Hack Your Brain: Mastering the 5 Managerial Superpowers

 What if I told you that your brain is running on autopilot most of the time? That your reactions, decisions, and even conflicts are often driven by deeply ingrained habits rather than conscious thought? The good news is that you can take control. You can hack your brain, reprogram it for success, and become the leader—or simply the person—you want to be.

That’s exactly what my book and course, Mastering the 5 Managerial Superpowers, are designed to teach. Using behavioral science, I guide you through the process of rewiring your brain to manage yourself, your responses, and ultimately, your interactions with others more effectively. Here’s how:

Step 1: Build Your Foundation – Self-Awareness & Compassion

Before you can change anything, you need to understand how your brain works. Most of us operate on autopilot, reacting to situations based on past experiences and deeply ingrained patterns. Developing self-awareness allows you to recognize these patterns. Pairing that with compassion—for yourself and others—creates the space for real change.

Once you’re aware of how you react, you can begin to practice self-control. This is the key to breaking automatic responses and gaining the ability to choose how you respond instead of letting emotions or old habits take over.

Step 2: Hack Your Brain Using Behavioral Science

The science of change is clear: small, intentional shifts create lasting transformation. Your brain thrives on reinforcement and repetition. This means that with deliberate practice, you can create new neural pathways that make strategic thinking your default instead of knee-jerk reactions.

This is where behavioral science techniques come into play. By understanding how habits form and how reinforcement works, you can train your brain to make better choices automatically. The result? You become more effective in managing yourself, your work, and your relationships.

Step 3: Manage Conflict by Managing Your Response

Conflict is inevitable—but how you respond to it determines the outcome. The difference between escalating a conflict and resolving it effectively comes down to one thing: your response.

When you learn to pause, assess, and choose your response strategically, you take control of the situation rather than letting it control you. This shift empowers you to handle even the most difficult interactions with confidence and clarity.

Your Superpower Awaits

Mastering these skills isn’t just about leadership—it’s about harnessing the power of your own mind to create the outcomes you want. When you learn to control your responses, you gain the ultimate superpower: the ability to shape your own reality.

Ready to start hacking your brain for success? Check out Mastering the 5 Managerial Superpowers and unlock the skills that will change the way you lead, work, and live.

At least fix the problem.

As a strategic planner, one of my pet peeves is people creating plans that don’t accomplish their objectives at all, waste resources and cause problems instead of solving them.

Government – does this a lot. We tend to get the most expensive options, that don’t solve the problem they are intended to solve – but cause an astonishing amount of collateral damage.

As a citizen -  I’m furious about the collateral damage caused. Most of the time it is totally unnecessary to cause that damage. It is literally the planner not caring at all if they cause harm or not. So they don’t plan to mitigate harm.

And honestly – that wouldn’t be so horrible IF they accomplished their stated objectives – but often – they don’t. So – we get a new expensive harm causing problem in addition to the original problem, which is still a problem. 

For example – goal: Reduce # elective abortions.

None of the anti abortion laws passed – do this. At. All. People who want elective abortions – can get them. They have time to travel or find alternative methods – because it’s elective. So – if they want an elective abortion, they can go get them.  

The only people the anti-abortion laws harm – are people in medically precarious situations who don’t have time to shop around. Those people now have fewer doctors to help them because lots of OBGYNs are now just GYNs because they don’t want to risk jail or expensive legal hassles just for helping to keep their clients alive. Those that are able to find a obstetrical doctor may also have problems if they experience a medical emergency. For instance: the doctors at the emergency room have to consider whether they will be charged with crimes if they save your life. And most aren’t willing to take that risk – so we now have women dying in hospital parking lots because the doctors choose to stay out of jail instead of saving someone’s life.

My beef? The laws don’t stop elective abortions. They just cause unnecessary collateral damage. And it infuriates me!

