TOO CREATIVE

In his insightful post entitled “Are the People in Your community Too Smart to be Creative?” Forbes contributor, Chunka Mui, co-author of Billion-Dollar Lessons

previews a study to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology  by Jennifer Mueller, Jack Goncalo, and Dishan Kamdar to the effect that in traditional organizations open expression of creative ideas is negatively correlated with perceptions of leadership potential.He concludes that the bias against creative persons for leadership positions in traditional management is deep seated.First, many current leaders are the product of past biases against creativity, and hence making them less likely to value creativity.Second, the smartest people have learned over time that being openly creative is not rewarded at all.Given that the future of most organizations depends on creativity, this finding offers further compelling evidence why traditional management must be reinvented and imperial management structures replaced....

Life is worth living Viktor Frankl,..Imprinted on my memory

For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.

Are you writing the story of your life, or are you letting other people and circumstances write it for you? You might not consider yourself a follower, but here are a few signs you aren't in control:

Here are 7 rules that can help you start building a life worth living:

Rule One: Never let another person dictate the terms for living your life.

Not your parents. Not your spouse. Not your kids. Leading your life means you can accept the input of other people, but the final decision is yours. This means that career choice, relationships, beliefs and way of life are to be judged by you, not anyone else.

This rule holds especially when you have doubts. Don’t let your moment of doubt become a weakness to be exploited by others. Not sure what you want to do with your life? Don’t sit passively and let other people decide for you.

Rule Two: Don’t allow yourself to be chained by consumerism.

The world is filled with stuff. Don’t let stuff get in the way of what is important. When you become chained to your stuff, you are no longer leading your life. Ask yourself: if you had to give up 90% of your net worth tomorrow to pursue your dream, could you do it effortlessly? If you hesitated, perhaps your ability to lead your own life has been weakened by your attachment to stuff.

Rule Three: Rule money. Don’t let money rule you.

Money is a resource that can be applied when leading your life. You can use it to reduce discomforts, focus on meaningful work and apply it to help you learn and improve. But if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, the money is in control.

Here are some goals to put yourself in a position to rule the money in your life:

• Maintain one year of emergency funds in the bank.
• Your lifestyle should expand at a slower rate than your income grows.
• Be able to drastically reduce your expenditures if needed.

Financial freedom doesn’t mean the ability to buy everything you could desire or live in luxury. It means that money becomes a tool and not a distraction in leading your life.

Rule Four: You come first in relationships.

Do you know people that can’t stand being single? They get out of one bad relationship only to jump into the next.

Why? Because they put too much of their needs dependent on that other person. Without emotional and possibly financial support, they can’t survive.

In any relationship you need to be the person that comes first. That means that while you might enjoy the relationship, it doesn’t become the major purpose in your life.

Your purpose and leading your life must come before any relationship you enter. The surprising fact is that when you do this, you are able to have healthier personal and intimate relationships because there is no need for jealousy or possession.

Rule Five: Never outsource your thinking.

“You can split up food between men, but each man must digest it individually.” – Howard Roark in The Fountainhead.

Leading your own life means leading your own beliefs. It means never accepting anything unless you can filter it through your reasoning and find it to be true. Think critically about everything in life. Chances are there are a lot of indigested thoughts floating around trying to bypass your mind and go straight to your gut.

Rule Six: Anything you lack can be trained.

Never accept a fatalistic view of life. So you’ve been told you lack the intelligence, willpower, strength or charisma to do something? Ignore them. So you’ve told yourself that you lack the talent? Ignore yourself.

Begin with the assumption that anything can be trained and you’ll find few exceptions. I used to be a shy, introverted kid. Recently some friends described me as an extreme extrovert, being unafraid to meet new people and having honed my abilities to speak in front of crowds. Begin with the belief that you have no idea where your talents are until you train them.

Rule Seven: Purpose comes from your creative faculties.

Want to know what your purpose in life is? Simple. Hold your hands in front of you. Now look at them. There is your purpose and means to do it.

Purpose is your ability to take the creative energies you have and communicating them with the world. You and I might pick different mediums, but the act of purpose is exactly the same. You could be a manager crafting the art of dealing with people, a programmer crafting the knowledge of algorithms or an entrepreneur crafting the art of a business.

Don’t worry if you haven’t found the right medium. Once you feel that great purpose for your life and it comes from within, that is your greatest asset. With that belief you are the leader of your own life.

