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Travel Tips

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Okay so this is not so much a why we do it, but ‘how to do it’.

I certainly don’t feel I live an extravagant lifestyle, but nobody would call me conservative either…not even close, but when it comes to travel on an airline I fall hard towards conservative.

I travel a lot!  In fact in the past ten days I have been to Cincy, St. Louis, Toronto, NYC, LaPorte and Culver, IN and Monday I am flying to Melbourne for a 48 hour stay.  I always fly Coach and never pay to upgrade seating, and here is why. To upgrade my flight to Australia it would cost and ADDITIONAL $9,000. Heck for $9,000 I would give up my aisle seat and stand-up to and from Melbourne.

So it is always Coach, and on long flights the key secrets is sleep.  You gotta sleep at the right times, so you don’t get blasted with layover-hangovers.  You fall asleep at the right time so that you wake up on their time. Which means Monday night I need to fall asleep at 3:00am (Tuesday morning) my time to get a good nights sleep and wake up at 6:30am their time.  Besides fighting to stay up until 3:00am, there are a few keys, with the most important being the water bottle.

  1. Isle seat.  Gotta have at least stretching room in one vertical direction
  2. Pull the bag from under the seat in front of you so you can extend legs
  3. Give up worrying about the person behind you and lean the seat back
  4. Water bottle behind the neck.  Yep a water bottle.Slide1

This little bottle is made for comfort.  Leave it between 1/2 and 2/3 full of water, and place it behind your neck, cold or warm.  It keeps you from dropping your head on top of the person’s head who is already on your shoulder, drooling on your shirt.  I personally like the mold of Poland Springs.  Fits my neck perfectly.  And bonus, when you wake up you don’t have to ask for a glass of water.  Kinda warm, but hey, it’s your warm.

Give it a shot on your next flight.  Really.

Quote about who is responsible?

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Lots going on this week with Arne Duncan and Purdue President Mitch Daniels meeting with CEOs at the Business Roundtables the last few days.  Secretary Duncan wants more chief executives to throw themselves into advocating for more preschool funding, more STEM programs and, of course, the Common Core academic standards.  Putting education back into the political agenda is a good thing, and often seems to rise up during election time, so it is nice to see it during the middle of a Presidency.

The approach by Mr. Duncan bring me to a quote by Henry Ford II.

1987- Henry Ford II Dies

We can’t take a slipshod and easygoing attitude toward education in this country.  And by “we” I don’t mean”somebody else,” but I mean me and I mean you.  It is the future of our country-yours and mine-which is at stake.

We have to change the attitude of decision makers in government, in business leaders, in  social services and in the general public’s eye.  As Solution Tree President Ed Ackerman often reminds us,

“Some Guy doesn’t work here, so all of us better focus on how to fix this issue.”

Educating our youth is everyone’s role, and that is why we do it here at Solution Tree.

Classic quote

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I returned home late last night after being on the road for a solid 7 days, and I am off to a breakfast meeting this morning.  So, I am using an old classic quote from Dr. Robert Marzano.  This was pulled from a blog cast Bob did four years ago, and shows us how the mind of a great educational researcher works.  No additional explanation is required.

 Meta analysis is just a fancy way of saying quantitative synthesis.

Thanks Bob.  I got it now.

How?

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Yesterday was the first working day of September, and we’ve started implementing our new internal structure and planning process at Solution Tree.  We have a hefty BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal) for the next three years but definitely have the right team in place to pull it off.

But with a hefty BHAG there is always the rumbling of “What in the world is he thinking, and how in the world are we going to do that?”

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The answer to how, is yes.

The hardest thing to work through in goal setting is doubt.  If you doubt you will make it, then you won’t.  If you think you can’t, then you are right.  So start with YES and work your way backwards.  I’m like the guy from Men’s Warehouse (forget that he just got fired)  I guarantee it!

Quote by Socrates…or is it?

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So I was flying home today from Richmond, VA with a co-worker, and he and I were discussing Blogs.  I told him tonight was ‘Quote Night’ and that I had one of my favorites to post.  One that has stuck with me for years and years. He asked where I got them, and I confessed that most are just ones I remember from days gone by, or I have made up myself, but the question made me think about correct citations and credits. 

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So to be accurate tonight I went to answer.google.com to make certain my wording was correct, and that this particular quote actually came from Socrates, not Aristotle, Plato or some other dead philosopher. 

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OH NO!!!!  There is a fly in my ointment!  Nobody really knows if Socrates actually said this, and there’s lots of reason to think he did not.  One of the big AH HA’s is that all we know about Socrates is what others have written about him, since none of his original works have survived.  Gulp.

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None-the-less, here is the quote that I like so much.  Following the quote, if you’re still reading, is what I found concerning its legitimacy.

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‘The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.’

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Is this really a quote from Socrates, my grandfather, my father, or me?!?!?!?!?!

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This quote was reported in the New York Times years ago and reprinted widely.   After Malcolm Forbes (a personal hero) included Socrates’ words in a Forbes magazine editorial entitled ‘Youth’, his research staff went crazy trying to prove authenticity. They contacted a wide range of librarians, classicists, and other experts on Socrates. None knew of any source for the passage. The researchers finally called Amsterdam’s mayor, Gijsbert van Hall. Van Hall said he’d seen the lines by Socrates in a Dutch book whose title he could not recall. There the search ended.


Even though it is pretty suspect that this quote is from ole Socrates…I personally am going with. 

Our Vision Statment – the ‘Why’

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Transform education worldwide to ensure learning for all.

As Jim Collins would say in Built to Last and Good to Great, that is one Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG). And it is.  But who really wants a Little Bald Wimpy Goal (LBWG)?  Not me, I personally love goals.