Border security? Same thing. The border is still open because the courts ruled we can’t close them. Want to stop people from coming to the border? That requires conditions in the country of origin to be good enough that people don’t want to leave.  Want to deport people more quickly? That requires resources to be allocated to the deportation process. Something that the people who want to deport people have repeatedly, for decades, refused to allocate resources to.

It is infuriating me as a strategic planner. Not only is the human toll of these bad policies intolerable, we are wasting huge sums doing things that don’t fix the problem!  

It would be cheaper to solve the problem. But I think that is the point. As soon as we ask who benefits from this it becomes clear.  By not solving the problem and instead – paying huge sums to private contractors to do things that don’t work, we are funneling our wealth to oligarchs. That is why the people who want to incarcerate and deport are so eager to do that. There is a huge amount of money to be made causing human suffering. And if you fix the underlying problem, all that money will no longer flow to oligarchs.

So we can't fix the border, because to do so would be less expensive and the oligarch's wouldn't get their money. Our money. 

Speaking of Oligarchs:

Let's discuss the oligarchy and the employee purge. One of the plans of the incoming administration is: to purge our government agencies and our military of anyone disloyal to the new president. 

According to project 2025, they plan to replace public servants with corporate consultants, which is again, a boon to oligarchs and the massive consulting firms who will win these contracts.

Here are the problems with this plan. 

Problem 1) you are replacing employees who work for the American people, with employees who work for an oligarch. They aren't going to be loyal to we the people. They won't even be loyal to the president. They are going to be loyal to the people who pay them, who are the oligarchs. This is insanely bad for we the people. 

2) Institutional expertise is purged – in purges. So instead of people who understand the problems and how to best solve them, you get people who don't know how to solve the problem. 

3) It’s is always more expensive to outsource employment than it is to employ people yourself. Why? Because privatization is a way to create a spoils system where some of the money that was supposed to go towards helping people is instead siphoned off for private profit.

Basically, we pay more, and get less and the workers aren't loyal to we the people. 

It's annoying

It's really really really annoying that this is happening. We are going to have more suffering and it's going to cost us more to not fix our problems.  The least they could do - is fix the problems. They won't. There is too much money to be made. 

Bad Decisions - Public Policy Edition

Who knew that privatizing health care in prisons would a) reduce services and b) cost more. Lots of people actually. But no one listened to them.

It would be really nice if we viewed critiques of our public policy agendas - as constructive. Because this whole - the other side is crazy so I don't have to listen to them mentality - results in - expensive harm.

Here is an article about - what we've learned about privatizing health care in prisons. https://www.bradenton.com/article238308513.html - The headline is: Audit: Privatizing Florida’s prison medical services was costly mistake

File this under - the importance of reality in decision making. Don't have ideological blinders on to the point you don't listen to people telling you - something is wrong with your plans. Good strategists - realistically weigh the pros AND the cons before making decisions.

There was a similar problem with the ectopic pregnancy law  - The lawmaker who proposed the law – didn’t do the research to know whether what he was proposing was – doable or not (it’s not). https://www.businessinsider.com/ohio-lawmaker-says-he-didnt-research-ectopic-pregnancy-abortion-bill-2019-12

But he didn't listen to the critiques because - he thought the people telling him it wouldn't work - the doctors - were evil/crazy - take your pick.

We need realistic laws – based in science, reason and – compassion. This last bit is important. Compassion is what helps us listen!  And if we listen - maybe we won't make such costly mistakes that - you know - kill people!

Oh - and in case you were wondering - YES - I do have an online course that will help you do better at this: https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Problems with Implementation Planning

A little bit ago I posted an article about how to avoid change management failures. (see: https://humanisthappiness.blogspot.com/2017/12/change-management-failures.html) Today I want to talk more about the implementation and planning process so that you don't have failures.

This comes from an interview I did for a reporter.

1. Given your past working on organizational planning, how do you describe the difference between it and implementation planning? Additionally, what is the relationship among strategy, implementation, and execution?

