“ . . . we don’t succeed by foreseeing the future accurately. We succeed by ensuring that we’ll have the feedback we need to navigate.” ~ Dan Heath The above quote references feedback . . . when you think of feedback, what comes to mind? Did you think about improvement cycles? If you did, you …
“Getting short-term measures right is frustratingly complex. And it’s critical. In fact, the only thing worse than contending with short-term measures is not having them at all.” ~Dan Heath In past editions of the Blueprint Bulletin, you have familiarized yourself with Chicago Public Schools where their graduation rate was 52% in 1997. By shifting to …
Upstream Thinking . . . How to know you’re succeeding? Read More »
“To anticipate problems, we need eyes and ears in the environment. But we need to be cautious about what we learn: Sometimes we may detect things that are not as they seem.” ~Dan Heath The above quote makes connections to the last two Blueprint Bulletin editions where uniting the right people and being “proximate” is …
Upstream Thinking . . . How to get early warning of the problem? Read More »
“Upstream change often means fumbling our way forward, figuring out what works and what doesn’t and under what conditions.” ~ Dan Heath W. Edward Deming, the father of the quality improvement process, is often quoted as saying, “Each system is perfectly designed to get the result it gets.” In the case of schools, many of …
Upstream Thinking . . . Where to find a point of leverage? Read More »
“Part of every social-sector organization’s mission should be to push upstream. To prevent wounds as well as bandage them; to eliminate injustice as well as assisting those who suffered them.” ~ Dan Heath This past spring was a bandage situation for most districts. Many have taken lessons that they learned from the shutdown to make …
Upstream Thinking . . . How to Change the System Read More »
