A tweet from Tom Barrett shares Doug Belshaw‘s approach to planning (sorry Doug, correct me if I’ve interpreted Tom’s tweet the wrong way!):

“Don’t plan, just get on with it”

Not surprisingly, this approach works. . .instead of spending time analyzing how an initiative can go wrong, take a few quick observations and jump in. After all, you only come this way once. Some might say this is the approach some take before launching half a million technology school initiatives without realizing that the technology isn’t there to support it. However, that’s NOT what is being advocated. After you’ve spent time trying to figure it all out, there comes a certain point where you have to jump and get it done or sit on it.

Patrick Lencioni addresses this in The Five Temptations of a CEO. While you can see all of them here, the one that applies here is Temptation #3: Choosing Certainty over Clarity. You have to set public deadlines for making key decisions and practice making decisions without complete information. Lencioni writes about it this way:

It is the need that many CEOs have to ensure that their decisions are correct. Accurate, precise, correct. This creates paralysis in companies when leaders wait until they have enough information to be sure about their decision. Employees lose heart. Executives lose confidence. All because someone was afraid to make a tough call in the face of imperfect information. . .the inability to be decisive and create clarity out of confusion is a skill that all great CEOS must master.

When visiting Mesquite ISD last week, I had a chance to sit down for lunch at Posada’s Mexican Restaurant with Richard Armand (Tech Director), Tammy and Daryl. We covered a lot of different topics, but one of the points that stuck with me was something Richard Armand said.

“We tried to plan everything out and several months went by and nothing got done. We’ve decided to just go ahead and do it.”

Sometimes, you can’t plan everything out, and you have to step off the cliff and see if your wings will be strong enough to carry you.

And, speaking of First Flights, Tom Barrett has an interesting proposal to use GoogleDocs for Online Reporting for Parents:

I am proposing to use Google Docs as a platform to trial the delivery of online reporting to the parents and children in my class for this academic year 2008/2009…I have much to iron out but would really appreciate your take on the idea, pitfalls that you might see and your general commentary on the proposal. Your comments will help us to develop the proposed system.

As I read this, a few questions come to mind:

1. How come you can’t use the current gradebook program to accomplish this reporting?
2. How can the school justify sharing confidential student data via a third party system that might very well be hacked?
3. How will the school control access to my child’s information?
4. Is GoogleDocs really the best tool to use in regards to ease of use for teachers and parents?
5. Does the GoogleDocs permission protocols allow one to easily assign access rights for some but not others and adjust those on the fly?
6. Who’s pushing for this, you, your colleagues or the parents? Who besides you wants this to happen? If it’s just you, well then, maybe you need to rethink your approach.

The idea is fundamentally sound–increased communication between key stakeholders–but I question the tool to be used. I look forward to seeing how you go forward and only offer these questions because I want you to succeed.

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