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Yin Mei / simplicity leads to complexity which leads to resilience

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Yin Mei / simplicity leads to complexity which leads to resilience

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This goes beyond the importance of humility and into the reality that not everything has an answer that we know. We need to learn to interrogate our assumptions and be prepared to fail, and fail, till we suceed.

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Key takeaways:

There is a difference between complexity and complicatedness.

The power of collaboration lies in that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What is important is finding out how it works -- discovering the rules which govern its complexity.

Simplicity leads to complexity which leads to resilience

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I love this because so often in our efforts to ensure accountability and productivity,

end up being excessively complicated and alienated from what really matters.

That we should contact back to reality, rather than KPIs, harkens to the previous video regarding giving people purpose rather than check boxes. It's about grounding work in reality and sharing that reality with the team rather than 'protecting' teams from that information.

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For me, the irony as I was approaching the end of the video was: we already know this; we already know that engagement can be garnered through self-direction because that's what we've been trying to achieve in our own classrooms.

What I do recognise as a problem, as this is not just in departments, schools, but perhaps in Singapore as a whole, is a lack of trust of the people to do something because it matters to them. There seems to be a tendency where people are told what should matter to them and then, already robbed of purpose, they are further robbed of autonomy to handle matters the way they, given their mastery, wanted to do them.

It's about empowerment and passion and giving people that space to do something meaningful.

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Yin Mei / Leading like the Great Conductors

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Yin Mei / Leading like the Great Conductors

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My first instinct, listening to this talk, is how the work of leader and team can possibly lead to great art. Similarly, I was very caught by the idea of the joy of enabling the telling other people's stories. Ultimately though, what I took home with me was the fine balance of leading through partnerships. There is the need for both restraint and instruction, but also the space to allow members of a team autonomy and development. And with any sort of communication, there is also the need for clarity and specificty of instruction such that your team knows what exactly it is you want.

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Profile of Audience + Appropriate Method + Nature of Task = Accomplishment of Task

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Simin / Trial, Error and the God Complex

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Simin / Trial, Error and the God Complex

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Harford is very right in saying that it is hard to admit to mistakes or even have the spectre of failure hanging over you. We have such an innate need to be right (perhaps a fear even) that we cannot admit / consider the possibility of failure. But he makes an excellent point in how failures can take the evolutionary route to excellence. However, as he ends off with the quote by Shimura I wonder what exactly constitutes a "good mistake"? And if they are hard to make, what leeway do we have for having the courage to make mistakes then?

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I thought this was quite a powerful talk because it really spoke to me in terms of how true it was with regard to the engagement and productivity of staff - I find that my colleagues (and even myself at times) feel unmotivated and tired at work because there are so many processes and KPIs, and everyone is working at cross purposes. I agree with Joo Jin and Peggy that knowing what everyone else is doing is very important as it helps with the overall teamwork, so that there is no doubling of jobs. I feel that it also has the potential to facilitate cooperation, since it is easier to help one another if you know what other people are doing.

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I quite liked this talk and the idea of giving teachers the freedom to develop their own projects - something I'd certainly like to incorporate for my own literature team if I ever get the chance. However, Pink's example of Encarta vs Wikipedia made me think about the reliability of self-managed projects. As big and far-reaching as Wikipedia is, it is still considered an unreliable source of information. Thus, it does bring to mind the fact that some management is still necessary - but where to draw the line and still encourage creativity?

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Essentially, the concept of getting help was "many hands making light work". However, with the increased need to maintain KPI's and troubleshoot with immediacy, more and more agencies, or committees (in our context) are set up. And most of the time, each committee does its own work without collaborating which could end counter productive, which is why many teachers end up bogged down with may projects. And often, it is at the management level to possible consider cooperating without tough trade offs.

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This video got me thinking about the power of autonomy and wondering when is scaffolding too much scaffolding? How much framework and guidance to we need to give for creativity to take place? Is it complete freedom or some freedom? Agree with caroline about competence levels - mastery at some level provides confidence for dealing with the challenge.

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I believe that many teachers, given the adequate support for instance, white space and the autonomy to create out of interest or intrinsic motivation would be able to create a better teaching environment for our students. However, how often do we get the white space or time to create or invent something we are truly deeply bothered about considering the other demands that require our often immediate attention.

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Hopefully late is better than never? Finally posting a comment about the first video. What struck me at first about was how immersed some of the conductors were as they were trying to elicit a good performance from the players. Yet, it is not about just the enjoyment of the music produced, but also the active awareness necessary to determine when feedback needs to be given to individuals amidst the team effort. As interesting as the different styles of conducting were, what amazed me more was how well the conductors could pick out what was going wrong in the overall piece (I couldn't tell myself!) - like with the trumpet player as Kleiber was conducting.

