PILOTed

Don’t You Just Love Technology

Using Zoom Clips

Zoom has a feature called Clips, which let’s you create short (I’ve created 13 minute ones, but mostly used for 1-4 minutes) videos and share them out. Many of the people I know use Loom for this, but since it’s a feature embedded in Zoom, that’s what I use.

I like using clips, but all software has its quirks.

Whereas in a Zoom meetings, you can move back and forth between presenter dominating the screen and presentation, in a clip, you need to make your choice before recording: presenter only, screen share only, or screen share with presenter in a box.

You also cannot move the video box of the presenter, it is in the lower left corner. Actually, that’s a lie. You can move the presenter video, but on the recording it will always be on the lower left.

Zoom also creates subtitles for your clip. You cannot control where they appear, and sometimes they show up as one line, sometimes two lines, and every once in a while, four lines appear on the screen.

I found this out by wasting 36 minutes.

I had a PowerPoint presentation, and by default, PowerPoint included subtitles. When I viewed the clip, all was well, but then Zoom created it’s own subtitles, and it was weird having two sets of subtitles on the screen.

I re-recorded the 12 minute clip after turning off PowerPoint subtitles. But when PowerPoint includes subtitles, it shrinks the slides so that there is room for them on the bottom. After I recorded, I noticed that without the subtitles, my video blocked a key portion of all of my slides. But, I saw that I could move my video.

I re-recorded the 12 minute clip again moving my video window to the right bottom. But, while the video clip seemed fine as I was making the clip, on the recording it is stuck on the lower left still blocking a key portion of the slide.

Now, I’ve adjusted my slides and I’ve re-recorded the clip again.

And In re-recording the slides, I found out that if you are sharing and application window, the video is always going to appear on the bottom left corner, but if you are sharing an entire screen, you can place the video wherever you want to.

And I know now to leave the lower left of any slides blank if I am going to use them in a Zoom clip. And so do you.

Here is a link to the finished Zoom clip in case you are interested.

Setting a custom domain name

Many of us have set up websites where we want to use a web name that we own. In my case, I am creating a community called Mindshifting Educators which is for teachers and other educators who want to continue to develop their abilities to shift their own mindsets and those of their students. I own the URL MindshiftingEducators.org and wanted to use that as the address for the community.

The instructions are straightforward, and I’ve done this before. You go to your domain host. You choose to manage your domain. You change what is called you’re A record to whatever your website host requires. Once done, you return to the website host and fill out some form that tells them what URL the site should be using. That worked.

Many people are accustomed to typing www before a domain name. Technically, www.domainname is a subdomain and so you need to do another procedure for that. What I thought was that you go into domain maintenance, and request the subdomain to go to that domain, and that’s what I did. But evidently whatever I did undoes whatever A record change you previously made, I discovered this when a Mindshifting Educators member went to the community and landed on a page that offered to sell him the domain name.

After some research, I determined I needed to start the whole process again.

If you want your www to go to (or “forward to” using the terms my  domain host uses) your domain, you need to first set up your A record, then go back into domain maintenance, go to subdomain forwarding, and then enter the subdomain name (www) and type in where you want it forwarded to (in my case I wanted www.MindshiftingEductors.org to forward to MindshiftingEducators.org

This did work, but I hope I saved you the angst, effort and time I went through.

Now, whether you type in www.mindshiftingeducators.org or you type in mindshiftingeducators.org you will end up on the landing page (if you’ve never been there) or the last page your visited of the Mindshifting Educators community. 😊

Highly Functioning Collegial Learning Organizations

Do you want your school or district (or any organization) to be a highly functioning collegial learning organization?

According to authors Rosie and Robert Vojted, , authors of Motivate! Inspire! Lead! from Corwin press, you need to meet these ten criteria, with these implications if they are not met.

