger and newer growth to sprout forward will help learning bloom next year. Prepare yourself for the arrival of change and you will be better ready to greet it.
