Stop Blaming Your Environment - Create it!

Purpose, Motivation, and Choice - three topics I'm really passionate about so when I read Ryan Bretag's recent post on Metanoia it really lit a fire in me.  I urge you to read his thoughts that were sparked from Seth Godin's post "Are you doing a good job." We've been discussing topics such as these in the high school Management & Leadership class I teach so I posed Ryan's question to my students and I did some personal reflection as well.

PURPOSE:
Godin's post connects with Daniel Pink's research and how he states "What's your question?" I agree with Godin that people need to think about their mission. Does it tie into what they are doing in their environment? If there isn't a connection, are we truly going to be happy? This is the exact reason I changed careers from advertising sales to teaching and again connects with one of Daniel Pink's big mentions in his book Drive, you have to have "Purpose."

MOTIVATION:
My Management & Leadership students discussed the questions Bretag posed on his blog and here’s a google doc from our classroom discussion. We read, discussed and every student participated in an engaging discussion.   It was very inspiring to see students connect their thoughts from previous discussions (including various management/leadership philosophies and 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey). The students' ideas could fit any organization including business and education. From a room of 22 high school students, three main ideas came from our discussion.

Focus on making things fun and challenging : Create an engaging environment

Focus on the people: Truly listen to the needs of your stakeholders

Focus on being happy: Connect to the purpose

CHOICE:
On Bretag’s post I commented, “When are we going to stop blaming the environment and start creating it? My motto is to live better, do better and just be better. It's all about choice and the perspective we take. I agree with you, as leaders, isn't it our job to motivate and inspire others to be better? I think as leaders we can help our colleagues or students see they have a choice in their perspective and providing them with opportunities to create and fulfill these ideas.”

After writing this comment on Bretag's blog and then having my classroom discussion, I was hoping to see my students make more of a connection with the idea that each person has the choice of the way they view their environment.  As Bretag mentions, “When I’m bored, I start doing the job” but I was hoping to hear more individuals turn this statement around and take ownership of their life. When I posed the question to my students “what motivates you?” (see google doc for all responses) one female student stated it best – “BEING BORED.”  And while that was a great beginning connection that was made, it wasn't followed through with the rest of our motivation and leadership discussion.  We need to take ownership for ourselves, be empowered and change our perspective.  We need to stop blaming others for our environment and know that we have the power to create it ourselves.





At the same time, as leaders we need to provide opportunities and a better environment to help people create!  I’m truly inspired by the leaders of the Glenbrook High School District in which I work.  Dr. Michael Riggle and Ryan Bretag show  how leaders build a foundation for their staff and their students to provide choice and growth in their organization.

What have leaders done in your organization to create a better environment? What motivates you? Do you have a take a ownership perspective or a blame others mentality?  Let's challenge ourselves and our environment - Let's play a part in our community and our organizations - And in the end, we will create amazing things.

(Image: ENVIRONMENT, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (2.0) image from Enokson's photostream)

What motivates students to learn?  It's inspiring to see my students take control of their own learning.  Over the last two days students stepped up and initiated learning in my classroom.

Student: "Can we go see this guest speaker?"
A student walked into my business law classroom and explained that a 92 year old Holocaust survivor was speaking to the Junior social studies classes.  He made a great point - there wasn't going to be many more opportunities to hear a man speak about these experiences.  So I thought about it - how amazing was it that students wanted to take on this rare opportunity to learn.

Me: "You have a choice"
If we go to the speaker, there will be less review of the material we've learned for the next test.  There won't be any time for activities so what's left will be lectures.  If we stay in class there are review activities, debates and lecture.  It's your vote.  They voted to go to the speaker and I was really proud of them.  Sure it crossed my mind if they were just wanting to get out of the classroom but when we sat in the theater it was silent and the students were just as engaged listen to this elder with many years of wisdom as they were with the motivational speaker last week with his comedic twist.  REFLECTION: spontaneous learning moment = inspiring

Me: "Who has a smart phone?"
I tried something new today in my business law class.  I was going over new vocabulary like merger, conglomerate, asset acquisition, and franchises.  The definitions were on the guided note sheet and below that I left a space for examples.  I asked, "Who has a smart phone?"  I had seven students raise their hands.  I asked them to take them out and I wish I had a picture of their reaction - it was of shock!  I asked if they would volunteer to look up the vocabulary they had in front of them and search examples to share in the class.  What happened next was very cool!  As they found their examples they shared it with the class.  Students without phones started asking more questions and so the search continued to find more answers and more examples.  Students that don't normally volunteer where speaking, students were sharing their prior knowledge and the classroom became a learning community.  REFLECTION:  Great example of technology in the classroom!

