PILOTed

Making Sense of Dreams, and Using Them for Good

I teach sensemaking and mindshifting. I know that dreams are one way that our minds help us interpret and make sense of the world.

I’m probably too close to these dreams to really evaluate them. I’m hoping that perhaps some of you can comment with your impressions.

Dream one

The first dream involved remembering some past events, and they really did take place. When I was about 7, one of my friends was Doug Pirrie (I have no idea if the spelling is correct). I vividly remember two of the times we were playing together, and they came back in the dream.

There was always a nice wind blowing along the side of his house. We would go there to blow bubbles and make what we called “bubble history”. We would blow bubbles and then measure how far the bubbles travelled before popping. We took his dad’s tape measure from the garage, and would try creating multiple bubbles, single bubbles, small bubbles, large bubbles, blowing bubbles pointing straight up, blowing them pointing to the side, blowing them pointed forwards. As 7-8 year olds, we were sure that one of us was making the longest distance ever traveled by a soap bubble, either in the world, or in Connecticut, or at least on Archer Avenue. I remember how excited we were when we talked to our parents about how we were going to be famous as bubble blowers.

Another memory that flashed back in the dream was us building marbles “golf courses” in his back yard. The back yard was sloped. A “hole” consisted of a starting place and below that a barrier to stop the marble. You would aim the marble at the barrier, and if you got the barrier to stop the marble, you could move to the next hole. If not, you had to try again until you succeeded. The lowest score for 9 holes won. We would build and play for hours.

These were such happy memories of kids being kids, and they were framed by the final memory. I remembered 25 years later seeing the headline and article that Doug Pirrie had been shot and killed as he was attempting an armed robbery of a convenient store. This is also unfortunately true.

I was seven. He was eight. We were just two kids being kids. How did our lives go in such different directions, why did those memories come back so vividly last night, and what can we all take out of this?

Dream two

In this dream, somehow my wife and I had a second grader living with us. She was not our child, our children were already grown, but she was ours for at least the school year.

In her class, the teacher assigned the students to put together a “book” on what they did during the summer. Our child created 40 or 50 drawings of her summer. Some of them she labeled with words. Sometimes she would put 2, 3, or 4 drawings on a page. On some pages, there were drawings on both sides of the page. Some of the drawings were made in pencil. Some were in crayon. Sometimes she would draw and then fill in the colors with crayons or colored pencils. She spent the entire weekend happily drawing, painting, telling us the stories of what she did or what she made up that she did, and showing us her work.

When I went to class and met her teacher, the teacher told me that she’d given our child a zero on the project. Here was the explanation:

The children were supposed to draw five pictures. Each picture had to be on a separate page. Below each picture they had to write a three word sentence about the picture: a subject, a verb, and an object.  They were to use one side of the paper, not two sides.

In the dream, I thanked the teacher, with our daughter there:

Thank you. Our daughter is going to learn very good structure from you. She has an incredible talent for storytelling, there are so many stories and pictures bursting inside her that they can’t wait to get out. One day she is going to be a famous storyteller, people from all around the world are going to be waiting anxiously for her stories, and you will have been an important molder of her talent, helping her learn the skills to bring these stories to life, and when people ask her what influenced her, she is going to be able to tell everyone that you helped her with the structures and craft of writing.

The teacher’s answer was

In this class we do things a certain way. Your child got a zero because she did not follow our way. If she does what I say in the future maybe she can start getting passing grades. If you can’t discipline her to follow my instructions, then she going to continue to fail this year. I don’t see any evidence of any talent, she just needs to learn to follow my directions. She will have many chances, the children are going to be making these 5 page books all year long and the instructions are always the same.

This seemed so real as I was dreaming, and while horrifying in one sense, the fact that as a parent I could still help my child blossom seems a large mitigator. But again, why now and what's the message for all of us?

Please let me know about your interpretations of these messages, and you can learn more about Mindshifting here.

Brain Hacking Strategies: A technique five times more effective at changing others’ behavior

Imagine. As a teacher you assign a paper. It’s not an onerous assignment, and the topic is actually a fun one for the students to explore.

Despite your clear instructions and explanations about how to plan for assignments, and your efforts to make the work meaningful, the pattern is very frustrating. On the due date, the same 10 students have put the work in, perhaps another 10 made a perfunctory effort, and maybe another 10 didn’t submit anything, for a variety of reasons.

We all experience that or situations very similar right? Not just with students, but with family members, peers, colleagues, acquaintances, pretty much anyone. When we encounter people who are taking actions or holding opinions that are unhelpful or even damaging, it seems no amount of persuasion, cajoling, coaching, instruction, or whatever we try seems to work.

Or as my nephew Ben says, “you can’t fix stupid.”

Except you can, you just can’t do it using the methods we tend to use.

How to Reach Those Who Resist Efforts to Help

A technique called Motivational Interviewing works 74% of the time, 5 times as often as other techniques investigated.

Motivational Interviewing involves

1. Asking open questions
2. Using reflective listening
3. Affirming the person’s desire and ability to change

Why do people resist our efforts to help them?

Cognitive and neuro- scientists have mapped out what happens in the brain, and why our normal methods of influencing others’ behavior are often ineffective.

While our offer of criticism or coaching is generally from a genuine desire to help, what happens in the other person’s brain is that the survival instincts take it as a threat. Threats trigger stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, which focus our resources on combatting the threat, shut down our ability to be resourceful or thoughtful, and trigger a flight or fight response.

This happens subconsciously, before their consciousness is even aware of what is happening.

With their ability to think through the issue essentially cut off, they are mentally and emotionally incapable of incorporating our efforts at their changing behavior.

How does motivational interviewing help?