Organizational planning is the structure of the organization. What work needs to be done? How does it related to the other work that needs to be done? Who is responsible for getting it done? How are the parts of the organization going to work together to accomplish shared objectives?

Implementation planning has to do with specific project and processes. For instance organization may have an HR department – that is organizational planning. Implementation is when the HR department  rolls out a new set of benefits or a new health care plan.

In order to successfully roll out a new product or process you should have a strategy as to how you plan to implement it and then – the execution is actually implementing it. So the strategy is the plan.

2. Why is implementation crucial to project success? What are the main benefits?

If you don’t implement your plan – you don’t get anything done. So – implementation is crucial. If you have the best plan in the world it’s totally irrelevant if you don’t put the plan into action.

3. What are your tips for implementation planning best practices, or for writing an implementation plan?

Make sure your plan is reality based. You need to know what problem you really should be solving so that you don’t end up solving proxy problems (problems you think are your problem but really aren’t – an example of this is praying for rain when your real problem is you need water on your field.

You need to know what is really going to impact your problem so that you don’t pray for rain which doesn’t affect anything.

And finally you need to know what you really need to do to get the work done. What resources do you need? Do you have the resources you need? Can you get the resources you need or not? If not- your plan won’t work.

4. How can software tools aid in implementation planning? Do you have experience using any tools, and how did they benefit your initiative?

To be honest – I’ve used programs of my own design to get work done – but I’ve never used it for planning purposes.

5. If you have any examples from your own career where implementation planning greatly improved your success, please also share!

When I was in acquisition and mergers we had to coordinate 5 departments into one acquisition process. We had people who had to work with the lawyers and hold the sellers hands. We had people looking at the financials. We had people looking to make sure we had title. We had people looking at the equipment to make sure it was working and we had our buyers.  We creating a software tracking system to allow us to coordinate and track each deal to make sure everyone was on the same page.  The process involved us getting together to narrow down our focus into what really mattered so we weren’t wasting time on tasks that didn’t. We then had to figure out how best to make sure each segment was able to track their unique work needs while integrating into the whole. And it had to be user friendly so that staff would actually populate the system with information.  We did organizational planning – moved on to process planning and then used that information to create a custom software system we could use that would work. Then we had to implement it and get staff using it. This last bit was tricky because departments have a tendency to hoard their information as information is power and we wanted them to share.  We did this through collective rewards – Even though there were 5 departments – we are were all on the same team and rewarded based on how many deals we closed and how good the deals were.

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The best course you can take to help you with your planning processes is Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development. It really will help you understand how to ask the right question so your strategy has the best chance of success.

https://humanistlearning.com/realitybaseddecisionmaking/

Business Plan Reviews

I used to be involved in franchise sales and I reviewed countless business plans in that capacity to ensure that our potential franchisees understood not only what they were getting into but that they were properly capitalized so that they would have the best chance of success. I was recently asked about how to take a reality based approach to business planning.

- What sections are the most essential elements of the business plan?

 Income and expenses.  The main thing I would look for was whether the individual had allocated enough money for marketing purposes and whether or not their income and expenses looked realistic.

 - What story should the business plan tell?

Where does the money come from and how is the money going to be spent.  Everything else is fluff. Either the person understands how their proposed business makes money and what they need to do to realize that potential, or they don’t.

- What common business plan mistakes do you see the most?

Most people over-estimate their income and under-estimate their expenses. Business plans are a work of optimism. The problem is – they also need to be realistic. Understanding what is realistic is key.

- What is your advice for startups and entrepreneurs that are writing or refining their business plan for review?

Halve your income and double your expenses. 

- What is the most vital piece of information in the business plan? 

 How long until you realistically break even? Do you have enough capital to ensure that you can make it that far? Too often people over-estimate their income and under-estimate their expenses. Then, just as they are starting to gain traction, their money starts to run out so they cut expenses in the only place they can – which is their marketing. When that happens, they tend to die a slow death.   Understanding, realistically, what has to be invested and how long until you see a realistic return at your break even point – will help you avoid this fate.

