Developmental Conversations

 From HBR

• Make developmental conversations routine. At least once a month, check in with your employees about their growth trajectory. Questions to track include: “What are your personal developmental goals for the coming month? What are you in the process of learning? What are your career goals, and how can I help you achieve them?”

Help your team find quiet

from Harvard Business Review

Life is noisier and more distracting than ever. As a manager, how can you build a team culture that truly honors quiet time? Start by deliberately talking about it. Begin an open dialogue with your team in which each member has an opportunity to answer the following questions:

• In what ways do I create noise that negatively impacts others? The best starting point is to have everyone check-in with themselves. Encourage people to question whether any given habit is necessary or if it’s really just an unexamined impulse — a default that needs to be reset.
• What noisy habits bother me most? This isn’t an opportunity to point fingers but ask people to be honest about what most disrupts their day.
• How can I help others find the quiet time they need? This is an opportunity for everyone to step up and to commit to group norms such as “no email Fridays” or “no meeting Wednesdays.”

How to Re-Energize - purpose, to don't do wall

 

Here are some simple ways to give yourself a little boost when you’re feeling down. Write your purpose on a post-it. This might be your overall career purpose (why you’ve chosen the profession that you are in) or a micro purpose (what’s motivating you to do a great job on a particular project or task). Keep it at your desk as a constant visual reminder of why you do what you do, especially when things are exhausting or stressful. Create “a wall of encouragement.” Take any messages of encouragement, awards, positive feedback, or even memes that make you laugh and put them near your desk or store them in a digital folder. Look at them when you need to feel re-energized and appreciated. Write up a "to-don’t" list. What things are you currently doing that are sucking up your energy? Identify which ones you can stop doing and put them on a list. These might be certain people that you decide not to see, habits that you want to break, or tedious tasks that can be automated or delegated.

This tip is adapted from “Stop Trying to Manage Your Time,” by Amantha Imber

Teaching Students Healthy Tech Behaviors

 Experts stressed the need for schools to teach students healthy technology behaviors as explicitly as they teach in-person classroom behaviors and social norms. That means helping students to become mindful about:

• Physical effects: Identifying when and how technology use may change a student’s sleep, eating, or exercise routines. For example, students may learn how to schedule screen time or change color settings to improve sleep.
• Mental effects: Identifying when technology use is causing cognitive stress or emotional distress. For example, students can learn how to limit their use of social media sites that spark negative body images of themselves, or they can take breaks from screen time when they have difficulty focusing.
• Social effects: Identifying how to be a “good digital citizen,” including protecting your own and other’s privacy and behaving in civil rather than bullying ways on digital platforms. This also means teaching students how to balance in-person and online socializing.

From EdWeek - link

Guidelines for an Inclusive Hiring Process

 From Marshall Memo: Guidelines for an Inclusive Hiring Process

In this Chronicle of Higher Education article, search consultant Amy Crutchfield

(WittKieffer) says the internal dynamics of a hiring committee have a direct impact on whether

candidates feel welcomed, respected, and treated fairly – and therefore on the diversity and

quality of who’s ultimately hired. She has eight suggestions for university searches that apply

equally in K-12 schools:

• Build rapport and trust within the committee. This means taking time for getting-to-

know-you exercises, however awkward they may feel. Each member should talk about their

background and how it relates to the search; overall, the process should not feel rushed.

• Early on, establish rules for how decisions will be made. Crutchfield suggests a

“community agreement” that includes listening to others’ ideas, disagreeing respectfully, not

talking over other colleagues, and assuming positive intent. It’s helpful for committee members

to review all candidates’ files before the first meeting and come prepared to talk about their top

choices, before they’re influenced by groupthink.

• Provide training and resources on inclusive hiring practices. So that everyone is on

the same page, the committee needs a presentation, literature, and perhaps videos on best

practices, including interview questions that are appropriate and inappropriate and being aware

of implicit bias.

• Actively counteract structural hierarchies. “People in positions of power must be

aware of the weight of their opinions,” says Crutchfield. “Be mindful not to always speak

first.” The same is true for extroverted members who tend to dominate conversations. If a

member is quiet in a meeting, the chair might reach out afterward and say, “I noticed we did

not hear a lot from you in the meeting, and I wanted to check in with you on how you are

viewing the decision.”

• Recognize biases and beware of “fit.” Committee members need to be aware of the

tendency to favor or downgrade candidates based on race, gender, sexual orientation, social

class, geography, and perceived prestige. “A key principle of an inclusive hiring process,” says

Crutchfield: “Let each person’s record speak for itself… Recognize that ‘fit’ can be interpreted

as code for wanting people who look just like you.” Rather, think in terms of “culture add” –

how a candidate might add to the diversity of the team or institution. Finally, she says, if a

committee is giving a white male candidate a pass (e.g., a gap in the résumé or frequent job

changes), all other candidates should be cut the same slack.

• Screen and interview “stretch” candidates. Crutchfield encourages committees to

interview one or two outliers, “calling people in, not out.” “Strength on paper doesn’t always

transfer to being impressive in an interview,” she says. “Likewise, someone who looks

3Marshall Memo 931 April 11, 2022

mediocre on paper can really wow you in person… Interviews can be nerve-racking, and some

people take a while to warm up.”

• Assess diversity at every point of the process. Screening résumés, narrowing to first-

round interviews, and selecting finalists, the committee should pause and ask if every effort has

been made to ensure a diverse pool and include those who could bring different experiences or

skills.

• Handle video interviews respectfully. These days, first-round interviews are often

done via Zoom. “This should go without saying, but it’s worth repeating,” says Crutchfield:

“During video interviews, it’s not OK for committee members to take phone calls, check e-

mail, depart suddenly, and exhibit other such distracting and disrespectful behaviors.” It’s also

helpful to give candidates the questions 30 minutes before a remote interview; that way they

have a heads-up and can refer to a written text but won’t be overly rehearsed.

“8 Ways for Search Committees to Be Inclusive” by Amy Crutchfield in The Chronicle of

Higher Education, April 15, 2022 (Vol. 68, #16, pp 58-60)

Reading

 

“Lezende jongen,” by Frans Hals

Kerouac and Fantasy baseball

 https://www.openculture.com/2015/04/jack-kerouacs-secret-obsessive-fantasy-baseball-hobby-before-fantasy-sports-became-a-phenomenon.html