The Propeller

I spent a wonderful weekend with a group of educational administrators most of whom are early in their leadership careers. I like working with early career leaders because it gives me an opportunity to share knowledge, principles, and frameworks that have proven helpful to me over the years – things I wish I really understood or could have articulated better earlier in my own career. The application of Occam’s Razor. Chesterton’s Fence. The Map is Not the Territory. Discerning the difference between signal and noise, something I like to refer to as “the perils of ‘big ears.’” The duty of loyalty. Productive conflict. Knowing what success looks like but also using inversion to assess where things could go wrong so you can mitigate beforehand. Charlie Munger, a big fan of inversion thinking, is famous for saying, “All I want to know is where am I going to die so I’ll never go there.”

We’ve had quite a few reach outs from heads of schools and senior leaders these past couple of weeks. I chalk that up to spring break and actually having the time to disengage from the day to day, which then allowed for flying at a higher altitude, thinking bigger, and longer term. It’s been great having conversations about what could be possible at schools across the country and the steps necessary to get there.