- What is your #1 business plan advice?

Halve your income and double your expenses. If you still want to do this with your worst-case scenario numbers, take the leap.

- Anything else that you'd like to add - that relates to the composition of a business plan? 

Make sure you understand your motives for starting a business. Why is it you are doing this?  Without truly understanding your own motivations, you may not have the stick to-it-ness that will help you keep going when things get tough. And… they are going to get tough.

The best motivations are working to help other people. If all you want to do is make money, then you probably won’t stick it out when the going gets tough. If you want to help people, nothing will stop you.

To learn more about how to make better more realistic decisions, take my online course; Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development.

If you want to learn more about humanistic management – take the short self-study problem – Principles of Humanistic Management

Planning for the Future

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Planning for the future requires balance. Too much worry is a bad thing, not enough worry and you don’t get anything done. Our challenge is to plan well while understanding that even with the best planning, things often go astray.

My philosophic approach is obviously Humanist. So I accept that tomorrow is not guaranteed, but I move forward optimistically anyway. After all, if tomorrow comes, I want to be ready for it.  I find that this approach helps me to constantly be pleasantly surprised when things go well and that I am less likely to take things for granted.  In other words, it helps me to keep an optimistic and happy attitude, even when things don’t go quite right.

I teach strategic planning and decision making for a living. (see the programs I offer at https://humanistlearning.com). Understanding the ultimate existential futility of my efforts helps me to not take myself too seriously.  This may seem odd, but I find that the less I worry about making mistakes, the less mistakes I make in my planning.  I can relax into the task instead of stressing out my brain.  Planning, is no longer a life or death matter, it’s a hypothetical one.  This mindset allows me room to play intellectually with my problem and in turn helps me to be more creative in my problem solving.

It  may seem strange to talk about strategic planning as a philosophic exercise, but it is. This is why I don’t simply teach practical skills, I also teach a philosophic approach that will help you overcome your inner dilemmas that are preventing you from solving your problems.

So check out my courses. Planning for Personal Success and Reality Based Decision Making for Effective Strategy Development. Give yourself a healthy dose of practical skill and philosophic counseling.  The online courses are short and you can log on at any time.  Check them out and let  me know what you think.

Managing with Humanist Principles

Ethical, strategic & compassionate management. Sounds good doesn’t it. So why do so many managers fail to live up to this ideal?

First: many managers don’t receive training on how to be a manager. They get promoted from within and learn on the job. They do their best using the skills and knowledge they have acquired so far.

Second: Those that do get training rarely get training on how to manage people and ethics. They get trained on what needs to happen and how to report to even more senior managers. How to make ethical decisions in the context of your new role? Not covered.

Third: those that do go to business school are rarely taught the human and ethical aspects of management. A lot of what business school is about is finance. They focus on strategies to get work out of humans and in managing the bottom line. In other words how to balance the needs of the company with the need to make money and to ensure that the process through which goods and services are created and delivered are done in a way that maximizes profit.  If they get ethics training it’s usually in the context of how to not break the labor and environmental laws in the pursuit of profit.

The role of a manager is to coordinate the work of a group of people to accomplish a certain task. This work has to be coordinated in a way that a) gets the work done and b) gets it done in a way that is economically efficient. What is missing from this definition is that the work be done ethically.

For me, a humanistic manager is one who gets the function of management done in a way that is ethical, compassionate and strategic. Because a manager has to balance many competing demands, it is critical that they learn how to be strategic. This requires them to learn critical thinking and strategic planning so that they have the capability to make difficult decisions with competing demands so that they can accomplish the tasks required in a way that is ethical and effective.

If we don’t prioritize the ethical side of the equation and focus only on being effective, we don’t have good management. We have ok management. It’ll do management.

If we want managers to be ethical, strategic and compassionate, we have to prioritize those values and skills in our management training.

If you are looking for humanistic management training for you and your staff – I have a couple of quick online programs that will help.

