In World War II, and probably in other wars too, American bombers sought to destroy the bridges of our enemies.  This single act served to thwart their movements and cut them off from supplies and each other.  It was an effective strategy and theoretically, no one had to die (although I'm sure many did).

A few years ago, the state highway department replaced a bridge near our house.  Who knew how often we drove across that bridge on a daily basis?  It was the most direct route to town, to work, and school, and also went right past my parents' house.  A detour was provided, but certainly was not the preferred route.  My mother often complained during this construction time that we rarely saw each other any more.  It was because the detour didn't allow us to easily go to their place even though we were less than 1 mile apart.  We had to back track and make the effort or they had to go the long way around to get to us, and apparently we often fell short.  Bridges are significant infrastructures.  They connect us to others and the services we need.  They make our lives more convenient and surprisingly, more meaningful.  Sometimes we fail to appreciate those bridges until they are unavailable.  When confronted with those large orange detour signs that warn us "ROAD CLOSED AHEAD - BRIDGE OUT" -  we realize reaching our destination just got a little more difficult, and we might not be the only ones who feel cut off.

One of my passions in education is moving from knowing and doing.  With this in mind, it is important to remember that the very nature of bridges helps us connect, getting us from point A to point B, whether it's through travel, learning, or taking us from knowing to doing. Examining and creating connections to real life or things that are familiar, makes learning meaningful.  Personal connections make everything we do more fulfilling as we feel a part of the larger group where we can receive support while working toward common goals.

Personal connections are indeed bridges to understanding.  My favorite teacher in middle school and high school was certainly knowledgeable in his field (English) but it was the relationships he built with his students that built the bridges that helped us understand and feel connected.  We cared about what he wanted to teach us because he cared about us.  He made it a point to know us and make us feel that what we thought and did mattered.  When we were seniors, we dedicated our yearbook to him.  Simon and Garfunkel's, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" had been a big hit during my high school days (yes, that makes me old) and we used that theme to honor this man and the influence he had on us.  I often use the following quote from Teddy Roosevelt in my workshops and with my students, "People don't care what you know until they know that you care."  Caring is the first step in building bridges.  This is a valuable lesson we must take with us everyday as we go to work or school, work within the community, and especially when we are with family and friends. Taking the time to build those bridges is truly worth it in terms of how it makes us feel, others feel, and how effective we can be.

New situations would be made easier if we worked harder at building bridges.  When we enter a room with unfamiliar people, making those personal connections during introductions helps us remember their name and immediately builds a bridge.  Extend that to the work place or a group that you are set to lead.  As the new "boss," the first priority should be building bridges, relationships if you will, with the staff/employees/members. It is imperative to take the time to woo their hearts so you both believe they matter, both as people and as workers or members, much like we woo the affections of a potential mate.  Those team building activities at the beginning of meetings or class may seem like fluff, but they are important to building those relationships that will make a difference in how well the organization will run. You may have big dreams and high expectations for those you oversee, but to paraphrase Roosevelt, until they know you care, they won't care what you know or what you want them to do.   We have great power at our finger tips if we realize that everything we do and everything we don't do matters.  

New employees or members would also benefit from our efforts to build bridges so that their experience as a part of our team is beneficial to both them and us.  They will learn the required processes more quickly if we have established mentoring relationships and a framework to provide information and support so that their transition to this new role will allow them the opportunity to be successful.

Answering "Why" questions helps build bridges to understanding the need for change.  It helps make the "how" and the "what" more meaningful by defining the purpose more clearly.  Taking the time to address the "why" questions - proactively if possible - builds bridges by recognizing the individual needs, questions, and concerns of those involved.  Leaders, including parents, often start with the 'what" or the "how" and only address the "why" if asked.   Again, everyone needs to feel like they are being heard - that what they think and feel matters.  As a result our responses to those questions that are voiced matter too.  And FYI, despite what you may have heard, "Because I said so" isn't an effective bridge-building response either. 

Then there are those times we must rebuild bridges that have been damaged or destroyed by our own words or actions.  The Marshall Plan was enacted to rebuild war-torn Europe after World War II.  One of the first things that was addressed was to rebuild the infrastructure (roads and bridges) to connect people and reduce their isolation.  These were the very bridges that we had bombed just a few months or years earlier and now we were set to help rebuild them.  We have all had moments where we have said or done things we wished we could take back, but the damage was done.  How we respond will determine if the relationship remains strained or ruined, or if we can find ways to re-connect.  We can't undo the damage but we can go forward and rebuild.  As our babysitter used to tell our kids, "Sorry doesn't fix it, but you can change that behavior."  A few years ago, I reconnected with my childhood best friend, after years of estrangement over some stuff that happened in college (pretty silly as I look back), because she reached out to build a bridge across our strained relationship.  I am thankful every day that she took that chance and that I was able to respond in kind so that we could rebuild that friendship.  That new bridge is priceless.

What bridge will you build today?  How will you be a better friend? How will you be a better leader?  How will you make a difference in the lives of others?  As you find a way to make someone feel like they matter, remember YOU matter too!

It would be nice if K-State, KU and Wichita State athletic wins were the most prevalent headlines featuring the State of Kansas.  Unfortunately, Kansas has had its share of national headlines lately with some of the decisions being made in the legislature and by the governor, bills being proposed, and issues being raised.  And this is just about education!  

