Gardner said this on page 46 in his book Five Minds for the Future:
The ability to knit together information from disparate sources into a coherent whole is vital today. The amount of accumulated knowledge is reportedly doubling every two or three years. Sources of information are vast and disparate, and individuals crave coherence and integration. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann has asserted that the mind most at a premium in the twenty first-first century will be the mind that can synthesize well.
We have been blessed to be a part of the LEAD program at UMHB where we are able to practice the skill of synthesizing every time we write a paper, create a blog, or present a topic. Is there a better example of what Gardner is talking about than what every cohort member is being asked to do on each assignment? The skills we are learning today are preparing us to lead our stagnant education system towards meaningful change.
Keep on synthesizing!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Truth Hurts
First, congratulations to Jennifer and Randall on their marriage in Dallas on the 13th. I can not go to Dallas next weekend but we can celebrate with her in our next class. May God bless your relationship.
Bennis writes, "The one thing a president needs above all is the truth. all of it, all the time, and it is the one thing a president is least likely to get from his assistants, if they are cut from the same cloth." Obviously, one can substitute principal, director, or any other leadership position for the word president in the quote above. Do leaders have to surround themselves with people who have the same core values? The answer may be yes, however, leaders must also surround themselves with people who have different strengths, perspectives and who are "smart enough to know the truth and independent enough to speak it."
So Cohort 4, when you get your next big promotion or leadership position, who are you going to surround yourself with? People who look and talk just like you? People who always agree with you? How important will the level of trust play in your relationship with those who follow you?
Bennis writes, "The one thing a president needs above all is the truth. all of it, all the time, and it is the one thing a president is least likely to get from his assistants, if they are cut from the same cloth." Obviously, one can substitute principal, director, or any other leadership position for the word president in the quote above. Do leaders have to surround themselves with people who have the same core values? The answer may be yes, however, leaders must also surround themselves with people who have different strengths, perspectives and who are "smart enough to know the truth and independent enough to speak it."
So Cohort 4, when you get your next big promotion or leadership position, who are you going to surround yourself with? People who look and talk just like you? People who always agree with you? How important will the level of trust play in your relationship with those who follow you?
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