The Earth, moving

Hey Jeff,

I know you're in F-L-A visiting Mickey and I hope you and the family are having a great time. Did you guys have a good earthquake? It was interesting here yesterday. That's kind of my inspiration for writing today. Beside the fact that you've been much more prolific with your posts and the competitor in me wants to keep up, if not outright beat you.

This will be a weird post. I had a number of experiences yesterday that kept bringing one thought over and over into my head. And the recognition of that thought was a little jarring, a bit sad and something of a revelation. So I thought I'd share.

So I had three meetings and a mixer yesterday. Two of the meetings were at Tompkins Squrare Middle School, one at IS289 and the mixer was at the High Line. My first stop, TSMS, was the first meeting of a new committee charged with engaging students and parents of the school in the iZone work. The work itself isn't incredibly complex (switching to a competency based assessment system). But it'll involve a restructuring of their report cards and transcripts, so they are reaching out to parents in some pretty proactive ways. On my way into the school, I got stuck at the security desk. As I'm standing there watching the guard sign me in, two teachers walk through and said good morning to her. They complimented her hair. So I start chatting with her about the style, asking her name and had a pleasant talk with her. She was nice and, after lunch, she didn't make me sign back in, she just waved me through. When I went back to the school today, she recognized me and didn't make me sign in at all. All thanks to a little chat. I realized yesterday I learned that "be nice to people and talk to them" from you. So, Thanks Jeff.

Later in the day the earthquake hit. I was still in TSMS, meeting with the AP, Eric, the Principal, Sonhando, and the technology support guy, Justin, from ImpactEd. When the quake hit we all stood up and went over to the window for a better view. As the earth was shaking (it really wasn't that bad) I look up. Suspended in the window above the four of us, shaking with the window frame, is this big air conditioner (you know, like the ones in the Guild). It spooked me. But instead of shouting out, I say, as calm as you please, "uhhh, guys, maybe it's not the BEST idea for us to be watching the window shake directly under this big, heavy, metal box." We all chuckle and move into the room. Suddenly, all of them are riffing off my joke. Eric came up with a headline detailing our deaths, Sonhando quipped a quick obiturary for himself. The jokes broke the tension (if not outright fright) of the situation. I used humor to relieve a tense situation. You taught me that. Thanks again, Jeff.

So I left the building; Justin and I had another school to go to and we ended up traveling together. The trip involved over a 1/2 mile walk (from 6th street to Delancy street). A long time to walk and fill up the silence. So I started asking Justin about his story, how he had come to develop this grade book software and how he had ended up in New York. He told me about his love-hate relationship with Engineering school (that aligned almost exactly with my own). Before I knew it we were off the subway and standing on Warren St. heading toward the school. Awkwardness over, no hitch in the conversation, no strange pauses, just a nice exchange of stories to get to know each other and the use of a shared experience to connect. Hmmmm. Who did I learn that from? Thanks, once more, Jeff.

Then, I had to pick something up at Tweed and the whole building population is out on the steps -- they had been evacuated and were being let back into the building. In the crowd, I was able to say hello to Alex Shub, Corey Beder, Melissa Silberman and Lynette Lauretig. Those names sound familiar? And why do I know those people? Who (either directly or indirectly) facilitated my meeting of all those folk? Who taught me to keep those contacts in a way that I could access them and connect with them on the steps of Tweed? Thanks, Jeff.

You figure out my repeating thought, yet?

So the last happening was the mixer at the High Line. In case you don't know, the High Line is an old elevated railway in Chelsea that has been converted to a park. If you haven't gone, yet, I highly recommend it. There was a mixer there of all the iZone teams (from iLearnNYC, iZone360, and InnovateNYC). After the tour we all had dinner and drinks at The Lot, under the High Line at 30th street. So there I was with my self-bought beer, standing alone watching the crowd (as I am want to do). I'm a bit intimidated (there's a deputy chancellor in the crowd) and feeling anxious -- you know me at parties. But as I'm standing there, I recognize that unless I work this crowd, I'm never going to make the connections I need to dig into this work. So what should I do? The answer I came up with was to sit down with one of the top guys and make a joke. So I sit down at Tomas Hanna's table (Chief of Innovation) and told them that there weren't enough fat, bald guys sitting with them and I was here to even things out. Corny? You bet. Did it get a laugh? You bet. The rest of the night passed quickly with me making the right connections and sharing enough stories to make my work that much easier.

So who did I learn that from?

Listen, I've spent a good deal of time talking and thinking (and even writing) about the debt of gratitude that I owe Michael. I feel like he recognized something in me and drew it out in a way that I hadn't been able to do before. This is what was jarring to me, and a bit of a revelation: what I haven’t thought about (or talked about or written about) is what I owe you. Yesterday brought this into focus for me, man: the skill set I'm called upon to use to further my current work is populated mostly by skills I learned from you – either directly taught or picked up working by your side. You've taught me to be curious about people and to make them feel special, even if just for a 2 minute conversation. I can use corny humor to break tension. You taught me to question people to help them tell their stories and connect with them through shared experience. I can create and use a professional network to further professional goals and create opportunities for me and the kids that I work for. And I can use personal attributes to endear myself to those who populate my network. That's all you, man. That's all from you.

So this post is one big, long, wordy, elongated thank you. I wanted you to know that I'm owing a great big chunk of my current success in this new job to you. I am so thankful that our paths crossed; I’m so much the better person for it.

Thanks, man. I'm missing ya a lot.

Peace,
Al