despite the odds. In the succeeding years, Bill and his team continued to
learn and make necessary changes to keep more students in school.
Focus—Paying Attention to What Matters
To di s t i n g u i s h t e n a c i t y f r o m r i g i di t y, w e e m p h a s i z e t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f
focus. Focus provides a way to think about our thinking, to gain clarity, and
to foster persistencewhen the going gets tough. Focus allows us to stay
true to our values and flexiblein our actions. In addition, with focus we
learn to ignore what does not further our mission. When considering a
new venture, we ask how does the new agenda further or distract from the
current focus? Which is more important: A focus on students who are
having difficulty learning, or the creation of another after-school activity?
Both are important; however, leaders must keep the focus on what is most
important and place less emphasis on issues that detract. As leaders, we
create focal points of concentration to sustain the mental energy needed
to persistand accomplish our collective dreams.
However, ignoring certain things does not mean that we make uni-
lateral decisions and shut out others’ viewpoints. We know that persis-
tenceis a productive Habit of Mind. When others persist, it reminds us to
take a step back and listenby asking, does this person speak singly or for
a silent group? Sometimes through questioning and posing problemswe
have gained clarity, and the resistors have found avenues for embracing
the mission. Better yet, sometimes resistance creates an opportunity in
which the focus or mission is expanded to include the new information
or to apply past knowledge to a new situation. Finding opportunities for
group synergy is a pinnacle moment in leadership. It makes the hours
spent exploring and thinking as a group worth the time. By asking a group
to help us think about ideas in relation to our focus, the group grows in
its collective ability to think in terms of the Habits of Mind. More often
than not, people learn from their own travels down the various leadership
paths and thinking about their thinking on that journey. As we heard Judy
Arin-Krupp (1982) say, “Adults don’t learn from the experience, they learn
from processing the experience.” We never want to rob someone of his or
her own learning or reflection, yet we maintain that leaders are the keep-
ers of the focus.
310 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind