Dewey, Kotter and Campbell on Democracy, Education and Change

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 and incurred plenty of change. I also encountered more applications that would not work with the newly upgraded Windows 10 and the "Edge." What is it about change that works? I began to ponder change in education.

Learning is change. In my graduate studies in education we had to take a course in change management. At the time, I was not connecting the liberal learning seminar to my studies on theories of education. However, since my education was so engaging, I actually retained something in the back of my mind.  The first part of this equation of learning was influenced by John Dewey.

When it came to learning, Dewey is my "leader of learning." I just ate up all that experiential learning and using activity to engage students. I love all of his theories of learning.  There was that one issue about democracy in education that did not seem to synthesize at the time.

Dewey had beliefs in education and reform. I was not paying attention at the time and the words education reform and my organizational change management seminar never crossed paths in my brain. Until now.  Dewey's words now jump off the page 

"I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile." 

Did Dewey mean that reforms will fail that are forced upon educators? I think Dewey clarifies himself in another of his stated beliefs 

"I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that society is an organic union of individuals. If we eliminate the social factor from the child we are left only with an abstraction; if we eliminate the individual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass."

I wonder are we loosing track of the social individual during education reform? Can we continue down this path of educating students to get  a robotic job, or the work of the day, and eliminate these social factors? Dewey does not seem to think so. 

"I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living."

Learning is change. Let me tackle the change portion of this equation, and my learning in the course on organizational change management. We studied John Kotter and his book Leading Change.

In class, we threw around saying like "Culture eats strategy for lunch" with reckless abandon. We memorized the models of proven organizational change management from Lewin's three-step process and Kotter's eight-step process, to Bullock and Batten known for planned change, Neckhard and Harris for a change model formula, and Nadler and Tushman for congruence model. Of course we studied the scholarly works from Harvard University and MIT on how to institute successful organization change. Communication of the vision and buy in from all the actors seemed to be the overarching theme of successful change.  

None of the books addressed the Miegs Field model of change management. Perhaps it was still to early in the life of this new model. The model that keeps change top secret until the moment it happens, does not allow voices to be heard because they just drag out the process, and a system that thinks they know what is best for the society. Miegs Field did enact change overnight in a most undemocratic manner.  If you asked people today if they think it a good idea to tear down Northerly Island in favor of a few private pilots to build a landing strip, then you would hear the protests.

With the exception of Miegs Field, successful change involves communication. Kotter even addresses the predominating political organization when he asserts: 

"Organizations of the future will have to value candid discussion far more than they do today. Norms associated with political polite –ism,  with non-conformational diplomaticese, and with killing-the-messenger-of-bad-news  will have to change.  The volume knob of the dishonest dialog channel will have to be turned down."   

 

Organizations with communication dysfunctions must find a way to communicate to effect real change. 

Learning is change. Hopefully, I can come back full circle to Dewey and synthesize with Kotter. If educators embody the same beliefs as Dewey, and there is a functional communication system, then the open communication of education reform can produce a successful organization change. Without a voice from Dewey influencing the reform, it is as he said "transitory and futile."

So when it looks like east-is-east-and-west-is-west and never-the-twain-shall-meet, then the time is now to read the other textbook from my graduate organization change seminar:

"Who Moved My Cheese' and Other Thoughts on Change

We had to read a book in Graduate School called Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life. 

It is standard reading for business students, but I read it in my Educating Adults master program. It is a allegory for change. If I can recap a quick, Wikipedia version, interpretation of the story, it goes like this:

There are two mice, Sniff and Scurry and two mini peoples, Hem and Haw. They live and work in a maze that is overseen by corporate heads way above them that they cannot see or communicate with. The point of being in the maze is to get your cheese. The mini people and the mice find the cheese and establish routines around the cheese. The mini people become arrogant about the stash of cheese they are working on and they become lazy. The mice, Sniff and Scurry, are always noticing things, warning signs, and sniffing the cheese to see if it is getting old.

 

One day they come to the maze and there is no cheese. Scurry goes off hunting for new cheese, as he had read the warning signs. Sniff is not far behind him. Hem and Haw return to the same station and continue to find no cheese. They complain about the unfairness. Hem finally goes out looking for new cheese, but Haw remains in the victimized mindset. Haw remains hoping for change.