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Caroline on complexity born on simplicity

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Caroline on complexity born on simplicity

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Simple rules are effective -

simplicity results in complexity

that leads to resilience. Important

to keep things simple.

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Effectiveness of an individual, a dept,

a school all depends on people, not

processes. Hence, interpersonal relationship,

acknowledging our colleague is paramount.

Value the one and always extend a helping hand

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Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose

Completely subscribe to the power and motivation of autonomy as it gives us, individuals meaning and purpose. However, mastery (competency) ensures our effectiveness.

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Caroline on Lead like the Great Conductor

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Caroline on Lead like the Great Conductor

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Great leaders are people who firstly empowers their team through a process of equipping and acknowledgement. Then, they take a step back to allow the members to weave their story, to contribute and be partners - to shape the present and the future of the dept and the students.

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Peggy's Thoughts on Complexity born of Simplicity

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Peggy's Thoughts on Complexity born of Simplicity

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Ideally, to simplify complexity, we need to collaborate. In reality, however, we are too bogged down with adminstrative duties / form teachership / CCAs due to the complicated structures in place.

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Peggy's Thoughts on Puzzle of Motivation

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Peggy's Thoughts on Puzzle of Motivation

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Many of us would love to have the

autonomy to create better teaching

for the students but we may lack the

mastery / pedagogy / content knowledge.

Many entered the teaching fraternity with a sense of purpose / passion but the demands / conditions at work may not be conducive enough to create self-directedness and greater engagement among teachers.

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To be able to attain the level of inner intuition is

something that amazes me in this video especially

the last segment when the conductor only used

his facial expression instead of his hand to give

direction. Many times we operate based on giving

direct / explicit instructions to students and team

members. It is definitely not developmental at all.

How do we create a condition at work where players

in the team will be self-directed and they become

their own storytellers in the process?

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I totally agree with you Joo Jin . Not just HODs but teachers as well. We are too busy to take time to understand what others are doing. If we take time to slow down, reflect, listen

and observe, we can capitalise our resources, encourage more cooperation between different levels in the department.

By doing less, we can avoid burnout and reduce stress among teachers.

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Interesting analogy to compare the different styles of conductor.

My question is can we truly not interfere and hope for audience participation and orchestra members to go in sync with one and another??

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That phrase "do without doing" actually sounds very much like what you get in some religions, like Taoism! Also quite similar to the Flow experience where people do serious work without feeling the strain of effort.

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The main take-away is success is achieved when we can "do without doing" because everyone's "successes can be heard". However, to reach this point, the orchestra, conductor and even the audience have put in a lot of time and effort before they produce beautiful melodies together. May all of us be able to create beautiful music together with our teams,

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I feel there is a need to work with trust and confidence.That the people you work with love their job as much as you do and are also professional and experts in their craft.  If we take the example of some of the conductors that Talgam showed us, they display trust in the music and in the talents of each of their players. Different players would be experts in different areas as well!

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I do agree with  you Jasmine. Sometimes we are so set on solving problems and finding ways to make things clearer and more systematic. However we forget about those that we work with in the process of doing so. Is that not an irony? It seems to me that when structures are put in place, we need to first check that everyone understands why they are there as clearly as the ones who put in the structures - that is, look for common understanding. And when things do go wrong, the  emphasis on following structures should not overpower the needs of those who are working within them.

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"Blame is not for failure but the failure to help or ask for help." I absolutely love this quote as it encourages us to trust our teammates and not fear vulnerability. I love how the speaker debunks the idea of people being more willing to help when they like each other. While he has given 6 tips to simplify, we need to reflect on how to make things less complicated and overcome the structures that are already in place.

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For me, rule #1 is also the most important: understand what others do. Sometimes HODs are so busy with their own work that they start to take for granted that their own experience enables them to understand what their teachers are doing. But every teacher does his or her work her own way, and relates to students and parents differently. So the biggest challenge is for HODs and other KPs to take time to observe, listen and try to understand what the teachers in their teams are doing. Only by doing so can we identify the bright sparks and areas for improvements in our teams.

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I really liked Talgam's message about the impact of a leader/conductor on his team, but it also brought up the question: how do we balance giving direction with giving freedom for self-expression?

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Welcome to the LTLT Wall! Please view any of the videos we've sent you, and respond to them by DOUBLE-CLICKING anywhere on this wall.

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Welcome to the LTLT Wall! Please view any of the videos we've sent you, and respond to them by DOUBLE-CLICKING anywhere on this wall.

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Do any of the videos address something that you feel is a crucial part of a team leader's job?