+Google

Solutions to Real Life’s Most Annoying Problems

1. You're Unhappy

This is a very personal problem that is going to have a very personal answer, and likely one or more of the previously discussed problems are contributing factors. That said, happiness doesn't have to be something difficult to achieve. You will be happy most days if you take care of yourself physically (e.g. regular physical activity, a healthy diet, enough sleep, etc.) and you do things that make you happy. The problem often is actually knowing what will make you happy, since humans are terrible at predicting the future and it can be hard to simplify most decisions. Here are a couple of ways to figure it out and put together a plan you can stick to.

First, here's what I did. I'm a generally happy person, but I wasn't for about a decade. I made a lot of decisions that I thought would make me happy, figured out most of them made me more unhappy, and then decided to come up with a new plan. I used to have a friend who treated me poorly, and the first step of that plan was putting an end to that friendship. I realized we had a lot of similar behaviors, and those behaviors were making me unhappy, so I adopted a policy of doing the opposite of everything I thought she would do. My life has been a straight upshot ever since. To simplify things further, I make nearly all my decisions based on the answers to two questions. First, I ask if saying yes to this choice will make me happy. Second, I ask if I think saying yes is the right thing to do. If both questions are yes, I do it. If not, I don't. Sometimes I'm afraid of what I might be missing when I say no, but that fear diminishes every day because too many good things happen.

2. You're Fat and Unhealthy

If you live in America you can at least know that you're not alone. Being overweight is a—there's no way to avoid a pun here—big problem and it's a tough one to solve. If you need or want to lose weight, there's really no getting around the need to diet or exercise. The key is simply finding a diet and exercise routine that you'll actually stick to. Your instinct may be to try and move quickly so you can expedite the process and be nice and thin really quickly. This is a bad idea. If you're obese, you'll lose weight pretty rapidly if you eat healthy food and get some physical activity. For those of you trying to lose those last 10-20 pounds, you have a harder task. Either way, you need to put a plan together that you'll actually stick to. It should be hard work, but it should be hard work that you want to do and not hard work that you loathe every single day.

So how do you put that plan together? It's impossible to say what will or will not work for you but we can talk about a few options. First, cognitive-behavioral coping skills can be a good way to form a plan. They'll help you focus on your eating, rather than make it an activity that takes a backseat to watching television (for example), regularly remind yourself of your goals, and help you stay positive. Some people find that apps and accountability (to, say, an online community) make it much easier to lose weight. (Here are some app suggestions for Androidand iPhone.) You lose a little privacy in the process, but it's a pretty reasonable price to pay for achieving a fairly difficult goal. Personally, I think it's important to put together a psychology profile before you start your diet and exercise routine because you're human and if you only functioned by logic you would simply stay healthy all the time. Because you're also a very emotional being, you're going to have cravings that aren't necessarily physical. Personally, I have a weird psychological obsession with cupcakes. Profiling yourself is a good way to expect these issues and figure out solutions before they occur.

When you actually start your diet, we think that eating better, rather than less, is a good way to go. Exercising before breakfast may also contribute to better weight loss. Sleeping more may help a lot, too. Whatever you do, just make sure it's something you can commit to or it's completely pointless. Try new foods and physical activities to find ones you like. This is one problem you can't beat until you can find a way you can enjoy the hard work 

2. You Hate Your Job

I know very few people who don't hate their job, and sometimes it's because their job is eating away at their humanity day by day and other times it's because of their outlook. If you're in a situation where your job is terrible, you probably need to quit. We've posted a guide to leaving your soul-crushing job and plenty of advice on what to do afterwards. In order to figure out where to go next, you're going to need to decide what you want to do. If it's something within your field,get your resume in great shape and start sending it out. When you get interviews, be prepared,but don't assume your interviewer is prepared. If you want a job outside of your specific field, all that is still relevant but here are some tips on talking your way into a job and how to get one when you have no relevant experience. If you can be smart, charismatic, and clever, you should do just fine.

