Fixing Providence Schools. Failure is NOT an option. —Steven Triedman

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Steven Triedman, Guest MINDSETTER™

 

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The scathing Johns Hopkins report on the Providence schools was a massive “wake up call” for all of the people working in the system and government who apparently were unaware that the school system was an education “nightmare.”  The subsequent takeover by the state with over two years of negligible progress and now a watered-down plan to possibly return the still seriously broken system to the city with the key missing variable of strong effective leadership with a full mandate to fix the system and a buy-in from all of the constituencies.

It’s like the State borrowed the City’s school car, which was sitting on cinderblocks, tinkered with it for two years and returned it on a flatbed with broken windows.

Without great leadership, and an unbridled commitment willing to do whatever it takes to achieve success, the schools will remain an embarrassment.

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There are lessons from America’s past that are well worth revisiting if we are to get our schools up to levels that are acceptable to everyone.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” – President John F. Kennedy, 1961

America’s eye was set on the moon by leaders with vision and delivered by people who believed in their mission – but it was not without setback and tragedy.

“Failure is not an option.” This line comes from the movie “Apollo 13” and was delivered by Gene Kranz, then NASA’s Director of Flight Operations as a directive to his team faced with the seemingly impossible task of getting a rectagonal air filter into a round one to keep the crew alive.

The Kranz Dictum, delivered after three Apollo 1 astronauts died in a fire on the launchpad, remains at the center of NASA’s operation today.

“Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, "Dammit, stop!" I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: "Tough" and "Competent". Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write "Tough and Competent" on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”

The message is that each and every person must take responsibility.  It’s not about technical failure.  It’s about the root cause – the culture and performance of his team. Then he tells them how they’re going to ensure that it never happens again.

Everyone involved with the Providence schools desperately needs to understand that this isn’t somebody else’s problem; it’s our problem. We are responsible. Not you – and this includes all of the elected officials as well.

This reinforces the message of “Tough,” meaning accountable, and “Competent,” meaning not taking anything for granted.

These words should be the price of admission to the ranks of the Providence Public School system.

 

Steven Triedman is an advertising creative director, a well-known writer for various newspapers and magazines and a national speaker for a major pharmaceutical company.

 

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