1. quality of life: If you are not providing the necessities for people to be able to live (salary, benefits, etc.) your organization will have low morale.
2. a mission: If you do not have a compelling sense of purpose, your organization will be marked by indifference.
3. adequate communications: If you to not share common vocabulary, build rapport, and exchange meaning, you will foster distrust.
4. accountability: If people do not feel ownership for their results and achieving their goals, you'll be hearing a lot of blame.
5. empowerment: If people do not have the responsibility and authority to hit their goals, they will be constrained.
6. autonomy: If people don't have freedom within will defined boundaries, you will either have dependence or chaos.
7. competencies or capacity: If people don't have the skills to do what they need to, and the group doesn't have the collective skills, you will feel that the individuals and/or organization is inept.
8. relationships: If there aren't connections between people, individuals will feel isolate, lonely, and disconnected.
9. interdependence: If everyone's results and work aren't mutually to each other's, then you will not get cooperation and mutual support.
10. results: If you haven't defined success and aren't measuring progress, you will find ambivalence and conflicting methodologies.

One way to move toward these is to learn the techniques of Mindshifting. Check out the next course starting October 22.

Serious Play 2024

The Serious Play conference brings together changemakers from around the world, with a chance to mingle and learn from each other.

I’d like to talk about two gems that most attendees missed, and that I doubt any of you are aware of.

How to debrief and reflect on practically anything

Julian Kea has crafted debriefing questions that allow a team to reflect, learn from, and debrief after practically any experience, a class, a meeting, a project, whatever. Each one appears on a card in his debriefing deck. Team debriefs after learning experiences are incredibly useful. Here is a sample card:

A PDF of the cards, which includes instructions, can be downloaded at TheDebriefingCube.com and there is also an app at https://thedebriefing.app/en/about.

Making a difference for women and children in Kenya

In public schools in Kenya, class sizes are 60 and above, there usually aren’t enough chairs, and there is often no electricity or running water. The cost of private school is beyond what 90% of Kenyan’s can afford.

The last session of the last day featured Sana Alimohamed of Duara Education in Nairobi, Kenya. Boy am I glad I stayed for this one.

Duara is helping women create micro-schools. A micro-school has up to 30 children, the cost is just over the cost of public school, and the curriculum is play and experiential based and meets international learning standards. The cost of creating a new micro-school is under $1,000 and sets up a sustainable business for each woman who runs one. Talk about win-win-win-win (proprietor, child, parent, and society)!

You can find Sana on LinkedIn and also learn more and learn how you can help at https://duara.education/

This is an exciting initiative.

Breaking out of a script

We had a very fortunate incident with my dad today.

My dad has severe dementia, is in a full care nursing home, and has just recently been placed on hospice. Scott is a private aide for my dad who is with him to give him stimulation (walks, talking, games, outings, etc.) and has been with him for about 3 years, and Scott generally works with my dad from about 11:30 until about 7:30.

Now that my father is on hospice, one of the hospice services is to provide a private aide for 3-4 hours a day during the week, and Kaywana will be coming from about 9 to noon; she will dress my dad and get him to breakfast, and also try to keep him active. Her first day was yesterday, and my dad was pretty unresponsive, but she is a professional and she got him dressed, to breakfast, and walked him outside in a wheelchair.

Today, Scott needed to adjust his hours, so he came in at 9 and he and Kaywana worked together with my dad. My dad was much more responsive and active, taking an interest in what he and they were doing, walking with his walker, and making comments. I had lunch with the three of them, and Kaywana had this to say:

I’ve learned so much from Scott today. As certified nursing assistants, we are taught that our patients have no idea what they want, and we just need to decide and then be firm with them. That’s the way I’ve always been with my elderly dementia patients and the way I was with your dad, being firm about what I thought needed to be done. I just was assuming he was a resistant person who did not communicate or interact. I was firm, and we did what I thought needed to be done.

Today I saw Scott. He was always asking your dad what he wanted. Even if Scott had an idea what they should be doing, he would adjust based on what your dad said, and maybe rephrase some of the requests so that they were more acceptable to your dad.

What a difference that made. Your dad is so active today and he was delightful. I’m going to work that way from now on, it makes the job so much more fun and I can see how it’s better for the patient as well.

This is going to make a big difference in the quality of life for my dad, and it happened by accident, just because Scott needed to be somewhere this evening and so shifted his hours, and then because Kaywana was willing to go against her training and be open to learning other ways of working with patients.

Isn’t it interesting how we have these scripts and stories about the way things should be done. And isn’t it amazing the results we can achieve when we are willing to reconsider and go beyond those scripts.

(photo by Scott)

Who doesn’t want to live a happy life?

Based on scientific studies, happy lives are built on a foundation of equanimity powers.

Equanimity is the capacity to be nonreactive and nonjudgmental to one’s experiences. The practice of equanimity is developing awareness of one’s state of mind, including stress, and then learning the methods to better manage one’s internal response to stressors, including physiological, emotional, and physical responses. When we learn these for ourselves, it's part of learning self-regulation, and we can also learn how to help others through coregulation.

Equanimity is not accepting a situation, equanimity is about accepting your experience of the situation, learning how to work with your own experience and reactions to the situation. By learning these skills, one becomes more agentic.

For over 120 years, we have known about the physiological, cognitive, and emotional effects of stressors. These take root deep in the brain, in the amygdala, and trigger the stress hormones. Long term stimulation of the amygdala and long-term exposure to stress hormones increases incidences of depression, antisocial behavior, cognitive decline, and a whole host of undesirable sequelae.

In the last 15 years, there has been an exponential increase in scientific studies on cognitive stress reduction practices. These work by lowering the amygdala’s stress response and strengthening the connections and signals emanating from the prefrontal cortex. The direct results are an increase in feelings of wellbeing and curiosity, and surprisingly also increased function of the immune system, lower chronic pain, increased happiness, and higher resistance to trauma, PTSD, and addiction.

You can learn more about the scientific studies in the Mind & Life Podcast episode with David Cresswell of Carnegie Mellon University.

You can read about the techniques of equanimity and self-regulation in the book Self-Reg by Stuard Shanker.

You can learn the practices that lead to equanimity and self-regulation, and also techniques to teach these capabilities to others in the Mastering Your Resourceful Brain online course that starts June 4.

The Moloch Trap

We live in a world filled with Moloch traps. That’s why so many aspects of our lives seem to be getting worse.

A Moloch trap is a situation where individual self-interested behavior at scale leads to terrible outcomes for everyone.

Here is a simple example.

Let’s say that fishermen living around a lake earn a fee for every fish they catch. It makes sense for each fisherman to maximize their income by catching as many fish as they can. But if all fishermen catch as many as they can, the fish population gets decimated, and eventually nobody can catch any fish. As an individual fisherman, I might see that and decide I will only catch a few fish a day, since that is all I need, but the other fishermen will catch more than I do, and will live much better than I do, and the fish population will still be decimated. I might talk to the other fishermen and convince a few that we should stop fishing for a while to let the fish stock replenish, but all the fishermen who don’t stop will be thriving, and the end result will still be the same; eventually no fish left in the lake. Until then, those other fishermen will thrive and my followers and their families will be worse off. The Moloch trap is that everyone tries to catch as many fish as they can, until there are no fish, and so the situation gets worse for everyone.

In the short term, a Moloch trap is characterized by a mindset: every one else is doing this, and if I don’t I am only hurting myself.

Moloch was a god of the Canaanites about 4,500 years ago. To be successful, you needed to burn or boil alive one of your children to Moloch. There is some evidence that people thought that the more children they sacrificed, the more Moloch would be appeased. Moloch is mentioned in Leviticus, “Do not allow any of your children to be offered to Moloch.”

Game theory borrowed the name Moloch to refer to a Moloch trap as a game where multiple self-interested parties are compelled to act against their collective interest, which results in negative outcomes or perhaps even destruction. The Prisoner’s Dilemma is often sited as an example. Tragedy of the commons, Multi-polar traps, unhealthy competition, inadequate equilibria, or inadequate Nash equilibria are other terms for these phenomena.

We see Moloch traps in healthcare, education, elections, income inequality, wars, taxes, pollution, labor markets, investment, materialism, basically everywhere we look.

