the redesigned landmark education: what we have learned & what we need to learn

The Redesigned Landmark Education:

What We Have Learned

&

What We Need To Learn

The Redesign Of Landmark Education: What We Have Learned & What We Need To Learn

Landmark is in the midst of a radical transformation of virtually every aspect of our enterprise and our business.

The Redesigned Landmark Education:


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The Redesigned Landmark Education

The Reinventing and Redesigning of Our Enterprise, Our Business

The Redesign Of Landmark Education:


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1. We have learned and are still learning to listen to people, and we have more to learn in learning to listen to people.

And, there is (a) an enormous amount of difference amongst people, and in what they are dealing with and really care about, and in how people express all that, and (b) in addition, there are an important number of people who really care about this enterprise.

The capacity to listen to people and the actual listening to of people, including in all their “differences”, are fundamental to our business and who we are and to who they are.


2. We knew that redesigning our business was going to be massive (especially while operating an already existing business), but we learned a number of times it was even more massive than we conceptualized.

And we learned to not make that wrong, to not step back from it or run and hide from it, and to not make it significant.

The Redesign of Landmark Education: What We Have Learned & What We Need To Learn

3. The redesign is made up of a level of complexity that is enormous, with darn near everything connected to everything else. Therefore making a change in one thing actually requires at least examining, if not dealing with, the 10 other things that it is dependent on or connected to, and dealing with the 10 other things often reaches back and changes five more things, etc. etc.

And we learned that if we weren’t willing to deal with that level of complexity, we didn’t belong in the game of reinventing, transforming our business. And again, we learned to not make the complexity wrong, to not step back from it or run and hide from it, and to not make it significant.


4. We had taken on climbing a mountain, a very high and tough mountain, and one that neither we nor anyone else had climbed before. And while we could see the bottom of the mountain clearly, and could see the top of the mountain fairly clearly, the rest of mountain was pretty much shrouded in clouds or mist.



We learned that because of this, as we were climbing and planning where to go next in the climb, we regularly ran into barriers and unforeseen circumstances and we needed to be prepared to regularly alter our plans and our route up the mountain, and at times be prepared to back track in our steps and take a new direction.



We learned that because of this, as we were climbing and planning where to go next in the climb, we regularly ran into barriers and unforeseen circumstances and we needed to be prepared to regularly alter our plans and our route up the mountain, and at times be prepared to back track in our steps and take a new direction.

We learned that this also was just a part of the game, and we could just deal with re-doing our plans and do that with real power.


5. In terms of what there is to do, what we should do, and/or what will work, and the like, we learned:

a. There are deep holes where you can see somewhat into them but you can only see so far into them and you can’t see the bottom of the hole and therefore you can’t tell how much you don’t see and what it will really take to deal with that matter – we learned we just needed to get into it and see what and how much there is to deal with.


5. In terms of what there is to do, what we should do, and/or what will work, and the like, we learned:

a. There are deep holes where you can see somewhat into them but you can only see so far into them and you can’t see the bottom of the hole and therefore can’t tell how much you don’t see and what it will really take to deal with that matter – you’re just going to have to get into it and see what and how much there is to deal with.

b. And there are “black” holes where you know there’s something and you know the name of the hole, but you can’t see anything other than there’s that area to be dealt with and you know you don’t know anything about what is involved in that area. And again, we’re just going to have to get into it and see what and how much there is to deal with.


6. We learned that darn near everything there is to design and build needs to be created from zero. There were and are few already existing schematics or blueprints for what we are doing that we can just follow. We have to come up with the concepts, do the intellectual work, generate the creativity and make our own plans and then actually build what we plan.

And where we can import something, or an aspect, or use outside experts, wherever we do, it is has to be completely owned inside of who we are and what we are distinctly creating.


7. We had committed early on that everything would be designed and built from and inside of The Concern We Exist To Fulfill, The Future We Are, and The Business We Are In.

Why? Because we had learned very incisively, very cuttingly, at the very beginning that redesigning our business from anywhere other than The Concern We Exist To Fulfill, The Future We Are, and The Business We Are In would be totally inauthentic and would completely lack integrity.


7. We had committed early on that everything would be designed and built from and inside of The Concern We Exist To Fulfill, The Future We Are, and The Business We Are In.

Why? Because we had learned very incisively, very cuttingly, at the very beginning that redesigning our business from anywhere other than The Concern We Exist To Fulfill, The Future We Are, and The Business We Are In would be totally inauthentic and would completely lack integrity.

