{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"419: What is the Priority?","description":"Hi, I\u2019m Jeff Ikler, host of the Getting Unstuck - Cultivating Curiosity podcast. This summer, I\u2019m periodically releasing mini-episodes that, in under 10 minutes, dive into an evergreen idea from a previously broadcast episode. The content in these mini episodes is designed to be readily applicable to your life or work. This week\u2019s episode was inspired by a conversation with educator Dr. Deb Gustafson in December 2019, when she explained how, as a principal, she had applied Jim Collins\u2019 flywheel principle from Good to Great in her elementary school. The idea The flywheel is an individual\u2019s, team\u2019s, or organization\u2019s intentional ordering of only five to six key, repeated actions to achieve desired outcomes. Critical to success is the idea that the first action triggers the next, which in turn triggers the next. Each action is thus dependent on the one that came before it. What prompted Deb\u2019s effort was her recent inheritance of the district's worst-performing elementary school. Rather than throw a series of unrelated strategies at the problem, Deb used the flywheel as a thinking tool to help her architect a plan for sustainable improvement. Two important principles of the flywheel concept are ONE, a clear explanation of the desired result toward which everyone in the organization can work, and TWO, the selection of the all-important priority step from which the remaining elements cascade. Here\u2019s how the two elements played out in Deb\u2019s planning. After studying her student population, Deb realized that her students were extremely dispirited, lacked self-esteem, and felt they had no future. Given those findings, she decided that the desired result couldn\u2019t just be a lofty academic goal; it had to reflect the needs of the whole student. So she structured the desired results as: "Help kids become the best people they can be." Deb decided that, to achieve the desired results, the all-important priority step in the flywheel had to be hiring teachers who loved kids. As she told me, \u201cI can teach people how to teach, but I can\u2019t teach them how to love. What these kids needed was to feel valued and capable of succeeding. If we did that well, academic success would follow.\u201d I\u2019ve included Deb\u2019s flywheel model in the show notes on my website. Take a minute to review the steps and how they were designed to achieve the school\u2019s desired results. And the results, you ask? Deb\u2019s school quickly became the district\u2019s highest-performing elementary school, and her approach served as a model for other leaders and schools throughout the district. Extending the idea The beauty of the flywheel is that it constrains thinking to what is essential to bring about desired results. Instead of wild brainstorming that results in \u201cWe could do this and this, and this,\u201d the flywheel demands discipline: \u201cIf we do these few things in this order really well, we\u2019ll increase the likelihood of success.\u201d But imposing that limitation is really challenging for lots of organizations. Author of the essential read, Essentialism, Greg McKeown argues for a relentless pursuit of "less, but better.\u201d One of the biggest mistakes he notes is to dilute what is important by having \u201cpriorities.\u201d Here he explains the surprising history of the word priority and how its meaning has shifted over time: The word \u201cpriority\u201d came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next five hundred years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities. Illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word we could bend reality. Somehow we would now be able to have multiple "first" things. One of the strategies that I really liked from McKeown\u2019s book is the idea of W.I.N. : asking yourself \u201cWhat\u2019s Important Now?\u201d Yes, it\u2019s a very mindful question because it helps us from sliding back into the unresolved past or ruminating about the yet-to-be-seen future. As McKeown concludes \u201cIt is mind-bending to consider that in practical terms, we only ever have now.\u201d And W.I.N.? is a flexible question in that it can be asked relative to the macro level of life where we\u2019re constantly trying to bring work, play, family into harmony and flow. (Note, I don\u2019t say \u201cbalance\u201d because there ain\u2019t such a thing, is there?) And it can be asked at the micro level regarding all those discrete work or home projects staring us in the face. So\u2026push yourself a bit, and ask \u201cWhat\u2019s Important Now?\u201d For inspiration, you can always watch the famous clip from the movie City Slickers, which never fails to get the juices flowing. Referenced Interview with Dr. Deb Gustafson Good to Great by Jim Collins ","author_name":"Getting Unstuck \u2013 Cultivating Curiosity","author_url":"https:\/\/www.queticocoaching.com\/blog","html":"