But what if you don't want to leave your job even though it's making you miserable? It might just be your outlook that's weighing you down. You may be out of balance and burnt out, which we've already covered. If you've dealt with those problems already, check out these methods for making your work life better

3. You Want to Break a Bad Habit

Breaking bad habits is really tough, whether you're biting your nails or smoking, but there are several things you can try. Thinking about your habit like a hater could help, but so can being patient and taking it slow. There are questions you may want to ask yourself, and you may find forming a good habit will make it easier to break your bad ones. I like to use my imagination (e.g. "your fingers are made out of poop, so don't chew on them") but I've only found that to be successful half of the time. Whatever methods you use, whether they're mild or extreme, you need to be able to convince yourself that the habit is truly bad. We tend to like our bad habits and see the damage they cause, but they also give us comfort. If we can't realize and fully comprehend how bad that comfort is, the habit is always going to be much harder to break.

4. Your Home is a Mess

If you don't put regular work into organizing and maintaining cleanliness in your home, you can expect disaster. Dust accumulates, cords get out of whack, laundry doesn't get folded, and your things don't get put away. First things first, pick a few hours a week to dedicate to cleaning up your home. Hire help if you need it and can afford it, or find a way to actually enjoy the cleaning time. (I watch TV or listen to music.) In addition to making the time, which is the obvious fix, there are a bunch of things you can do to speed up the whole process. When folding laundry, use this two-second shirt folding method to save a ton of time. When you put away your clothing, organize it by color or some other memorable scheme so you never have to think of where to put an item and can easily find that item later on. Speaking of organizing, you should start organizing before you go out and buy any organizational productsso you actually know what you need (if anything) and avoid wasting money. When it comes to organizing your cables, we've posted so many great ways to get those under control. For the most part you're not going to save much time on dust, but you can filter it better by turning on your thermostat fan so it picks up dust that flies into the air while vacuuming (so long as you leave the fan on for 15 minutes afterwards as well). You can also make your own reusable dust-trapping cloths to save some money and follow our tips for getting rid of dust on your technology

5. You're Being Manipulated

We're all manipulators and victims of manipulation in different ways, because we're designed to try and get what we want, but there are far too many people who take manipulation to an extreme and it is a horrible thing to encounter. First of all, it's important to identify how manipulation works and how ideas can be planted in your head, so you know if it's actually happening to you. Rarely will you be able to convince a serial manipulator to stop manipulator you, so solving the problem is a two step process: identify the problems and eliminate it. If you're being manipulated, cut all ties with the manipulator. It might be hard, but that's most often the only way to do
+Google 

+YouTube 

+Facebook Fanpage Generator 

What Will It Take To Motivate Me..

   

   Have you ever noticed that every challenge also contains a blessing in disguise? If not, you may not have been looking closely enough! It’s true that challenges often seem like inconveniences when they get in the way of something you want. When you’re working toward goals that are important to you, the last thing you want is to face a big challenge or obstacle because it usually means that your desired outcome will be delayed.

However, if you learn to see challenges in a new light, they can easily become the best things that have ever happened to you.

Below you’ll find 5 questions you should ask whenever you find yourself facing challenges:

1. What Can I Learn From This?

Too often we view challenges as annoyances or personal vendettas, when in fact they may hold a great opportunity to learn and grow! If you start by asking what you can learn from each challenge, you’ll suddenly see them as possibilities that pave the way to greater wisdom and self-mastery.

2. How Can This Strengthen Me?

One major reason why challenges intimidate us is because we don’t feel capable of handling them. We have a limited perception of our own abilities, so we automatically believe that the challenge is bigger than we are. However, if you learn to see challenges as an opportunity to become stronger and more empowered, there’s no way they can hold you back!

3. How Can I Use This to My Advantage?

Most often we see challenges as disadvantages – but is that necessarily true? A challenge can often help you see that there are many possible ways to achieve a goal, and the one you’ve chosen may not necessarily be the best one. Asking this question can often open your mind to alternative routes that may be shorter or otherwise better in some way.

4. How Can I Use This to Help Others?

Though we often believe our goals affect only ourselves, more often we have a huge impact on the people around us too. Not only do other people watch what you do and how you live your life – they often model their own behavior after yours! If you refuse to let challenges intimidate you or slow you down, you just might inspire and motivate others to do the same with their own challenges.

5. What Would Make This a Worthwhile Experience?

Sometimes just being willing to recognize that a challenge may not be such a bad thing can be enough to help you realize all kinds of wonderful benefits from it. This question does a couple of things: first, it helps you feel more empowered because it affirms that you have a choice in how you react to the challenge; and secondly it reminds you that every challenge holds the seeds for unlimited blessings and opportunities. 

