Growth Rings: Survivng and Thriving, Are You Seeking New Cheese?

 

Growth Rings:  Surviving and Thriving, Are You Seeking New Cheese?

In November 2019, my Growth Rings post, Where did the cheese go? focused on Spencer Johnson’s book, Who Moved My Cheese. Looking back today, from May 2024, what if anything has been learned? It does seem the four characters, Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw, are alive and well and can be recognized in our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and political parties. Which one do you identify with?

 

The question to ask ourselves today is: “am I surviving and thriving?” Have you chosen to tune out, are angry and afraid or are you aware, energized, and excited?  Are you looking for new cheese? Why have you chosen as you have? Have you considered how your choice, perspectives and mindset is influencing those around you, particularly children and young people? 

 

Two Mice, Two Little People

In his book, Johnson introduced four characters, two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people named Hem and Haw. Their search for security and happiness in the maze leads them to “Cheese Station C”. Hem and Haw believed the cheese would be there forever, and become comfortable, establish routines, and settle. 

 

The two mice, Sniff and Scurry, pay attention over time and noticed the cheese at Cheese Station C is dwindling. They mentally prepared for the day when the cheese would run out and they would have to search for new cheese. When that day came, Sniff and Scurry were not surprised. They had prepared for this and took off to find new cheese.

 

When Hem and Haw arrive at Cheese Station C later that day, they found the same thing, no cheese. Hem and Haw had not seen this coming, were unprepared, became angry and cried out, “Who moved the cheese?” When Hem and Haw realized the cheese was not coming back, Haw suggested going into the maze to look for new cheese. Hem, frustrated and disappointed, rejected the idea.

 

Searching for new cheese, Sniff and Scurry found it at “Cheese Station N”. Back at Cheese Station C, Hem and Haw paralyzed by fear, could not let go of their old thinking, and blamed each other for their condition. Haw finally realized Hem was not going to give up his old thinking, decided to move on, enter the maze to seek new cheese. Before leaving, Haw left Hem a message written on the wall of Cheese Station C "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct". 

 

As Haw overcame his fears in the maze, he comes to ask himself “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” Haw smiles and with his new mindset, begins to enjoy life again. He finds some bits of cheese which sustains him and keeps moving him forward. He still worries about the unknown but brushes his fears aside realizing that "When you move beyond your fear, you feel free." Haw decides to go back and share with Hem what he has learned.

 

Returning to Hem, Haw shares what he has learned. Hem rejects Haw’s discoveries. Sadly, Haw leaves his friend and returns to the maze to seek new cheese. Haw decides to leave writings on the wall to help Hem, should he decide to follow, realizing that Hem needs to decide his fate for himself. 

 

For Sniff and Scurry, they realized a change was coming and mentally prepared for the day. For Hem and Haw, when changes happened, they became angered, frustrated, and grieved. Haw finally accepted change and moved on. For Hem, he could not get past grieving.  Does any of this sound familiar to you or to what is happening today.

 

The cheese has moved. Comfort and security in established routines and norms today is being challenged by change and emerging new norms. This is triggering emotions of fear, blame, anger, and grieving. Those mentally prepared for “the cheese to run out” can move past fear. They have realized that when you move beyond your fear, you feel free and alive.

 

So how are YOU doing?

As we are experiencing and navigating dynamic change, it is important to reflect, take time, and ask yourself, “how am I doing”? Begin with how am I feeling? Are you angry, afraid, sad, or excited, courageous, and happy? Your emotions and feelings give insight to the lens by which you see the world. This in turn impacts how you will react to it. It is important to note that of four characters, Hem, Haw, Sniff, and Scurry, three of them were able to survive and thrive, one did not. Which one do you identify with?

 

Look outside your silo.

In your interaction with others, in your exposure to social media and the news, do you hear anger and fear, or excitement and opportunity? Do you hear blame and a return to a nostalgic time or optimism and excitement to create new?  Do you see Hem, Haw, Sniff, and Scurry?

