Jami quickly found that not everyone was up to this challenge.
Some of her staff were near retirement: they were looking at the finish line. The personal work for this transformation required more energy than they had. So Jami had to have some difficult conversations.
Perhaps it was time for them to retire and to move on.
She knew she needed the right teachers. She needed teachers who were curious, creative and courageous. With new positions now opened, she began to interview. Borrowing a technique used by a tech company she read about, she decided to provide the interview questions before the interview. Her last question was about Design Thinking: "Using the principles of design thinking, how might you structure a learning plan?"
She was surprised by the result. The candidates came in better prepared than she had seen in the past. They also had almost identical responses to that last question.
None of them knew what design thinking was. They started asking around and none of their colleagues or former professors knew what it was. So they had to search the web to learn about it. But when they understood it, they were so excited. They wanted to come to Dayton and to be a part of this experiment.
Jami picked the best candidates and launched into her next school year.
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