And that is what is being done. Nothing is being stepped over. There is integrity and authenticity with the promise we are as an enterprise, what is being designed, and what is being built.

And we have learned that operating that way is both enormously empowering, and, enormously demanding.


8. There are conditions we are operating in and with – that’s what so. There is an environment we are operating in – that’s what’s so. There are the realities we set and others we are dealing with – that’s what so.

We learned to be ongoingly responsible for and in a dance with the conditions, environment, and “realities” in which and with which we were at work on redesigning this business (many of which would be transparent for most people.)


We learned to be ongoingly responsible for and in a dance with the conditions, environment, and “realities” in which and with which we were at work on redesigning this business (many of which would be transparent for most people.)

For example:

– virtually all the work being done in the redesign was being done by people doing already existing full time jobs

– we are redesigning and building a new business in the midst of an already existing business that requires full time commitment and attention

– we are doing so in a tough economic environment

– with defined and at any-specific-time limited resources


For example:




– with defined and at any-specific -time limited resources

– the reinvention, redesign and building of a new enterprise and business is being done by and in organization of enormously, ridiculously committed, dedicated people who are in it for the long haul


For example:




– with defined and at any-specific -time limited resources

– the reinvention, redesign and building of a new enterprise and business is being done by and in organization of enormously, ridiculously committed, dedicated people who are in it for the long haul

We learned our job was to be cognizant of, responsible for, in dance with, and appropriate to the conditions, environment, and “realities” in which and with which we were at work on redesigning this business.


9. To have patience (in addition to, “its gotta get done” and “ it’s gotta get done now” – both of which we already had).

• Continually plan, and revise our plans, and work our plans.

• Too bad – things take the time they take, and we’re not going to change that, and/or we don’t want to change the time it takes given the consequence of shortening the time.

• Each person does their part(s) of the plan – one or two and, at the most, three bites at a time.


10.Handle what is in front of us and not get tricked into handling what is way out in front of us… unless what is way out in front of us is what there is in front of us to handle now.


11.There are going to be things that we are not going to handle now no matter how much we’d like to handle them now. Too bad.

Don’t handle what we can’t handle until we can handle it.

And, do be developing in ourselves and otherwise what we need, and handle what we need, to be able to eventually handle that thing we can’t handle now.

And do put into existence what we are not handling now, or not doing.


12.Bracket, put to the side, the amount of work there is to do and what and how much we don’t know and/or don’t know how to do – or they can crush us psychologically or disempower us.

Not pretend there isn’t a massive amount of work to do, and to not pretend what we don’t know how to do isn’t there to be dealt with. And to not back down from or hide from what there is to do, what we don’t know, and what we don’t know how to do.

Put the work there is to do, what we don’t know, and what we don’t know how to do clearly and firmly into existence to be dealt with.


13.Do the intellectual work. Be creative.

Intellectual effort (real thinking, analysis, taking things apart and examining them) and

creativity (innovating, creating a possibility, generating an insight into)

are key.


13. Do the intellectual work. Be creative.

Through intellectual effort, and learning what we don’t know, and creativity, we keep whittling away at the what we are challenged by and/or don’t know.

Go and learn what we don’t know – do the work of learning and literally invent, build the knowledge we need to accomplish what there is to accomplish. You don’t have to already know, and knowledge can be created. It is possible to build the knowledge you don’t have and need to effectively create and/or deal with something.

Do the work (the thinking, the analysis, etc) that allows us to have an insight that breaks open what we didn’t see how to handle before.



Hang out with the problem/challenge, “walk around it”, dissect it and take it apart, discuss the different views and issues. And out of doing so almost invariably someone has an insight or creates a new possibility, or we gain a perspective and/or a keen understanding that allows for real innovation and leads to a breakthrough in being able to deal with the matter.



Hang out with the problem/challenge, “walk around it”, dissect it and take it apart, discuss the different views and issues. And out of doing so almost invariably someone has an insight or creates a new possibility, or we gain a perspective and/or a keen understanding that allows for real innovation and leads to a breakthrough in being able to deal with the matter.

So far there isn’t anything we haven’t been able to deal with -- with enough intellectual effort and creativity (and the creativity usually coming from or standing on intellectual effort). Almost everything is deal-with-able with intellectual effort and/or creativity.

And where something is not, almost always the world or the environment around it is malleable. So you can adjust the environment to make that which was not workable workable.