 

There are those who say that with age, the ability to adapt and change diminishes. It does seem that the older a person becomes the more they hold on to the past. If this phenomenon is true, is this condition something that is organic, biological, or learned? As we age, how is being a life long learner modeled? Can old dogs be taught new tricks?

 

 

If adaptation for survival is crucial, the question becomes can humans be conditioned, taught, or reprogrammed to choose to learn, unlearn, and uplearn. Systemically, what would that look like? What and where does learning need to become?

 

As illustrated in Who moved My Cheese, there are those who can, and those who won’t or can’t. With both, it is a choice grounded in one’s mental attitude of positive or negative, can do or can’t, dark or light. It is important to realize of the consequence of this choice is foundational to one’s mental health, relationships, and the difference between survival, thriving, or extinction.  

 

It has been a minute since my January 2024 Growth Ring Post. For the last five months I have been listening, reading, reflecting, processing and thinking, breaking down my own silo, deliberately recalibrating my focus from inward to outward. This has required energy and self-discipline. It has proven to be challenging, emotional, energizing and self-renewing all at the same time.  With new orientation has come a new perspective and realization that others are out there too, seeking new cheese.

 

The song “Message in a Bottle” by the Police, speaks to this:

 “A castaway, an island lost at sea. Another lonely day with no one here but me.  More loneliness than any man could bear. Rescue me before I fall into despair.”

 

In the song the focus changes outward:

“I’ll send an S.O.S to the world...  I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle.”

A year has passed since I wrote my note, I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together, Love can mend your life or love can break your heart.

 

Walked out this morning, I don't believe what I saw
Hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone.

 

I have observed that navigating change is best done with an open mind, awareness, and others, as modeled by Sniff and Scurry. Haw overcame his fear, and with courage and hope, traveled out into the maze to look for new cheese, Hem did not.   

 

In selling over 30 million copies, the Who Moved My Cheese message has resonated with many seeking hope and courage to navigate change. So again, how are you doing with the emerging new Growth Ring? Are you seeking new cheese? Are you surviving and thriving?

Readers, colleagues and friends, THANK YOU for your time in read this! Your comments, perspectives and feedback is greatly vauled and appriciate. Together, lets go look for new cheese!

2024: The Beginning of Many New Beginnings

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberativetly, 

to face only the essential factes of life, 

and see if I could learn what it had to teach,

 and not when I came to die, discover I had not lived"

Henry David Thoreau

It seems every day we are bombarded by information. The noise somedays is deafening to the point of almost making one numb.  Many have become oblivious to the technology impacting us and the change around us. The realization of the dependence on technology, subliminally and explicitly, growing and reaching into every aspect of life causes me to pause. All around, change is accelerating exponentially, and it is exhausting. I am reminded of a quote by Michael Hyatt: “The busier you are, the more intentional you must be.” For me, it’s time to stop, breath, look around, think, and strive to be aware and intentionally live.

 

Recalibrating life includes challenging my previously held beliefs and perspectives. I have become aware of bias and stereotypes that have shaped my previous world views and of the realization of experiencing energy and emotion caused by change. Each day now I am making a conscious effort to see the world through a different lens. I recognize how seamlessly technology is becoming a part of life but have also concluded that technology is to be a tool and not to rule.  I am striving to heighten my awareness, to take time to observe and think so as not to be swept away by what some have called future shock. I cannot help but think that I am not the only one coming to this life juncture.

"From one view, one sees one perspective.

In connecting with other's perspectives,

an entire landscape emerges."

John C. Carver

Connection in the post pandemic digital age is crucial. Only through the sharing of thinking, observations, perspectives, and experiences can emerging 21st century norms and realties be processed and understood.  It’s sort of like traveling in a car on the interstate at a high rate of speed, with four other people, each looking out a different window sharing what they see, giving those in that car a limited 360* perspective. Though this is good, imagine the perspective of that car, connecting and sharing with passengers in other cars locally, nationally, or globally. That sharing of perspective is powerful in recognizing and defining meaning and understanding of emerging realities and new norms.

