1. How do we determine success of the learning and teaching efforts?
2. How do we train students to be successful considering their individuality and preferences?
3. What do parents and students expect from the school experience and how can we deliver it?
4. What activities can students and parents do after school to supplement the classroom teaching?
5. What are teachers' expectations of their students/ parents and how can we help students/ parents meet them?
6. How can we recruit, empower, motivate and train the teachers to be committed and accountable for the students’ success?
7. How do we engage the community to invest their time and money for the schools?
8. What changes can be made to the curriculum, class duration, number of school years and teaching mechanism to prioritize higher value/ impact elements and reduce optional elements?
9. How can we use technology to help students learn and teachers teach?
10. How can schools be operated so administrators can focus on monitoring, experimentation and engaging students, parents, teachers and the community?
11. What lessons from other successful teaching experiments can be applied to a broader set of schools?
12. How do we constantly monitor and change how we teach to meet needs of the future generation?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Toyota Recall and Lessons learned
In the real world, bad things happen to good companies. Be sure, in every change you make, after you have designed what should happen, to take the same amount of time to plan for the unintended disruptions that, you hope, will never come to fruition. (Source: Susan Cramm)
Whether you head a company, lead a good cause, or coach your children's soccer teams, your job is to root out complacency. Remember to:
· Keep up the essential disciplines every single day, not skipping a single one.
· Keep checking everything carefully.
· Repair, renew, relearn, and reinvest regularly.
· Don't rejoice in others' misery, because you could be next.
· Thank anyone who points out flaws. Listen to disgruntled customers or disaffected constituencies.
· Treat even small setbacks as occasions for redoubled efforts.
"Winning is great, but sometimes it takes a loss to get you motivated again. It humbles you down to reality," said a high school athlete in my research. That youth speaks truth! Although he might not be old enough to drive a Toyota, he is headed in the right direction. (Source: Rosabeth Kanter)
In terms of thinking ahead, when I first studied Toyota I noticed they had this kind of cultivated paranoia. Every time I would try to compliment people at Toyota about their success, they would say, “Wait a minute, hold on. Don’t compliment us. GM, the sleeping behemoth, may awake.” Or “Who knows if Kia will develop the capacity to catch us, like we caught others.” Then there was, “In China there must be 1,000 car companies, and we can’t even name them all, let along identify the one that may catch us.” So I think this really bad product failure is probably fuel for another two solid decades of cultivated paranoia. If there was a complacency problem at Toyota, which there may have been, my goodness, if this doesn’t flush that out of the system, nothing will. (Source: Steven Spear)
Success in business is never guaranteed, in spite of the enticingly simple promises made by some of the titles on the airport bookshelves. Luck and timing have more to do with companies’ success than many people realise, or are prepared to admit. Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. No matter how much you’ve achieved, no matter how far you’ve gone, no matter how much power you’ve garnered, you are vulnerable to decline ... Anyone can fall and most eventually do. (Source: Financial Times)
Whether you head a company, lead a good cause, or coach your children's soccer teams, your job is to root out complacency. Remember to:
· Keep up the essential disciplines every single day, not skipping a single one.
· Keep checking everything carefully.
· Repair, renew, relearn, and reinvest regularly.
· Don't rejoice in others' misery, because you could be next.
· Thank anyone who points out flaws. Listen to disgruntled customers or disaffected constituencies.
· Treat even small setbacks as occasions for redoubled efforts.
"Winning is great, but sometimes it takes a loss to get you motivated again. It humbles you down to reality," said a high school athlete in my research. That youth speaks truth! Although he might not be old enough to drive a Toyota, he is headed in the right direction. (Source: Rosabeth Kanter)
In terms of thinking ahead, when I first studied Toyota I noticed they had this kind of cultivated paranoia. Every time I would try to compliment people at Toyota about their success, they would say, “Wait a minute, hold on. Don’t compliment us. GM, the sleeping behemoth, may awake.” Or “Who knows if Kia will develop the capacity to catch us, like we caught others.” Then there was, “In China there must be 1,000 car companies, and we can’t even name them all, let along identify the one that may catch us.” So I think this really bad product failure is probably fuel for another two solid decades of cultivated paranoia. If there was a complacency problem at Toyota, which there may have been, my goodness, if this doesn’t flush that out of the system, nothing will. (Source: Steven Spear)
Success in business is never guaranteed, in spite of the enticingly simple promises made by some of the titles on the airport bookshelves. Luck and timing have more to do with companies’ success than many people realise, or are prepared to admit. Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. No matter how much you’ve achieved, no matter how far you’ve gone, no matter how much power you’ve garnered, you are vulnerable to decline ... Anyone can fall and most eventually do. (Source: Financial Times)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Innovation in India close to a tipping point
The New York Times article highlighting lack of an Apple or Google in India quoted 1. a financial system reluctant to invest in unproven ideas, 2. an education system that emphasizes rote learning over problem solving and 3. a culture that looks down on failure and unconventional career choices as primary reasons.
In 2006, while the Indian patent office received approx 2000 patent application from residents, Indians in the US contributed to 13.7% or 5760 patent applications. Increasingly immigrant Indians plan to return back and expect China and India to generate innovative products and services during the next 25 to 50 years. Reverse brain drain is now a reality.
Niall Ferguson academic historian at Harvard and most recently author of Ascent of Money recently commented "Whereas in India, all that is really needed, and I know this sounds terribly simplistic, is improving primary and secondary education for a majority of people and improving infrastructure. And then let the markets rip. Indians are very entrepreneurial. Everywhere you go, people are selling stuff, even if it is only a pile of spices. I think unlocking the entrepreneurial energy of India will lift a large number of people out of poverty"
Innumerable practical innovations to address the growing Indian market and capitalize on the large fortune at the bottom of the pyramid are now coming to market. HP Labs India was established in February 2002 with the principal focus on creating new technologies for addressing the IT needs of the next billion customers for HP.
Increasingly, parents are supportive of unconventional career choices. IIMs are encouraging students to start ventures knowing if their ventures fail they can participate in the following year final placements.
Several of the Policy recommendations for improving availability of risk capital to early stage ventures are currently being implemented.
Innovation in India is hard....but increasingly possible and close to a tipping point.
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