Creating Tomorrow
Newsletter December 2016
As we approach the end of 2016 it's a good time to reflect on decisions we have taken during the year and also how well we know ourselves; I think the two are closely related. So in this edition I describe two classic tools.
- I first read about feedback analysis in Peter Drucker's Harvard Business Review Article Managing Oneself, he described it as 'the only way to discover your strengths'.
- The Johari Window will no doubt be familiar but less well known is how it can be used as a way of deepening our self-knowledge.
I was fascinated to read about a project which a colleague has been involved in, 'Making MPs more digital: mentoring, technology and democracy'. It made me think about schools and their 'constituents'. I have included a link if you want to find out more.
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Pat Collarbone
Feedback analysis - a self reflective tool
This type of analysis can be qualitative or quantitative. It can be something you do on your own or it can be something shared with your senior leadership team. Feedback analysis forces one to focus not just on the what, but also equally on the why. By documenting both it prevents us from post rationalisation (or making excuses) when things do not turn out as expected- a major reason why so many do not progress in their self-awareness and personal development.
Drucker suggests that doing this helps you to develop an action plan which:
- Puts yourself where your strengths can produce results
- Works to improve your strengths
- Avoids intellectual arrogance - acquires skills as required
- Remedies bad habits
- Establishes what not to do, identifies areas of incompetence and avoids them
The Johari House
You have probably heard of the Johari Window but Charles Handy calls this the Johari House which has four different rooms. Room 1 is the part of ourselves that we see and others see. Room 2 is the aspects that others see but we are not aware of. Room 3 is our private space, which we know but keep hidden from others whilst Room 4 is the most mysterious room in that the unconscious or subconscious part of us is seen by neither ourselves nor others.
Step 1 - The subject selects characteristics from the list below that they feel describes their personality and asks a critical friend to also select from the same list characteristics that they think describe the subject as they know them.
Step 2 - Adjectives that are selected by both the subject and his or her critical friend are placed into the Arena. This quadrant represents traits of the subject that both are aware of. Adjectives selected only by subject, but not by their critical friend, are placed into the Façade, representing information about them their peer is unaware of.
Adjectives that are not selected by the subject but only by their critical friend are placed into the Blind Spot, representing information that the subject is not aware of, but others are. Finally, adjectives that were not selected by either the subject or their critical friend remain in the Unknown quadrant as they were not recognised by either person. This may be because they do not apply or are just not acknowledged consciously.
Step 3 - The house and its 'contents' are ready to be sensitively discussed.
Do you need a digital mentor?
They wanted to see if they could make a difference and help a particular group of people - MPs - get more out of internet-era technologies. They recruited four digitally savvy mentors and placed them in the offices of four volunteer MPs to see what difference they could make. Between May and July 2016, four mentors worked with Yvette Cooper MP (Labour), Calum Kerr MP (SNP), Norman Lamb MP (Liberal Democrat) and Matt Warman MP (Conservative). They saw an increase in the levels of engagement with constituents via social media. One of our MPs saw his Facebook posts go from a reach of 3,000 to 10,000 views after including a video for the first time, while another had more than 2,700 responses when he tried online polling.
I feel some of their 'quick wins' (PDF) are equally applicable to schools - engagement, collaboration, security and delivery.