Where to begin?

Scott Fortune, CEO of Upper Iowa Tool & Die and Innovation, is a friend, colleague, and engineer I greatly respect. He taught me that when presented with a question, look beyond the obvious and seek the underlying conditions. The examination of rational reasons for past practices and assumptions creates an outcome that either affirms prior direction and actions, or identifies the necessity to rethink and redesign along new norms. The key is to ask questions and look deeply to discern WHY.

 

Identifying WHY is foundational to begin to understand transformational change happening.  It is not enough to observe and identify WHAT is happening, but seek to determine the human emotions of WHY it is happening.  WHY is the bedrock actions, strategies, and beliefs are built on. Simon Sinek in Start With Why (2009) writes “If you don’t know WHY, you can’t know how” (p.70) and “A failure to communicate WHY creates nothing but stress and doubt” (p. 58).  He continues: “The power of WHY is not opinion, it’s biology” (p. 55). Citing recent brain research

The newest area of the brain, our Homo sapien brain, is the neocortex, which corresponds with the WHAT level. The neocortex is responsible for rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections comprise the limbic brain. The limbic brain is responsible for all feelings... It is also responsible for all behavior and all our decision-making but has no capacity for language.  When we communicate from the outside in, we communicate WHAT we do first, like facts and features, but does not drive behavior. But when we communicate from inside out, we’re talking directly to the part of the brain that controls decision-making, and our language parts of the brain allows us to rationalize those decisions (p. 55-56).

  So, to understand WHY means to go beyond the WHAT of observations, facts, and figures.

“What” we do is shaped by “Why” we do it.

“Why” we do it is shaped by human emotions and experiences.

                                                              John C. Carver

One’s life story and circumstances are unique in shaping their lenses for observation, interpretation, and perspective. Connecting, sharing, collaborating, and recognizing the bias of one’s life story gives depth and perspective into interpreting what was, what is, and what could be.  To share one’s story and realize filters and bias takes personal courage. 

Observed facts and conditions,

interpreted through bias, stereotypes and life experiences = perceived reality that creates Mindsets.

John C. Carver 

 

To discern emerging realities and to recognize challenges and opportunities requires new thinking and a courage to let go of previously held Mindsets. Mindsets are habitual or characteristic mental attitudes that determine how you will interpret and respond to situations. It is the lens by which one sees, processes, and understands the world around them. For one to move forward and evolve means to move from a static, inwardly focused, “That’s the way it has always been” mindset to an outward, flexible growth Mindset focus. 

Futurist and my mentor Rick Smyre speaks of co-creating the future through Transformational Learning: “The concept of learning that integrates the need to expand knowledge, (to include trends and weak signals) ask appropriate questions within a futures context and connect diverse and disparate ideas for the purpose on continuous improvement” (Preparing For A World That Does Not Exist – Yet. 2016, p.215). 

Or in other words, to define, connect, and find meaning in the next step in the evolution of mankind requires observations and processing of new conditions (trends and weak signals) that have potential but have not yet gone to scale, as a result of an ever changing WHY.  Going forward into the 21st century means to embrace a new consciousness that recognises an alternative, emerging context and to discern the validity of historical Mindsets in the new norm. In short, to seek the WHY and in turn develop the capacity to learn, unlearn, and uplearn as context and knowledge changes. This starts individually, but the energy and power to shape comes from connection, sharing, and finding community. 

Realizing one's bias and Mindset, finding community, reflecting on the past, identifying current conditions, looking for weak signals and different perspectives all open the consciousness to seeing the ever changing WHY and its impact on what was, what is, and what is next.