Me: "Who's Judy?"
I was inspired by a blog post I read by Clarence Fisher where his students and students at another school collaborated in a Google Doc about the recent news of the tsunami in Japan.  It was inspiring to me how these students took control of their own learning and collected web links, videos, and facts about the recent news.  In my management class we are finishing up the management unit and going to start talking about leadership.  I showed them a video The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink  (which they LOVED by the way).  (Make sure if you go to this link you find the right video.  I linked to this versus Youtube or TED talks so you can see all of Daniel Pink's videos.)  I pre-setup the google doc and set invitations to all my student.  Before going into the computer lab I showed them the google doc and explained the concept of this collaborative learning space.  The time spent in the lab was really fun to see.  Some students gravitated towards videos, others went to pictures, and a few others went to find facts.  Some of it was top surface level and I wish they read and thought more versus a copy and paste.  But at the same time they got really engaged in the subject matter.  I asked them afterwards what they thought and they all gave me thumbs up.  Some students were excited for what they found and many students got really excited to start learning more about leadership.  To top it off -  we had fun too.  So who's Judy?  That's exactly what I asked during the IM chat my class was having during the Google Doc session.  Judy was this random person they popped into the IM conversation - I played along and we all had fun with the joke - Who's Judy?

REFLECTION:  Teachable moments = student driven learning = why I became a teacher!

Follow Up: High School Business Management

My goal in this blog is to write about inspiring moments I experience and often that's seen in my classroom.  I teach business education at the high school level.  A few months ago I posted about revising my management curriculum from first semester to second semester.  In this class, we've partnered with Market Day to run a student business. 

Try, Try Again:
With its ups and downs, I changed the structure of our business and how the students would reflect on the experience.  I truly believe that the structure improved and so did the learning process.  But after running the business for one month, the students approached our student President about their desire to stop running Market Day.  I gave my pep talk.  I felt like I was a coach giving a pep talk before a big game.  I explained how team's watch tapes of their games, analyze what they could of done better and go into the next game to improve. That's why we are going to do Market Day for two months to see how we can improve. I met with the department managers and they expressed their concern.  They felt that they got everything out of the Market Day experience they could.  They were interested in learning other management and leadership content AND they had a lot of ideas on how to make that happen.  I gave them props for approaching me.  I gave them props for taking responsibility for their learning.  And after my students spent a month reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens I decided to put myself in their shoes.  Even with the changes I made it came down to purpose - the students didn't feel as connected to the cause (business model) despite all attempts at improving the structure of the activity.  We had a class meeting, I listened, I decided... it was time cease and desist.

REFLECTION: It's OK To Give Up:
Actually I don't really consider it giving up.  It's all the way you look at it.  I tried something new and took a risk - I'm a better teacher for it.  There are a lot of great parts to the concept of running the business in a management class.  And there's a lot of great things I learned along the way.  One being that I think it's a great experience for students to have an opportunity to reflect about what they learned.  I believe self-reflection is a life long skill that helps anyone become more successful.

Do you reflect on your experiences?  My motto is live better, do better and just be better!  Let me ask you this - how has reflection helped you "be better"?

Recognition - it works!

I've always been motivated to work hard simply for someone to tell me I'm doing a good job.  It probably started when I was young, being the youngest of three girls.  I worked hard and did "good" to get positive responses from my parents all the in the quest for fighting for attention in a house of three kids.  I wanted them to be proud.  So something as simple as getting my report card posted on the refrigerator was very motivating for me.  Recognition.

It's funny how I forgot this simple secret to motivation - Recognition.  I actually was telling my students when I worked for the Daily Herald as an advertising sales executive.  I was motivated each month to reach my sales goal not just because I wanted to make money but especially because I wanted to get my name on a certificate which would be posted on the bulletin board in the office of all reps that reach their sales goal for that month - Recognition!  I even told my students how I even want recognition from my husband.  When I clean the house all I want is for my husband to come home, see it, appreciate it and say "wow, the house looks great." - Recognition.

