What's your curriculum?

WE ARE CELEBRATING! This week marks the second anniversary of the start of the daily emails. We are republishing that first week of emails because they are still so relevant.

 
April 10, 2020
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Colleagues,

What’s a curriculum?
 
Today I’ll be helping some amazing members of a local non-profit develop curricula for serving the most highly stressed youth in our community. Those of you who are educators are very familiar with what a curriculum is, but those of you outside of education may not have as much clarity.
 
No matter which group you are in, curriculum is something that is critical to leadership. A curriculum is a set of performance standards tied to a desired outcome and includes the knowledge and skills necessary to meet each standard.
 
Want to teach someone something? Of course, there is a curriculum.
 
But what about selling them something, like a product, an idea, or a set of behaviors? Yes, there is a curriculum for each of those too.
 
What does this have to do with leadership?
 
For almost anything you need someone to do, there is a performance standard, knowledge, and skills that need to be mastered to complete the task. If the person can’t meet the performance standard, it means there is a gap in knowledge or skills. If you understand the curriculum for the task, you can focus on the area in which they need help.
 
I hope that’s not too heavy for a Friday!
 
Speaking of which, tomorrow is my birthday! The best present you could give me is a brief story about how you have used something from one of my emails to achieve some positive outcome. You may even get a party favor in return.

Cheers!

​Frederick