Selective lessons from business: learning how to learn from the tales and tragedies of business can better position school system leaders.
School Administrator › Vol. 65 Nbr. 4, April 2008
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Selective lessons from business: learning how to learn from the tales and tragedies of business can better position school system leaders.
Over the years I have participated in many gatherings where business leaders have been invited to provide educational leaders with advice regarding the way they should lead their schools. Some of these events proved satisfying, but others proved disastrous.
At one such event, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company made the comment, "If we had as many defective products coining off our line as you have coming off yours, we would sure as hell change the way the line operated." Several others chimed in with references to "the bottom line," product quality, return on investment and the need to be "hard nosed" about dismissing under-performing teachers and administrators. Later over cocktails the superintendents spent a good deal of time complaining and explaining. "Schools are not businesses," some said. "Students are not products," said others. "Sure, they can fire a poorly performing executive, but the last time I did that the guy I fired wound up getting on the school board that fired me. Business leaders don't have to deal with that kind of politics." These business leaders provided few useful lessons. Rather, the experience generated a good deal of resentment and more self-pity than is seemly among leaders charged with the difficult task of transforming elementary and secondary schools into the kind of organizations needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century. It provided a painful illustration of the wrong agenda, the wrong arena and the wrong framing of the topic. Alternative Scenario Leaders of quality businesses understand that transformation requires deep understanding of the organization's core business, values, history, purpose and potential in a changing environment that demands transformation. Because school le...See the full content of this document
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