So after last weeks blog post about how I was struggling with motivating a group of students, I thought more about it and discussed with with my Market Day rep.  We launched Market Day this year as a student-run business, which is a monthly grocery purchase program.  The Market Day district manager proposed a sales incentive to my high school students - increase sales and win a food party for our class. Where the kids motivated? NO.  I was disappointed.  They said they already work during class time and they don't think it would make them go "above and beyond."  I even asked - does it hurt to take the challenge?  Would you rather have a pizza party or no pizza party at all?  Its a no-lose situation.  One student even called it a "bribe." And of coarse I explained, especially from doing sales for eight years prior to teaching - its not a bribe.  It's called "incentives."  So anyway - food was not all that motivating to high school students.  The district manager pitched another idea to them - hit your sales goal (increase from 34 customers to 54 customers which is only 2 more customers per student in my class) and the district manager would place an ad in the student newspaper congratulating the class (and listing their names).  The light switched on!  The students loved it.  They wanted the recognition.  So I pitched another idea to them - I'd get them company t-shirts that said on the front Management Class / Market Day and on the back FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS.  Again - they liked it - recognition.

So how have you been recognized that lead to motivation?  Or how were you motivated to get recognized?  Share your experiences with us.

REFLECTION - People are motivated by recognition.  Here's some ideas to recognize people:

• I always try to thank people for their hard work - a little thank you goes along way.  So send a quick email or make a phone call - it works.
• Awards, honors, announcements  - try bulletin boards, announcing at the end of class who did the best project, awards ceremonies, announce at the holiday party all the employees that got promoted over the year
• Let workers leave work an hour early for their hard work
• Create a "Fun Friday" at work or in the classroom.
• Tell your spouse/partner what you love about them

RECOGNIZE WHAT YOU THINK IS GREAT and SHOW PEOPLE YOU APPRECIATE THEM

What's in it for me? Personal interest = more motivation

What's in it for me?  What do I get if I do this?  Why work hard?  Why should I care?



Photo by Jorbasa, from Flickr Creative Commons



Oh, I have heard things like this all the time or at least I've felt it from people.  I'm finding if people have a personal interest (positive reason) or something at stake (negative reason) motivation increases. Take bees for example!  They work so hard to just to get nectur from a flower and store it in their "honeystomachs." They have to visit anywhere from 100 to 1500 flowers to fill their tummys only to then have the worker bees get involved to turn it into honey.  Thats a lot of work!  But they have a goal, a personal interest and guess what - it produces results!

 

So let's take a look at a few more examples of positive and negative things that drive motivation:

• Money- commission for sales goals, allowances for children
• Grades- the harder you work, the better your grade
• Charity - a personal cause that has affected you or your family member
• Non-tenured teachers- fight for keep enrollment numbers so they don't loose their jobs
• Loss of privilege- Bad report from school leads to parents taking away rewards
• Rewards - you behave, you get XYZ (My nephews got to sleep at Papa's house)

The sad thing is that on the opposite side of this. What happens when they don't care about grades?  Or Charity?  Or have a passion for learning?  I'm struggling with this in my classroom lately.   I hear that the class is "to hard, to much work" or I hear "I'm not learning enough."  Then I have another class, Management, where I'm having them manage and run a business.  I've given them more opportunities than I can count to come up with ideas of motivational rewards we could incorporate into class and choices on how to run the business and projects they'd like to do in class. Yet, I feel like I'm putting in so much energy to motivate and nothing is sparking the fire in them.  So I've come to realize that they are not personally vested.  But how do you get all your staff personally vested? Everyone has their own inner-beliefs and opinions.  So while I am trying several different strategies to reach everyone, I guess I'm still thinking there needs to be a simpler way of motivating a group of people.  Anyone have ideas or suggestions?  How do you spark a fire in a group of people when everyone has different motivators?

REFLECTION

• If you have a personal interest or something at stake - it motivates!
• Then - How do you motivate a group of people with different motivators?

A motivational visit from an Alumni

For every day that is challenging as a teacher, the day I get a visit or email from an Alumin makes it all worth it.  To know that I made some impact in a students life that they want to keep in touch means that I did my job.  I try to stress to my students that I truely care, understand and respect them.  I'm not sure if that's what brought Michael Isreal back to GBN today but he wanted to share his story with me.  He wanted to share how he's changed - and he's changed for the better.  Here's my recap of his story:

HIGH SCHOOL:
Grew up in an affluent area.  His high school experience consisted of social life #1 and school acadamics coming in dead last of his priorities.  I remember Michael as being all about the girls and not so much about the school work. He shared with me how he would hide his report card and lie about his grades to his parents. 