Trees have long been used to illustrate the human condition. Studying a tree’s growth rings tells the story of the tree's life experiences: the challenges of drought, fire, climate, and the environment it lived through. Examining a person's— or a civilization's— growth rings, one can come to understand the life-shaping events. We are living in a time of deep systemic change.  Advances in technology are impacting and redefining just about every aspect of daily human life. Relationships, commerce, government, religion, medicine, education, and the environment are all being affected. Before us our tree of life is adding many new growth rings.

Going forward my intent is to start a Growth Rings movement, a conversation for the sharing of ideas, perspectives, and beliefs on WHY and WHAT is next for mankind. Your voice, participation, contrabution, and perspective is truely valuable.

Realizing the forces impacting us, together we can come to better understand and prepare for what is ahead of us. I am excited to connect, collaborate, and co-create with you.

2024 is the beginning of many new beginnings!

A special THANK YOU to colleague and fellow educator Ms. Kathy Rose for her edits and suggestions on this post. You have my greatest respect and I truly value our friendship.

Being a Post Pandemic Connect Educator

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is a global thought leader on 21st century reform, teacher and educational leadership, community building, and educational issues impacting marginalized populations such as the homeless. She and her co-author Lani Rotter Hall’s book, The Connect Educator. Learning and Leading in a Digital Age (2012) made the case for creating a connected learning community through social media and rediscovering the power of being a learner first. Their widely read work was foundational in many educators breaking out of their silo classrooms to build virtual professional learning communities not limited by physical location. Their work had a profound impact on me as well.

 

Recently Sheryl reached out to me and shared she is working on a sequel to her previous work entitled: The Connect Educator Playbook: Embracing AI, Entangled Pedagogy and Resilience in a World of Uncertainty. She poised two questions. These are my responses...

 

How would you describe professional learning (PD) for educators in a post pandemic world? Has it changed? How so? 

 

@johnccarver I have said for quite some time that we were living in a “printing press moment” in the history of mankind. Pre COVID change moved forward powerfully with the speed of a glacier, constant, slow, and incremental. The COVID pandemic was the global event of the glacier reaching the ocean, breaking off, and becoming an iceberg. The core of the glacier and the iceberg are both ice, but both are in different, dynamic environments. World history could now be defined as before the break and after the break.

 

Learning and teaching prior to the break was in a glacier-like geopolitical environment and now is in a new iceberg geopolitical environment. As with the smallest part of an iceberg viewed above the waterline, the part of learning and teaching now viewed by the public is that part above the “waterline”.

 

There is a vast body of research and practice available on how to learn and teach, the challenge in the post pandemic world is there is not a clear consensus on the why? It is the part of the iceberg below the waterline that must be defined.

 

“Weak Signals' ' are emerging new ideas, innovations, and discoveries that are not yet trends, but have the potential to make an impact on society. These are the things below the waterline that need be given consideration. Charter schools, vouchers, home schooling, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, on demand interest-based Master Classes taught by expert practitioners, BABBEL, Rosetta Stone, KHAN Academy, and immersive learning with virtual augmented reality are but a few of the emerging weak signals reshaping when, where and how learning happens.   

 

Funding, digital infrastructure, hardware and program accessibility, reframing community, responsibilities, accountabilities, addressing human growth and development, transmitting societal norms all are contributing conditions to be addressed.

 

It is my belief that a new post pandemic continuum of learning and teaching is emerging. It will

no longer be enough for educators to facilitate learning and teaching but must also be able to connect academic achievement to purpose and meaning. Individual, personalized, and differentiated designed instruction, link to abilities, passions and professions will be the new normal. Individually empowering students to discern how they learn, enabling them to unlearn and up learn as context and knowledge changes prepares them for participating and contributing in the evolving, transformational 21st century.

 

Connect Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age (2012) did a great job of making the case for teachers, through professional learning communities (PLCs) personal learning networks (PLNs) and communities of practice (CoP) to build capacity so as to contribute to “creative ways to meet the needs of 21st century learners... devise strategies to motivate schools to transform learning environments, thus ensuring their own sustainability by becoming highly relevant in students’ lives.” (p.28). The question is not “being relevant in students’ lives” in a 20th century industrial model of learning but being relevant and employable in an emerging 21st century digital, informational age model of learning.

