October 13, 2008
On this blog I will be bringing you the best of the literature and research that is available to us along with provocative questions about how education and economic development form an inextricable double helix with both sides vitally dependent upon one and another.
The debate about the ambiguity of our near term future is on, and will continue like in all previous generations. The discussion about the long term future is exciting and challenging as we look for new, transformational ideas.
January 2, 2009
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary: new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or old laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with license of a higher order of beings.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
December 12, 2008
Really thinking this is the place to be in February. Watch the description video for yourself. Looks to be an amazing experience.
November 9, 2008
As the seasons change and winter makes its way into Wisconsin, the hunting weekend passed, I found myself catching up on the work of others. Below are some inspiring and thought provoking presentations and thoughts I found in my exploration. I’d be interested in getting input on how this impacts our work.
My next task is to categorize these and create topic specific tags for use by myself and others. Until then, my thought is to share.
Please comment.
http://www.slideshare.net/ericw01/seeds-of-innovation.
http://www.slideshare.net/nusantara99/blue-ocean-strategy-51901.
http://www.slideshare.net/jeffmcneill/blue-ocean-strategy-method-templates.
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http://www.slideshare.net/GrahamAttwell/knowledge-maturing-and-learning.
October 19, 2008
Co-o
petition by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff
The two things that jumps off the page at you about this book is that it is the unlikely collaboration of a Harvard Business School and a Yale School of Management professors. The second is the uniquely coined phrase “Co-opetition”. Co-opetition is a revolutionary mindset that combines competition and cooperation the book jacket screams. It also uses one of my favorite strategies and theories “Game Theory” to elucidate on game changer strategies that are replacing some of the failed business strategies of the eighties and nineties. It has powerful implications for education.
Perhaps most interesting is the potential application of the is book to the institution of education in regard to its slow moving behemoth like structures as it looks to where the future is moving. Interestingly, the competition model used in the fifties and sixties gave slowly way to the collaboration and cooperation models of the late seventies, eighties and nineties.
Notably, in the previous eras which could support low skills with high wage jobs, competition was encouraged in the school setting. There could be winners and losers in the educational game because no conscience was needed because students who did not prosper in the institution could shuffle off to steel mills and manufacturing concerns, support their families, have the “toys” of the middle class and enjoy a relatively high quality of life. This equation changed somewhat radically during the late seventies when public institutions came under the influence of “cooperative learning”, a social theory developed by Drs. Johnson from Minnesota. In my opinion, this social theory had some of its roots in the business sector and the application in the schools emanated from employers requests to teach students how to work together, work in a work environment, get along with others and be productive.
As we moved with Title IX to making sure everyone had the same sets of opportunities as everyone else and as the civil rights movement finally began to take shape in influencing policy, the understanding of cooperation and collaboration began to take on a new meaning. The pendulum swung fully from competition to cooperation within a generation. It was almost like a conservative/liberal change or moving from a Republican viewpoint (competition is the key or cornerstone of American Democracy) to a Democratic view where the Great Society has a responsibility to care for all citizens and provide the appropriate programs and supports.
What Nalebuff and Brandenburger have accomplished in this highly intellectual informative read is to show how you need both to remain vital and flourishing in the new global economy. Key concepts in this book include: complements, added value, how to change the game, rules of the new game, links between the games and how to prepare for change.
Karl Marx is attributed as having said ” Philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point is, however to change it.” Most people think of the change as coming from changing the rules of how the game is played. They are correct. But that is only one way to change the game. Nalebuff and Brandenburger suggest the following acronym to better understand the change process” Players, Added Value, Rules, Tactics and Scope are the keys to the game changer process (PARTS)
This book, if read with intensity and purpose, will change the way you see and do business. Cui Bono? Who stands to gain? You do.
Dr. Tim Gavigan of CESA 1 located in Brookfield Wisconsin has applied this to his 14 million dollar organization and is currently using its management constructs to positive ends in the education arena.
October 19, 2008
The Progress Paradox by Gregg Easterbrook This well researched and scholarly book is written by a story teller. Greg Easterbrook masterfully writes and answers questions that inform and enlighten today’s modern world. He lays out a foundation regarding how life has gotten better while somehow Americans feel worse. His scholarly research, well footnoted and documented, makes a very, very strong case for the phenomenal growth of American society over the past fifty years.
He uses as a base America fifty years ago, a period of time I can remember as a child. His descriptions are accurate of what the middle class was then and what it is now. He emphatically makes a case for the fact that we are better off now than we were fifty years ago. I do not believe either the right or the left can refute his thesis.
What I found particularly intriguing was his assessment of our burgeoning culture of crisis and complaint. It permeates the current educational scene and within the past few months as the economy is reeling and trying to right itself, it become unerringly accurate. He has the courage to take on some of the most strongly held conventional wisdom statements and refute them with surprising ease utilizing his knowledge and research base.
He cites Bok and Bowen’s landmark research The Shape of the River regarding the educational achievement of African American students and what happens to them as they enter the economy. His gap closing statistics support the idea that the door to economic prosperity can be open and the middle class, while currently evaporating can be re-populated and thus be the engine of the future America’s hopes for remaining competitive in the world market economy.
Perhaps most important is his position on ending world poverty and what a unique and special role the United States has a responsibility to play.
This is compelling reading and gives one the contextual clues to interpret not only the past fifty years but apply it to what may be coming in the near future. This extra ordinary text from this Brookings Senior Fellow is well worth the read. Full of statistics and references it reads like an interesting novel that maintains one’s interest to the end.
October 19, 2008
The 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis
Edward Gordon moves us eloquently beyond the discussion of “its the economy stupid” with a wake up call to business leaders, policy makers, educators, parents, concerned employees and anyone else who has a stake in our economy. If you need demographics and cultural facts this book will provide you with an armload of interesting data. Most importantly he identifies the innovation that is occuring around the globe in education, training and community development, showing both the best practice and most promising ideas to reverse the devasting trends before we reach a crucial crossroad. My feelings are that we are already there, and the book title may be somewhat misleading…perhaps 2008 instead of 2010 would have been more appropriate?
Bruce
October 19, 2008
Beyond Potential 
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