Taking the opposable mind and integrative thinking * to the arena  (Page 2/3)

Schmitt continues.... For me, the lesson of the Trojan horse for business is simple. Leaders must free themselves of strategic planning processes that yield incremental results (or no results - my comment). They must take a truly creative approach to strategy develop and execution. The chief executives, department heads, and entrepreneurs with whom I speak all say they need big and bold strategies to compete. They tell me they want to think out of the box, develop disruptive strategies, and execute in bold strokes that shake up the markets.

Think independently

The title of this section references It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks authored by Howard Behar, former President, Starbucks International. Another non-school publication perhaps having significant, relevant, and powerful implications to those of us who lead schools and their personnel.

Howard behar shares:

Behar continues: there is no rule book for being human

I prefer to think of the guidelines we need as a set of standards or expectations. Explain to people what you expect of them, and they will surprise you and go beyond what you could have ever imagined. Rules drive me crazy. When things are rule bound, people stop pleasantly surprising you, an more, they stop trusting themselves. The truth is, it's not possible to train every person by breaking down every possible task or situation into totally prescribed tasks. It's a wothless investment. Instead of writing manuals that lock people into dehumanizing behavior (Creighton comment, "sound familiar?"), we should focus on outcomes we want and the reasons behind them. At Starbucks, it doesn't take a rule book to know that our goal is to enthusically satisfy the people we serve (Behar, p. 51).