Organizations of the Future and Disruptive Ideas

An interesting post from Education Innovation on combining the concept of "disruptive" ideas with the Ken Burns effect. I was particularly interested in the five capabilities for the organization of the future, as described by Ulrich and Smallwood. The capabilities include:

1. Talent- the ability to attract, retain, and deploy human capital, to assure competence and knowledge of the workforce.

2. Leadership-the ability to build future leaders as an organization capability, to turn customer expectations into employee actions and to increase leadership brand.

3. Agility- the ability to respond quickly, change, be flexible, learn, and transform.

4. An outside-in-connection-the ability to turn outside expectations from customers, investors, and communities into internal organization focus.

5. Strategic Unity-the ability to create a shared point of view and common behaviors in an increasingly diverse work setting.

Latest on Strategic Teacher Recruitment and Training

Just recently I've been getting up to speed on the latest research and policy related to teacher recruitment and development. At one level, I've always known that there is a serious lack of alignment between IHE teacher education programs and what district and schools really need - the training for the supply doesn't meet the demand qualifications, while at the same time creating a surplus of partially trained and "eligible" candidates. And obviously, there is a preponderance of evidence that good teaching directly relates to learning (or more specifically, that poor instruction dramatically impacts students' learning).

However, I guess that I did think that districts, and for that matter states, have been working strategically to address this supply/demand issue, both in terms of the quality of the supply and ongoing training for teachers. But it seems that (some) districts and states have only recently started to take a truly strategic approach to this multi-faceted issue. I found a couple of articles to be particularly informative:


How the world's best performing school systems come out on top

Strategic Management of Human Capital: Making Smart Investments in Teachers and Principals

On the Road to Fascism

Well - I never promised that this would be just about education.

I found this article on AlterNet to be just what I've been thinking over the past few years. Fascism is rearing its ugly head in our own country. The sad fact is that it seems to have taken way too long for folks - anyone - to realize what is happening. But perhaps that is just what happens when fascism takes hold. It isn't seen or recognized for what it is. I also wonder if all of the right-wing hard core folks realize that what they are doing is leading us down the road to fascism of if they actually believe that democracy can be enforced. But again, it may be part of the recipe that those on the right actually believe that they are working to support democracy and don't realize that they are actually moving the country away from what makes us thrive.

The post provides an excellent overview of the historical research on fascism and how the US is closely approaching the point of no return. It doesn't seem like we are at this point, but just like the frog in a pot of boiling water, or the folks that go suckered into years of Madoff's lying, the truth is always in front of one's face - it just takes a different perspective to see that truth.