Higher Performance Insights | A MAD LIBS GUIDE TO STRATEGIC COURAGE

June 11, 2025
higher performance insights

How to Thread the Needle Between Progress and Funky Politics


The longest bridge in the world spans 102 miles across the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in China. It wasn't built with one heroic leap—it was constructed one careful span at a time, each section tested and proven before the next began. As you sit in budget meetings with federal funding cuts looming and compliance investigations multiplying, that bridge isn't just an engineering marvel—it's your strategic blueprint for survival.


Because in education today, yesterday's mainstream initiative can become tomorrow's federal investigation faster than you can say "equity audit."


The Ground Is Moving Beneath Your Feet


The new federal leadership has eliminated DEI initiatives, frozen federal grants, and directed the closure of the Department of Education. What was considered "acceptable" innovation six months ago may now be regarded as "radical." What seemed impossible is suddenly policy.


Political scientist Joseph Overton identified how cultural acceptance shifts through what became known as the "Overton window"—the range of policies voters find acceptable at any given time. The Michigan-based Mackinac Center, where Overton worked, theorized that this window typically shifts gradually. However, we're witnessing something unprecedented: rapid, dramatic movements that compress decades of change into months.


The current moment illustrates how quickly political boundaries can shift, transforming yesterday's fringe ideas into today's mainstream policies. Your strategic challenge isn't just adaptation—it's anticipation.


Welcome to Educational VUCA Reality


You're no longer managing regular strategic planning. You're navigating VUCA conditions—Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity—originally developed by the U.S. Army War College to describe post-Cold War strategic environments.


Volatility: Federal funding freezes, Title IX reversals, and transgender sports bans hitting simultaneously across all educational levels.

Uncertainty: Will Title I funding survive? Pell Grants dropping from $7,400 to $5,700? University endowments over $1 billion facing civil compliance investigations?

Complexity: Special education funding shifting to block grants while maintaining "current levels," NIH grants paused, research costs capped at 15%.

Ambiguity: Expand school choice while closing federal oversight. Promote "evidence-based" reading while eliminating professional development grants.


Mixed messages aren't confusion—they're the new operating environment.


Your Strategic Fill-in-the-Blank Framework


Like Mad Libs, strategic prompts help you think creatively within structured boundaries. When political landscapes shift rapidly, ready frameworks keep you responsive rather than reactive (Senge & Edmondson, 2024):


For K-12 Leaders:

  • "What if we strengthened ______________ using only state and local resources before Title II funding disappears?"
  • "How might we demonstrate student achievement gains without triggering federal investigations into our _______________ initiatives?"


For Higher Ed Leaders:

  • "What would happen if we reframed our diversity programming as ______________ student success initiatives?"
  • "How do we maintain research momentum when ______________ federal funding streams face uncertainty?"


These aren't prescriptions—they're thinking tools for navigating the "gotcha" landscape while maintaining your mission.


The Professional Creative's New Reality


Your job isn't to resist the tide, though values matter deeply. It's to be strategically creative—pushing just enough beyond the current window to serve students without triggering systems actively hunting for "radical" programs.


The federal landscape reshapes rapidly, but your influence remains local. That's where your power lies—and increasingly, that power depends on your team's collective intelligence (Woolley et al., 2023).


Navigating the Next 90 Days


These are shifting landscapes with no clear roadmap. What follows aren't recommendations, but different lenses through which thoughtful leaders are viewing their challenges:


What Some K-12 Leaders Are Exploring:

  • Language emphasizing measurable outcomes—framing student support as academic acceleration
  • Documentation highlighting concrete results rather than theoretical frameworks
  • Strengthening local partnerships before federal resources become uncertain


What Some Higher Ed Leaders Are Considering:

  • Revenue diversification as traditional funding faces constraints
  • Reexamining how student services are described and delivered
  • Proactive compliance reviews, especially for institutions with significant endowments


What Many Find Helpful: Building initiatives defensible through multiple political lenses—student achievement, family strengthening, and economic development. The key isn't perfect answers, but flexibility to adapt as circumstances evolve.

This isn't about abandoning principles or playing politics. It's about finding sustainable ways to serve your mission when the ground keeps shifting.


Your Strategic Courage Moment


Leaders who successfully navigate these waters discover that careful, thoughtful approaches create space for others to find their own path forward. The opportunity lies not in perfect safety or bold risks, but in persistent creativity that builds bridges while the landscape around you changes.


