Stress and Work Production

So...many schools embarked on the annual rite of passage known as standardized testing today. Personally, my girls don't start until next Monday. This is a time when schools are judged by the general public...housing prices are affected by test scores, kids self-views (self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy) will be influenced by these tests. Most dramatically, however, the general judgment of the quality of our public school teachers will be in play. This truly is, as it is referred to, high stakes testing.
Before jumping into the deep end to look at the relationship between stress and work, let's look for a minute at educational evaluations through this lens. For one week (and change), students around the state (and the country) take a series of standardized tests that provide information about their ability in mathematics and language arts. Certain other subjects are tested but math and language arts comprise the focus of our attention. As a former public school teacher, I can attest to the tension that goes on during this week. Everybody knows that reputations are on the line. Let's take a look, for a minute, at a few other industries and see how they would relate if standardized testing were in play...and see if we can draw conclusions to the validity of the testing issue.
I am not a salesperson but have several people in my inner circle that are. When I read books about sales techniques, or search the internet for sales seminars, trainings, workshops etc... I NEVER see trainings or advice that targets the absolute critical need to have product knowledge. Sales techniques such as "opens" and "closing techniques" suggest that relationship building is primary to business. After all, it is who you know and not what you know...right?
I play golf, once in a blue moon. I know that many sales deals are closed on the golf course. I have seen sales deals closed in luxury boxes...We assume our relationships are built on product knowledge, don't we? I once spoke with a top salesperson at a major insurance company. This individual tried to persuade me to leave teaching and sell insurance packets. I have nothing against selling insurance (and this individual has a sizeable bank account) but I asked this person how I could transition...it isn't my background...The response makes sense, sort of... "they buy YOU, the product is secondary..." Hmmm...interesting...

Students nationwide embark on high stakes testing. They will be examined on the 8th grade test in California on quadratic formulas, linear equations, graphing solutions...Their scores, in many of my client schools, will prevent the schools from demonstrating Annual Yearly Progress as stipulated in No Child Left Behind. These schools will continue to fall further and further behind. They will receive additional resources to train teachers in teaching skills with the direct result expected to be INCREASED TEST SCORES. Many of our students will become well acquainted with test taking. It became so overwhelming in Los Angeles a few months ago, teachers had to protest more benchmark tests. We are testing the kids to death and this type of production is not necessarily what will put the kids in a more advantageous position for them to generate their own future...

So, what does this have to do with stress? We know that stress has the potential to have a negative influence on work productivity. But what we know is that many individuals don't understand that moderate doses of stress and anxiety are important indicators of task importance. We need to learn ways to handle and identify our stressors and learn ways to alleviate them. When you examine your work or life situation, what role does stress play? What strategies do you have to identify and tackle it? What support do you have at work to work through stressful challenges. Anxiety and stress often prevent individuals from being able to think clearly about potential solutions. One solution, find a confidant. Find a "coach" that can ask you critical questions. If you are a teacher or parent, sit your kid(s) down and have a talk about stress...
I am going to close with a quick story. My 11 year old daughter takes me for a walk every night she can. She is acutely aware of my stress levels (and I wish I was the master at controlling stress...I am better at working with others on theirs;)). We took a walk last night and she asked me why they have to take these tests. She framed this inside the conversation that she wants to go to a great university. We talked about strategies and what tests are used for and while I think she has a basic understanding, I don't think she is convinced they indicate what a diverse and wonderful child she is. That is just the way I like it...

Choice is a Challenge

I gave a presentation on Friday morning to a large group of middle school teachers working in the Alvarado part of Los Angeles. Like many of my clients, motivation (and a lackthereof) is the primary topic to address. We spent 2 hours together. We defined motivation, broke it down, talked about "how to talk to kids about failure" but the one activity I was primarily interested in was the "choice activity" mentioned in the prior blog. Choice, and consciously selecting to engage in an activity, is the entry point of motivated behavior. Having people understand they control their situation and have ownership is critical to the later discussion about the activity itself. If people don't own the task, they can't control subsequent behaviors related to it. It would be like the band member that continually blames someone else for missing a beat rather than take some amount of ownership. "I choose to continue being in a band with this knucklehead" might be one way to look at this.