+facebook

@youtube

BEST LIFE EXPERENCE

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs How do you feel about your life today? Are you living every day in exuberance? Do you love what you’re doing? Are you excited every single moment? Are you looking forward to what’s coming up next? Are you living your best life?

If your answer to any of the above is a no, maybe or not sure, that means you’re not living your life to the fullest. Which really shouldn’t be the case, because your life experience is up to you to create. Why settle for anything less than what you can get? You deserve nothing but the best. In the past years of my life, especially since after I pursued my passion in ’08, I’ve been living every day to the fullest, filled with joy, passion and rigor. It’s an amazing experience that I want you to experience that too.

This is a list of 101 timeless principles I use to live my best life, and I hope they’ll help you to do so too. As you live in alignment with them, you’ll find yourself becoming more conscious, more alive, and more importantly, experiencing life on a whole new level. Be sure to bookmark or even print out this page and refer to it daily to guide you to your best lifeHere are 101 ways to live your life to the fullest:

1. Live every day on a fresh new start. Don’t be held back by what happened yesterday, the day before, the week before, the year before, and so on.
   
2. Be true to who you are. Stop trying to please other people or be someone else. It’s better to be an original version of yourself than an exact duplicate of someone else.
3. Quit complaining. Don’t be like the howling dog, always howling and never doing anything. Stop complaining about your problems and work on them instead.
4. Be proactive. Stop waiting for others around you to do something and take action yourself instead.
5. Rather than think “what if”, think “next time”. Don’t think about things you can’t change (namely what has happened and thoughts of other people) or unhappy things because these are disempowering. Instead focus on the things you can action upon. That’s the most constructive thing you can do in any situation.
6. Focus on WHAT vs. How. Focus on WHAT you want first, before you think about HOW to do it. Anything is possible, as long as you set your mind, heart and soul to it.
7. Create your own opportunities. You can wait for opportunities to drop in life. Or, you can go out there and create your own opportunities. The latter is definite and much more empowering.
8. Live more consciously each day. Stop sleepwalking through life. Your life is something to be experienced, not coasted through.
9. Be committed to your growth. In the Map of Consciousness, there are 17 levels of consciousness – from Shame to Enlightenment. The higher level of consciousness you are in, the richer your life experience. Achieving higher consciousness comes from your commitment to growth.
10. Know your inner self. This means knowing who you are and what you represent. Be clear of your personal identity.
    
    Image ©
11. Discover your life purpose. Set the mission statement for your life; one that will drive you to life your life to the fullest.
12. Live in alignment with your purpose. What can you start doing immediately that will let you live 100% in alignment with your purpose? How can you live true to your purpose within every context/situation/environment you are in, every second of the day?
13. Set your life commandments. Define your personal commandments to live your best life. What adages and principles do you want to follow in your life?
14. Discover your values. Values are the essence of what makes you, you. Read article #11: Discover Your Values in Personal Excellence Book (Volume 1) on the importance of values, my values and how you can create your own.
15. Hold yourself to the highest conduct. Every one of us have our own set of ethics, principles and moral codes. Live true to them every day. Also, live in full alignment with your purpose (#11), commandments (#13) and values (#14).
16. Design your ideal life. What is your ideal life? Design it. First, assess your life at the moment via the life wheel. Then, ask yourself what it takes to live a 10/10 life (in all 10 areas – career, health, love, social, etc…). What is the life that will make you the best person you can ever be? Set your BHAGs – big, hairy and audacious goals! There are no limits in life – only those you set for yourself!
17. Stop putting life on hold. Are you putting any parts of your life on hold? What is one area of your life you have been putting off/avoiding/denying? Uncover it and start working on it.
18. Create your life handbook. Your life handbook is your life-long personal manual to live your best life – from your mission statement, your values, your long-term goals, short-term goals, personal strengths, blind spots to address, plans, among others. Create your book first then build on from there.
19. Set your goals. After you design your ideal life, set your 5-year, 3-year and 1-year goals. The more specific your goals, the better! 

Tanzanian born regarded as Britain's most influential

David Adjaye, the architect chosen to design Washington DC's $500mNational Museum of African American History and Culture, has topped a list of Britain's most influential black people, ahead of double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah and The Wire star Idris Elba.

