Arrogant Ignorance
We have all come across people who make decisions based on the belief they have a good understanding of the situation but who really do not have a clue. They just plow right on ahead. Some people, I think, are just honest souls who really believe they have a good understanding of the situation and are doing their best to do the right thing. You cannot know or foresee everything and mistakes do happen. Others I believe posses an ego that allows them to assume they are well informed and must be right while those around them are not. This later group, the arrogant ignorant, are the ones that I think are the hardest to deal with. The expression “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” must have been born from experience with the arrogant ignorant.
I have been corresponding with a variety of Ed Tech professional seeking information about their 1:1 initiatives. Mostly I ask “if you had do to it all over again what would you do differently?” Two themes keep popping up (1) slow down, talk to everyone plan, plan, plan and (2) you can’t do enough teacher PD even long before deployment. During these discussions someone shared the site, 25 Terrifying Information Technology Horror Stories. These nightmares were a result of natural disasters, human error and others based on poor leadership decisions. There is a lot to learn from these mistakes and well worth a look. Leadership styles and decision-making strategies certainly play a role in the failure or success of a deployment of devices in a 1:1 setting. They affect the amount of money lost or saved and the level of frustration or enthusiasm created.
As we shared stories that have been passed around Ed Tech circles we realized that the successful scenarios were devoid of the arrogant ignorant. But not necessarily the ignorant because we are all ignorant when it comes to doing something for the first time, when it comes to technology we are all lacking information in one area or another. What the successful scenarios had in common were people who were learners, asked and re-asked questions, sought a variety of opinion, did tons of research and still realized there was more to know.
Suggested links on leadership styles
- MindTools
- Wall Street Journal – Developing a Leadership Style
- Team Technology