 

Teaching and learning today is not a people problem, but a system problem.

It's one thing to be proficient in the “dance.”  

It’s another to be empowered to create music that links to emotions, inspiration, and action.

 

 

Do you believe the power and importance of connection still exists in a post pandemic digital age? Is there a relevance of connected learning in today's educational context?

 

@johnccarver Connection in the post pandemic digital age is crucial! Only through the sharing of thinking, observations, perspectives, and experiences can emerging 21st century norms and realties be processed and understood. Like traveling in a car on the Interstate at a high rate of speed, with four other people, each looking out a different window sharing what they see, giving those in that car a limited 360* perspective. Though this is good, imagine the perspective of that car, connecting and sharing with passengers in other cars locally, nationally, or globally? That sharing and perspective would be powerful to define meaning and understanding of emerging realities and new norms.

 

It is my observation and belief that pre-pandemic educators were limited by application of 20th century industrial, assembly line, system design thinking. Business management norms, structures and protocols were applied to design the physical plant and internal working of schools. Learning was equated to work, students as products and teachers as grade level “line” workers.

 

Learning was equated to age, time on task, and mastery of content via memorization.  Standardized, multiple choice, fill in the blank tests were used to measure academic achievement. Feedback through grading established on the percent of test questions answered correctly:  90% A, 80% B, 70% C, 60% D and anything less than 50%, described student learning outcomes. The focus being on conformity, finding the correct answer and not on educating the whole child or empowering them to think creatively.

 

The learning and teaching landscape in the post pandemic landscape is transforming. Weak signals of change reflect a deep community dissatisfaction and a re engagement of parents in their child’s education. Reflected as we move through the 2024 presidential election cycle, discourse and the inability of constructive civil public debate is amplifying anxiety and fear.  There are many who believe the United States is in the mist of cultural war. It seems the country has polarized into political lines with Republicans and Democrats each claiming to be the “voice of America.” They speak disparagingly of each other’s perspectives and positions.

 

The political rhetoric, derogatory comments, name calling, and disrespect of elected officials’ model, amplified by 24-hour cable news outlets, is moving citizens into silos of anxiety and fear.  It seems that progressives and liberals, evangelicals, and conservatives, have lost the ability to listen, have empathy, respectfully debate, and reach consensus. Caught in the middle of all this are traditional norms, practices, and legacy institutions, specifically public education, and schools.

 

Teachers and educators, caught in the crosshairs, have had the illusion that they could make a difference within their classroom and facilitate systemic change. The fact of the matter is they have been operating in a national, state and locally top down driven, collective bargained system where students (and teachers) are expected to adjust to the system, not the system to the learners. Schools are owned by the taxpayers, governed by an elected school board, and they have the power, not administrators or teachers, for change. I am concerned this model may not be sustainable.

 

I believe we are at the beginning of the beginning of an emerging new 21st century system of learning. This will be as dynamically different as the transition from the one room schoolhouse to the large, consolidated school system. Positioning connected educators in the field, not only sharing instructional strategies, but also how learning could transform and what the structures could be designed to support it, empower educators to be the pathfinders.  If teachers fail to step up, somebody else will.

In 2023, what is the WHY for Public Education in the United States?

There are those who believe the WHY of public education in the United States is to provide all children with equal access to a quality education that prepares them for college, careers, and active participation in a democratic society.  The overarching goal is to ensure that all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to the betterment of society. Achieving these goals is a daunting challenge because there is not equal access nor clear consensus as to what a quality education is, what it means to participate in a democratic society, reach a person’s full potential and contribute to the betterment of society.

 

As we enter the 2024 election cycle for President of the United States, the message emerging from the right-wing conservative ecosystem is distrust of teachers, elected school boards, and what is being taught to children. The left-wing ecosystem is protective of public education and its progressive perspective trajectory. Neither side is looking for common ground, with the young caught in the middle, receiving mixed messages.  This is not healthy. 

Teachers feel this frustration. Educational thought leader and change agent, Will Richardson, titled his November 22, 2022, BIG Question Institute Bi-Weekly Update, “What is our Calling In Schools Now?” He takes a global perspective that calls for schools to reflect on “what the world is trying to be”  He asks the hard questions: “Why do schools exist today? What are the collective needs they serve? What needs should they be serving?” To move forward we need conversations addressing these questions that build consensus. 

Top down or bottom up?

JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, brings focus to Richardson’s questions. In Bowman’s op ed “What is the Why for Educating our children” Cleveland Daily Banner, February 2, 2023, he rhetorically asks “Do we educate for the sake of the child? The family? Educators? Businesses? Government? Society?” He goes on to say that “How you answer the WHY we educate question will determine what policies you will embrace.”  Each of the filters Bowman identifies (child, family, educators, business, government, and society) have unique challenges, requirements, desired outcomes, and responsibilities that look differently at the local, state, and national level. A bigger question to be answered is who and how is this funded?

Taking a good hard look in the mirror.

The current condition of public education is that not all children have equal access to quality teaching and learning.  Access is dependent upon a Zip or Area Code, financial resources, and the dispositions of teachers, locally elected Board of Education, and community members.  Dissatisfaction is evident today with parents organizing, calling for vouchers, charter schools, and demanding change and options. 

Today, Public Education’s emphasis on college and careers equates success, fulfillment, and happiness to being gainfully employed. Grounded in a 20th century industrial model, time on task, system design, the outcome is conformity and mastery of prescribed content, measured by standardized tests. The historical belief was that a college degree is the golden ticket, and that parents and students were willing to bear the burden of crushing future debt by assuming student loans to get it. The chilling reality is that a college diploma does not cleanly translate into being gainfully employed, and therefore, saddling young people and their parents with massive student loan debt is not a financially sound strategy.   

 

Public education is great at producing consumers of content and not necessarily creators of content. Sadly, content consumer skills become less critical every day, while today’s Information and Interconnected Age, requires critical thinking skills and the ability to access, discern, and apply information to real world predictable and unpredictable situations. Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, like Project Lead the Way (PLTW), show potential but are viewed in schools as standalone activities. They are not integrated but taught in addition to the regular curriculum.

 

“For the entire 30 years of my professional career, I’ve witnessed the constant conversation about the “Industrial Age School” and how its design runs counter to the emerging “Information & Interconnected Age.”

Dr. Trace Pickering, co-founder, executive director of Iowa BIG 

 

Schools are designed to Indoctrinate Children.

Each, and every school across the United States indoctrinates children into society. Local, state, and national cultural norms, traditions, and beliefs are introduced, practiced, and communicated to children, deliberately and subliminally. At one time this was a shared responsibility between the home and the school. For the past 20 years ``home” has evolved to include single parents, joint custody, blended families, and children being raised by grandparents. With children spending 8+ hours in childcare and schools, many parents and caregivers defaulted to schools to teach civility and civic responsibilities. The impact of the COVID pandemic and the resulting school shutdowns reengaged home with schools but also amplified political polarization and the questioning of norms, traditions, and beliefs to be taught, stressing home-school trust. This relationship continues to fracture. 

 

What do we want the world to become?

Student experiences in schools can reshape the world.  Schools can empower and shape young minds to define what society is and plant seeds for what society could be. What we want the world to become is directly connected to Will Richardson’s question “What is our calling in Schools now?” The answer must be multi-dimensional and respond to the stakeholders JC Bowman identified: child, family, educators, business, government, and society.  It also needs to include the examination and evaluation of current structures, protocols, practices, and funding mechanisms for viability.

 

Mr. Bowman insightfully summed everything up, writing “It is time to ask ourselves, “Why are we, as a society, educating our children?” If we gain clarity on the “Why,” much of the remainder will fall into place.”