Thomas Bloch’s journey from CEO to a teacher of inner-city youth

If you are a teacher, educator, administrator, or have an interest on making a difference on today’s youth, especially inner-city youth, Stand for the Best: What I Learned After Leaving My Job as CEO of H&R Block to Become a Teacher and Founder of an Inner-City Charter School is a great read! Thomas Bloch’s journey from CEO to a teacher of inner-city youth is truly inspirational. His insights into the American education system, especially in how charter schools are making a difference, makes complete sense. His school, University Academy, is living proof.

Bloch shares his turning point as to why he left the family business of H&R Block after 19 years: He felt something was missing from his life. So many people today who have been in the same job for a long time may feel that on a day-to-day basis but never do anything about it. They continue working in the job as a means to an end – talking about ‘someday’, then find out someday passed a long time ago – and it’s too late. Bloch did something by following his higher calling: teaching math to inner-city kids. Though he had no teacher qualifications at the time of his decision, having prepared many tax returns in his life, he knew numbers. Teaching inner-city youth was a whole new subject! He admits that nothing quite prepared him for the “spirit-crushing realities of the inner city” of Kansas City.

His move from CEO to teacher made headlines across the country and proved to be the best decision he made in his lifetime. Having begun his ‘new life’ at St Francis Xavier, an inner city Catholic School, he eventually was exposed to the public charter school movement. Bloch shares his insights to the charter school system as he was researching the possibility of establishing his own charter school. If anyone is contemplating setting up a charter school, his personal accounts of the journey are useful.

After investigating the possibility and involving the community in the planning process, they created a shared vision which was to have a school that emphasised career development, community service, and leadership. The mission of the University Academy was “to prepare students to succeed in an institution of higher education and participate as leaders in society”. Their aim was to serve primarily lower-income, underserved, inner-city families in Kansas City. With a strong team around him including experienced teachers and ‘involved’ parents, University Academy opened in August 2000 with 218 enrolments its first year.

Bloch shares stories of his former students – those who graduated as well as one’s who eventually dropped out. His stories are quite touching; for anyone who is a teacher will appreciate their meaning. Teaching inner-city youth is not easy; they are challenged with illiteracy, violence, poverty, parents in prison, and drug-afflicted homes. But Bloch’s perseverance and commitment to his calling and vision to make a difference and impact on public education, now is part of a ‘mature’ charter school catering to inner-city youth with many individual and collective success stories.

The new University Academy opened in 2005. The 172,000 square-foot, $40 million school is an open building that contains six smaller “houses” within the larger school. Funding for the school was primarily from the generosity of the Helzberg family (famous for Helzberg Diamonds). Though the Academy began catering to the middle school years (7-9), it now is a K-12 college preparatory charter public school and had over 1100 students in 2005. It aims to be one of the top charter schools in the country.

With the continuous dedication and commitment of the University Academy’s team along with Bloch, both serve as leadership role models in business and in education as a whole.

Bloch, T. M. (2008). Stand for the Best: What I Learned after Leaving My Job as CEO of H&R Block to Become a Teacher and Founder of an Inner-City Charter School. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Marcus Buckingham at IHRSA: Awesome!

Second day at the IHRSA/AJHP conference and what a day!

It started off with a fantastic and inspiring keynote from Marcus Buckingham, author of "First Break All the Rules", "Now Discover Your Strengths", and "The One Thing You Need to Know". If you have never seen him in person, he is funny (in a British way), passionate about his subject, and sincere in his delivery.

I will share some of his key messages. Most of us intuitively know what are strengths are when we are young. When we get older, many of us tend to focus on fixing our weaknesses versus focusing on our strengths. The most powerful question to ask yourself and others to determine if one is given the opportunity to work at one's full potential: "At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best everyday?" This is best to ask if you are going to have a good team. Buckingham also noted that some people may be delusional as to what they do best every day and sometimes need a reality check.

He shared some interesting statistics to this question: "Which do you think will help you be most successful?" Results for the USA hadn't changed much in eight years. Fifty-nine percent said fixing weaknesses while 41% said build strengths (2000). In 2008, 55% said fixing weaknesses while 45% said build strengths. The Millenials (18-25 years) faired 'worse' in their results with 69% said fixing weaknesses while 31% said build strengths. The results from other countries were opposite of the USA. In the UK, 54% said build strength while 46% said fix weaknessses. In India, 56% said build strength while 44% said fix weaknessses. In China, an astounding 73% said build strength while 27% said fix weaknessses. What does this say about entrepreneurialism? No wonder China has become a powerhouse in business over the years.

How can one play at his/her strengths most of the time? Buckingham shared three main points. First, get thinking clear and bust the myths. What myths are you clinging to that could be holding your back. He shared three myths and their corresponding truth.