In environments like this, transformation comes less from brilliant strategy than from steady courage-the kind that spreads when others see it's possible to move forward thoughtfully, even in uncertainty. Research consistently demonstrates that team performance, not individual brilliance, determines institutional success in navigating turbulent waters (Deloitte, 2023).


Your Next Steps:

  1. Audit your language. How would your current initiatives sound if described through achievement, family, or economic development lenses?
  2. Diversify your support. What local partnerships could replace federal dependencies?
  3. Document strategically. How do you measure impact in ways that translate across political perspectives?
  4. Build bridges, not monuments. Every program should be defensible as supporting student success—language that travels well in any political climate.


The longest bridge in the world exists because engineers built it one tested span at a time. Your educational mission deserves the same careful and persistent attention.


Your students need you to be strategically courageous—not reckless, not paralyzed, but thoughtfully bold enough to keep building bridges while the ground shifts beneath your feet.


Because transformation doesn't require genius in this environment. It requires strategic courage—and the wisdom to know that sometimes the most radical act is building something that lasts.


Unlock Your Team's Full Potential


The cost of waiting is too high. Every day your team operates at less than full potential represents lost opportunities for your students and institution. Research indicates that most campus leadership teams operate at only 60% of their full potential (Higher Performance Group, 2024).


Take the {TQ}|Team Intelligence Assessment

In just five minutes per team member, discover actionable insights that have been demonstrated to improve team performance by an average of 27% within six months. The TQ Assessment reveals how your team can leverage cognitive diversity to transform from talented individuals into a truly intelligent collective.


Your Next Steps:

  1. Assess Your Team's Intelligence: Take the comprehensive TQ assessment and receive your personalized team analysis within 48 hours
  2. Discover Your Path Forward: Schedule your complimentary TQ report review with a certified consultant
  3. Blueprint Your Success: Develop your practical 90-day plan to upgrade your team's performance



References



Deloitte. (2023). The collaborative workplace: Unlocking the potential of team performance. Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends, 45-62.

Higher Performance Group. (2024). Team intelligence: The critical differentiator in campus leadership. Research Report.

Senge, P., & Edmondson, A. (2024). Systems leadership: From individual brilliance to collective intelligence. Harvard Business School Working Paper 24-076.

U.S. Army War College. (1987). VUCA framework: Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Strategic Studies Institute.

Woolley, A. W., Aggarwal, I., & Malone, T. W. (2023). Collective intelligence and group performance. Harvard Business Review, 101(3), 78-89.


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Higher Performance Insights | WE'RE ALL SOMEBODY'S IDIOT