Moloch traps stem from poorly designed incentives, generally with short term benefits that result in long term harm.

Many times, the people who make day to day decisions in these traps have little to gain, and in fact may lose out personally if they do what is better in the long term, or if they do what is necessary to help others. Imagine a service situation where the service providers are evaluated or paid based on the number of people they service per hour.

Often the people who act or make decisions do not have a way to get and validate information that is needed to make a good decision. Perhaps they are reliant on faulty information, and even if they had access to good information, they would have no way to determine if that information was better than the information sources they were using, or where they were encouraged to use some sources and discouraged from using others. Depending on which side of the political spectrum you choose, you probably regard followers of either Fox News or the New York Times as examples (or both).

Generally the system is self-protecting, so when an individual actor tries to resist or change, they become worse off. For example, a teacher who does not teach to the test will sometimes get penalized by the system.

There are very often power imbalances in these systems, where the power dynamics create a short term benefit for those with power and resources, helplessness for those without power, and eventually long term negative outcomes for all. Pharmaceutical companies, for example, will fight tooth and nail against all efforts to reign in drug prices.

The race for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) involves all of these. The parties view the establishment of AGI as a race. If they slow down to take into account ethical practices, hhey are going to be beaten by those who are not encumbered. Financial incentives award first to market with the most powerful systems. The public and potential governing bodies do not have access to the information they need to make reasonable trade-offs and decisions. The largest players have the most power and control. And the potential consequences for “bad” decisions could seriously effect nations, companies, individuals, and the entire species.

As Donella Meadows pointed out, if you want to understand the deepest malfunctions of systems, pay attention to the rules, and to who has power over them.

Although it is tempting to blame neoliberalism and Western civilization, capitalism is not the root of Moloch traps. . All systems and all organizations set up and build unhealthy incentives. Systems and organizations that arise to overcome some challenge become self-perpetuating, creating their own impediments to equity and change. It’s easy to point to all the traps that exist in Western nations today and argue that they persist because of capitalism, but that would be false.

What can we do?

There is no straightforward predictable way to nudge systems out of Moloch traps. The path to new, adequate equilibria is complex, and often involves periods of chaos and pain. Generally, there are four phases, and each phase is an iterative process of trial, error, and learning.

The first phase, though, is to recognize that the Moloch trap exists. Reaching this realization is often uncomfortable, since it involves challenging biases and assumptions.

A second phase is define aspirations, goals, and stories about possible desired new states along with methods to reach it. One method for exploring, generating, formulating, and communicating future states is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT).

Activism and intervention aiming to increase visibility and disrupt the status quo are phase three. These might include organizing activities such as protesting, lobbying, boycotts, or strikes. This work generally begins on the fringes. The goals are to bring in new actors, shift the power balance, deploy new technologies which can empower those previously unempowered.

The fourth state is to actually make long term changes: changing rules, structures, and incentives despite continued resistance by the existing organizations, systems, communications mechanisms, and power structures.

We are a world of almost 8 billion people. As individuals, we are generally focused on achieving our short-term goals.  Through Moloch traps, the aggregation of these efforts seems to be leading to consequences that are harmful to humanity’s long-term welfare, prosperity, or existence.

In the fishing example, the fourth phase would be achieved only if the entire community of fishermen collaborate to establish and follow ceilings. This would create a sustainable eco-system.

That would start with awareness. And maybe Mindshifting.

Note: image generated by ChatGPT

Expectations

I subscribe to Rachel Botsman’s Rethink with Rachel Newsletter. I find it makes me think (hmm, maybe that explains the eponymous title of the newsletter) about my own reflections on her ideas.

The March 2, 2024 article was “6 steps to becoming a better expectation setter.” Her premise is that we are disappointed or upset when our expectations exceed what really happens (or reality). One could certainly lower expectations to avoid being disappointed. Being happy, she says, is not so much as lowering your expectations so that reality won’t disappoint, but that you’ll be happier if you ensure that your expectations are realistic and crystal clear to both you and others through her six steps.

