Lance Ridgely

husband, father, educational leader - thoughts here are my own.

[Andy Crozier @acrozier22]

If you are an educator and you are not aware of revenge AI porn, you need to learn more about it. This will have a major negative effect on our kids as they progress through teenage life. https://t.co/9DzebPE9et

[Andy Crozier @acrozier22]

Make no mistake, Gov. Reynolds proposal for AEAs guts them. It doesn’t make them better or help schools.

The fact that she wants to direct their funding to schools only pits public schools vs. AEAs as part of the debate.

[Cadet Girls Basketball @IFAbball]

As you are getting ready to attend basketball games this winter, please take a look at some of the new changes from the IHSAA and IGHSAU! Please remember to always show support of our team rather than criticize officials and volunteer workers.

[Iowa State Athletics @CycloneATH]

Thank you @BYUSportsNation for this tribute to Jack Trice and the reflection of his legacy. This piece was very well done.
#Cyclonenation

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Jay Wright (Villanova) was a Culture KING.

Why?

Here are 5 Jay Wright quotes that shed some light💡.

1: “We have a saying that everyone’s role is different, but everyone’s status is the same. It’s a reminder that no matter how bright the spotlight gets, we are all part of something much larger than ourselves.”

- WE > ME
- Be a star in your role

2: “The most important characteristic any of us have is our attitude. It’s a concept that permeates everything you do. We all bring our attitude to every situation.”

- Attitude is everything
- Be an energy giver

3: “We're not complex in what we do X-and-O-wise, but we do spend a lot of time on how we react mentally to every situation.”

- Simple Wins
- Mental toughness

4: “If you think about how good you are as opposed to what the next challenge is going to be, then you’ve already lost. We have to stay humble.”

- Humble wins
- Gratitude matters

5: “After we won in 2016, the goal wasn't to win another [national title]. The goal was to keep our culture strong. We knew that for us, that was the best chance of winning it again. If we tried to win it another way, we weren't going to win it anyway.”

- Culture is Every Day

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Follow me @gregberge for more actionable ideas on Coaching, Leadership, Culture, and Teams.

Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter in my profile.

[Andy Crozier @acrozier22]

This Ted Lasso quote is one of my favorites. I needed it this week.

“I hope that either all of us, or none of us, are judged by the actions of our weakest moments. But rather, by the strength we show when, and if, we're ever given a second chance.”

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@acrozier22 I need this one in poster format! Thanks for sharing @acrozier22

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@Coach_Burkhart
https://t.co/1qJjkES8yV

[Derek Martin @d2mart]

Martin Blog Fall Sports Preview: Class A District 8 Football.

@KingsleyPierson
@LMActivities
@TraditionCBSA
@tricenterftball
@WM_Spartans
@WCSDRebels
@WCWildcatFB https://t.co/OOZabtSj1J

[Derek Martin @d2mart]

Martin Blog Fall Sports Preview: Class A District 8 Football.

@KingsleyPierson
@LMActivities
@TraditionCBSA
@tricenterftball
@WM_Spartans
@WCSDRebels
@WCWildcatFB https://t.co/OOZabtSj1J

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

New admin, don’t let imposter syndrome make you feel like you have to know or do it all to prove you’re a leader. Your staff doesn’t expect you to know/ do it all. Just be trustworthy, relatable, supportive, value them & have their back. Leadership is Relationship

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

Leaders - are your meetings meaningful or "administrivia" heavy. 7 Quick Techniques that Make Meetings Better Today https://t.co/Pz52p5g6DH

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

"Compassionate Accountability means treating people as valuable, capable, and responsible." Nate Regier, PhD

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@EastUnionSB Proud of these two and the work that they put in to make themselves better. Congrats Sara and Noelle - you've set a great example for future EU Athletes!

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

Shortly after Steve Jobs returned as the CEO of Apple in 1997, he met with Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior VP of industrial design.

Apple had 40 products on the market.

“Jony, how many things have you said no to?” Jobs asked.

Ive was confused.

“You have to understand,” Jobs said,

“There are measures of focus, and one of them is how often you say no.”

“What focus means,” Jobs taught Ive, “is saying no to something that you—with every bone in your body—think is a phenomenal idea, and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you're focusing on something else.”