Anyway, the group was directed to generate a list of things at the school site that brought them aggravation and/or frustration. At the conclusion of this exercise, I asked them to convert 3 of the statements to "I choose" activities. Most of the group felt engaged. Most of the group did, however, feel challenged. I worked with two particular groups that were struggling to understand the concepts and it highlighted the notion that many people do struggle to internalize challenges because they don't, or can't, see themselves as a responsible party to an organizational challenge.

One of my quests in working with educators in challenging environments is to help coach them into a mental shift towards responsibility, ownership, proactivity and collaboration. I notice, overwhelmingly, that newer teachers tend to possess these attributes far more often than veteran teachers.

Bottom line, I was reminded that choice is a challenge. Motivation is hard. But, educators take a silent vow to not lose hope and quit. I hope they do because the children take their cues from them. Many educators recently received their "pink slips" and were notified that they might be out of work in a few weeks. Their choice on response will be directly internalized by many young people out there on how to respond to adversity. As I have a tendency to point out...be careful, the children are always watching...

Power of Choice

In education, and in business, individuals need to understand the power of ownership through choice. On one hand, motivational theories suggest that the primary index of motivated behavior is choice. One cannot be motivated without making a conscious and deliberate choice to engage in meaningful activity. It is not my intention here to embark on a motivational journey. I anticipate that as I engage in this blog as a personal forum for my internal dialogue, these things will naturally emerge. What IU intend to describe here is that we must take ownership for behavior.

"I choose" is an essentially fundamental statement of ownership. I often speak to middle school students and teachers and quickly tire of externally attributed statements like "my boss/teacher is out to get me" or "the work is too hard." In the simplest sense, when we choose to take ownership of our behavior, we can move beyond either success or failure. This is an internal struggle as we don't want, as a natural consequence of being human, to recognize our weaknesses. However, when we can coach ourselves, or be coached, we rapidly understand that ownership gives us options for future behavior.

I spent a lot of the day in meetings today. My Facebook update stated that I had meeting narcolepsy but I chose to sit there. While I sat there, I thought about how we create our own circumstance and how easy and effortless it is to blame our circumstance on other things other than ourself. Even when we recognize that we make a mistake, it is often too late. We are blessed with the gift of reflection but the curse of spontaneity.

Homework for you...and me...make a list of the things that anger you, that make you feel as a victim, that cause you anxiety...and convert them to "I choose" statements. Take ownership of your behavior.

As a relation to teaching, it is no surprise that as a motivational psychologist, I often interact with faculty that blame their ineffectiveness on "unmotivated" or lazy students. Imagine the behavioral change from blaming the kids to "I choose to let them behave that way." The power of choice enables us to actually do something.

Dwelling in Possibility

I had lunch with an old friend/mentor yesterday. Over the years, I have learned and read and followed advice from him and he directed me, years ago, to a book called "The Art of Possibility." I have often referred clients and friends to this book written by Benjamin and Roz Zander as it provides an account for transitioning from a narrow focus to one of dwelling in the possible. It is a challenge to do this and I often find myself having to remind myself of how we can expect positivity to occur within work and our personal lives.

I am an educational/organizational consultant. The essence of what drives my work, I like to think, is working to help people see that (a) they choose their circumstances and that (b) organizations cannot influence individuals but organizations can influence how the individual perceives themselves and this effects limiting behaviors.

I do think the current economic situation is horrific and educational. While now most people I know are cutting back or cutting off, those that think about possibility remain open to options. I know people, right now, that are working with the hopes of NOT being laid off. This is oppositional behavior to working TO succeed and excel. I see these dichotomies in education and business, real estate and sports. People that see possibility and opportunity are inherently more welcoming to good things happening. Teachers that only see/observe negative student behavior rather than examine WHY this child CHOOSES to behave that way are not open to the possibility that child will change. I caught myself there yesterday...and quickly put myself in check.

So down the road toward a discussion of possibility I go. Thanks, Bob. For the rest of you that may stumble across this, go get Art of Possibility and let me know what you think...

Crisis often generates thinking

Why is it that times of crisis force individuals to think out of the box, creatively? Somehow, it must be easier to explain than simply a measure of comfort. Some psychologists suggest that when we are comfortable, we not only don't seek challenge but that we aren't wired to seek challenge. Few individuals continually focus themselves on excellence. The example to consider is that regardless of profession, the top performers on a regular basis are the best compensated. Regardless, among this top level, their are superior performers. So, connect this to times of crisis...when times are functional (not even excellent) status quo is acceptable. At schools, parents fundraise, have coffee with the principal...At my daughters school, an excellent school by many measures, parents support extraordinarily...in money, presence, participation, governance... However, it is no secret that, at this particular elementary school, that there are teaching weakspots and teaching strengths. With the current budget crisis, now there are meetings and concerns about protecting good teachers. Prior to this, test scores were good and less than exceptional teaching flew below the radar. A part of me thinks this is the great demise of our system, our culture.