The post triggered two additional thoughts:

1. the importance and ramifications of attachment. It’s attachment to outcome that drives anxiety
2. what can you do when your expectations weren’t unreal, they were as clear as you could make them, they were important to you, and then reality crashes them?

Yes, there is water in the Atacama dessert

Attachment to outcome

Let’s say you have an expectation that you will go outside today and it will be warm and sunny. The weather report said it would be nice, you planned, you built your expectations. You were attached. And then it rains. Brains are designed to be in negative first. You wanted to go outside and have fun, but it’s raining. Go ahead, sulk and be angry. That reflects your attachment to your plans and expectations.

Being detached means you can enjoy reality, whatever reality turns out to be.

You can expect that the weather is going to be warm and sunny and that you will be able to go out and play. And you can also be detached from the expectation, so that when that expectation is not met, you can still be resourceful. Without attachment, we can discern what is and live fully in reality. No need to sulk. No need to stay angry. Just adapt and live. Maybe play a game or see a movie or read a book. Or even go out and play in the puddles.

Whether you enjoy the rain or don’t, it’s still the same amount of rain. That's what's real. You can be attached to your expectations (which weren't realized) or find enjoyment in reality. That's your choice.

Reality crashes reasonable expectations

Weather is relatively easy to avoid attachment. Life sometimes throws us much more difficult situations where expectations are unmet. Here is a personal one.

I was in a business web meeting in my home office.

My phone rings, and since it’s my dad, I put the web meeting on mute. My dad said his computer is not working and he needed it fixed right away so I should come right over. I had already solved his computer problems three times in the last week. I explained I am in a meeting and will see him tomorrow and look at it then, got off the phone and went back to my meeting.

Twenty minutes later, my dad comes into the house bringing his computer and demands I get off the meeting and look at his computer. I put the meeting on mute again. Luckily his aide, who had driven him and followed him into the house, intervened and the three of us worked out that he would leave the computer, I would fix it after my call, and then I would drive it back to his place, and they left. I unmuted the call and went back into the meeting. But I was steaming.

Instead of any of the other things I’d planned for the afternoon, over the next 90 minutes I reset his computer, found his missing files, reinstated his passwords again, and then brought the computer back to him. And I was still steaming mad.

How many of my expectations had been busted in those interactions? I am not sure in a similar situation how many would have been unattached to their expectations about what was reasonable in helping their (elderly) parent, being able to finish business meetings uninterrupted, or having their work plans for the day turned upside down. I certainly wasn’t.

Sometimes we can be unattached to our expectations and just ride through events with ease and flow. This is probably optimal.

For all of us sometimes that’s not possible. Events can shatter our expectations and trigger us. But eventually we reset. Time heals (almost) all wounds. Certainly, a year or two later, no one would have still been upset about disruptions or disappointments along the lines of what happened to me.

Why wait a year, or a month, or even a week to feel better? What becomes valuable, then, is the ability to reset as quickly as possible.

Maybe there should be another post: How do we reset rapidly after severe disappointment of expectations? Or maybe you have some thoughts you can contribute.

And maybe your expectations will be fully fulfilled with a Mindshifting Course.

Cognitive Dissonance and Cognitive Bias

Here is a recap of cognitive bias and cognitive dissonance from the Mindshifting: Mastering Your Resilient Brain course.

How does the brain work?

We've talked before that the heuristic and emotional parts of the brain are located in the limbic system, which acts quickly, and that consciousness. Critical thinking, and creativity reside primarily in the prefrontal cortex, which acts a lot more slowly.

By default, our limbic system comes up with our actions and makes decisions to do something, react a certain way, say something, or maybe buy something. Our conscious thinking parts of the brain then create a rationale or justification or story for whatever decisions and actions we're taking.

The limbic system makes a determination based on our biology and how we are conditioned to react. The prefrontal cortex can be where we're resourceful. You know, when activated, it can allow us to connect with others, to explore and evaluate information to innovate, to align actions to our goals, to focus on some plan of action.