1) Principles of Humanistic Management: https://humanistlearning.com/principles-of-humanistic-management/
2) The Seven Sins of Staff Management: https://humanistlearning.com/7-sins-of-staff-management/
3) And if you want to provide a new manager orientation that includes these management programs with sexual harassment training – consider my new manager orientation bundle: https://humanistlearning.com/new-manager-orientation-bundle/ 

Overcoming Hurdles

I never ran track, but I still know enough to know that hurdles, when approached correctly, should not slow you down.

I have a confession to make. I am lazy. I don’t like to run. Never have. When I played soccer – I played center lurker. Get me the ball, I can get it in. But don’t ask me to play midfield – that requires too much running.

I never went out for track. I had friends that did and supported them, but it wasn’t for me. The race I like the most is the hurdles. Seeing people run and jump over hurdles while not slowing down is a beautiful thing. I like the human steeplechase the most.

Hurdles are a part of life. Not the racing hurdles, obviously, but the idea that there is something in your way you have to go over or around to keep going on your way. Hurdle is defined as an obstacle or difficulty. Unless you are insanely lucky, you are going to encounter hurdles in your life.  It’s best to prepare for them.

The way to prepare is to know and accept that they are there.  Imagine a hurdler runner just pretending that there are no hurdles on the track. Well, don’t imagine it – this is what it looks like.

It isn’t pretty. Sure – he makes headway for a bit and keeps going, but eventually the hurdles knock him down.

If you want to be successful at clearing hurdles, you need to plan your approach. And you can only plan your approach if you plan in advance for what you are going to do WHEN you encounter a hurdle.

In real life, the same principle applies. I realize that positive thinking is all the rage, but any time you fail to plan for hurdles, you are planning for failure.  My rule is to think of all the various ways things can go wrong and then plan for what I will do if the worst happens.  This way I am prepared and am able to clear the hurdles I encounter instead of going – hey – what’s this and why is it happening? Maybe I can ignore it – uhhh, nope.

To learn more about how to plan for success– take my online course: Planning for Personal Success: A Humanist Approach.

The benefits of critical thinking.

5 Reasons to make the effort to think critically.

1) Better decisions. Basing your decisions on facts yields better outcomes. To make sure what you think you know is actually so requires a little critical thinking.

2) Better strategies. In order to have an effective strategy you have to know what all your options are and you have to weigh the pros and cons of all of them to choose the one that will give you the best chance of success. Again, this requires thinking

3) You won’t waste your time on proxy problems. A lot of people fail because they try to solve the problem they think needs to be solved when what they are really working on is a proxy problem that is standing in for their real problem. And because they never bother to question the assumptions they made about which problem needs to be solved, they never realize that they are working on the wrong problem. Critical thinking, questioning why you are solving this particular problem will help you avoid wasting time and energy on proxy problems.

4) Better relationships. We all make assumptions. But if you never bother to find out if your assumptions are true, you may be making a mistake. This is especially true when your assumptions are about other people. Taking the time to recognize that other people don’t think like you and aren’t necessarily motivated the same way you are allows you to figure out what really is motivating them. Again, the challenging of your assumptions IS the art of critical thinking.

5) You won’t get taken in by charlatans. Charlatans and scam artists make their money from people who don’t bother to check their claims to make sure what they are saying is true. Don’t be duped. Learn how to question and challenge claims being made.

Lacking Structure?

Finding a clear path to take on the road of life isn’t always easy. At some point we all find ourselves lost. We find ourselves at a crossroads and we don’t know which path to take. Which way will help us to be happy and to thrive?

People struggle with whether to stay in less than ideal relationships or whether to cut their losses and run. They struggle with finding a job and knowing which jobs to apply for and should they take this job when the job they really want is a possibility too. Should they stay at their job, get married, have kids, or whatever.

We all have decisions to make and some have huge consequences for us. The reason I teach applied Humanism is because it provides a solid ethical foundation on which to make those decisions.