In the sixth edition of the annual PowerList, the top 100 people regarded as role models in their fields, the Tanzanian-born founder of Adjaye Associates is hailed as an inspirational figure who saw off financial crisis during the recession to become one of the country's most high-profile architectsDescribe the first building that inspired you.

I was seven years old when I saw the pyramids at Giza for the first time. The scale of them was like nothing I had ever experienced.

What was your big breakthrough?

Winning the competition to design the Idea Store for Whitechapel, in east London. It elevated me from just doing domestic, residential projects, to engaging with the public realm.

Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?

My private life. I don't have enough play time.

What's the greatest threat to architecture?

Its lack of relevance to contemporary life. Architecture has become more about spectacle than buildings.

What work of art would you most like to own?

One of Josef Albers' Square paintings - they have a very powerful abstractionist sensibility. Or any Benin bronze. They're amazing objects, and recall a great culture.

Is there anything about your career you regret?

Having a very public rant with Janet Street-Porter about my design for her house. I don't regret the rant, so much as the fact it became public.

If someone saw one of your buildings in 1,000 years' time, what would it tell them about the year 2008?

I'm not sure any of my buildings are built well enough to last that long. But if someone did see one, it would show that this was a time of questioning and renewal.

Do you care about fame?

Not at all. I do care about professional recognition, but that's a different thing.

In the movie of your life, who plays you?

Chiwetel Ejiofor. We don't look at all similar, but he's a great actor.

What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?

I once met a company director, who said to me: "Just concentrate on what you do best, and leave the rest to others." It's been imprinted on my head ever since.

In short

Born: Tanzania, 1966

Career: Won a Riba bronze medal in 1993. Works include London's Whitechapel Idea Store, and collaborations with artists Olafur Eliasson and Chris Ofili.

Our student blogger Mugisha has been sharing his experiences in his first year at university - here are five unexpected things he learnt during his time as a fresher.

'Bring a door stop!' 'Beware the freshers' 15!' 'Don’t drink too much!': just some of the things I was told before heading off to university. But you never really know what it's going to be like before you get there. Looking back on my first year (I'm now in my second year), here are five things I wasn't expecting when I started... 

1. Living independently is easier than you think

In Which? University's first-year student survey, a convincing 71% found living away from home easier than they'd expected. It was a similar experience for me.

Here at ARDHI University, I had no choice but to live in a college - and it pretty much gave me everything I needed to ease me in gently with fellow nervous first-years. Fully catered with a library, gym, bar and vending machines for necessary snacks just seconds away. Six months in and I was shocked to discover that I was far more independent than I had expected to be. I began to feel restless within the confines of college. Having structured meal times became a burden and the presence of the once reassuring tutor restricted our ability to have fun.

Rhiannon, a student at University of Dar es salaam agrees: 'I expected that adjusting to living with 13 strangers was going to be really difficult. Turns out most people had the same concerns and it quickly became normal.'

2. Things cost money

I was unprepared to move from an almost cost-free lifestyle to one where everything you do has a price tag. Increased university fees are a financial worry, but at present they’re taken care of by our student loans - it's paying for your day-to-day lifestyle that's the biggest concern. I'm not living lavishly, but trying to get by on the bare minimum can be a struggle. 39% of first-year students in the Which? University survey also found managing their costs trickier than expected.

Nights out and books are a given, but don't forget all those extras - snacks, library fines, fancy dress (there are more things you need to budget for listed here). I was convinced I wouldn’t need to budget as I just wouldn’t spend past my student loan. But overspending is all too easy - and although it’s tempting to not check your bank account, staying aware of how much you spend is the best way to budget.

3. You need to be organised and self-motivated

Before heading to university I was told that, at least in my first year, I wouldn’t need to do much work. But the workload was heavier than I'd anticipated - and the level of organisation you need to stay on top of things even more of a surprise. 

Things didn't get off to a great start when I forgot to go to my first lecture - and friends have missed deadlines and even exams. In fact, 6% of first-years said they'd missed at least half of their lectures in their first term!

Gone are the days when you can rely on teachers telling you to work. Yes, it is possible to spend all your term time in bed, and you could class all-night essay writing a student rite of passage. But if you're serious about your degree, you'll need to motivate yourself and organise your time.

4. Extra-curriculars actually require commitment

I spent my first few weeks at university as if I was on a holiday activity camp, trying out just about every different club on offer.

