if I only had a brain

I could wile away the hours,
conferin’ with the flowers,
consultin’ with the rain.
And my head I’d be scratchin’
while my thoughts were busy hatchin’,
if I only had a brain.

Some friends of mine just visited the man behind the curtain and received their doctoral degrees in educational leadership. It was an extreme pleasure to walk across the stage in the company of these dedicated educators. Our alma mater, Central Connecticut State University, has a doctoral program that adheres to the cohort model: selecting a diverse group of individuals and then striving to build a level of camaraderie that will sustain us when we feel overloaded with the work. We represented the first wave of graduates from our cohort, and I look forward to seeing the rest of my friends receive their diplomas when they get done battling their own version of flying monkeys in their quest for the witch’s broom.

As I try to decipher the range of emotions from that evening, I realize the power that ritual and ceremony has in education. It is an opportunity for students to bond with their peers and strengthen their allegiance to their school. For example, my school had a pep rally last week, complete with spirited contests between grade levels. The noise in the gymnasium was deafening! Virtually 100% of the students were caught up in the enthusiasm and cheered their hearts out. I am sure that the decibel exceeded the safe threshold set by OSHA by a factor of ten. Even the students who would normally show disdain towards any display of school spirit were yelling like they were at a rock concert. The energy was palatable and it unified the students in a manner that enriched the climate and culture of the school.

Many researchers have studied the importance of culture in organizations. Two notable authors are Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal. Their work on reframing leadership created a model for organizational cultures that identifies 4 components: the structural frame, the political frame, human resources, and the symbolic frame. The symbolic frame includes the rituals and ceremonies. They assert that a leader’s mission in support of the symbolic frame is to create faith, beauty, and meaning. Create faith, beauty, and meaning! The capacity to create meaning might be a commonplace talent, but to create beauty and faith requires a leader with the soul of a poet.

One of my colleagues challenges her elementary school students to read massive amounts of books and rewards their involvement by kissing a pig, or climbing a fire truck’s ladder to the roof of the school to dance a jig. You can guarantee that it becomes the topic of conversation at dinner tables across the community and is a significant source of goodwill. If you define poetry as the unique combination of word choices or events with the purpose of evoking an emotional response, then these antics can be considered as culture building at its finest!

I find it interesting to note that as Bolman and Deal continued their work on leadership that they wrote an extended parable that focused on the spiritual component of leadership; Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit. They remark on the importance of spiritual aspect of leadership, “Our work has taught us that the symbolic, expressive facets of organizational life are at the heart of inspired leadership” (p. 39). So, school leaders, go create beauty and faith. Promote joy. Embrace the power of ceremonies.

As the Wizard of Oz ceremoniously proclaimed to the Scarecrow; “Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven’t got: a diploma.” Now as for me, since I am certified to wile away the hours, conferring with the flowers, I think I will dance and be merry since life is ding-a-derry…

Make a good day,
Tod

PS. Complete lyrics and dialogue: http://thewizardofoz.warnerbros.com/movie/cmp/r-lyrics.html

PSS. Nice overview of Bolman and Deal’s framework: http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/bolman.html