When our limbic or lizard brain senses danger, it focuses all of our senses on action and reaction and inhibits our prefrontal cortex. With our prefrontal cortex inhibited, we're not thinking critically, nor are we creative, and that is why we all have cognitive dissonance and cognitive bias.

In the words of Dr. Cornelia Walther, who I think I brought up in the last two sessions, “Heuristics are mental shortcuts to automate and thereby accelerate decision making. It was a necessary survival strategy in view of the limited capacities of the human brain, which needs to cope with and react to an abundant number of external stimuli. A heuristic that consistently leads to an erroneous decision is called a bias. Bias is the disproportionate weight given in favor of or against an idea, person or thing. It may be innate, or it may be learned. Awareness to inbuilt defaults enables us to overcome them, and consequently change.”

Let's talk a minute about cognitive dissonance and cognitive bias. Cognitive dissonance is when we say we believe in some things, and then our actions do not align with those beliefs. We say we believe in conservation, yet we drive places we could easily walk to, for example. I'm sure you've seen cognitive dissonance in schools. We say we want our students to be open to experimentation to try new things and not be afraid of failing and yet, we grade them so that if they're not perfect, they get points taken away.

Do school systems want students to be free to explore, or maybe school systems just want them to comply? You know we can't push both. What we measure, reward and punish takes precedence over what we say.

And then there are many types of cognitive biases. a cognitive bias is a systemic error in thinking. And it results from our brain’s efforts to simplify this incredibly complex world we live in.

One cognitive bias is confirmation bias, which means that information that confirms what we already know, gets noticed and processed. But we don't fully take in new data that might contradict what we already believe is true. Our unconscious parts of the brain are blocking any analysis that the conscious brain would perform.

Let's say you believe a certain person is lazy. As you observe what this person does, whenever that person is late, or makes a mistake, or doesn't measure up, your brain will use that as confirmation that the person is lazy. And every time that person does something well, your brain won't even notice it. And this is unconscious.

People who believe Fox News is biased will look at stories that Fox News reports which run counter to their beliefs as proof of bias. And people who believe that New York Times or CNBC is biased, look at stories which run counter to their beliefs as proof of bias.

Confirmation bias is a form of following a script and believing a story. Confirmation bias makes us less willing to accept others’ ideas. And it rules out creativity, innovation and diversity. That's a good part of the reason that we primarily use our analytic reasoning to rationalize the decisions and acts and actions we've heuristically devised and emotionally decided upon.

In your lives, look at how people act and react. When do people's actions not match what they say that they believe? And I'm sure you'll find quite a few examples of cognitive dissonance in yourself and other people. that they've seen either and other people or themselves? How many people say that they want to eat healthy, and yet they eat junk foods? How about a male who says he believes in equality of the sexes, and doesn't share household labor?

And then, when you sit back and you start thinking of examples of cognitive bias when people ignore facts that contradict what they believe to be true. How many times have you seen people ignore a fact that is standing right in front of them.

Most of us rarely realize that we're doing this also. And yet we all are doing this.

When we see cognitive bias and cognitive dissonance in others, we often dismiss them as being difficult or defensive. But it's just really part of being human.

When we really believe something, our limbic system shuts down our ability to take in new information and think critically. And until the limbic system is calmed down, or the saboteur is silenced, feedback, suggestions, or alternative actions will just never get through.

It kind of changes the way we look at people who aren't responding to feedback, whether it's our advice or results of their actions, that should be getting them to change.

Now you know, the reason is that the emotional or limbic parts of the brain are blocking them from thinking about thinking. It’s not personal, it’s not a character flaw, it’s what we all do.

Takeaways from Mindshifting 3: Conflict and Collaboration

Here are some takeaways from the Mindshifting 3: Conflict and Collaboration course.

Being aware that there are 5 styles of conflict resolution makes us much better conflict resolvers. First, when we know the benefits of each style, we can craft our own styles based on the situation. Being aware of the risks of overusing any one style means we can be self-aware about when we may be using a specific style by default or habit (subconsciously) when another may be called for. Being aware of others’ styles means we can react to the style rather than react to the person. If we can help kids learn this, we can do the same for them and also reduce conflicts and distractions in our classes.

