The Advice Process at Imagine Schools
This month's Joy at Work Journal features Dennis Bakke's recent article on the advice process at Imagine Schools.
Imagine Schools, founded by Dennis and Eileen Bakke in 2003, is an organization that operates independent and nonprofit public charter schools. Their mission is to help parents and guardians educate their children by creating learning communities of achievement and hope. Undergirding this purpose are their shared values of integrity, justice, and fun. Imagine is comprised of 2,200 people, mostly teachers, and more than 20,000 students at 39 schools in nine states.
The Advice Process, a critical part of decentralized decisions and Joy at Work, is gradually becoming a staple of our life together at Imagine Schools. Leaders and others alike have made important progress in integrating it into the fabric of our decision making within our schools, regions, and those of us that work under the corporate umbrella.
The advice process causes five important things to happen in our organization. First, it stimulates humility on the part of the decision maker who is asking for advice. The act of asking says, “I need help. I don’t know everything.”
Second, requesting advice draws those individuals asked into a community or team, around a common issue or goal.
Third, it informs those who are asked for advice the nature of the issue or problem the decision maker faces. In this way, the requester of advice is actually teaching those from whom the advice is being requested. That teaching may have a significant effect on the quality of decisions (and even the use of the advice process) down the road when those individuals giving advice are put in the role of decision maker at a later time.
Fourth, the person requesting advice likely will get the best education possible from her advisors. This advice comes from people who love her, care about Imagine Schools, and usually know the issue most intimately.
Fifth, the process of getting a group together in person, on the phone or by email to rally around a problem and then having the assigned decision maker determine the outcome is just plain fun. Hurray for joy at work.
While we have made great progress in this important aspect of our life together, problems remain. I have noticed, for example, that some decision makers ask for advice without giving their best pre-advice judgment regarding the decision. I prefer that we emulate Tom Shaw and several others in this respect, who tend to provide those who are being asked for advice with their best analysis and judgment regarding the issue as part of their request for advice. In addition, I prefer that teams or task forces working on an issue refrain from making a “group” decision by voting or consensus. It is better to choose a decision maker from among the group and have the rest of the team rally around that person’s decision.
Who should be asked for advice? This is a judgment call. Certainly you should involve your organizational leader (boss). Include other people on your team or work group who know you and have some familiarity with the issue. Sometimes, you should include people from other schools or other groups that might have a different perspective or experience than your own team. Don’t be afraid to ask your leader’s boss if it is a significant enough decision. I suggest that on some decisions of importance, especially ones having significant implications for one or more of our measures of excellence, we should consider asking a few parents and your school’s board members as well. Asking board members is probably the most difficult for many of us because we are trying to teach them that almost all the school decisions are within our responsibility. However, asking advice of board members is a great way to honor them, inform them about what is going on, and involve them in a healthy way without having them take away the decision making responsibility that we hold for Imagine people. You may be surprised how much good advice you can receive from parents and board members.
The advice process is central to our Joy at Work approach to operating our schools and national organization. Use it wisely and frequently.
Dennis Bakke is the author of “Joy at Work” and the CEO of Imagine Schools.
-- Respond with questions and comments to askdennis@dennisbakke.com.
-- Encourage your friends and colleagues to sign-up to receive the monthly Joy at Work Journal
Seminar Preview on Google Video>
Watch a preview of the Joy at Work DVD Seminar on Google Video. Order the seminar and receive 10 free copies of Joy at Work.
Hugo Chavez and AES>
From the Washington Post:
Dennis W. Bakke remembers Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as a charming conversationalist. Chavez loved to talk about baseball and closely followed the fortunes of Venezuelan players in the U.S. major leagues.
And when it came time to talk business, Chavez was supportive. Bakke, then chief executive of AES, wanted to know what the populist leader of Venezuela thought about an Arlington power-generation company spending about $1.7 billion to buy a controlling stake in the Caracas electric utility. Read the article
Power Trip Now on DVD>
Emmy award-winner Paul Devlin captures a comic clash of cultures that combusts when AES tries to transform the dysfunctional electricity distribution system in Tbilisi, capital of the 
former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
Struggling against corruption, assassination, and street rioting, AES manager Piers Lewis must convince the Georgians to pay for, rather than steal electricity. This "compelling and passionate tale of a country rebuilding itself" (Hollywood Reporter) has "suspense, comedy and some colorful characters" (Variety) and develops into an "increasingly absurdist standoff between Communist-inspired cynicism and tenacious capitalist zeal." (New York Daily News).
The film won 10 International & US Film Festival Awards and is now available on DVD (for home use) for only $29.95. Power Trip
