THE HENTON HEADLINES
May 9, 2024

Stay in the Loop: Exciting Updates from MASA!

• A new MASA Logo will be revealed soon! Watch for more information in the coming days explaining the design approved by the MASA Board of Directors.

• A new MASA professional development offering for members who have five years of experience or more will be launched in the fall of 2024. The 18-month program called the Advanced Leadership Academy will be a cohort experience led by Steve Murley, a former superintendent and facilitator of AASA’s National Certification Program for Superintendents. Registration will be limited so look for more information toward the end of May or early June! 

• Another new MASA professional development opportunity developed and led by the Joe Donovan Group referred to as the Communications Academy will also be offered in the fall of 2024. This program is a 12-month cohort experience and has been offered successfully to our counterparts in Wisconsin. Individuals or district teams of individuals will be welcome to register for this great opportunity! More information will be coming in the weeks ahead. 

Shout Out to Superintendent Lee Westrum and the Wadena Public Schools!

I want to share some exciting news regarding an outstanding award! In February, at the National Conference on Education, it was announced that AASA, along with their partner (and ours!) Sourcewell, were offering five districts the chance to receive a Hope Squad Award. Hope Squad is a purposeful, powerful, evidence-based peer suicide prevention program. 

Through the generosity of Sourcewell, the awarded districts are able to install a Hope Squad into three schools – one high school, one middle school, and one elementary school – with the awards going to one district in each of the following time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific, and additionally, one in Sourcewell’s Minnesota five-county service area, including Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties. Congratulations to all the award winners and the Wadena Public Schools!

Hope Squad Award Recipients

Marnie Hazelton, Englewood Public School District, Englewood, NJ

Rupak Gandhi, Fargo Public Schools, Fargo, ND

Rob Darling, Grandview School District #200, Grandview, WA

Drea O'Donnell, Shepherd School District, Shepherd, MT

Lee Westrum, Wadena Deer Creek School District, Wadena, MN

Worth Repeating! MASA READS! Are you looking for a good read this summer - either for yourself or your leadership team? Check out the books below for ideas (and let us know what books you recommend)!

If you have any recommendations please send them to Deb Henton and Lori Zimmerman!

Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

Smart Brevity is a communications formula based on brain science and data that helps you style and format information to be clear, engaging and memorable.  It starts with how modern minds work.  When we see new content - no matter the type - our brains ask two things:

• What is this about?

• Is it relevant to me?

If we can't get to "yes" in about 17 milliseconds, we move on.  Smart Brevity leans into that, telling readers "What's new" and "Why it matters" first - always - so they stick with us.  The result: stronger engagement and trust.  Want to read it with your leadership team?  Here's a book study activity to go with it!  Prefer to listen to information about the book? Check out this TED Talk!

Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.  Here's a discussion guide if you'd like to read it with your leadership team.  You can also check out one of Adam's podcasts to challenge your thinking!

The Performance Paradox: Turning the Power of Mindset into Action
The performance paradox is the counterintuitive reality that if we focus only on performing, our performance suffers. Many of us have a vague, misguided sense that to improve we just have to work hard at getting things done. But in fact, that’s not the way to improve. There are two different kinds of hard work and they’re both essential. To improve or innovate, we can’t spend all our time doing things as best as we know how, trying to minimize mistakes (I call this the Performance Zone). We have to also engage in the mental state and strategies to go beyond what we know (I call this the Learning Zone). When we do these together, we’re Learning While Doing. The most successful individuals, teams, and organizations habituate the two zones.  Reflection Questions and Looking Forward Questions are included in the text.

Mattering is the Agenda
Angela Maiers is going to be the opening keynote presenter at the 2024 MASA Fall Conference held this year at Madden's on September 29 - October 1.  Use her short text with your leadership team and talk about how this work can show up in your buildings every day for each student and staff member - and then, bring them with you to the conference to hear her speak!

A Time to Lead

Dowden combines real stories about leading organizations using Marshall Goldsmith, Alan Mulally, and turnaround projects for businesses. These specific strategies can be used in schools and districts to accomplish better results. The research from Folkman Zenger will give you reasons to coach a leader’s strengths. Included in the appendices are leadership assessment tools, a grit scale, a hedgefox scale, and an assessment instrument for leadership styles.  

Right Kind of Wrong

Let’s change the “f” word to feedback from other familiar possibilities. I have learned more from plans that didn’t work than processes that did. Failure and my response to it provides a great opportunity to learn and expand my own learning. Along with her previous books, ‘Teaming’ and ‘Fearless Organization’ she remains the go-to person to learn about psychological safety which is a precursor to maximizing learning. Check out these two short podcasts to hear what the book is all about!

The Myth of Normal
Watch Gabor on Youtube, videos, and read his book. There are a lot of traumas in the world. Schools: students, staff, parents, and community are experiencing an increase in trauma and traumatic events. For common sense responses from a medical doctor based in Vancouver, BC, Gabor offers some hope. Dr. Maté has clarity which is refreshing. My belief is that schools will be the place that must lead the way to reduce the effects of trauma. (yes, one more thing) AND very important.

“So many books. So little time” - Frank Zappa

Leadership Matters- Happy Mother’s Day to all our Moms!

“Mothers are like glue. Even when you can't see them, they're still holding the family together.” - Susan Gale

“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.” - Robert Browning

“The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.” - James Faust

“Mothers are like buttons. They hold everything together.” - Unknown

“Mother: the most beautiful word on the lips of mankind.” - Kahil Gibran