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If we listen only to the smartest person in the room, we miss out on discovering the smarts that the rest of the room has to offer.
Our greatest potential isn't always hidden inside us - sometimes it sparks between us, and sometimes it comes from outside our team altogether.
Weak leaders silence voice and shoot the messenger.
Strong leaders welcome voice and thank the messenger
Great leaders build systems to amplify voice and elevate the messenger.
FINLAND
// POWERHOUSE IN EDUCATION
Helsinki
Olympics was held in 1952.- July 19 to August 3. It was the XV Olympiad. It
marked the first Summer Games after World War II where the Soviet Union
participated for the first time and competed with USA for the top medal spot.
These games followed the cancelled 1940 Olympics slated for Helsinki.
Helsinki
is the capital of Finland, a country of 5.6 million people.
The
highlight of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics was the unique triple Gold won the
Czech runner, Emil Zatopek, in the 5000m, 10000m, and marathon.
The
Helsinki Olympics marked India’s first ever individual Olympic medal after
independence. KDJadhav had won a bronze in men’s freestyle wrestling
(Bantamweight) that was a landmark. India’s Hockey team had won the Gold medal
in Field hockey in this Olympics.
Even
as a very young boy who was growing up with scanty orientation, I had come
across a few magazines – print was the only media available to me at that time,
where they extolled the Helsinki Olympics. Those images are still vivid in my
memory.
I
didn’t know much geography. For me, both Finland and Poland seemed alike.
The
late Malayalam Cine actor, Sreenivasan, in an outburst in one of his popular
films was seen shouting at his adversaries, “Never speak a word about Poland.”
I
had often wondered why educationists from Kerala were making a beeline for
Finland. I felt it was only a small country with a population less than that of
Kerala.
As
I was reading ‘Hidden Potential’ by Adam Grant, I came across the greatness of
Finland in the field of education among the nations of the world. Though a
generation earlier, Finland had been known as education backwater, the nation
had suddenly burst into the top on educational excellence in the world.
Principals,
policymakers and journalists had quickly flocked to Finland to discover the
secret sauce that could turn their schools around. But it was not an easily
exportable commodity. Some of the essential ingredients for the transformation were
local. Finland had an affluent homogenous population of just 5.6 million
people. Though these ingredients might have played a role in Finland’s meteoric
rise, extensive research had made it evident that Finland did not possess any
magic ingredients that had triggered the quantum leap.
It
was figured that much of their success stemmed from the culture they had
created. The culture is rooted in a belief in the potential of all students.
Instead of singling out the best and the brightest, Finnish schools are
designed to give every student the opportunity to grow. Here the achievement
gaps between schools and between students were the smallest in the world.
Being
disadvantaged was less of a disadvantage in Finland than anywhere else. Along
with the high performers, they had the lowest rate of low performers.
In
Finnish schools, the popular mantra is,”We can’t afford to waste a brain.” This
ethos makes their educational culture distinct. They know that the key to
nurturing hidden potential is not to invest in students who show early signs of
high ability. It is to invest in every student regardless of apparent ability.
The quote from Marva Collins is very much relevant here:
“Just as Michelangelo thought there was an angel locked inside every piece of marble,
Adam Grant in ‘Hidden Potential’ has made the following observations on the education system in Finland.
1. Finland’s education system has created
a culture of opportunity for all.
2. Around the world children go ahead or
fall behind due to the cultures created in schools and classrooms.
3. Finland believes that each child has
the intelligence and has the potential to excel.
4. Success isn’t reserved for the gifted
and the talented alone.
5. The focus is on developing the
individual interests of each student.
6. They have professionalized education.
7. The requirement is that all teachers
have master’s degree from the best institutions.
8. The teachers are paid well.
9. There is individualized support for
each student.
1 If they are weak anywhere, they are
given more attention.
11 They believe the cultivation of the
desire to read nourishes individual interests.
1 Reading is the basic skill for all
subjects. If you don’t have the motivation to read, you can’t study any subject.
1 Reading is the gateway to
opportunities.
1 If you want your children to read you
have to let them see that you are doing exactly that..