Jobs walked up to a whiteboard and drew a 2 x 2 grid. On top, he wrote “Consumer” and “Professional.” Down the side, “Portable” and “Desktop.”

Four products—meet Apple’s new radically focused product line, Jobs said.

After that meeting, over the next two decades, Jobs and Ive—focused on making a few high-quality products while saying no to everything else—transformed a dying, near-bankrupt company into one of the most valuable companies in the world, worth over $2.9 trillion.

Takeaway 1:

The philosopher Marcus Aurelius pointed out that the focus of doing less “brings a double satisfaction.”

You get the satisfaction of having fewer things to do. And…you get the satisfaction of doing those fewer things at a higher level.

You get “to do less, better.”

During Steve Jobs’ first visit to Jony Ive’s design studio, he looked around, and then he said, “Fuck, you’ve not been very effective, have you?”

It was clear to Jobs that Ive was full of ideas and potential he wasn’t able to execute or fulfill under Apple’s previous leadership.

In the Jobs era of “doing less, better,” Ive was very effective.

Some products he designed include: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.

Takeaway 2:

Even though he slashed the product line down to four products, Jobs loved to have and hear ideas.

“Steve used to say to me,” Ive said, “and he used to say this a lot, ‘Hey, Jony, here’s a dopey idea.’ And sometimes they were: really dopey. Sometimes they were truly dreadful.

But sometimes they took the air from the room, and they left us both completely silent.”

It made me think of what Jerry Seinfeld identifies as the ultimate skill of the artist: “taste and discernment.”

“It’s one thing to create,” Seinfeld says. It’s one thing to have ideas.

“The other is you have to choose. ‘What are we going to do, and what are we not going to do?’” What are we going to add to the product line, and what are we not going to add?

“This is a gigantic aspect of [artistic] survival,” Seinfeld continues.

“It’s kind of unseen—what’s picked and what is discarded—but mastering that is how you stay alive.”

- - -

“Everything just got simpler. That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity.” — Steve Jobs

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

In 1985, Nike held a 24-hour shoe design contest.

Nike was struggling. Their stock dropped 50%. They had to lay off people. Adidas, Converse, & Reebok were all selling more shoes.

So in a panicked attempt to find creative talent, Nike held a shoe design contest.

The winner was

A corporate architect named Tinker Hatfield.

"Two days after the competition," he said, "I wasn't even asked—I was told that I was now a footwear designer for Nike."

As he got to work on his first official shoe design, he thought about a building he had studied in architecture school: The Centre Pompidou in Paris.

The Centre Pompidou is an inside-out building, meaning that the structural, mechanical, and circulation systems are all exposed.

“That building,” Tinker said, “was describing what it was to the people of Paris. And I thought, ‘Well why not do that with a shoe? Let’s cut a hole in the side and show what’s in the shoe.’”

So Tinker designed an inside-out shoe:

The Air Max 1.

The Air Max 1 was a massive success, and it steered Nike's design direction from then on.

"To this day," Tinker says, "Phil Knight says I saved Nike."

Takeaway 1:

Had he not studied that building in Paris, Tinker says, he couldn’t have created the Air Max.

Creativity, he says, is a function of the “library in your head."

“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.”

Takeaway 2:

Tinker Hatfield went to architecture school and then he was a corporate architect for 4.5 years. Then, literally overnight, he became one of the best shoe designers in the world.

This makes me think of a counter-intuitive discovery made by psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904.

Before Spearman, the natural assumption was that the more you specialize in one thing, the worse you’ll be at other things.

Instead, Spearman discovered "the positive manifold" phenomenon.

He found that different abilities tend to be positively correlated. That the expertise gained through specialization is transferrable. That the cognitive and creative abilities cultivated as an architect could positively correlate with being a shoe designer.

- - -

"Creativity is a function of the previous work you put in."  — Robert Greene

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@MinnStWBB @Coach_Burkhart Happy Birthday Carah!

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@larrypeterson Thanks Larry! Great story.

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@Coach_Burkhart Buckle up!

[Dr. Jared Smith @JaredSmithPhD]

Starting today, 150 WCSD employees will have the option of working from home during spring break.

Why?

Because in today's world, employees must be trusted to work effectively ... regardless of physical location.

#WaterlooProud

[Lance Ridgely @ridgeang]

@Danway04 Congrats Dan! Well deserved!