The Smart Thinking Podcast

Episode 308: Reviewing Your Strategic Life Plan (Process Tool & Leadership)

In this episode Ted shares the importance of doing a personal strategic review in the summer by utilizing process and taking clarity breaks. Too often we are not taking time to reflect on what works, what needs iteration and what we need to stop doing in our lives. Take a listen as he shares a simple and tested process to support you growing forward.
List when you will take clarity breaks.
Describe who can run your strategic plan out with you.
Describe where you will build your plan?

Episode 307: Forces for Change (Tools)

Too often in summer or between projects we employ retreats to look at results and we create a bunch of documents that rarely get deployed.  This usually occurs because people are using lagging data and negotiating on what the culture will allow.
This episode will help frame the need for cultural languages and tools to ensure that what we want to stick - -stays stuck and works. Organizations create binders of steps and yet they fail to start with an evaluation of the organization to measure for capacity, desire, or the skills to employ the changes. No longer!
Describe your change process.
List the tools you can use to empower those you serve.
Describe where the opportunities are to use processes to support lasting change.

Episode 306: Seven Books for Summer - A Great Summer of PD (Learning & Leadership)

Ted is sharing books that he believes must be read this summer to help us all grow as leaders. Especially, those that serve children or have children. The curated list of texts are meant to be read in order to help each of us grow. There is a growing crisis on how children are learning and behaving, and these books will help you help the children in your life. Take a listen as Ted shares seven books – in order – that you need to read this summer.
 
Psych, The Story of the Human Mind: Paul Bloom
Radical Respect, How to Work Together Better: Kim Scott
Hidden Potential: Adam Grant
Meditations: Marcus Aurelius
The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness: Jonathan Haidt
The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma: Bessel Van Der Kolk
Bryson the Brave Bison: Davenport, Freshwater, and Cowdrey

Episode 305: Do you EnJOY? (Reflection and Process)

When the seasons change, it provides us the opportunity to seek improvement through process. Take a listen as Ted describes a process to help you find the joy in your life. We choose to enJOY our work and there are two hungers we have to feed- ourselves and our passions.
 
Describe what your passions are.
List the people who could be coached to reflect upon their passions.
List who you trust to guide you through a reflective process.
Describe how you can increase your own ability to be engaged and self-empowered.
 
 

Episode 304: You Want Stronger Readers? (Leadership & Process)

How do we get more children and adults to read? Take a listen as Ted shares a strategy for increasing the amount of children reading. It all boils down to one key idea -- if we want children to read - -the adults have to read!
List who you should read with.
Describe the books you like to read verses the books others like to read. .
List the books you'd like to read with others. 

Episode 303: Finish Strong (Leadership and Process)

How will you remember this school year? Take a listen as Ted explains a process to use to help you and your system reflect - with intention - in an effort to create a realistic memory of the year. Learn how to identify the peaks, the pits and the transitions so that you can celebrate and acknowledge the real journey and use the information to better serve your classroom, school or system in the future.
 
Describe how you can increase the awareness of others while on the journey.
List who would benefit from reviewing the peaks, pits, and transitions.
Describe how you can solidify the memory of the end. 

Episode 302: A Conversation with Neuroscientist Dr. Jared Horvath: Emotions, Reading, Parenting, AI & More! (Reflection & Leadership)

Ever wonder how memory is impacted by emotions, or how the amount of books in your home informs your child's intellectual skills, or how electronics are impacting development or what AI is doing to the brain? Wonder no longer -- these and many more questions are answered in this conversation with Jared as we explore the brain and his newest research and discoveries. 
Find him: https://www.youtube.com/@JaredCooney
Song: Andrew Hoyt - Dance with Somebody 
 

Episode 301: Leadership AND Followership (Reflection)

We all need to be both leaders and followers and we can do that if we CARE. Listen as Ted explains the need for us each to be in two lanes at once - lead and follow. CARE is a simple way of explaining what a good follower does.
 
Collaborate
Accept responsibility
Resilient
Engagement with intention

Episode 300: Celebration of 300 “You Should Absorb The Nudge” (Reflection)

Listen as Ted reminds us of the power of listening to the "nudges." This is the 300th episode of the podcast and Ted walks through how important it is to listen to the ideas of others and shares a simple process to support coaching yourself to higher levels of engagement and happiness.
Song: Sunflower Bouquet by Anderson Coates - Golden Bear Studios
 
Reflections: 
List the "should’s" you heard this past week.
Describe who in your life nudges you towards excellence.
List the people and the nudges that have changed your life.
 

Episode 299: The Real Narrative: "Our Story" (Reflection & Tool)

Too often in our organizations, we forget to provide the leadership so that we have a strong cultural understanding of our journey. As a result, we need a process. Join Ted as he explains why and how to create a unified story(narrative) so that more people can celebrate all they've done together so that you can end the year together! 
 
Process prompts: 
Celebrations (Internal)
Celebrations (External)
Grow my engagement
Professional development WE need
Elephants in the room
Recognitions
Can you believe?