 

Meanwhile Sniff and Scurry have found a new cheese station and it has new flavors of cheese. The two of them quickly adapt to the new flavor of cheese.

 

Hem begins to laugh at his situation and posts on the wall a message he hope Haw will see: "If you don't change you become extinct."

 

Haw finds new cheese and learns to smell the cheese to see if it getting to a point where change will take the cheese away. Haw learns to adapt quickly and writes on the wall "the sooner you move off old cheese the sooner you will enjoy new cheese."

 

 

 

So the answer is not a simple as find another maze to go work in. It's not about finding another job. The lesson from Sniff and Scurry is to become life long learners and always be ready to accommodate new learning and new situations. It is about being less arrogant and listening to new people and people that are different. When they let you know it's time to change, find a way to change. The corporate maze keeper will always want to try new flavors of cheese, will always want to make some type of change, just to keep the day filled with activities. It's true there is no concern for what is going on in the maze and what the mice are going through.

 

 

Once upon a time, I was brought into a maze that had some arrogant mini-people with some very old stinky cheese. I knew I was a lifelong learner and hoped to show the old mini-people new ways. I hoped to illustrate to them the writing on the walls, that I read when I saw the corporate headquarters change. I think I was brought into the maze along with a bunch of other new mice to see if we could change the mini-people into new way of thinking.

 

 It sadly did not work out. The old mini-people pushed the new mice around, bullying and brazenly using arrogance to intimidate the new mice. If any of the new mice spoke up against the treatment, they were cast away as outsiders who could not play well with others. The once upon a time story has no happy ending. All the mini-people will be put in one small maze and they will battle it out in a bloody fashion. Being one of the new mice, lifelong learning has never stopped for me.  This mouse was sniffing the cheese and reading the walls a long time ago.

 

T.

 

Thinking, visualizing and meditating

Lately I have been thinking about thinking, wondering about visualization, and meditating on things.

Thinking can be a powerful tool. I remember reading books when I was younger like Think and Grow Rich and I collected Horatio Algiers books for inspiration. Apparently it was not just a fad and many authors still write on the topic and many more still practice Positive Thinking. The Laws of Attraction are used by many authors, speakers and TV talk show hosts. Gee it works for them they manage to attract money by selling the theme to people who really want to believe.

This much I know about positive thinking, If someone around you is cranky, whining, dull, negative, complainer or just a Debbie Downer, you will want to go off in another direction and rid your self of these people. If someone is a charismatic, trusting, forthright, positive, inspirational leader, you are more likely to follow that leader. You will listen to positive news more readily than negative.

Can we really change the universe with the sole power of positive thinking? Under the umbrella of first do no harm, what can it hurt? If we think that change is positive, say at a job, and we openly embrace the change, will we have a less stressful time accepting and changing technology. I seem to think so. If I look at a new technology and say this will work, I see my self using the new technology for everything the innovators and implementers intended. I visualize myself having success with a new program or new technology, I seek out the positive contributions that new technology will enable. It works for me.

Of course I have observed those that do the opposite. They have negative thoughts about technology change and think technology will fail them. Low and behold, they hit the wrong key and it fails. Some call it Manifest Destiny. When I observe the Refuseniks of change, I recall a book on change Who Moved My Cheese. Sure enough they stay by the old cheese till it gets stinky. Refuse to read the writing on the walls. Sometimes it is just amazing to watch, other times you want to reach out and ask them what are you afraid of doing?

What else can people visualize? Where else can the Law of Attraction be utilized? Can we have positive thoughts about a person and then they become an ally, friend, or partner? Only if we can persuade their pathway of thought. It could do no harm.

Can we hope and pray, (a powerful form of visualization and meditation) that a sick friend or relative gets better? This has been know to happen or at least attributed to prayer. Researchers have interviewed doctors and found that there seems to be something to it.  Under the first do no harm doctrine, what can it hurt?

Today and everyday after, think positively that you can achieve better health and look stronger and appear younger. Visualize yourself doing things as a younger person would, moving in a stronger walk or gait, see yourself in the mirror looking younger.  Do it everyday.

Just for the helluva it see if it works.