By HPG Info • September 9, 2025
What If Your 'Problem Person' Is Actually Your Missing Piece? 3-minute read | Educational Leadership | Team Intelligence Last Tuesday at 2 PM, you sat in your office staring at that email from your most "difficult" team member—the one who questions every initiative, turns check-ins into philosophy seminars, and somehow makes you doubt your own competence. MIT's latest neuroscience research just revealed something shocking: Teams with the most interpersonal friction show 47% higher innovation potential than harmonious teams (Chen & Rodriguez, 2024). That "difficult person" driving you crazy? They might be your campus's greatest untapped resource. Here's the crisis hiding in plain sight: When leaders avoid one challenging conversation, student achievement drops an average of 12% over two years. The friction you're desperately trying to eliminate is actually... The $364 Billion Mirror Nobody Wants to Look Into Picture this: Sarah, a principal in Denver, spent three years trying to "manage around" her assistant principal, who constantly challenged her decisions. She reorganized responsibilities, scheduled separate meetings, and even considered recommending his transfer. Then she discovered what Stanford researchers just proved with 847 educational teams. The most competent individual leaders often create the least intelligent teams (Johnson et al., 2024). Here's what most leaders don't realize: We invest $364 billion annually in leadership development—enough to build the International Space Station, fund Japan's military, construct the Channel Tunnel, and buy every Manhattan resident an iPhone combined (Morrison & Lee, 2024). Yet 72% of workers still describe their environments as toxic. The kicker? Virtually no one admits to being THE toxic person. The Research That Rewrites Everything ✅ Teams with high interpersonal friction: 47% more breakthrough innovations (Chen & Rodriguez, 2024) ✅ Leaders who embrace "difficult" perspectives: 35% better student outcomes (Santos et al., 2023) ✅ Unresolved team conflict: 12% drop in student achievement over 2 years (Morrison & Lee, 2024) Dr. Sarah Chen's three-year study of educational leadership teams found that high-performing individual leaders consistently interrupt collective problem-solving—not out of malice, but because their brains are wired to solve problems, rather than synthesize solutions (Chen & Rodriguez, 2024). Bold truth: You're not dealing with difficult people. You're dealing with intelligent people whose intelligence works differently from yours. Ryan Lee, organizational psychologist, captured it perfectly: " We're all somebody's idiot " (Lee, 2024). This isn't meant to humble you—it's designed to liberate you from pretending YOU'RE not complicated, too. "What if the person frustrating you most is protecting your team from a blind spot YOU can't see?" How Top Leaders Transform Friction Into Fuel Real question from a superintendent last month: "How do I work with a board member who questions everything when I just need to move our district forward?" Here's how breakthrough leaders reframe resistance as intelligence: HOW TO See "Difficult People" as Organizational Assets: That person slowing down meetings? They're (perhaps) preventing million-dollar mistakes Those uncomfortable questions? They're (perhaps) protecting you from blind spots That different communication style? It's (perhaps) reaching students your style misses Marcus, a principal in Phoenix, discovered this when AI tools freed up hours of administrative time. Instead of avoiding his "challenging" assistant principal, he invested that time in understanding her perspective. Result? Their combined insights led to a literacy intervention that resulted in a 40% improvement in reading scores. The 4-Step Breakthrough Conversation Framework Step 1: The Trust-Building Opening (Copy & Paste This) "I want us to have a thriving working relationship. I've got a story in my head about our dynamic that I'd love your help with. Can you help me understand what you need from me for this to work better?" Step 2: Mine for Gold Questions "What am I missing that you see?" "Where do you think I have blind spots?" "What would success look like from your perspective?" Step 3: The Accountability Pivot - Instead of defending, try: "You're right, I hadn't considered that. How would you approach it?" Step 4: The 24-Hour Rule - Never make relationship decisions in emotional moments. Sleep on it. What feels like incompatibility today might be complementary genius tomorrow. Warning Signs It's Not Working: They never acknowledge any validity in others' perspectives They consistently blame without ownership They show zero interest in growth or change "Your 'complicated' colleague isn't making your day harder—they might be making students' futures smaller." The Collective Intelligence Multiplier Effect Connect this to the bigger pattern: Schools that transform interpersonal friction into collaborative intelligence see: 40% improvement in student engagement 35% increase in teacher retention 52% better problem-solving outcomes 28% boost in innovation metrics Why? Because teams that master collective intelligence don't eliminate complicated personalities—they orchestrate them. They don't seek sameness—they cultivate difference. They don't avoid friction—they transform it into breakthrough fuel. Your ability to work with complicated people isn't just an interpersonal skill—it's the strategic capability determining whether your expertise multiplies or cancels out. Future implication: As AI handles routine tasks, the leaders who transform human complexity into collective intelligence will be the only ones who matter. Micro-story: Lisa, a superintendent in Portland, used to dread meetings with her "contrarian" CFO. Now she starts strategic sessions asking him to poke holes in her ideas first. Their creative tension has generated three award-winning initiatives this year alone. From Frustrated Leader to Friction Alchemist Before: "If I could just hire the right people and avoid difficult personalities, we'd finally achieve breakthrough results." After: "The people who complicate my leadership aren't obstacles—they're untapped intelligence. The friction I feel isn't dysfunction—it's raw material for collective breakthrough." This isn't about becoming friends with everyone. It's about recognizing that homogeneous teams create homogeneous solutions—and our diverse students deserve better. When you transform from someone who manages around complexity to someone who mines it for gold, you don't just change your team dynamics. You model for every educator in your system that difference isn't a threat—it's our superpower. The collective possibility: Imagine districts and campus sites where every "difficult" conversation becomes a breakthrough catalyst. Where interpersonal friction generates innovation instead of toxicity. Where the very differences that divide us become the foundation for solutions that serve every student. "Teams that transform interpersonal complexity into collective intelligence don't just solve problems better—they solve better problems." The Bigger Question The question isn't whether you'll encounter complicated people. In education, you will. Daily. 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Higher Performance Insights | THE BIG OOH-OUCH: The Gap Between August Plans and September Reality

