Book Excerpts

Hot Peppers

As a teacher, I saw direct comparisons to the statement “you can have students in class, but you can’t make them think.” For me, my teaching methods focus on learning concepts and connecting them to practical applications. Not everyone will be an engineer, so using cooking or dispensing medicine can get the attention of students on the importance of using proper units of measure. Quadratic, exponential, and logarithmic functions can be boring unless them are connected to spread of diseases, flattening of the COVID-19 curve, or ball being caught.
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The More You Know

When having a strong understanding of concepts or being a highly abstract thinker, the way leaders approach decision-making or problem-solving might appear to have been pulled out of a hat (or somewhere else). Abstract thinkers can often see multiple steps ahead and the consequences of the related choices quickly. Unfortunately, not everyone should be led through processes, information, or situations and related choices the same way or at the same rate. Leaders should be aware of this and make adjustments to style and approach to teach those who don’t understand in the way of the leader.
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Culture of Maintenance

Progressive organizations and their leaders take chances and look for ways to move to the next level. They are willing to do what must be tried not just in desperate times, but in times of calm and stagnation. Progress can happen through crises and not wasting them. Innovations and inventions often come through necessity, but can through accidents and determination. There need not be a problem to solve, to create a fix or improvement. When things are calm, the challenges and threats associated with making mistakes are easier to mitigate than when the organization, lives, or careers are on the line.
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