Worth a Listen, Look or Read #22 — And This Led to That
Jeff Ikler here for Kirsten Richert with our weekly “Getting Unstuck” mini feature. Here in about five minutes, we extend the theme behind this week’s podcast with some related content that we feel is definitely “Worth a Listen, Look or Read.”
“The life you experience now is something you allowed to be created in the past.”
The idea
This week I talked with Peter McWain, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Sante Fe Public Schools. https://bit.ly/3lTvXuW Our conversation was meant to update the ground we had plowed over three years ago when we both argued for massive shifts in K12 education. “What,” I wondered, “had Peter been able to accomplish since in his school district?”
COVID, of course, had reared its ugly head in the meantime, so I was prepared to keep my hopes for substantial educational change in check. I was a bit surprise, then, when Peter laid out an attention-grabbing topic sentence to our update conversation.
The global pandemic has really pulled the band aid off fast, and accelerated growth in a lot of ways that are making high-level instruction possible in Santa Fe public schools.
Peter then went on to detail a giant leap in the understanding and use of electronic platforms, a focus on essential standards versus all standards, the growth of cross-curriculum planning and instruction, and a deeper awareness that students’ mental health plays a critical part in their academic performance.
Was this the “silver lining” that others have sometimes offered around positive changes that accrued from living under COVID?
How is this invention completely dependent on the one below?
Taking the idea deeper
This idea of one development unintentionally impacting another development reminded me of the brilliant TV documentary and book of the late 1970s, Connections, hosted by the the science historian, James Burke. In that series, Burke excavated eight modern-day inventions such as the TV, the computer, and the guided rocket in jaw-dropping fashion back to their historical roots.
For example, a key aspect of the Apollo Saturn 5 rocket (seen at right) that helped to put men on the moon in the summer of 1969 can be traced all the way back to the food storage problems Napoleon encountered leading his troops across Europe in the early 1800s.
What properties of this invention contributed to the development of the rocket?
Wha? I know, right!?
You have to be curious about that connection. I’ve provide a hint in the Thermos image, below and to the right. The Apollo rocket was in part a giant “thermos,” built to keep the propellant gases super chilled before ignition.
So the idea of “unintentional consequences” got me thinking. While there are numerous examples of positive unintentional consequences, as Peter and James Burke have noted, the term has largely come to be applied to the undesirable effects of a policy that was actually implemented to have the opposite effect. Some examples:
I doubt that anyone envisioned the level of illegal activity that resulted from trying to stop people from producing and consuming liquor during Prohibition of the 1920s and early 1930s.
Tariff, or taxes, levied against foreign imports to protect domestic jobs often result in the loss of some domestic jobs because tariffs placed on imports that are necessary for the production of American-made goods, increase prices and reduce consumption.
Many companies use layoffs to help boost the bottom line in the short term, but in the long run, such measures can cost a company more than they save when you factor in the loss of institutional memory, the impact on morale and productivity for those who weren’t laid off, and the hiring expenses incurred when economic conditions improve.
What I’m most curious about here is whether change agents can take at least some of the steam out of unintended consequences. Typically, planners begin a change process with a goal in mind. What these same change agents often don’t do is take the time to consider the opposite effects of their actions. For example, we often talk in this forum and on our weekly podcast, “Getting Unstuck – Educators Leading Change,” about student agency — giving kids more voice and choice in what they learn, and how to demonstrate their knowledge. Sounds spot-on in terms of developing 21st century problem solvers, right?
OK, but schools that are considering such a shift might also ask a questions such as, “How might this change actually result in kids (and teachers) shutting down, withdrawing? What circumstances would contribute to the opposite of our desired outcome?”
The intent of considering those types of questions is not to crystal ball all thinking — good luck with that — or back away from action. It’s to add a planning step in the change process where you can identify potentially undesirable outcomes and how to avoid or lessen their impact.
Put the idea to work
Let’s put the idea to work. What’s a change that your district or school is considering? What’s the desired outcome of that change? What’s at least one potentially undesirable outcome that could come from your action? How might you mitigate the impact of that potential in your planning?
And finally, a lighter, but oh so series look at the unintended consequences of technology.