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Archive for 'Meaningful Metaphors'

My System-Seeing “Problem”…

My system-seeing “problem”… I’ve finally realized that it’s not what I knew that has been important, … it’s been my way-of-Seeing.  A capacity that helped me “know” (or believe I did) by providing a way for me to see through organizational complexity to its simple root causes. So, what’s wrong with that?  After all, Oliver […]

Where’s the Picture on the Box top?

While we are continually urged to get “out-of-the-box” so we can find new ways to “connect-the-dots” within it, our continuing difficulties finding those more effective dot-connecting relationships might suggest it’s time to revisit the idea of “boxes” as containers for ”dots” that need to be connected. Consistent with this site’s use of metaphors to tap […]

The MCPS “Bathtub” is not leaking…

In a posting earlier this year – An Old Dog plans new tricks… I picked up on a fearful concern expressed, both inside and outside Montgomery County, about the consequences of the community’s selection — during a time of diminishing state and local resources — of a replacement for the superintendent who was retiring after […]

The Haynesworth – Rhee Connection

It’s not surprising at a time when the idea of individual players getting high salaries isn’t questioned that the Washington Redskins Albert Haynesworth might forget that football is a team sport. Unfortunately, ignoring that fundamental truth is not an option for Mike Shanahan, the teams’ coach — who is held individually accountable for the results […]

The School Reform Game

In a September 06, 2010 Newsweek article, “Why School ‘Reform’ Fails: Student motivation is the problem” Robert J. Samuelson brings his readers to the edge of understanding the problem, but then leaves them hopeless about its solution. In the tradition of this site, I’ll fall back on another metaphor to suggest why it’s not hopeless… […]

Right Clothes, Wrong Emperor!

A week doesn’t go by that I don’t read or hear a criticism about schools that, to its originator, makes sense. I’m sure the writer or speaker is as frustrated as I am about the conditions that education must respond to today, but more frustrating to me is the nature of their frustration. In fact, […]

Copernicus’ Curse and Galileo’s Pain

For years I’ve admired Copernicus, history’s most important paradigm-shifter.  In fact I put him on the cover of the video I developed for AASA in 1995, and felt pleased when Meg Wheatley commented that it “gets people to start their thinking at a deeper level. So they don’t end up tinkering.” At the time, I […]