14.A Core Team Of People

I learned a long time ago to not rely on my knowledge, thinking, background, perspective and the like. And very early on we created a group, a team of people who together would be fundamentally accountable for the redesign of our business.

For this group, team I/we were looking for enough qualified people, but, for the sake of efficiency, effectiveness, and workability, not more than was needed.


14. People

As small a number, but a sufficient number of people who together were sourceful enough, already responsible for the whole of who we are, people with unbreakable integrity and authenticity, fundamentally “ego-less”, highly competent, and mature enough to be responsible for and cause the redesign, the transition and migration, and the transformation of our business into the business we said we were now in.


14. A Core Team Of People

As small a number but a sufficient number of people who together were sourceful enough, responsible for the whole of who we are, people with unbreakable integrity and authenticity, fundamentally “ego-less”, highly competent, and mature enough to be responsible for and cause the redesign, the transition and migration, and the transformation of our business into the business we said we were now in.

A group of people, not in any one individual, who as a whole were constituted by the various appropriate concerns involved in and needed for the redesign, who had a depth of and enough different and useful perspectives and backgrounds and ways of approaching things from which to address issues, challenges, and possibilities.



As small a number but a sufficient number of people who together were sourceful enough, responsible for the whole of who we are, people with unbreakable integrity and authenticity, fundamentally “ego-less”, highly competent, and mature enough to be responsible for and cause the redesign, the transition and migration, and the transformation of our business into the business we said we were now in.

A group of people, not in any one individual, who as a whole were constituted by the various appropriate concerns involved in and needed for the redesign, who had a depth of and enough different and useful perspectives and backgrounds and ways of approaching things from which to address issues, challenges, and possibilities.

And who as a group already represented, and would be responsible for the concerns and the listening and speaking of the various constituents of our enterprise being expressed and fulfilled in the redesign.



People who are as a team of people: creative, practical, possibility, anything can be done listening, fun, get it done, intellectual laborers.

People who had the “chemistry” to work powerfully together, including in disagreeing, and amongst whom there was/is the wherewithal to create chemistry where its missing.



This team’s job, and we have repeatedly cleared ourselves on our job, was not to do and manage all the work of the redesign, although in their individual roles they have major accountabilities for that. Their job as “The Design Team” was and is to see to it that what is designed and built produces an enormously effective business that fulfills who we are and our people are as an enterprise.


15.The People Involved In The Redesign

a. Have compassion, and be aware of and supportive of what people are dealing with in the space of the redesign (e.g., the massiveness, two full time jobs, no already existing paths), and at the same do not step over what is lacking and what is needed. Dance with “both worlds” for the fulfillment of what we’re up to and the empowerment of people and who they are.

And compassion also includes for our and others humanity and shortcomings


15. The People Involved In The Redesign

b. Takes extremely dedicated people, people who have or develop the capacity to deal with the long haul, the hard haul, the unknown haul.

And in the face of that we have learned to take care of people and honor who people are.



c. Be regularly and in-detail in communication with people in the enterprise about the redesign, and, be responsible for and manage expectations and the concerns of the people in the enterprise about the redesign. Communicate what is so -- make sure people see the reality of what it will take and see that which is transparent (e.g., the environment) so they can be responsible for that as well.

And empower their responsibility for the redesign and their commitment to the vision for the redesign and its fulfillment.



d. Powerful difference making people show up where you didn’t expect it



d. What stops or slows down the action:

• People relating to their ideas like they are THE answer, versus a commitment or possibility.

• Allowing anyone to dominate, including myself.

• People getting stuck with what we said, or what we promised, or the way we think it is, or should be, or shouldn’t be. There’s nothing sacred.


16.What we haven’t learned yet:

What we don’t know we don’t know While we have plan and a picture that we

are causing, we don’t know what it will in fact all look like in the “end”, and what is between here and the fulfillment, and what it will take to make it all work.

There is an enormous amount of what will actually come to be, or could come to be in the redesigned business, that we don’t know or have not worked out.


16. What we haven’t learned yet:

Another way of saying this is that there are an enormous number of “yeah but’s”, “how about’s”, and “what if’s” to be asked and for us to address. And the asking and addressing of those “yeah but’s”, “how about’s”, and “what if’s” is an essential part of the fulfillment of our redesign.

The Redesign Of Landmark Education:


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the redesigned landmark education: what we have learned & what we need to learn

Documents

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redesign of landmark

tough mountain

rest of mountain

existing business

important number of

level of complexity

complexity wrong