WIth or without a Protocol, Embrace the Wisdom of Others

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Imagine for a moment that each day, before working with others, you had an opportunity to explore social media profiles for those people you were to work with. For the sake of this exercise, focus on the profiles you have seen where people are using social media as it was intended, to further personal and professional relationships. Often, these profiles feature “Favorite Quote” sections where individuals can share quotes that are personally profound. The first quote you come across is this one, by football legend Vince Lombardi:

 “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Do you think you could personally and professionally connect with a person whose profile features this quote? The next person’s profile features this quote from the Talmud, a central text of Judaism:

 “It is not up to you to finish the work, but neither are you free not to take it up.”
Can you connect with this person? You then look at a third person’s profile, and she has a quote by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt:

 “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
After viewing this quote, you begin to explore some of the articles and posts featured in this person’s profile, as well as others. You find posts featuring human rights activists like Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X; you find posts highlighting the wisdom of Albert Einstein and Ralph Waldo Emerson; you find posts highlighting the empathy of Maya Angelou and Mahatma Gandhi. As you peruse these profiles, you learn that the people you will work with on this day have been inspired by some of the greatest thinkers in modern history.


In this hypothetical imagining, it is very easy to accept the fact that the group has been inspired by these well-known people, but is that reality? If the people I work with were not inspired by great people like these, I would like to think that they, instead, were inspired by their third-grade teachers, their baseball coaches, their mothers, their fathers, or their past colleagues and supervisors. One way or another, I hope that the wisdom of many remarkable people has been harnessed by those people I will work with on that given day.
When I think about building culture in my organization, I wonder if it's as simple as striving to access the wisdom of those people around us, so much so that it becomes part of the school's positive culture. Whether I am working with a person one-on-one or within a group, I know that collaboratively we can make a bigger difference if the wisdom of each person is allowed to contribute to the problem we are trying to solve, the solution we are trying to find, or the idea we are attempting to develop. And when working together is built-in to our routines in the workplace, the culture we hope to have will be present, as well, if the collaborative process is grounded in protocols that encourage positive, purposeful interaction. To routinely experience the powerful cultural gains that come with effective collaboration, it is essential to have protocols in place that allow voices to be heard and people to feel valued. In this blog, I regularly write about the effectiveness of protocols that are creations of the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF). However, it is my hope that readers will be able to embrace the power of hearing and seeing the words of others and the successes of others in everyday interactions, whether a protocol is present or not.

While we cannot begin each day previewing the social media profiles of the people with whom we are about to work, we can begin each day embracing the idea that we are surrounded by wisdom. These people are inspired by the wisdom of philosophical greats and of inspirational past teachers and colleagues. This wisdom walks into our workspaces each day. If we can effectively facilitate our meetings and conversations in a way that accesses this wisdom, it will not matter if the colleague is a young, recent graduate or a seasoned veteran; we will experience profound gains from those people around us and will experience dramatic results to the growth of a positive culture within the organization.

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