Myth 1: As you grow your personality changes.
Truth 1: As you grow you become more of who you already are.

Myth 2: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness.
Truth 2: You will grow most in the areas you are already strong.

Myth 3: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.
Truth 3: A good team member deliberately volunteers his/her strengths to the team most of the time.

The second way to play at one's strengths is to get clear on what your strengths are. This can take some time. I found reading his book "Now Discover Your Strengths" was useful in clarifying this. Third, plan strong weeks. It is really important to plan that one will have strong weeks in performance. This can keep one focused on their strengths and assist in gaining the momentum towards achieving outcomes.

Living a strength-based life takes courage and assertiveness and there is a risk in 'blossoming'. Buckingham suggested that people committed to making tomorrow a slightly stronger day than today. Everyone will win when you do.

Hello from San Francisco where I am attending the American Journal of Health Promotion Conference and IHRSA.

The first day was very interesting starting with Joel Robertson's presentation on "The Impact of Brain Chemistry on Health Behavior". Dr Robertson is a pioneer in this area and really inspired me to re-think how we teach fitness programming to future professionals. Additionally, he supplied me with information that I am going to use as part of my presentation on Worktopia at the American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Summit next week.

Brain chemistry is the main determinant of behaviour. Dr Robertson shared three concepts relating to brain chemistry and performance. By understanding your brain, you can influence its responses. By influencing its responses, you can achieve personal goals. Lastly, you are already influencing your brain responses whether you realise it or not.

Did you ever have a perception and it was 'wrong'? Though the perception may have been wrong, it probably was very powerful. Perceptions are based on brain chemicals and how in balance they are. When your brain is out of balance, what feels good to you may be what is keeping you out of balance.

Dr Robertson shared some practical reasons why it is important to understand the physiology of performance and the enhancement process, with relation to brain chemistry. Each of you are a unique biochemical body. Your brain chemistry will determine how stress affects YOUR brain, what exercises YOU should do; what diet YOU should have; what nutritional supplements YOU should have (if any); and what will enhance YOUR performance. For those people who are personal trainers and/or employers, it is important to understand the impact of your client's / employee's reward centre, natural tendencies, and neurotransmitter issues as well as the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.

There was so much information in this 75-minute session to comprehend. It was a great way to start the conference. If you want to read more information on Dr Robertson's research, go to http://www.robertsoninstitute.org.

The Keynote speaker was Dr Kenneth Pelletier who spoke on the Clinical and Cost Outcomes of Worksite Interventions. Though it may seem dry, he spoke on medical economics on integrated medicine. In today's economic times, companies are seeing their revenues decrease and their medical expenses increase (which is one of many reasons for bankruptcy). In research conducted in 2005, CEOs stated their greatest threat to the company was medical costs (43%) and litigation (20%). CEOs are always interested in the return-on-investment (ROI) though, realistically, corporate health programs do not see a ROI for 3.25 years. The ROI ratio is usually 1:1 (break even) - 2:1. Evidence-based ROI ranges from 3.5:1 - 4.90:1.

Dr Pelletier highlighted the best alternative medicines that 'work' in the corporate setting, including acupuncture and mind-body medicine. Mind-Body medicine has the most extensive body of scientific evidence for a positive impact on the largest number of conditions for the greatest number of people.

The last regular session I attended was Dr James Prochaska's talk on "Best Paradigms for High Impact Health Promotion Programs". There are five intervention issues when implementing corporate health programs: (1) Recruitment or Engagement, (2) Retention, (3) Process, (4) Progress, and (5) Outcomes. Getting employees to engage or take up a program is one of the biggest challenges. The goals is to help employees become more proactive about their health and health care. How do you motivate them to sign-up for a program? Engagement involves behaviour change through a series of interventions: do they sign up; do they show up? Some employees may sign up for a program but then don't show up! Dr Prochaska finished his presentation summarising how, when designing and deploying workplace programs, professionals need to take more of a population health paradigm than an individual health paradigm.

The general session showcased NFL legend, four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Montana. He shared many personal stories not only about his professional football career but also his father's influence on his performance while growing up. Montana contributes his success to three key things: Preparation, Work Ethic, and Trust. Preparation starts with the self; always remember the fundamentals, especially when things get challenging. He shared the story of how his father always focused on the fundamental skills needed when playing football and also basketball (a sport which Montana wanted to play professionally but then he got a scholarship to University of Notre Dame for football). Having a good work ethic is contagious. You can't be the best without putting out a lot of hard work and effort. The last key aspect for success is trust. Trust takes a team beyond one's own capabilities. In a successful team setting, when a mistake is made, each team member trusts that someone will be there to cover their back. In Montana's case, every time he through a pass, he trusted the receiver was going to be there.

It was a full on day of learning and well worth the time and money invested!