In most organizations, average performance tends to get warnings, support, and potentially removal if performance is not met. Performance in most organizations is financial (units sold, houses sold, projects completed coupled with quality indicators). In schools, it is becoming increasingly clear that performance and accountability indicators are sorely in need. In addition, leadership needs support to truly learn how to hold individuals accountable.

These times we currently live in are challenging. But, the key is that we (as an educational system) learn lessons so that we are prepared to not only avoid these problems in the future but to enhance the ability of educators to do their jobs today.

Providing Teacher Feedback

I had a meeting on Thursday with a middle school math teacher. I have a contractual relationship with an urban school to observe, provide feedback, and help improve the teaching and classroom climate of several math teachers. Honestly stated, the observation(s) have been a bit intimidating, even for me. This one teachers actually has classroom management skill. The class is, by and large, quiet and respectful and it is a far cry from the mayhem I see regularly at other schools that are similar. However, my initial observations seems to have uncovered that much of the classroom management organization is related to bullying or a sort...loud, insultive commentary that isn't directed at the core of the adolescent but certainly would result in lowered self-efficacy (confidence), decrease academic risk-taking and lower overall academic achievement. An example; a student was confused during the review of a previous lesson and this confusion was shared by other students. The response was a loud..."let's get you behind.." and a forceful, animated..."we'll just do this over and over until you recall the answer." Now, doing something repeatedly to help facilitate understanding is one thing...raising your voice and antagonizing a group pre-algebra students is pointless. Other comments came firing out, like; "this is simple, I can't believe you can't get this." It went on and on. Now this was with an external consultant and an administrator in the room. I can only imagine what happens when their is no direct accountability.

The feedback session was pointed a direct. The more I work with schools, and organizations for that matter, the more I see the need for feedback and coaching. Language seems to change over time regarding how we talk about the process of sitting down with someone and working on improving performance. It seems like the current terminology is coaching. So, I used this opportunity to coach her. We used reflective questioning, role playing, direct questioning, and basically had a pointed, frank discussion of what I observed. When I do this with principals, they are usually (not always) grateful for the feedback and opportunity to bounce ideas. When I do this with managers and executives, there is a sense of relief. When I do this with teachers, there is often anger and a feeling of being targeted. I was pleasantly surprised that this teacher was open to a discussion. We had a 20 minute session scheduled and she stayed for an hour. As with any competent coach, we only focused on about three areas but she was interested, willing and open. What she didn't know or understand, she admitted and took advice.

The lesson here- everyone needs help. Not everyone is open to it. As a member of an institution that puts teachers into the classrooms, we take responsibility when schools fail and try to work to improve them. But our schools, many of them, are sick patients...some are on life support. The behavior of this particular teachers wasn't wonderful but openness to change is an essential characteristic to positive growth.
I will be back in her class on Tuesday...more then

More English in a P.E. Class

Today, stereotypes were broken by a small statured first year teacher at Bret Harte Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. Harte is a very challenging school. There are lots of students that live in foster homes, fights are commonplace (I saw three within fiften minutes today), and academic achievement seems to be the farthest thing from some of the students minds. I was completing an observation on a physical education teacher. I was never a physical education teacher but was assigned a few this semester at CSUDH, where I am a professor. Today, I went to the blacktop and watched this first year teacher organize about forty kids and they completed an activity where they did what amounted to a letter relay race. There were a bunch of mock scrabble tiles face down about 50 meters from the students. They had to run down, grab a random tile and bring it to the group until the group had eight tiles. After this, the group had to generate words for points. It was PE Scrabble. They loved it. I have been in many English classes where kids aren't manipulating letters like they did today.

So, my message today is that sometimes beauty pops up where you least expect it...today it was in a middle school PE class in South Central L.A. Kids with lip piercings and troubles just manipulating letters and words and not even realizing the thinking they were engaged in...Ms. Hackett...top notch work today!