If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals.

.                                                           Robert Conklin, American Educator

We are going to find a way, and we are well on our way.  Some of the International steps we have taken to-date have been to create a Canadian Company (Solution Tree Education Canada) and become partners with Hawker Brownlow in Australia in a new company, HBPLS, which provide Professional Development services at schools and at registration events.

We also have:

  • Co-Publishing Partners in – Australia, Pakistan, Ireland, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore
  • International Distributors in – Singapore, Brazil, Malaysia, the UK and Hong Kong
  • Translation Partnerships in – Canada (French), Korea, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, China, Germany Japan, Thailand and Indonesia.
    (Of which none of those were in alphabetical order.  Not a goal.)
  • We have worked with over a dozen countries to have our experts on-site in schools.
  • Douglas Rife travels to Frankfort and Abu Dhabi annually for the large International Book Fairs they host, in hopes of identifying the right new partners.
  • And, we are currently working on several new International opportunities that have large reaching potential.
The way we see it at Solution Tree is that our Authors and experts know better how to help teachers today than they did a decade ago, and a decade before then, so why keep it a secret?  Kids are kids all over the world, and we can’t imagine someone not wanting their own children to have a better education and future.
That truly is ‘why we do it.
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Quote on cash flow.

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My Dad was a very good businessman in LaPorte, IN and always knew the value of cash flow into his company.  Today in his 80s he manages his & mom’s money as well as anyone I have ever known.  Our CFO at Solution Tree & MRL constantly reminds us that “Cash Is King”.  And he is right.  We need to have cash (cash flow) to keep the day to day operations running.  Funny thing how people get attached to those paychecks!

But how important is cash flow?  Well…..

Cash is more important than oxygen.  You can buy oxygen.

 

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AAR

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In my post Greatest Evaluation Ever I mentioned that we did After Action Reviews (AAR) on each session, each day and the overall event.  We also use evaluations from our participants from each and every breakout and keynote to help the presenters improve, as well as to help us craft and create a better even each and every time we hold one.  One of our five Core Values at Solution Tree is ‘dedication to quality’, and one of our four Guiding Principals is that ‘we are a continuous learning organization’.  We work SO hard to live up to our Mission-Vision-Values-Goals, and these are maybe two of the most critical.

An AAR is a fantastic way to look back at any activity, preform an assessment and improve upon it the next time around.  Here are what I consider the five critical step in anyone’s AAR.  You can make it more complex, but you can’t make it any simpler.

  1. Describe the experience you’d like to improve and learn from.
  2. What worked?
  3. What didn’t work?
  4. If you could do this experience over-knowing what you know now-what would you do differently?
  5. What action steps and systems must you implement to create the experience you want next time.

Just this week I was told by an educator, whom I can’t name because I do not have permission, that their district is only allowed to go to Solution Tree events. Reason being is that great content, high quality experience and implementable walk-away action steps are guaranteed, and Solution Tree events are the best in the business.  Now this person may be blowing smoke…but it sounded right to me!

As for AARs, they are not for everyone…just those who want to get better and better and better and better!  That’s why we do it.

 

Share a Quote

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Okay, so I am still a newbie at this blogging stuff, but heck I’m havin fun and if both of you keep reading, I’ll keep writing.  :  )

I have to admit I just LOST this entire post due to operator error, and am re-crafting this blog with less zeal this time around.  Dang it!  Anyone relate here?

On my July 17th post I said I would commit to posting to my blog each Thursday.  Now here is a new commitment.  Each Tuesday, until I come up with a better idea, I will post one of my favorite quotes and share my opinion/insights on the quote, how it relates to my life, Solution Tree and MRL, life in ‘education’, you and me, etc.

I just finished dinner at the Boston Copley Marriott Concierge’s  Lounge, eating free food (not), drinking an expensive glass of wine (not worth the price), and reading the latest edition of FORBES Magazine.  This is a quote that struck me as a bit different, but it also is what gave me the ‘Share a Quote’ idea.

So here we go.

The definition of a pioneer is a guy with his face in the mud and an arrow in his back.   If we haven’t thought (of) it, and it’s working, then we’ll copy it and try to make it even better.  There’s no shame in it.”

Bill Marriott

I personally buy into the CASE theory (Copy And Steal Everything) as long as it is not plagiarism or just plain wrong.  But, we all need to be our own judges here, and listening to our conscience.

P.s. I did write this Tuesday, but another operator error caused it not to go out until Wednesday….dang it.

Vacation sanity

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This week I have been on vacation with my family in VT.

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Mountain biking at Von Trapp Family Lodge

One of the balances I always struggle with is work while on vacation. I know that many people just shut down all together, put on an auto-reply and disconnect. I tried that once for four days a couple of years ago, leaving my laptop and cell phone behind.  It took me at least half a day to clear my head, and I reached for my phone a dozen times within the first two hours.  My wife got an emergency phone call from my office about a medical issue with of our key leaders, and then somewhere in the middle of the fourth day my brain kicked into work mode and all the things that awaited me upon return.  Can’t say I got the full four days out of disconnect, but the wow was the e-mails that awaited. Ouch.

So this week I tried a new approach.  I have chosen to get up early, do work until 11:00 then shut down for the rest of the day. Heck with three teenagers and an eleven year old I usually have to wake up a couple of them at 11:00 to get their days rolling.

The system seems to have worked great.  Low stress of thinking about work, lots of family time, and my emails are way under control.  I feel connected yet certainly feel engaged with the whole family.  But this is my system, and it may work for you, but you have to find your own. The family deserves to have their time.

I consider our work at Solution Tree and MRL too important…and fun…to not be connected.  I like work, and heck it is my vacation too!