When You Learn, Teach - Get, Give
The Impactmaker Movement has just begun!
Here’s why:
The past couple of years have been more of a learning experience than a teaching experience. It’s not that I have some unique wisdom and writing this blog is my way of imparting it upon some lowly, selfish consumers. It’s been a joint educational effort.
We’ve heard form 122 guests (the first episode was just me) on Speaking of Impact and I’ve introduced you to some of my favorite Twitter friends like Sam, Papa J, Liam, Mike, and Andrew. All of these people have provided insight and a first class generosity education. Each has their own mix of experiences, gifts, skills, and desires to make the world a better place.
All of this learning tells me two things:
Information is readily available for us to use
We are a long way from “finished”
Teaching and Learning
E-Impact 76 gives some great sports/impact comparisons all about teaching. It’s really all about the urgency that coaches can provide for their teams. I see all the people we have spoken with as coaches. They all give us their own form of encouragement and it makes us urgent to do good in the world.
In addition to that writing, we also have two particular episodes of Speaking of Impact that stick out to me, episode 10 and episode 33. Teachers do more than impart wisdom, just as coaches do more that develop a game plan.
We really can’t fail if we have over a hundred teachers and coaches. I’d also argue that we have plenty more of each that we’ll meet over the next several years.
I think you of being a faithful member of The Impactmaker Movement and building the necessary momentum for a meaningful attempt at positive impact.
The Player-Coach
We are in a different era of sports these days.
See “A brief history of player-coaches in pro sports” from The Score. The names on that list are well known not only of their ability to play sports but also to coach them. Uniquely, they did it at the same time! It’s no small feet. With that being said, I have a big ask of you.
Can you please join me as a play coach for impact?
You may already be doing so in practice and that’s all we need from you. But if you can be more of a coach in title, you can inspire some more people (maybe some young ones which would be to the joy of Natalie Silverstein from last week’s Speaking of Impact episode 123) to do the same.
The great thing about today’s information age and our specific mission is that just about anyone can fill the player-coach role. You just need a little conviction and a generous heart.
The Game Plan
We went to sports early this week so I’ll keep with the theme. Great coaches, like Vince Lombardi from the September 29th and November 24th, 2020 editions of E-Impact, have a solid plan. I suppose this is the hardest part of “coaching” impact. Players can simply react when they are on the field or court. We can do the same when we are in the moment of impact and have to get something done. Planning is different. It takes some critical thought, intention, and time. I feel like these can be lacking in our busy lives.
Just sit and think.
Critical thought is losing its appeal these days. People would prefer to search on the Internet for answers and ask the “experts” before they try to figure something out themselves. I’m not asking you to avoid using the powerful tool that it is but I am urging you to use your own intellect to solve issues. After all, if there was an expert to solve the problems that we are facing, there would be no Impactmaker Movement. We would just bring in the professionals and go about our merry days.
Intention of today can be misplaced, fleeting, and misdiagnosed. I’ll keep it as positive as possible here but just know that I think people’s intentions are distracted to say the least. An impactmaker coach must refrain from this.
Time is our most valuable resource. Excuse all the references in this edition but E-Impact 62 is another highly relevant entry to our topic today. I am aware that reading all the references would severely limit your time. Choose the most necessary for you. In my “business life”, I am consistently made aware of how busy people are. They tell me verbally, in e-mails, and not so suggestively by the loaded digital calendars they send over for appointments.
You have to prioritize impact or it will never happen.
Keep up the spontaneous acts of kindness but if everything was in the spur of the moment all the generational problems will never be addressed.
With the previous three items, you are equipped to coach your own team of impactmakers.
A good coach uses critical thought to examine an opponent and develop ideas of how to defeat them. They have intention around accomplishing their goal (win). They have also prioritized their time to execution. Okay impact coach, now’s where you do the same.
A Long Career
Thank God our impact careers are not like those of the average National Football League (NFL) player (2-3 years). We have our whole lives.
Everyone should be a player-coach in our world - even kids as Natalie Silverstein told you on the podcast last week.
Impact is a function of generosity. I’ve stated many times that we all have things that we can give back to society to make the world a better place.
When you get, give.
As stated above, we’ve all received so much education in the recent two years. There has been an abundance of wisdom received (got). It’s time we give it.
We’ve learned. Now we teach.
Congratulations on beginning your long, storied, and impactful teaching career!
I have two warnings for you:
You have plenty of time to make an impact, or it seems
Some opportunities will pass you by
This why intention is so important. I hope and pray we’ve jumped over the hurdle of capability and qualification. If so, you just have to apply critical thought and your time coaching and playing impact.
Inspiration
A simple search led me to this inspiring article about child lead charities.
Giving children are so inspiring.
I am sure Natalie would be overjoyed about these efforts. The common theme is that kids make simple connections no matter how complicated stations are. As intimidating as the last couple sections may have been, the kids really bring it home in a simple way.
The hard part should be permanently solving issues that are plaguing portions of the population. Everything else should be our natural way of thinking.
I am inspired by the kids because their thoughts don’t assume someone is underprivileged, stuck, or dealt a bad lot in life. They believe that people deserve something adequate and providing it as a necessity. It’s almost as if life is “out of place” if the group need stays in need.
The size of the project has no bearing on the kid’s thoughts as they think through what needs to be done to make everything right. They will see themselves as having received and so they must give.
Interestingly, in the process they learn and begin to teach whether they know it or not. This tells me that it is not only natural to want to support others but teaching is just one way that it manifests. It’s no wonder some of Mrs. DePasquale’s students want to be teacher for a day!
Lesson Planning
Speaking of Mrs. DePasquale - she spends a lot of time lesson planning. It’s her job but it’s also a passion. We had a conversation about this in the middle of the night (earlier today) on our car on the way home from a high school youth “lockout”. Have you ever been part of a lockout or a lock-in? It’s a night of fun for a bunch of youth that lasts until the morning. It’s exhausting but well worth it.
I am the most biased teacher spouse on the planet but I value my wife’s teaching preparations greatly. She puts a lot of time into making sure the experience for her students is amazing. Their parents are paying for it but more importantly, she knows that the vast majority of the kids will only have one chance at kindergarten. It’s now or never. She has the most kind sense of urgency I’ve seen.
We need to have a similar mindset in our impact work. It is not a profession for most of the people that read this. Or, is it? I suggest that even if you are not a professional worker in the non-profit sector, your career can still be for impact.
When you come to the realization (or when you did), you understand your capability of teaching what you’ve learned about impact. In turn, you need to do some lesson planning. I am also not saying that you need to start a blog, podcast, or Tik-Tok account for impact but you do need to think critically, have intention, and dedicate time to being the best instructor you can be.
Here’s a simple framework that you can make your own as you build out your “lessons”:
Write down your biggest lesson in a given period of time (I suggest starting with a month or week)
Reminisce about where and how you learned the lesson and who or what taught it.
Identify opportunities to share about it (social events, e-mail, that podcast I said you didn’t have to start :) )
Rehearse, in your mind, in front of a mirror, or however you see fit
Just be prepared to joyfully share what is good
Thankfully, it’s not a game or competition and there are no classroom grades. Just give it some time and you’ll start to find your groove.
You may not change the world but you may change the world for one.