Understanding that there is both constructive and destructive (or high) conflict, and then being able to recognize the characteristics that make a conflict constructive or destructive allows our focus to switch from avoiding conflict to encouraging constructive conflict situations. Imagine that instead of recriminations, insults, anger, or fear, we move toward solutions, collaboration, and results. Kids can be taught to use the same insights to improve their abilities to handle conflicts.

We had it drummed in during the course that when another person is in fight flight, or freeze mode, it’s practically impossible to get them to listen or to make changes, but that when they feel a connection, when there is rapport, we have a much better chance.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Nonviolent Communications (NVC) are tried-and-true methods for reaching rapport and then guiding a conversation to constructive change and influence. You can use either or combine them as part of the collaborate style of conflict resolution and also to nudge conflicts toward constructive conversation. If we don’t know where to start with an MI or NVC discussion, we can pose the situation to an artificial intelligence engine such as Bard or ChatGPT, direct it to create a sample MI or NVC script, and use its suggestions as a starting point.

On Thursday, we started with wellbeing; since wellbeing is a necessary condition for deep learning. The outcome for that is that the more we can communicate and congratulate others (and our students) on their strengths and achievements, the more wellbeing they will feel, the more they will be ready to learn, and the more they will be willing to let us influence them. And when we teach kids how to impart wellbeing on others, their own happiness and influence both increase as well. The specific techniques of strengths-based communications are explored in depth in the Mindshifting 2 course.

The opposite of wellbeing is a feeling of distress, fear, or anxiety. Stress, just like conflict, doesn’t have to be bad, sometimes it’s motivating (eustress), and while we don’t have time to cover the techniques in this course (it’s in Mindshifting 1), it’s possible to learn how to reframe a surprisingly large percentage of stressful situations to make them motivating rather than blocking.

Too much stress for too long makes us mentally, emotionally, and physically disabled, and these effects linger for one’s entire lifetime even if they occur during childhood. For a long time, society has treated this as something rare, but when we realize that 4 to 6 out of every 30 kids are suffering from chronic stress or trauma, it shows that we have to pay attention. Having children screened for ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and then providing them with trauma-informed interventions and care seems like the only humanitarian way to handle this, and we can be their advocates even if we aren’t the ones directly responsible for the professional care they need.

MI and NVC are a proven techniques to help anyone, including our students, through distress and onto productive actions. It can even soften some of the effects of chronic stress. We can use MI and NVC, and we can also start teaching those techniques to students.

The human need to be part of groups is irresistibly strong. The negative side of that is group behavior often triggers our limbic (fight, flight, freeze, bad habits, and copying others) reactions and actions. When we recognize how strong the pull to group conformance is, we can start to understand why our normal ways of persuasion or influence don’t tend to change people’s (our students, coworkers, family members, friends, or even our own) behaviors. We need something much stronger, and it starts with the awareness of how group pressure manifests, how strong it is, and then self-awareness of how we are responding to it. We discussed some Motivational Interviewing and Nonviolent communications questions to open people up so that they become self-aware of their group pressures, how their actions aren’t congruent with their values and beliefs, and motivate the desire to change and be true to what we all really want and value.

The next Mindshifting 1 class starts February 20, 2024.

Getting support for chronically stressed students

In modifying the material for the upcoming Mindshifting for Conflicts, Collaboration, and Opposition starting next week, I added material on stress and chronic stress, which then prompted me to research ways to ensure support for students with chronic stress or trauma. Here is part of what I uncovered, but you should also consider taking the class.

How do you raise awareness about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), chronic stress, and the implications in your school? What do you do if your school does not provide the level of support your students need?

Consider that this a complex issue: it is unique, there is no known path that will give you the results that you desire, whatever ends up happening, it will evolve over time, and everything you do might have unintended consequences and unpredictable results. As with any complex issue, it is unlikely that the first thing you do will completely resolve the issue. Be prepared to iterate and use OODA loops to take in the results and adjust your actions, select the actions that are least likely to result in harm to yourself or the children and which are most likely to give you insights that you can use. One initial goal should be to build a coalition of allies, in unity there is strength.