COLLEGE:
The lights went on!!!  He joined a fraternity and got his first leadership role which showed him that he had some natural talent.  Then he had an upper classman mentor him - showed him how to study, learn and be committed.  This mentor showed him that you get respect from doing well versus when your bad.  Michael worked hard to get accepted into a Big 10 University after a year at community college.  In talking to Michael I could tell that the phone call he made to his dad to tell him that he got in to IU was one of his best monents in life.  He now spends hours each day studying not just for college but to fullfill his life long dream. 

THE FUTURE:
Michael wants to be an entreprenuer...or should I say he already is one.  He's already created a start-up online business and sold it.  He's onto his next few ventures already.  Michael's ultimate goal is to be a CEO of his own company that has a positive impact on our country.  He's currently out there networking with top executives to learn from the best of the best.  SMART.

MY COMMENTS
Often I see the potential in my students.  Michael was one of them...and he heard it all the time from people - "you aren't working up to your potential".  It wasn't until he had his "moment" that the light switch turned on.  And I'm so glad it did.  I shared with Michael that many parents don't get the joy to have the story turn out positive for their kids - they must be so proud.  And so am I.  Michael - this is only the beginning. And I truely mean that because I see qualities in you (drive, passion, determination, and committment) that many famous and successful people have. Thank you for sharing your story. 

REFLECTION:

• Change can be good.  Moving to a new environment can create new opportunities to grow.
• Mentors - learn from people that know
• Recognition - makes it all worth

The Start of Motivation to Inspire

At a recent staff meeting all the teachers where asked, "What's your passion?" I couldn't write anything down. What's wrong with me - come on! I have passion! Or do I? I felt like what ever I wrote down would define who I was. I kept thinking - "I used to love working out", "I used to love cooking" but now I never find the time to do the things I love and help me define who I am. I find myself consumed with being a mom and wife. And then I started beating myself up...like most of us do sometimes. I kept thinking how I start something, get into it for awhile and then stop doing it. When I was in high school (many, many, many years ago), I remember my parents reminding me of this - I tried band, cross country, tennis, track, dance and I even tried out for basketball but didn't make the team. Now 20 years later, I still run a little and dance with my 16 month old in the house but that's about it. And heck, look at this blog, I haven't written in a very long time.

But the blessing in my wandering and worrying mind is coming back to write this blog. It's been sometime since I've written but I am feeling more inspired to write than ever before. Am I inspired lately? To be honest, not a all. It's a recession and I'm seeing a lot of family and friends go through hard times while business and government budgets are being cut left and right. And then there is my job - I teach business education in a suburban high school to mostly Juniors and Seniors. This is my second career (former life I was an Ad Sales Exec.). And its been a very long time since I felt so stressed out from a job. I'm teaching five totally different classes this semester plus being an advisor to a club and starting a student-run business. Oh, did I mention that I took on a tech mentor job as well at school. Any teachers out there know, this is a lot of work to take on. (IF YOU ARE THINKING - HOW IS THIS INSPIRATIONAL...HANG TIGHT, I'LL MAKE MY POINT IN A SECOND.) Sorry I'm venting my stress here but the final thing that is adding to my droopy mood (is that even a word?) is lack of motivation in my students - ITS DRAINING. And to be really honest, its scary. I am scared for their generation because in four more years they will be applying for jobs and in five more years their managers are going to be disappointed with their performance. But as a teacher, my job is not to give up on my students.

So despite my exhaustion, these reoccurring messages and thoughts keeps popping into my head:

Motivation and Inspiration.

How do I motivate people?

What motivates people?

Why do some people overcome challenges while others let it defeat them?

Because if we could find the answers to these questions, WOW, we would have a key to unlock the potential in everyone. If I could discover how to motivate and inspire - I can help people find their passion. I started telling you in this post about my lack of passion - if I can find the keys to motivation and inspiration - passion will come.

Stay tuned for stories as I document my research in motivation and inspiration. I'll look at what works, what doesn't work and I bet I'll learn something along the way and so will you.