Summertime means branching out into different learning communities, cross-pollinating my practices with ideas from other educators as well as other fields, often in fields completely unrelated to education. Doing this fuels my reflection and restores my purpose.
A recent discussion among a group of Educators participating in Campfire Convos has sparked my thinking. We're reflecting on how to best support teachers after 15 months of school during pandemic times. While there are first and second year teachers who have yet to experience a more "typical" school year, there are veteran teachers who've learned about themselves, have evolved, and have grown through the experience.
So where are we headed next?
Recently, I'd found myself returning to When, by Daniel Pink, marveling at the precision and efficiency with which Dabbawalas make hot lunch deliveries across Mumbai, India.
Some background:
Each day, according to Lunchbox Legends: The Dabbawalas of Mumbai :
5,000 people (called Dabbawalas)
make 200,000 hot lunch deliveries
within a location one-fifth the size of the state of Rhode Island
with a precision and coordination that is unparalleled, and in fact, is nearly perfect
on bicycles (and sometimes, trains), with limited technology (no smartphones or GPS).
This happens six days a week. And it happens with such precision that lunch is scheduled between the hours of 1:00 and 2:00 pm each day, as is typical in Indian business culture.
The cost? Approximately the equivalent of $12 dollars per month.
The Dabbawalas of Mumbai, India have been executing this for nearly 130 years.
Interesting to note, that 50% of Dabbawalas are illiterate. And most have completed education ranging from the completion of an eighth grade, high school, or junior college.
How significant is this?
Forbes Magazine awarded its Six Sigma certification in 2001 to the Dabbawalas based on a 99.999999 percent delivery accuracy rate (1 error for every 16 million transactions).
When I think about how this applies to educators - before, during, and (hopefully) after a global pandemic, I can't help but make connections to this past school year.
Teachers packed rolling carts of teaching materials.
They traveled to classrooms where cohorts of students awaited them.
And they did this within the allotted two minute passing time.
They were met by receiving teachers who, before leaving for their next class, were supervising students and preparing the classroom for the next teacher. Log-in, attendance, Google Meet, teach. They'd teach any combination of students who were attending in-person, hybrid, or fully remote, on any given day. As one teacher described it to me, preparing to teach is done...in 12 easy steps. Eight times over the course of a day.
Teachers worked like Dabbawalas.
How might adopting a Dabbawalas mindset help make us better educators?
On the business side, Dabbawalas focus on:
keeping costs minimal
customer service
cooperation
commitment
job satisfaction
humility
The success of Dabbawalas, according to Mumbai's Models of Service Excellence (Harvard Business Review), is contingent upon four pillars:
organization
management
process
culture
And of equal or greater importance, Dabbawalas focus on taking actions that foster a sense of belonging to a group. They focus on simple and direct codes that ensure time and energy isn't expended on the wrong things. They dress in a way that supports and reinforces coordination of a team. They embrace physical contact, in the form of a pat on the back. And they serve in honor of the task and with utmost respect to those who benefit from the work.
"Dabawalas have considerable autonomy in their jobs. Nobody tells them in what order they must collect or deliver the lunches. They determine the division of labor among the team without anyone acting as a heavy-handed foreman."
- Daniel Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
How does this then apply to post-pandemic teaching and learning?
No doubt, the majority of teachers mastered the management of aforementioned routines.
While these may inadvertently be obsolete in the years to come, it was confirmed that adults, like kids, are learners, are adaptable, and are capable of doing hard things.
I'm hopeful that we might be able to adapt practices and adopt the mindset of Dabbawalas.
Seeking advice from colleagues on how to support teachers at any and all career stages and comfort levels, it was Lauren Kaufman who offered ideas that are helping me frame priorities.
To promote an aligned learning culture, I will ask key questions, in the spirit of articulation:
What are the Standards?
What do our students need to do?
How will they get there?
Which strategies will we use reliably?
What is the evidence of our success?
What tools can we use to support our success?
This will be my first step, through a curricular lens, to be more like a Dabbawala. This will build capacity and unify staff around a common cause, for teaching and learning in 2021-22.
Might it support teachers' growing confidence (efficacy) and support collective efficacy?
Special thanks to Sean Gaillard and Lainie Rowell for creating space for these conversations and personalized professional learning that's happening in Campfire Convos.