Does Data Judge or Inform?

Last weekend the Miami Dolphins lost to the New York Jets starting off the season 0-1. As a coach, it would be difficult to establish an improvement plan with just this information. To improve performance a football coach and the players should analyzing player stats, play selections, practice time, and situations trying to find an edge to get better and to eventually win a game. Reaching the Super Bowl does not happen by focusing on the Win/Loss record or the trophy, but on the players.

If there is a need to improve and evaluate, Action Research (AR) provides a structure to analyze performance data and would be able to explain beyond the Win/Loss record of a student. As a classroom teacher AR provides background information to distinguish between mastery and adequate performance (Sagor, 2000). Taking the same attitude of the football coach into the classroom means to constantly analyze data to look for edges in students, working to try to help them improve, no matter what the objective.

Buzzword BINGO!!!!

I though IBM was original in their portrayal of the overuse (and lack of meaning) of high frequency catchphrases with their recent “Buzzword Bingo” television commercial, yet further investigation showed that this alternative office practice has its origins from a Dilbert cartoon.

Quite often in meetings and in trainings these buzzwords are scrambled around to motivate, inspire, or influence change in the workplace. Does anyone listen? From the perspective of Dilbert or the IBM commercial is it possible that the use of these words actually deters task and relationship-oriented behavior and instead fosters ridicule and avoidance?

What behaviors have you observed when motivating, inspiring, or influencing others? If results are important to change behavior, does your school:

• Uses student data and mission statement to guide site-based decision making,
• In partnership with stakeholders develops a written list of expectations for all staff members,
• Use multiple sources of data to identify the professional development needs of all staff members,
• Implements and monitors the School Improvement Plan based on the needs of all staff members,
• Uses action research to monitor the effectiveness of each Induction/staff development component,

or preach buzzwords to motivate?

I offer you the opportunity to make your own Buzzword Bingo card for your next meeting/training and enjoy the conversation that follows.

(The IBM video is available to view; search using the phrase: IBM Buzzword Bingo)

There is a procedure...no need to worry.

By now most of us had the opportunity to see or at least hear the taser incident at the University of Florida this past weekend. What I find interesting is the statement made by the university spokesman Steve Orlando, "The police department does have a standard procedure for when they use force, including when they use a Taser. That is what the internal investigation would address — whether the proper procedures were followed, whether the officers acted appropriately."

Okay, Steve is letting us all know that the police department had a plan and now an internal investigation will determine if the plan was followed. Great, yet I would like to know if the plan had a procedure that addressed accountability for its members. Can you imagine if this internal investigation is that process? Would there even be any thought of following the plan (or accountability) if it wasn’t for the YouTube video? Perhaps the department is just happy that the investigation is internal and not being investigated by an external source.

Should the ownership of accountability fall with the internal investigation? The police officers? The video? The man that was tasered? Or his attorney?

I had a mentor who believed that sometimes folks only think about accountability when they hit their wall. Unfortunately I believe that she was right. Why is it that some only react to situations while others plan for them? Why are ownership lines of accountability too easily passed to others? Is integrity challenged when people are quick to point the finger and not look in the mirror? When you have undesirable results, who should ask why?

It is all about Scrubs

Now that summer is over and the routine of my job seeps back into my life there is one daily pleasure that I noticed missing…my hour of Scrubs. I will admit that for practically every day Monday through Friday from 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Comedy Central I sat, watched and reflected along with John “JD” Dorian as he struggled with making sense of understanding friends, work, and the big picture of life.

Watching Scrubs was not always a staple in my TV viewing habit, heck I have not watched NBC’s “Much Watch TV” night since Sam and Diane has their thirteenth break-up. Yet on one of the first Sunday’s of the summer, the staff at Sacred Heart Hospital was featured in a 22-episode marathon. I would not be exaggerating if I confessed to watching all 22 episodes, but since the show has a strong connection to coaching and mentoring I’ll just chalk this up as my professional learning time.

If you are unfamiliar with the show, each episode chronicles the lives of a close-set group of doctors and nurses as they find their niche in each other lives and in a profession they hold dear. I was amazed on how each episode touched a day in my life, as if the writers were secretly watching my every boring move. Perhaps I sympathized with JD as he grew from a newbie intern into a confident resident or maybe it was the callous big-hearted Dr. Cox whose favorite coaching tool was his own sharp-witted tongue. What I do know is that the episode called, “My Fifteen Minutes” had me a believer that the writers in the show knew much more about professional development than they did medicine.

After his first year as an intern, Dr. Cox asks JD to evaluate himself. Unfortunately JD was more concerned in the motivation behind this demand than in actually fulfilling his coach’s request. The storyline leads up to a pivotal point in understanding Dr. Cox’s role as a mentor and the true nature of accountability and evaluation.

How come Hollywood writers understand that the value of accountability and evaluation does not stem from a paper form but from the SELF? When looking back at your experiences as a coach or being coached do you find yourself acting like Dr. Cox or JD?

Below is the best version of the script from the conclusion of “My Fifteen Minutes” or now know as “Evaluation Drama.”

Dr. Cox: (emerging from the shadows) It's time. Sit down.
[J.D. sits]
Now what do you want me to say? That you're great? That you're raising the bar for interns everywhere?
J.D.: I'm cool with that.
Dr. Cox: Well I'm not gonna say that. You're okay. You might be better than that someday, but right now all I see is a guy who's so worried about what everybody else thinks of him that he has no real belief in himself. I mean, did you even wonder why I told you to do your own evaluation?
J.D.: I can't think of a safe answer, I just figured...
Dr. Cox: CLAM UP! I wanted you to think about yourself, and I mean really think. What are you good at? What do you suck at? And then I want you to put it down on paper. And not so I could see it, and not so somebody else could see it, but so you could see it. Because ultimately, you don't have to answer to me, and you don't have to answer to Kelso...you don't even have to answer to your patients, for God's sake! You only have to answer to one guy, newbie, and that's you! There. You are...evaluated. (tosses evaluation to J.D.) Now get out of my sight. You get me so angry I'm afraid I just might hurt myself.