Archive for the ‘Change’ Category

Why it’s tempting to feel powerless

by Bruce Kasanoff

You know the feeling… you’re stuck in a bad place. Maybe your boss is taking credit for your work, maybe your relationship is in a rut, perhaps the business you started three years ago is going… nowhere.

If only you had more power, more control.

Flashback to Philadelphia, with winter bearing down. It’s the last day of my first semester as a graduate student at Wharton, a long time ago. My eccentric – some said crazy – professor is asking us for feedback.

Kenwyn Smith drove many of my peers crazy. He was teaching organizational behavior, and once suspended his topic for the day to focus on why we let a female student who was late for class enter and sit down without anyone objecting. He made her sit on the floor until we decided what to do, but she ran out crying before the discussion came to a conclusion.

I liked Professor Smith. He made us think about why we did things, especially how we behaved in groups.

Earlier in the semester, Smith took us on a weekend retreat, to an old summer camp. We engaged in a simulation, in which Smith would set some rules, we’d live with them for a while, and then he’d change the rules again.

So on that last day of class, I raised my hand and told him I thought he’d gone too long between each rule change. He started jumping up and done and screaming, “Yes, yes!” (I was thinking: what? what?)

Fortunately, he explained.

People in groups always feel stuck in the middle. They feel powerless to change things. Even senior executives and CEOs often feel this way.

You might think your CEO has all the power, but she or he might feel trapped between employees, the Board, investors and perhaps regulators.

Smith asked me, “Why didn’t you try to change the rules?”

I replied, “Because you had that role.”

But he pointed out that he’d never said he was the only one who could change the rules, and even if he had, I could have pushed back at any time. But I didn’t.

Of all the things I’ve learned, that lesson has stuck with me the longest.

You have a much greater ability to change your circumstances than it seems. You don’t have to wait for the rules to change; if you don’t like them, change them. Change everything. Don’t wait for someone else to change.

You might also like: Do you give a damn?

Great teachers and dynamic entrepreneurs

by Bruce Kasanoff

The names Glenn, Ashley and Carol come to mind when I think of what’s right with our educational system. It still attracts amazing human beings like them, who have real compassion, insight, talent and enthusiasm.

Glenn taught two of my three “children.” Ashley just taught my youngest. And one day many years ago, Carol pulled my daughter aside and told her, “If you don’t understand what I’m teaching you and I don’t notice, you need to grab me by the lapels and say, ‘I don’t understand.’” My quiet daughter got the message, and became an assertive advocate for her own needs.

But these wonderful teachers succeed despite the system, not because of it. Most schools are still run in an outdated mass production, assembly line system that barely works anymore to make cars, nevermind bring out the best in our next generation.

Unfortunately, our schools are not going to change much from the inside out. We need to change them from the outside in.

Government isn’t going to do this. Entrepreneurs are.

You see this already happening as entrepreneurial firms hack away at the edges of our educational system, offering test prep services, online learning and distance tutoring. Many top colleges are helping, by offering free access to some of their courses. Other schools routinely offer distance learning options.

This trend should accelerate. It has to, because many students simply aren’t being taught the skills necessary to succeed in the world they are inheriting. We already have a lot of teachers. Now we need entrepreneurs to create a better system for them and their students.