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Cleansing the Palette—June 2008
In the final scene of the movie When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal has run through the streets of New York to reach a New Year’s Eve party that he knew Meg Ryan would be attending. It’s just past midnight. Meg Ryan’s about to leave the party, and Billy Crystal finds her and professes his love, concluding, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
Because these columns are written nearly two months before they appear in the newsletter, I am feeling the same immediacy and urgency that Billy Crystal was feeling. You see, we are just back from the annual conference in New Orleans and I want to make EVERYTHING … HAPPEN … RIGHT … NOW. I even anticipated this feeling and wrote about it in my last column, encouraging all to capitalize on the energy of New Orleans, to return home, spread the buzz, and make new progress in bringing about necessary change in our schools, communities, and state departments of education.
But as you read this “Palette,” the school year is coming to a close and we are heading toward summer. Summer—that time of decompression and regeneration, beaches and barbecues, the universal season of down-time—this year in particular, offers an opportunity to continue building community, forge new alliances, marshall new sensibilities, and draft exciting plans at a time when we have the bandwidth to do so.
In short, summer is a prime time to “make hay while the sun shines” and lay the groundwork for a productive autumn.
Now, if you took my April column to heart, you have been expanding your networks, lighting a fire under your colleagues, and generally carrying the torch that was so brightly lit in New Orleans.
So, what are some strategies for making the best use of your summer?
Read—This may seem like an odd recommendation to make to a visual arts community, but here’s the point: If we are to better prepare ourselves to bring about change, we need to broaden our perspectives, adopt new language, and read beyond our field. That means that, in addition to taking the latest John Grisham to the beach, you should perhaps take the latest Daniel Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, or maybe even an old Stephen Jay Gould. To have a more effective vision of where we want to go, we need to look at the world through more than the lens of a teacher or that of an artist.
Take a class—and not just a typical continuing-ed class, but something outside your comfort zone: maybe a management class at a business school or a leadership class through an independent institute. There was a very interesting “debate” in an issue of Fast Company magazine last year between Bill George, a former CEO at a major technology company who is now on the faculty of the Harvard Business School, and Wendy Kopp, the president of Teach for America. They found common ground in the idea that great leadership and great teaching ability are generally found in one and the same person.
Identify a new opportunity— Part and parcel of developing new perspectives is reframing the issues to be addressed. When you approach a challenge from a different direction, it often takes on a different dimension—like climbing a mountain peak from a different side. It looks different. It presents differently. And, in all likelihood, you’ll see a different point of view that might lend itself to quicker or more substantial progress.
Solidify your team—You know who your colleagues are. Summer is the time to invest in relationships and turn colleagues into friends you can trust and count on. Instead of meeting over a draft document, meet over a cool drink or an outing to a ballgame or the beach. If you use your summer to establish relationships that go much deeper than the job description, you’ll enter the fall with greater confidence in who’s on your team.
Draft a plan—Lay out a course of action, with timelines. It’s not enough to identify an ideal outcome and a starting point. You want to lay out a step-by-step plan of action, with team assignments. Do some “scenario planning”—consider the various outcomes at each step so that you can plot various contingency plans and not get bogged down because an unexpected outcome catches you unprepared. With well-considered contingency plans, you might even be able to anticipate an unintended challenge and nip it in the bud before it has a chance to come to fruition and set your efforts back.
Get your mind right—When the prison-camp Captain in Cool Hand Luke says to Luke you have to “get your mind right,” he was talking about Luke toeing the line. I’m talking about something quite different—about establishing a frame of reference that will enable you to achieve ever greater success. Specifically, we need to recognize that educational reform for the visual arts is not a sprint, but a marathon, even with new perspectives and plans. Yet we need to continually look for and celebrate the small victories along the way that will set encouraging precedents and give us greater hope.
We have a similar summer agenda at NAEA’s national offices as we take stock of our successes over this past year and map strategies for enhancing the member experience for all who belong to the NAEA community. Up and coming this fall, we will be launching the first phase of NAEA’s all new website—a 24/7 virtual community of practice that we will be looking to expand in novel and stimulating ways. Based on your feedback, exciting plans are already underway for our Minneapolis Convention next spring. We also have an impressive line-up of new and important publications that will be coming your way in 2008-2009.
So with those thoughts—and so much to look forward to this fall—enjoy your summer. May you return refreshed, energized and with that same fire in your belly that you had when you left New Orleans. The energy and community of our annual conference is a precious gift that we need to harbor and nurture … and expand. NAEA is your professional community, created by members … for members. We will continue to seek your thoughts and your ideas as we develop strategies for advancing our profession and growing in stature. Let’s enter the next academic year with a renewed sense of purpose, and the strategies and bountiful resources of the NAEA community, to reap tremendous outcomes from our efforts.
—Deborah Reeve, NAEA Executive Director
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