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A review by shighley
Shifting the Monkey: The Art of Protecting Good from Liars, Criers, and Other Slackers by Todd Whitaker
5.0
This book will help me think differently about dealing with people. I plan to put some type of monkey on my desk as a reminder! I've had the privilege of hearing Whitaker speak, and I just gave his book What Great Principals Do Differently to a friend who became a principal for the first time.
This book is very blunt and direct, so it's very easy to "get the point"! Take this sentence, the first in the Epilogue: "There's a never-ending supply of lazy, uncaring, and poorly performing workers who will happily shift their monkeys to anyone and everyone they can." Yet, a basic theme throughout the book is "Treat Everyone Well". All too many of the situations Whitaker describes hit home; at times, my school is a real jungle! This book can help guide the way administrators deal with staff, and teachers deal with students. However, I do think some things are different in dealing with students, but the idea of giving everyone a chance to improve, communicating high expectations, and not creating a plethora of rules, issuing threats, etc would work well in a school setting.
Some of my favorite points:
-don't even talk about excuses and blame
-"sidle up": don't provide a dividing line for those who like confrontation
-talk as if you expect things to be done, and on time
-address a whole group with praise, and also individuals in private. On the other hand, don't issue blanket blame statements, as those who cause problems will figure they're not the only ones.
-protect your good people; isolate them from envy, and don't give them all of the hard tasks because you know they will do them; allow them to pass on volunteering
-give autonomy to your best producers (as teachers are getting less and less autonomy) and ask for their advice (what a novel approach in these days!)
-reward efforts rather than results (hear this, testing proponents?)
-most people ARE good
-it's okay to give preferential treatment to some, as long as others see that they have a chance to improve and build capacity as well.
I wonder about the irksome lady in church and the athletic foundation man mentioned. Have they read the book? What do they think?
I like the quotes that are given, rather than a general suggestion of what to say. Now, how do I get this in the hands of people who could really benefit from its ideas? Am I shifting a monkey to do that?
This book is very blunt and direct, so it's very easy to "get the point"! Take this sentence, the first in the Epilogue: "There's a never-ending supply of lazy, uncaring, and poorly performing workers who will happily shift their monkeys to anyone and everyone they can." Yet, a basic theme throughout the book is "Treat Everyone Well". All too many of the situations Whitaker describes hit home; at times, my school is a real jungle! This book can help guide the way administrators deal with staff, and teachers deal with students. However, I do think some things are different in dealing with students, but the idea of giving everyone a chance to improve, communicating high expectations, and not creating a plethora of rules, issuing threats, etc would work well in a school setting.
Some of my favorite points:
-don't even talk about excuses and blame
-"sidle up": don't provide a dividing line for those who like confrontation
-talk as if you expect things to be done, and on time
-address a whole group with praise, and also individuals in private. On the other hand, don't issue blanket blame statements, as those who cause problems will figure they're not the only ones.
-protect your good people; isolate them from envy, and don't give them all of the hard tasks because you know they will do them; allow them to pass on volunteering
-give autonomy to your best producers (as teachers are getting less and less autonomy) and ask for their advice (what a novel approach in these days!)
-reward efforts rather than results (hear this, testing proponents?)
-most people ARE good
-it's okay to give preferential treatment to some, as long as others see that they have a chance to improve and build capacity as well.
I wonder about the irksome lady in church and the athletic foundation man mentioned. Have they read the book? What do they think?
I like the quotes that are given, rather than a general suggestion of what to say. Now, how do I get this in the hands of people who could really benefit from its ideas? Am I shifting a monkey to do that?