According to Wikipedia (and we all know that is a completely valid source), there is a private initiative to have the third Thursday of April be recognized and celebrated as “National High Five Day”. We say, why not. It’s official from the Boomerang Project. Today, April 17, is National High Five Day!

It seems only natural that we would celebrate this day since the High Five seems to be the official Boomerang Project greeting. Think about the number of High Fives you got at your Basic Training. Those of you fellow High Fivers out there loved it. Those of you who don’t dig them…c’mon, even you got into the swing of the High Five during those three days. I bet that you even went back to school the next morning, started to high five someone and then realized you were back at school and maybe it wasn’t appropriate. Today we say loudly and clearly, it’s not just appropriate, it’s essential and awesome! You know you want to. Go ahead, do it!

The history of the High Five is imprecise at best.  Most of the legends associate it with sports, mostly from the late 70s to early 80s. Does it really matter if it was a couple of baseball players (the Dodgers’ Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke) or the University of Louisville Cardinals’ basketball team? All that we know is that life became more joyous, more celebratory and more fun with the invention of the High Five. No one person or small group of people needs credit for that. The legacy itself is their credit.

Getting through the world can sometimes feel hard. And then there it is. A reminder that is so simple. So obvious.

There is was. A gaggle of children (I’m guessing a second or third grade class) walking along the sidewalk probably on a small fieldtrip of some sort. As only 7-8 year olds can do, they were all over the place. With only one adult in the front and one adult in the rear, I wondered if they would all make the entire round trip without injury.

But then something happened. As they approached a busy intersection, they all formed up, two by two, grasped hands and settled into safely crossing the street. I giggled at the sight and as I looked in my rearview mirror I was struck by how much that brief moment is all we need to know to get through the world; and what WEB and Link Crew do for your school community.

So many thoughts ran through my head as I watched these little kids.

I heard a story on NPR recently that bares some thought. There is a giant sequoia here in California that used to be one of the world’s tallest trees. It has been alive for over 2000 years and in 1999 stood 254 feet tall. Out of the hundreds of sequoia’s growing in Kings Canyon National Park, this tree stood out. It was so distinguished that it was named, “The Washington Tree”. 

Over the last few years, the Washington tree has changed quite a bit; it is now a mere 115 feet tall with most of its upper canopy fallen and its trunk completely hollow.

What really caught my attention with this story, beyond the sadness of it, was the concluding statement of one of the park naturalists. With a kind of poetic insight, the naturalist remarked that although the tree had been stunning, the loss of its crown has allowed a new generation of giant sequoia to grow in its new, smaller shadow, whereas before, it was so massive that nothing below it could sustain for lack of light. 

For our work in building exemplary transition programs, there are two salient points. The first is the notion of growing so tall that you are named. We see over and over that the very best programs are the result of a professional determined to be tall on their campus. In order for your program to thrive and become sustainable, it requires a champion, someone who understands the impact of a powerful program and continues to stand up for its success.

The same can be said for all great achievements. . . .

The process of learning a new language is not easy. Many of us can remember the struggle of learning even the basic vocabulary of a second language and/or watching students struggle as they learn English as their second language.

Learning the language of Leadership is not very different. While often we think that leadership is something that someone is either born with or not, that just is simply not true. It can be taught. It can be learned. And it all starts with the language.

Let’s first take a look at the basic language learning process.

When we start the process, we are enthusiastic and ready to dive in.

As we begin to pick up the core pieces of the system, we typically meet a fair level of confusion. It’s easy to lose heart and simply stop. But we have to keep going. Confusion is just part of the process.

When we start to more fully understand all of the parts and pieces of the system, confusion starts to diminish.

At this point, it is common to have a “Click” moment when the language comes together.

But this is just the beginning of the process. Now comes the harder part of internalizing the system. We have to incorporate structural exercises and immersive activities to internalize the patterns.

At this point we can start to use the language effectively. It is not uncommon, though, to experience an ongoing cycle of frustration and breakthrough. We might experience mental fatigue and want to give up on learning the language.

But if we can continue to practice, we will experience reinvigoration and renewed enthusiasm. By going beyond this point, we ensure we have the content and processes in place to reach fluency over time.

With the core mastered, it is a matter of remaining consistent in the content and processes until we have reached our desired level of competence and fluency.

Now let’s take that same process of learning a language and lay it over the language of Leadership for our WEB and Link Crew Leaders.

Enthusiastic and ready to dive in: When your Leaders came to training and orientation, both you and they were stoked! Let’s do this thing! Let’s be awesome! Let’s change lives!

Confusion…easy to lose heart and simply stop: Then things didn’t go exactly as planned…it never does. Maybe a freshman was resistant or a parent wouldn’t leave . . . .