Chapter 3
MindShift
We Didn't Seek Permission
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead
The MindShift model is a twenty-first-century form of barn raising. It is a volunteer cohort of stakeholders and thought leaders who come together to collaborate on solving large and complex problems. A MindShift group no longer believes that business as usual, including the usual calls for “change,” is effective or sufficient.
Like a lot of breakthroughs, we simply stumbled into the idea. This happened a decade ago, when I facilitated a meeting of architectural firms, construction companies, corporate realtors, and others who were tackling a huge problem in that industry. As we worked together, I saw that everyone was addressing the problem from his or her unique perspective. Everyone was locked into his or her viewpoint. But then, in an almost magical moment, one man began to speak. Candidly. Very candidly. He almost groaned his despair with the typical patterns in his industry. And we all saw how the system was designed to create distrust.
From that moment, we began asking brand-new questions, like:
- What would a trust-based system look like?
- Is anyone doing that?
The beauty of new questions is that they change the framework of our thinking; they also take everyone beyond their own wheelhouses. And that tends to make people less rigid, more respectful, and more cooperative.
That was the birth of the MindShift process. We knew we were onto something when that first effort (captured in our book The Commercial Real Estate Revolution) won the 2009 CoreNet Global Innovator of the Year Award.
The K–12 MindShift Project
This book represents the third MindShift project.
For this one, we built a cohort of about 60 highly respected and very diverse leaders. And we made sure that they would be able to play together well! Then we spent time together, going to several three-day summits at essential sites around the country; we did this for 18 months. In the process, we become collaborators and friends. And we found that sometimes our best times, our most insightful times, occurred when we were “off duty,” such as around a table in a restaurant.
We all saw that our current national path of education reform is both futile and destructive to our kids and nation's future. As a group, we were white-paper-weary, policy-summit-cynical, brainstorm-fatigued, and sick of conferences and workshops. We were also tired of trends, best-selling solutions, new studies, scandals, and politics. However, when these same leaders saw a classroom of kids really engaged with learning, the resulting positive energy and joy invigorated our discussions for days.
What started as a loose and extremely diverse gathering soon transformed into a team compelled to change one piece of the world. That transformation, however, was not because MindShift offered a grand plan or magical process. It just seeped in as each person learned another person's story and discovered a kindred spirit beneath the battle scars. We found concert about the hearts and minds of our kids. The human connection restored hope like the old stump in the ancient proverb.
Though its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil. At the scent of water it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant.
The four criteria for receiving an invitation to join a MindShift are expertise, a diverse viewpoint, a commitment to the journey and the ability to play well with others. Michael Lagocki, our summit designer, facilitator, and live scribe, established our first protocol at the very beginning.
“You are all here because you are among the best at what you do and you care about the future of our kids. Now that we've established that you are among the best there is no need to prove it over the next few days. We're going to ask that you hang up your superhero capes while we're together!”
The Pancake Roundtable Incubator
For more than 15 years I've met once a month with five other business owners at the Original Pancake House on Midway in Dallas. I have referenced this group in each of my books because they played a role in each of them.
The Pancake House Roundtable reflects the soul and values of a MindShift: deep respect, open trust, strong debate, a drive to learn, and no superhero capes. We don't promote our agendas or ourselves; we have learned to focus on helping one another.
Over the years our menu orders have shifted from eggs, bacon, and pancakes to oatmeal and egg-white omelets. And the decades of personal and business achievements, losses, struggles, successes, and the dynamics of aging have all seemed to strip theory and pride away and make us more aware that life doesn't follow our chosen patterns or preferences. We no longer have easy answers. We don't play games.
But there is something stabilizing about a monthly ritual of a meal with friends and colleagues. Like standing around a campfire on a cold night, those breakfasts seem to take us away from the noise, the glitter, and the stress of modern life. In that place we all find a clearer signal for hearing what's coming down the road.
Robert has been our waiter throughout the years. He is worthy of mention because he always served us relationally, never as a transaction. We've not met anyone quite like Robert. He will ask, “Do you want your usual or do you want to swap the grits for the tomatoes like you did last month?” Then he itemizes your order just to confirm it is right. After 15 years Robert was moved to a new location on MacArthur. Guess where we'll be for our next roundtable.
I presented the idea of my last two books at the Roundtable. It seemed natural since both books addressed issues and industries familiar to them. I didn't expect any response from them about education, except for perhaps a few stories about their kids.
But after Bill and John pitched the idea of a K–12 MindShift, I took it to the Roundtable. I needed to hear their unique input. Besides, I thought, one of them may confirm that the project was as crazy at it struck me in the beginning. But, to my surprise, Greg Wilkinson told me about the Momentous Institute. And he knew a lot about it. He introduced me to Michelle Kinder, Executive Director. He also introduced me to Rosemary Perlmeter, who founded Uplift Education, an association of 34 charter schools serving over 14,000 students.
They both—Michelle and Rosemary—became tour guides into worlds I would have never discovered on my own. They helped me clearly see some of the challenges that confront education. So right out of the chute a Roundtable friend gave me two pivotal relationships, and ones that had nothing to do with his industry. It was all a pure gift that came through relationship. There was nothing transactional about it.
You Can Do This, Too
In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, Steve Johnson says that idea incubators (like my Pancake Roundtable) play a central role in change ventures. If you are a parent, educator, or concerned citizen and want to see change, consider creating your own version of a Pancake Roundtable Incubator. It may be your mastermind circle, Wednesday Bible Study group, golfing buddies, neighbors, or another gathering of friends. The forum and regular gathering provides a place to think out loud, listen to people who respect and care about what you think, and a forum for processing thoughts, testing assumptions, and arriving at an action plan. Oh, I almost forgot—Johnson also says that great ideas sometimes take 10 or more years of formation before they spring into action.
This is my third MindShift effort. The first one baked for almost seven years before I had the clarity and confidence to take a risk and test my idea with the owner of a large office manufacturer. I was very surprised when he liked the idea and asked for a proposal. I should not have been surprised. After all, I had been thinking about it for years and refining my ideas through discussions with my friends at the Pancake Roundtable. Have you been considering that a similar venue might help move you to action?
I want each of you to understand; the K–12 MindShift project never sought permission. We just walked in like we owned the place and knew what we were doing. John and Bill were not looking for authorization to change the education landscape when they approached me. And yet, if someone asked you to pick a team for leading such a mission, you would not have picked John and Bill or me. You probably wouldn't pick yourself. That is because there seems to be an unspoken rule: “Large-scale, complex problems are reserved for an authorized body of credentialed experts.”
That mindset is a myth.
We should never forget that a child was the first one who saw that the emperor had no clothes.