Cultures of Change: The Power of Values and Time

When the fundamentals of the educational environment change then the educator and/or the educational organization must change.

Cultures that allow for more experimentation, entrepreneurship, and exploration will be quicker to the solutions necessary to succeed in the new environment.

ICE³ values are key to educational organizations quickly adjusting to the fundamental changes the education landscape. ICE³ values are Imagination, Innovation, Inquiry, Collaboration, Creativity, Curiosity, Exploration, Experimentation, and Entrepreneurship. These are the values of cultures that can change quickly.

When the fundamentals change it is important to for educational organizations to create buy-in and consensus on the front end of decisions, so that they don’t rush and fight those resistant to the cultural change on the back end.

The Japanese call this process nemawahsi, which means to prepare the tree’s roots for the soil. It’s a metaphor for getting wide input from members of the organization. Toyota famously adopted this metaphor into their idea of “lean thinking.”

Lean Thinking allows organizations to leverage their values free of unnecessary management limitations and predetermined management models. ICE³ values can be applied by a wide group of stakeholders to the new problems and situations without the constraints of past limitations and management models, which may not work in the new environment.

Because ICE³ values are applied using the philosophy of nemawashi, buy-in and consensus is developed at early in the front end through reviewing, negotiation, and discussion so that ideas and solutions once formulated can be quickly implemented with little resistance in the back end. In other words, educational organizations should go slow early in crafting the solution so that they may go fast in implementing the solution.

The largest obstacle to educational organizations, especially K-12 education, is the lack of time to utilize the nemawashi philosophy. K-12 education is constrained by mandated work hours, mandated work days, no availability for using weekends, the need for substitutes, and numerous other limitations to the availability of teacher and managers to spend time on thinking, negotiating, reviewing, and discussing problems and forging solutions.

Without question, one of the most challenging aspects to K-12 education is the disturbing lack of time to create, think, plan review, discuss, negotiate, and create buy-in for new ideas.

The fundamentals of education are changing rapidly. ICE³ values and the philosophy of nemawashi and lean thinking are critical to meeting the challenges of this changing landscape. Education must fundamentally change the way it currently operates to find ways in which TIME can be used to craft necessary solutions. Without time, solutions will not be as developed, as supported, and as effective as they need to be.

The fundamental rule that no culture, no amount of ICE³ values, nemawashi, or learn thinking can overcome is this…"T.T.T."…Things Take Time.

Catalytic Questions:

1. What “sacred cows” are consuming time that could be better used for addressing organizational/educational needs?

2. Every “right idea” eventually becomes a “wrong idea” when the fundamentals change. What “right ideas” are now wrong and need to be addressed in your culture.

3. Are the words your organization is using to describe things limiting needed changes in your culture? For example, “staff meeting or solution meeting” or  “Leadership meeting” or “Idea Lab?” Which sounds more useful?

4. Time is a valuable asset. What solutions might you find or discover by going slow, not forcing the issue, waiting, or even…putting off?

5. What activities might you substitute, combine, modify, increase, or adapt to find more time?