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Norms for When the Conversations Get Serious

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update April 24, 02024, No. 171 (Read online) When the Conversations Get Serious Hey, The complexities and the uncertainties of this moment we're living in are creating a real urgency to engage in hard conversations about our lives today and what the future might hold. To not "go there" and acknowledge that our lives on the planet are fundamentally different from what they were 20 or even five years ago is to deny the "depth and magnitude of the problems we...

13 days ago • 7 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update April 7, 02024, No. 170 (Read online) It's Just a Can of Soda, Right? Hey, In times of challenge and complexity, we must dig deep into our values to figure out what the most relevant, appropriate, fair, and effective response might be to any given development. This is the essence of leadership. That's why it's especially important for school communities to not look away from the big picture and even the seemingly insignificant realities we find...

26 days ago • 6 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update March 27, 02024, No. 169 (Read online) "Dopamine Culture" Hey, In our newsletter from a month ago, we shared a reading link to Ted Gioia's post The State of Culture, 2024. Gioia identifies "The Rise of Dopamine Culture” — which caught our attention. He discusses how new technologies are increasingly rewiring our brains to be in constant search of pleasure at any moment, regardless of how long-lasting it is. That dopamine hit that we get when someone...

about 1 month ago • 6 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update March 12, 02024, No. 167 (Read online) A BQI Update - What's Trending and How We're Responding Community responses to our 9 Big Questions in Kelowna, BC Hey, We’ve had a full first quarter of 2024 supporting schools in the U.S., Canada, across Africa, Europe, South America, and Asia. As we continue to learn, we wanted to dedicate this newsletter to updating you on trends we are seeing, and to share some of the ways we are working with schools like...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update February 28, 02024, No. 166 (Read online) The Growing Gender Divide Hey, Every once in a while, a statistic is released that seems shocking but logical, disappointing but not surprising – and we can’t stop thinking about it. A few weeks ago, we were made aware of one of these mind-blowing data points. Research out of Gallup and Stanford University illustrates a widening ideology gap between young women and men, unprecedented in previous generations....

2 months ago • 5 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update February 28, 02024, No. 166 (Read online) The Growing Gender Divide Hey, Every once in a while, a statistic is released that seems shocking but logical, disappointing but not surprising – and we can’t stop thinking about it. A few weeks ago, we were made aware of one of these mind-blowing data points. Research out of Gallup and Stanford University illustrates a widening ideology gap between young women and men, unprecedented in previous generations....

2 months ago • 5 min read

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update February 14, 02024, No. 165 (Read online) Futuring Your School Hey, What do you want the experience that kids have in your school to be like in 25 years? What do you want kids to feel? To hear? To see? To smell, even? That's an inquiry that we're doing quite often these days with communities who are sensing that schooling needs some serious reimagination but aren't quite sure what that looks like. And what's been somewhat surprising is how easy it ends...

3 months ago • 5 min read
The Big Questions Institute

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update November 22, 02023, No. 160 (Read online) What about Students' Missions? Hey, We spend a lot of time working with school communities to help them articulate their mission and vision and, importantly, to understand the extent to which those two things are being lived in practice. Without a clear sense of what larger purpose you want your school to serve in the world today, and an equally clear picture of and deep commitment to the practices required to...

6 months ago • 4 min read
The Big Questions Institute

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update November 8, 02023, No. 159 (Read online) Making the Most of Uncertainty Hey, One of the resources we often cite in our work in schools is a piece titled "Our Brains Were Not Built for this Much Uncertainty" from the Harvard Business Review. The tl;dr version is that when familiar patterns in life begin to fall apart or appear less controllable, our brains react with a threat response, and the negative impacts on our mood and our productivity can be...

6 months ago • 4 min read
The Big Questions Institute

BIG Questions Institute Bi-Weekly Update November 8, 02023, No. 159 (Read online) Making the Most of Uncertainty Hey, One of the resources we often cite in our work in schools is a piece titled "Our Brains Were Not Built for this Much Uncertainty" from the Harvard Business Review. The tl;dr version is that when familiar patterns in life begin to fall apart or appear less controllable, our brains react with a threat response, and the negative impacts on our mood and our productivity can be...

6 months ago • 4 min read
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