1 The classroom ratio is, one teacher per
20 students.
1 Finland does not put performance above
well being.
1 They do well due to a combination of
high quality teaching, intrinsic motivation fuelling deeper learning, lower
stress, lower test anxiety, improving focus and early development of character
skills.
1 Finland is the best in the world at
helping students progress without monopolizing their time, wreaking havoc on
their lives or making them hate school.
1 An education system is truly
successful only when all children irrespective of background and resources have
the opportunity to reach their potential.
2 It succeeds when it fosters a culture
that allows all students to grow intellectually and thrive emotionally. Finland
has it all.
21 The more children read for fun, the
better they get and the more they like it.
2 Instead of forcing children to read
what you like or prefer, give them the opportunity to choose books that pique
their interest and kindle excitement in them. At the end it crystallizes their
love of reading.
2 A culture of opportunity succeeds only
when students are motivated to take advantage of those opportunities.
2 In Finland, children are taught learning
is fun.
2 Kindergartners sit at their desks for
spelling, writing and math only one day a week. Each lesson is a maximum of 45
minutes followed by 15 minutes of recess. Short activity breaks improve
children’s attention and learning process.
2 Every school has a support system
consisting of the classroom teacher, a psychologist, a social worker, a nurse,
a special education teacher and the school principal.
2 The school Principal never stays
aloof.
2 Elementary schoolers have the same
teacher up to six straight years in a row. The practice is called looping. Instead
of specializing in their subjects, teachers get to specialize in their
students. The teachers know each student personally. They gain a deeper grasp
of their strengths and challenges. It enables them to help students progress
towards their goals and navigate social and emotional challenges.
2 In Finland the policy is not ‘winner
takes it all.’ Instead every child is assisted to get ahead.
3 The focus is on developing the
individual interests of each student and not just promoting their success.
No wonder, Finland is the powerhouse
in education among nations of the whole world.
Group activity succeeds only when the outcome is more than the sum of their parts.
Success eludes the group when the achievement is less than the sum of their parts.
It may also be borne in mind, the smartest teams are not composed of the smartest individuals.
It is not collective intelligence that matters. It is the prosocial skills of the members of the team that wins the race. It means you need to have people who excel at collaborating with others. It helps the team members to bring out the best in one another.
Here, they recognise one another's strengths, develop strategies for leveraging them. They motivate one another to align their efforts in pursuit of a common aim.
Having the best pieces that are at loggerheads, is nothing but self centredness or narcissm. It gets you nowhere.
When you employ the best glue, everything falls into place.
The best teams aren't the ones with the best thinkers. They're the teams that unearth and use the best thinking from everyone.
It requires leadership practices, team processes and systems that harness the capabilities and contributions of all the members of the team
Maximizing group intelligence is much more than enlisting individual experts. It is much more than bringing people together to solve a problem.
CHANNELISE FRUSTRATION INTO PERFORMANCE
The perfect sauce to reach your goal, to attain success and to banish innumerable failures to dust.
YOUNG WORLD FROM THE HINDU
One day Evana came to me. She requested me to subscribe to YOUNG WORLD from The Hindu. I said I would do that if she would read that.She was firm. She said she woxuld read.
I asked her how she came to know of YOUNG WORLD. She replied she had seen that in the hands of Sreya while travelling in the school bus.
I rang up Suresh, the Advocate cum our newspaper Agent. It happened last Tuesday. Suresh said Hindu supplies as per prior orders only. He said it comes on Fridays @ 20 Rupees per copy. I replied it was ok. But he said he would try to deliver that from the succeeding Friday itself. I conveyed it to Evana. She was thrilled. But when Friday dawned she came to me and complained YOUNG WORLD hadn't arrived. I replied it might come from next Friday onwards
The surprise was YOUNG WORLD of 16th Jan26 arrived with the newspaper of 19thMonday
I can see Evana happily delving into what she really wanted after she woke up in the morning.
Yes, in these days of social media and TV it's very difficult to wean children away from them.
Just as letting them have a go at them, it'll be good if we could put them on to reading as well.
What they gain from reading will have no parallels