Here are some potential actions to choose from.

Request a meeting: Prepare your concerns and emphasize the severity of chronic stress and its potential impact on academic performance, mental health, and overall well-being with specific examples of students’ behavior and performance that raise concerns. Show your desire to understand the school’s policies and resources regarding student wellbeing and stress management.

Document Concerns: Keep detailed records of your observations and any interactions with the students that led you to believe they are experiencing chronic stress. Include specific examples, dates, and any behavioral or emotional changes you notice in these students. This documentation can be vital if further action is needed or if situations escalate and will help provide a strong case by offering specific examples of how chronic stress is affecting your students.

Seek Guidance from School Counselors, Social Workers, or Psychologists: School counselors or psychologists are trained to handle such situations. They can provide guidance on how to approach these cases and might be able to intervene directly. School support services can offer valuable expertise and resources in assessing the students' well-being and developing appropriate interventions. They can also provide additional documentation and support in advocating for the students' needs. Be aware that in-school professional services departments may have limited staffing, time constraints, or heavy caseloads, which could delay their response or limit the attention they can dedicate to these specific students.

Professional Development on ACEs: Consider undergoing professional development related to ACEs and trauma-informed teaching practices. This can equip you with strategies to support these students in your classroom, although it may be difficult to get approval, funding, or credit for these courses if they are not supported.

Engage Parents or Guardians: If appropriate and feasible, reach out to the students' parents or guardians to discuss your concerns. It's important to approach these conversations sensitively and with the aim of supporting the child. Parent-teacher conferences provide an opportunity to involve families in understanding the potential impact of ACEs on their child's development. Through these conversations, parents may become more aware and supportive of their child's needs. Encourage the parents to seek additional support or resources that could mitigate the effects of chronic stress.

Explore Community Resources: Look into community organizations or programs that specialize in supporting children with high ACE scores, like local social service agencies, child protective services, or organizations focused on child welfare. Inform them about your concerns and seek guidance on how to proceed. They might offer services like counseling, mentoring, or after-school programs that can help.

Advocate for Policy Changes: If you feel that the school's response to students with high ACE scores is inadequate, consider advocating for policy changes. This could involve forming a committee, presenting research to the school board, or collaborating with other educators to push for a more supportive approach.

Legal Advice: If you believe that the students' well-being is at serious risk and the school is neglecting its duty of care, you might consider seeking legal advice to understand what further actions can be taken.

Implement trauma-informed strategies in your classroom: This may involve creating a safe and welcoming learning environment with predictable routines, fostering positive relationships, and utilizing techniques like mindfulness or relaxation exercises. Implementing trauma-informed strategies can directly impact the affected students by creating an environment conducive to their well-being. It can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve their focus and engagement, and support their overall academic success.

Peer Support: Connect with other teachers who might be facing similar challenges. Sharing experiences and strategies can be both supportive and informative. Building collective support may strengthen your voice. Collaborating with colleagues allows for a broader understanding of the students' behavior and needs. It can lead to the development of a consistent support system within the school, benefiting the overall well-being of the students. It may also require alignment and compromises on approaches and interventions, which can be challenging.

Self-Care: Dealing with such situations can be emotionally taxing. Ensure that you are also taking care of your own mental health and seeking support when needed.

Educate and Raise Awareness: Sometimes, a lack of awareness about the impact of ACEs can lead to inaction. Educating your colleagues and administration about the importance of addressing these issues can be a step towards change. Compile evidence-based research and resources to share with your colleagues, administrators, and parents.

Additional resources:

• The National Center for PTSD: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/
• The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): https://www.nami.org/
• The Jed Foundation: https://www.jedfoundation.org/
• The American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/
• The deepest well by Nadine Burke Harris, MD
• Mindshifting on Conflict, Collaboration, and Opposition, starting January 16, 2024