Are they ready to be partners in their learning?
How do you know?
If they are not ready, how can you increase their readiness level?
Situational Leadership is a useful tool in this process. We begin our study of Situational Leadership by looking at the use of history in decision-making.
In their book Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers, Neustadt and May contend that the "Cuban Missile Crisis" was a success story in large part because of the way Kennedy and his advisers effectively used history.
Specifically, they:
- Used analogies sparingly
- Considered the issue's history - both sources and context
- Thoroughly examined key assumptions
- Considered the histories of their adversaries
- Considered the organizational history - that is the history of the organization or structure
- Saw the issues before them as part of a time sequence - big picture - long term focus
In my school's attempt to create more learner-centered classrooms, I asked teachers - after reading the selection from Thinking in Time - to respond to an online forum question: "Do any of these strategies and/or lessons apply to our school in general and this staff development initiative in particular? If so, in what way? If not, why not?"
This activity served a couple of different purposes. First, it helped to focus our thinking and provide some unity regarding our group's goal (this would be a continual process of focusing and re-focusing). Secondly, there are valuable lessons discussed in this article - lessons beneficial to anyone in a decision-making position. Finally, it provided a demonstration on how to conduct an initial assessment of group member's readiness level. Those staff members that did not post on the forum (in fact, several did not even download the reading) certainly made a statement about their readiness level.
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