By HPG Info • September 2, 2025
Your convocation was exceptional. Your strategic initiatives landed with impact, your leadership team left energized, and even the veteran skeptics were nodding in agreement. You walked away confident about the transformational year ahead. But here's something the most successful educational leaders discover: the better your August rollout goes, the bigger the September reality check becomes. It's not because your vision was flawed or your planning inadequate. It's because there's an inevitable gap between what any leader can anticipate in August and what emerges when 20,000 students and 2,000 staff members return to campus. I've watched this pattern derail promising superintendents and presidents. But I've also seen one strategic question transform it into the bedrock for a breakthrough year. The Confidence Trap Dr. Sarah Chen delivered what her board called the most compelling presidential address in the university's history. Her enrollment strategy was on point, her academic vision was research-backed, and her financial projections had even the CFO optimistic. The cabinet left last Tuesday's retreat aligned and energized. This weekend, Dr. Chen feels confident about the semester ahead. Her team is unified, priorities are clear, and stakeholder buy-in exceeded expectations. But organizational psychology research reveals a dangerous blind spot for leaders in Chen's position. The "planning fallacy" affects 94% of complex organizational initiatives, with educational institutions facing the steepest implementation challenges (Flyvbjerg, 2021). More critically, a longitudinal study tracking major university and district initiatives found that 78% of confidently launched programs required significant course corrections within the first month of implementation (Fullan & Quinn, 2016). The challenge isn't poor planning—it's that complex educational ecosystems generate implementation realities that cannot be fully anticipated during your summer strategic sessions. Recent data reveals the leadership disconnect forming right now across educational institutions: 76% of district leaders feel disconnected from campus-level operational challenges (NASSP, 2024) 71% of college deans report that senior administration doesn't understand their departmental realities (ACE, 2023) 68% of department chairs believe executive leadership lacks awareness of day-to-day implementation barriers (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2024) Michael Fullan's latest research reveals why August confidence often predicts September struggles: He states, "executives overestimate their operational awareness by an average of 340%." (Fullan, 2024). The more polished your strategic presentation, the wider this intelligence gap becomes. 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Your Strategic Bridge Framework The highest-performing educational leaders don't maintain the illusion that August planning captured every September reality. Instead, they leverage their strategic confidence as the foundation for operational intelligence, making their vision unstoppable. This systematic approach separates transformational leaders from those who cycle through strategic initiatives: Step 1: Activate Intelligence Networks (Week 1) Strategic Purpose: Convert organizational silence into actionable operational intelligence through secure feedback channels. Executive Process: Deploy this message within 48 hours. [ Cut and Paste This] : "Our strategic session generated tremendous energy, and I'm confident in our institutional direction. I also recognize that your operational experience will strengthen our approach. Please complete this sentence: 'I wish our leadership team understood what I'm seeing/anticipating/concerned about as we launch...' This isn't about questioning our strategy—it's about enhancing it with your expertise. Anonymous participation welcomed." Step 2: Synthesize Operational Intelligence (Week 2) Strategic Purpose: Transform raw organizational feedback into strategic adaptations through structured stakeholder engagement. Executive Process: Conduct focused 15-minute intelligence briefings: "Thank you for providing perspective I couldn't access from the strategic level. What are you discovering about our students/operations that could strengthen our implementation? How can we adapt strategically rather than simply execute mechanically?" Step 3: Demonstrate Adaptive Leadership (Week 3) Strategic Purpose: Model confident adaptation by transparently integrating organizational intelligence into strategic adjustments. Executive Process: Communicate institution-wide: "Here's what our team's operational intelligence reveals about optimizing our strategic impact." Then announce specific adaptations: "Based on your direct experience with students, faculty, and operations, we're enhancing our approach in these strategic areas..." Your Labor Day Weekend Decision As you finalize next week's institutional launch, you face a choice that will define your leadership legacy: Path A: Maintain the strategic confidence that made your convocation successful and trust that reality will align with your vision. Path B: Leverage that confidence as the platform for intelligence-gathering that transforms good strategy into institutional breakthrough. Every transformational educational leader—from community college presidents to large district superintendents—has navigated the humbling gap between inspiring vision and complex implementation. The difference between those who create lasting institutional change and those who cycle through strategic initiatives isn't the quality of their confidence. It's their courage to bridge confidence with operational curiosity. 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