Motivational Interviewing resets the brain from survival mode, establishes connection and trust, and then gives agency to the individual affected. All three components are necessary to enable a person to entre a resourceful state of mind, and be capable of reconsidering decisions or actions.

When a person is in a resourceful rather than anxious frame of mind, they become conscious of their own ambiguities toward their stance and actions, and able to consider alternatives and eventually choose a different path.

A deeper dive into Motivational interviewing and how to implement it in practice and in classrooms, along with 60 other brain hacking techniques that can accelerate your ability to motivate students, is part of the Mindshifting: Growth Mindset and Critical Thinking for Impactful Educators.

How to Make Better Decisions with Role Playing

The Decision Making Game

At the Serious Play Conference, I ran a role playing game that pulled 9 of the concepts taught in the Mindshifting: Growth Mindset and Critical Thinking for Impactful Educators Course in order to teach group-based decision making and problem solving strategies.

These were 9 of the 70 different strategies that are covered in the Mindshifting: Growth Mindset and Critical Thinking for Impactful Educators Course, which provides educators with the foundations for building the following in students:

• social emotional intelligence
• diversity and inclusion
• the growth mindset
• critical thinking
• perseverance
• innovation
• problem solving
• communications skills

Here is a link in case you want download the game to use it for your group or students. 

How the Game Worked

In the game, participants played one of 7 different roles, all serfs, in a village in the year 1023. During the game, the village faces problems. Players are part of teams that have to come up with a solution to the problem. For each problem, each team receives instructions on how to conduct their meeting, then, after each team presents their solution and what happened in their discussion, the entire group discusses the different strategies how they impacted the flow of ideas, and how they might use those techniques. When we ran the game, the discussions led to deep reflection on effective ways to communicate, persuade, and influence others. Thus, all participants are exposed to the 9 different strategies for brainstorming ideas or coming to decisions as a group.

Feedback from Participants

The feedback from participants was excellent. I asked them what they learned, and how implementing the concepts changed how the group handled challenges. 

Here’s what they said: 

Question: What do you think people learned through this game:

Feedback:

• Think outside the box. Listen to others. Compromise. 
• I think it would make the discussion process more equitable and positive.
• This reasoning ends with a solution that everyone can get behind.
• Compromise and flexibility 

Question: What were your thoughts on the game?

Feedback:

• Great idea and fun. 
• This is an inspired game. So fun and would help students understand discourse. 
• It was very well designed. I like that we discuss the various strategies afterwards. It gives a great understanding of worst case/best case strategies.
• It’s so much fun and forming relationships immediately. Great ice breaker 

Ready to try it in your classroom or organization? 

You can register for the course here: link

And, as an incentive, if you register before June 20, you can use this code for a $15 discount: Mindshift15.

The Path to Resilience Leads Through OODA Loops

Imagine students who can handle failure and persist until they are successful. If you’re interested in learning how, click here to sign up for my online course: Mindshifting: Growth Mindset and Critical Thinking for Impactful Educators.

What are OODA Loops?

John Boyd’s OODA Loops is probably the most effective way to learn resourcefulness, perseverance, and flexibility. Tens of thousands of individuals use OODA Loops, especially when faced with unexpected events or competition. But if you are not in the military or law enforcement, you probably have not heard of it.

That’s a shame, because we can all benefit from being able to adapt to almost any situation faster and more effectively - especially if you’re a teacher who wants to better equip your students.

How OODA Loops Work

In its simplest terms, the OODA Loop is common sense. When you go into a situation, you Observe, then you use all the information at your disposal to Orient or come up with alternatives, you Decide, and then you Act. As you act, you observe and start the process all over again. Which is why they are called loops, OODA Loops are an iterative process of experimentation until the objective is achieved.

Boyd reasoned that there were two key factors that led to success: speed and proficiency. The faster you could cycle through the steps, the more likely you are to prevail. The more areas of proficiency you have mastered, the more likely you are to prevail. When you combine speed of reaction with proficiency, you could outmaneuver any opponent and overcome practically any obstacle. If you can build up your unconscious skills, the actions you could make without having to stop and consciously think, you will overwhelm anyone or anything that gets in your way.

Boyd proved this in his career as an Air Force Colonel training fighter pilots. Fighter pilots taking his course felt OODA loops was too academic and not particularly practical. To overcome their reservations, Boyd offered a wager. He would engage in a dogfight, and the other pilot would have the initial advantage. But within 2 minutes he would use his OODA training to shoot down the other pilot. Then the two would trade places and he would prevail again.

In all the years he taught, he never once lost that bet.

Learning OODA Loops sounds simple, but there are dozens of problem solving and information gathering skills and common mistakes to avoid, and so it takes hours to fully understand how to implement or teach OODA Loops. Why is it worth it?

Why expend the effort to learn OODA Loops

OODA Loop techniques prepare you to

• Overcome obstacles
• Handle complex situations
• Overwhelm opposition and competition
• Effortlessly persevere
• Know how and where to put preparatory time and effort before important challenges
• Create and lead highly effective teams

Why teach OODA Loops to students?

If you teach OODA loops to students, they become prepared to 

• Overcome adversity
• Persist
• Practice until they are fluent
• Use failure or success primarily as feedback
• Work well in small groups

Isn’t this what you want for your students? Do you think that will reduce your load of classroom management and free up time for more important learning?

How can you become proficient in OODA Loops?

While John Boyd left no materials other than Foil slides, I’ve studied OODA Loops for over four years, read books, watched hours and hours of recordings, and organized all this information specifically for educators. OODA Loops are extensively covered in the Mindshifting: Growth Mindset and Critical Thinking for Impactful Educators online course that starts July 12.

Take a look and register.