There have been several other headlines generated from our economic policies that stripped our schools of much needed funds, forced additional hardships on those who need our help, and bills passed that  included legalized discrimination as part of public policy (which thankfully has since been voted down).  It makes for a hotly contested election season; one that will be loaded with vitriol and misleading information.  It is time for Kansas voters to be informed.  It is time to teach our kids how to think critically so they can be informed citizens and not swayed by the influence of big money, attention grabbing headlines, and the faulty thinking and actions of our leaders.  This is not a made-for-TV reality show.  This is real life.  These are our children at stake.

Today's headline that grabbed my attention came from the Lawrence Journal World:  Area Legislator Hopes to Halt Common Core in its Tracks.  Wow! Another attempt to derail something in education that has been approved by the Kansas State Board of Education and is currently being implemented in schools across Kansas!  So I clicked on the link and began to read (you can too by clicking on the article title).  Much to my disdain, but unfortunately not a huge surprise, was the notion that the representative in question (who thankfully does not live in my district), put this bill before the House Education Committee which would nullify Common Core ELA (English/Language Arts) and Math, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards and prohibit any school from administering tests aligned to those standards.  Seriously?  

But here's the kicker, and I quote:  "The Common Core standards, I do believe, are not addressing the problems of the children," Dove said.  It's not the standards themselves that worry him.  In fact, he said, "I haven't seen the actual content of the Common Core.  However I do not believe it is within the scope of our federal government to put something together when it comes to education," Dove continued. End quote.  

Well here are a couple of lessons from the Common Core ELA Standards for this legislator if he chooses to read them before his bill is voted on: 

From the Reading Anchor Standard #1:  Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

How can you make logical inferences about Common Core if you haven't read the text?  We want to teach our children to read the text and be able to cite evidence to support what they believe to be true.  Perhaps the adults in their life should model this skill.

From the Speaking and Listening Anchor Standard #3:  Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.

I am hesitant to make judgments based on the quotes in one article, but on the surface it appears that this legislator's beef is with the political view that the federal government should not tell states (Kansas) or local schools what to teach. Well they didn't and if this legislator had been listening, or reading, or doing his homework, he would know this by now.

If you haven't taken a look at the Common Core Standards - do it now.  You don't have to be an educational expert to read the ELA Anchor Standards (page 10). Look at the verbs they are asking kids to do - "read closely, examine, analyze, make inferences, integrate and evaluate content."  

Or look on page 6 of the Math Standards for the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice that reach across all content areas.  What business doesn't want their employees to make sense of problems, reason, construct viable arguments, persevere, etc.?

Kansas parents and citizens are finally starting to hear the voice of reason and are beginning to stand up to the special interests and misinformed people that would undermine our educational foundation and reduce the effectiveness of Kansas educators.  If that happens, Kansas kids lose; businesses lose; and Kansas will become irrelevant, known only for the Wizard of Oz, some basketball wins, and a place to pass through on the way to Colorado.  We are better than that.  We have a beautiful state with wonderful people and caring educators who work hard and want what's best for kids.  Unfortunately we have some leaders who don't believe we know how to think for ourselves so someone outside our state must tell us how to think, vote, and act. 

I, for one, think the lessons to be learned from Kansas leaders making today's headlines are that if you practiced the knowledge and skills offered in the Common Core framework, we wouldn't be having this divided political mess we are in right now.   Stay informed.  Keep Educating Yourself.

Leadership is usually associated with the view from the top.  But too often, leaders fail to see what everyone else sees because they haven't taken the time or felt the need to find another perspective.

Before you say, "I don't want to read this blog because I'm not a leader," keep in mind we all are leaders in some form....maybe not intentionally, but at least by design, because of the roles that we have as a parent, spouse, employee, church or community member. 

Leadership is something I do, something I have had done to me, but most importantly, is something I am interested in improving.  I have a shelf full of books with thoughts on leadership.  I subscribe to Dan Rockwell's leadership blog (food for thought in an efficient 300 words or less!)  And I firmly believe, as my friend Dayna always says, "Leadership Matters!"

There are many ways to examine the effectiveness of leadership styles.  So let's focus on changing an often used pattern that does not produce the kind of results one would like to have.  My question becomes, "What would leadership look like if it was viewed from the bottom up?"

True leadership is about people.  Often our leaders are about management, which involves "things".  How differently would our results be if we focused on the leading of people so that the "things" could get accomplished?

The business model of Why, How, and What developed by Simon Sinek, and shared by Lois Brown Easton in Learning Forward's Tools for Learning Schools from an educational perspective,  shows us how leaders can inspire action and sustain the changes that are being implemented.  A typical top down initiative would find the leader telling you what to do and how to do it, leaving you asking why and feeling like you've been forced to act as you mumble under your breath.  We've all experienced this whether it was our father, a teacher, or our boss and it feels like, "Do as I say!"  And the answer to our often unspoken "why" question, is "Because I said so!" 

But what if the leader had shared the why first, helping stakeholders understand the need for change, before presenting the how, and the what? Consider how that one strategic move could adjust your whole attitude toward the change?  

Why clarifies.  Why sets the stage.  Why allows opportunities for stakeholders to ask their own questions and can lead to a belief that the change is necessary so they are more receptive to how it will occur and what they will have to do.  So in effect we have reversed the typical outside - in pattern.... looking now from the inside - out, considering the thoughts and feelings of the people you lead in order to get things done!  

The people are the heart of any group or organization.  Keeping their perspective in mind helps you to lead inside - out and from the bottom up!  Not only does leadership matter, how you lead matters the most!