The reason certain decisions are so hard to make is because there are no guarantees in life. And that’s ok. As a Humanist I accept that there is no supernatural force conspiring to help me. I understand and accept this reality as part of my life philosophy and it affects how I approach my life.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right.”

I love this quote because it reminds me in those moments I am making difficult decisions, that all I can ever do is what I think is right, in that moment! And that’s key. If in the future I learn that I made a mistake, I can always choose another path.  My future is not set in stone. I can create and recreate my future as often as I need to. And I have.

Knowing what you really want to accomplish in life is half the battle. The other half is being willing to make the best decisions you have in the moment, with the incomplete information you have in the moment. Is it scary? Yes. Will you always be right? No. But if you make an effort to make good decisions, your outcomes are bound to be more good than bad.

To learn more – consider take Planning for Personal Success! A Humanist Approach with Jennifer Hancock. This 1 ½ hour program will help you figure out what your ultimate good is and how to make better decisions so that you can live life fully and intentionally.

How to stay focused and not give up

Having a plan and sticking to it is easier said than done.

I am the queen of distraction. So how do I focus on getting my work done when I’d rather be watching a Bollywood movie?

Easy – I have a goal. A goal that is important. In fact, it’s so important that getting it done is going to have a tremendous positive impact on society and the world in which we live. I am so passionate about my goal that working on it is a pleasure. So much so that taking time off to do other things is actually pretty hard for me.

In order to be successful, you have to have some idea of what you mean by success. How you define success is your goal.  I like to break goals down into primary goals and secondary goals.  My primary goals are fairly static.  Live life well and be happy. Try to make others so at the same time.

My secondary goals are way more flexible and they change over time. So – getting a degree was a goal for a while. Why get a degree? So I could live life well and be happy while trying to make the world a better place at the same time.

My current goal is to set up my business Humanist Learning Systems (https://humanistlearning.com) so I can get paid to teach people how to stop bullies using science. Why? So I can live life well and be happy while trying to make the world a better place at the same time.

See how secondary goals are in service to your primary goals? Whatever I am working on – is in service to my primary goal.

The mistake many people make is in not having a primary goal. Without that, your secondary goals have no grounding. You don’t have a good reason why you are doing what you are doing. If your goals are not grounded in a really strong reason why, then when, not if, you encounter problems, you have no real motivation or reason to keep working on them.

If you are having a problem staying focused, then consider rethinking your goals. If you need help – consider taking my course – Planning for Personal Success (https://humanistlearning.com/planforpersonalsuccess/) which will not only help you better define your primary goals, but it will also teach you how to be more strategic in your decision making along the way.

Thank God I’m a Humanist

Why working with a Humanist makes everything easier.

Right now much of my time is being consumed by anti-bullying work. When I wrote my book (http://thebullyvaccine.com) I didn’t quite realize just how desperate people are for good information. I mean, obviously I knew or I wouldn’t have written the book, but I kind of looked at it as a bit of a side project. Something I was morally obligated to do, but it wasn’t my passion.

My passion is teaching people about Humanism. But, as I have done the publicity work for the book I have realized that teaching people about how to handle bullies and other obnoxious people IS teaching them about Humanism. The two go hand in hand.

Anyway, as part of what I am doing to help end bullying, I have become involved in setting up a new non-profit, www.xbullied.com  When I was first in conversation with my cofounder Dr. Tejeda he sent me an email explaining his problem solving process. It made me laugh and got me excited because a) it’s the same process I use as a Humanist and b) the last element of his process was to pray, though he admitted he’s not a religious person and he doesn’t really think it does any good.  His mind maps were also quite impressive.

I told him I was totally on board and that his process was the same as mine because I am a Humanist.  His response? “Thank god you’re a Humanist. It makes everything easier.”