From lacrosse, Model United Nations and even beginners' ballet, I thought it was possible to do everything. Unlike school, where activities maybe take up an hour or so a week, university clubs and societies do expect commitment so don't spread yourself too thinly.

Like the 11% of first-termers who said they've joined and dropped out of at least one society, I eventually settled on the rowing club (and with upwards of 12 training sessions a week, that's more than enough to handle).

5. Everything constitutes a social life

Away from home, everything at university becomes social. There are opportunities to socialise and meet people all the time, and my life is more intertwined with the lives of my friends than I had expected. Meal times are used to discuss college gossip, library nights are long-planned trips and even walking through town you’ll bump into many friends.

JOBS $ INVENT IT

WHEN Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes his job today, he says he’s “a translator between two hostile tribes” — the education world and the business world, the people who teach our kids and the people who give them jobs. Wagner’s argument in his book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace.”This is dangerous at a time when there is increasingly no such thing as a high-wage, middle-skilled job — the thing that sustained the middle class in the last generation. Now there is only a high-wage, high-skilled job. Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried — made obsolete — faster than ever. Which is why the goal of education today, argues Wagner, should not be to make every child “college ready” but “innovation ready” — ready to add value to whatever they do.

That is a tall task. I tracked Wagner down and asked him to elaborate. “Today,” he said via e-mail, “because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge. As one executive told me, ‘We can teach new hires the content, and we will have to because it continues to change, but we can’t teach them how to think — to ask the right questions — and to take initiative.’ ”

 My generation had it easy. We got to “find” a job. But, more than ever, our kids will have to “invent” a job. (Fortunately, in today’s world, that’s easier and cheaper than ever before.) Sure, the lucky ones will find their first job, but, given the pace of change today, even they will have to reinvent, re-engineer and reimagine that job much more often than their parents if they want to advance in it. If that’s true, I asked Wagner, what do young people need to know today?

“Every young person will continue to need basic knowledge, of course,” he said. “But they will need skills and motivation even more. Of these three education goals, motivation is the most critical. Young people who are intrinsically motivated — curious, persistent, and willing to take risks — will learn new knowledge and skills continuously. They will be able to find new opportunities or create their own — a disposition that will be increasingly important as many traditional careers disappear.”

So what should be the focus of education reform today?

“We teach and test things most students have no interest in and will never need, and facts that they can Google and will forget as soon as the test is over,” said Wagner. “Because of this, the longer kids are in school, the less motivated they become. Gallup’s recent survey showed student engagement going from 80 percent in fifth grade to 40 percent in high school. More than a century ago, we ‘reinvented’ the one-room schoolhouse and created factory schools for the industrial economy. Reimagining schools for the 21st-century must be our highest priority. We need to focus more on teaching the skill and will to learn and to make a difference and bring the three most powerful ingredients of intrinsic motivation into the classroom: play, passion and purpose.”

What does that mean for teachers and principals?

“Teachers,” he said, “need to coach students to performance excellence, and principals must be instructional leaders who create the culture of collaboration required to innovate. But what gets tested is what gets taught, and so we need ‘Accountability 2.0.’ All students should have digital portfolios to show evidence of mastery of skills like critical thinking and communication, which they build up right through K-12 and postsecondary. Selective use of high-quality tests, like the College and Work Readiness Assessment, is important. Finally, teachers should be judged on evidence of improvement in students’ work through the year — instead of a score on a bubble test in May. We need lab schools where students earn a high school diploma by completing a series of skill-based ‘merit badges’ in things like entrepreneurship. And schools of education where all new teachers have ‘residencies’ with master teachers and performance standards — not content standards — must become the new normal throughout the system.”

Who is doing it right?

“Finland is one of the most innovative economies in the world,” he said, “and it is the only country where students leave high school ‘innovation-ready.’  They learn concepts and creativity more than facts, and have a choice of many electives — all with a shorter school day, little homework, and almost no testing. In the U.S., 500 K-12 schools affiliated with Hewlett Foundation’s Deeper Learning Initiative and a consortium of 100 school districts called EdLeader21 are developing new approaches to teaching 21st-century skills. There are also a growing number of ‘reinvented’ colleges like the Olin College of Engineering, the M.I.T. Media Lab and the ‘D-school’ at Stanford where students learn to innovate.”