And it really does. Humanists are very practical, strategic and reality based. It’s very exciting to realize someone you are working with is like minded in this way. We don’t want to waste our time on solutions that aren’t proven to work. We want best practices and we are willing to do research to figure out what actually works and what doesn’t. We also can see the big picture and understand that really what has to happen is that we need to stop taking a piece meal approach and start integrating the best solutions so that nothing gets left out and falls through the cracks. Working with a fellow Humanist on problem solving is a joyful engaged and fun and productive process.

For me, I know that I can send this man my ideas and he will understand them in the same way I do and see the possibilities of how it will create strategic change if we can find a way to pull it off.  I also know that ego won’t get in the way of a solution. Our goal is the solution. There is a certain standard of ethical conduct we expect from ourselves and others as well.  We may argue and debate a lot and disagree vehemently, but we are committed to behaving ethically as individuals.  In other words, I know when I start working with a Humanist that I am going to be challenged, that I am going to have to deal with a strong personality, but that at the end of the day, they are going to be as committed to making practical strategic decisions as I am and that the outcome of our work is going to be of high quality.

But the absolute best thing about working with a fellow Humanist is that it means the decision making and problem solving process is going to be rational! And if you’ve ever had to work out problems and come to decisions with people who don’t take a rational approach to problem solving you know what a relief it is to know, disagreement will be rational and not insanely irrational. It is nice to know that discussions will be focused on what works and you won’t have to waste your time with any off topic suggestions or correcting obviously untrue statements of so called “facts.” 

Working with Humanists makes everything easier. It really does. What is your favorite thing about working with and interacting with your fellow Humanists?

How to create a strategy that actually works.

4 steps to creating a strategy that will turn your dream goal into a reality.

As a Humanist I take problem solving very seriously. I want to accomplish my goals and not just dream about them. I wrote a blog post a little bit back on how to gain clarity of purpose. Today I want to talk about how to create a strategy that will actually work.

Recently I have gotten involved in anti-bullying work as a result of publishing my book – The Bully Vaccine. One of the things I’ve learned and that we all pretty much knew is that schools and teachers and administrators, however well-intentioned they may be, are not well equipped to help kids end bullying. There are some systemic reasons why this happens that I’m not going to get into here.

Suffice it to say that IF we want to help reduce or eliminate bullying, these systemic problems need to be resolved.   Wanting to change the way schools operate as it relates to bullying is a noble goal.  The real question is how we want them to change and what we can do to make sure those changes actually occur. Without a solid strategy we would be working aimlessly.

Deciding on a goal is easy. And most people are pretty good at that. The difference between people who are successful at actually creating the desired change and those who don’t is the ability to create a strategy.

Most people don’t. They just start doing whatever they think will work based on what they assume the problem to be and hope for the best, fail, get discouraged and decide that nothing can be done. Here are the steps to creating a strategy that will work instead.

1)      Laying the Ground Work

Someone who is strategic instead decided on a goal and then does a bit of research. How are things set up right now. Why are they set up that way? What are the goals that drove the system we have right now. Without knowing that – you won’t be able to develop a strategy that works.

2) Research

The next bit of research is to find out what actually works to solve the problem. What doesn’t work and what makes things worse is also important to know so that you can avoid those mistakes when you plan your strategy.   Most people don’t take this step either. They just assume they know and never bother to challenge whether what they think they know is even so. As a result, their strategies fail; they blame others and give up discouraged.

3)   Having a Plan

Once you know what you are dealing with and what you need to do to fix the problem, you can develop a plan, what exactly are the changes that need to be made? What do you want to keep of the old system and what needs to be changed to accommodate the best practices that are known to work.  It is only once you have a plan on what you would like to see happen that you can start to develop a strategy for how to accomplish it.

4) Strategy

Your strategy is the steps you need to take to implement the plan. Who do you need to talk to, who is in charge of the policies that need to be changed, what is the process for creating and implementing those changes. If your strategy has to do with education and disseminating new information, how are you going to disseminate it to the most possible people?

Having a goal is just the beginning. If you want to be successful, you need a solid strategy of how to get there.