Much of our education system is stubbornly stuck in old methodologies and beliefs and suggesting changes, as I have painfully learned, is not an easy sell. We have helped a few leading educators and their systems to achieve remarkable results – one school district using our methodologies to move from 800th to 200th in the nation in a few short years.

Fast Company,a frequent chronicler of unfolding trends, presents a brilliant article by Anya Kamenetz describing how mobile technology and open source software and apps are bringing education to students, at a lower cost, in the student’s preferred learning style, at a speed appropriate for each learner, in instantly translatable content, with tracking capabilities and complete mobility. What this means is that the technology industry has aligned with altruistic entrepreneurs to navigate around the bureaucracy and out-of-date thinking of our education system to deliver inspiring learning to students, despite the obstacles presented by a moribund system.

Recently, I asked an audience comprised of the faculty of a major teaching college why we continue to use Victorian teaching methods (and content) in an age when the average teen between 13-17 years old sends nearly 2,000 text messages each month. In other words, they endure an archaic system of communicating in the classroom, relieved by what they do in their real world as soon as they can escape. This is no way to inspire learning in young people who will very quickly grow into leadership positions in our society.

And if we also entirely omit teaching values, integrity, character, service and honoring the sacredness of others in our curricula – we have a recipe – a perfect storm – for developing dysfunctional adults.

But there is hope. As Fast Company reports, “The U.S. Department of Education has earmarked $5 billion in competitive school-reform grants to scale up pilot programs and evaluate best practices of all kinds. Major foundations are specifically zeroing in on handhelds for preschool and the primary grades.”

Let’s hope we learn how to make the grade. And let’s hope some of the brave teachers who are pioneering new ideas maintain their courage in a system that can sometimes present a hostile environment for breakthrough ideas. We need these leaders now, because they are developing our leaders of tomorrow.

From a distance, each horse looks like any other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing.

Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him.

This alone is amazing.

If you stand nearby and listen, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to the horse’s halter is a small bell. It lets the blind friend know where the other horse is, so he can follow.

As you stand and watch these two friends,you’ll see that the horse with the bell is always checking on the blind horse, and that the blind horse will listen for the bell and then slowly walk to where the other horse is, trusting that he will not be led astray.

When the horse with the bell returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, it stops occasionally and looks back, making sure that the blind friend isn’t too far behind to hear the bell.

Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need.

Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who who have been placed in our lives.

Other times we are the guide horse, helping others to find their way.

Good friends are like that – you may not always see them, but you know they are always there.

Please listen for my bell. And if you are the one wearing the bell, then I’ll listen for yours. |And remember – be kinder than necessary.  It is inspiring.

Adapted from an unknown source but sent to me by by friend Wally Amos at http://www.chipandcookie.com/

But there is a much more important second reason: After being convinced that I was not really part of the human race, let alone current, if I did not have a Twitter account, I finally signed up. As a result, I endured endless messages (tweets) about what people were cooking for dinner, the dress they had chosen to wear that day, the lyric of a song they liked and what was causing their indigestion: yes; Eventually, I OD’d on personal trivia. Perhaps this is a metaphor for our times. Twitter has a real value in communicating vital information, such as Barak Obama’s campaign updates to his supporters during the US election last year. But if we only use social networking technologies for sharing our own personal trivia, or to promote ourselves, we may miss the opportunity of using our time and technology to change the world and make it better.

We are emerging from a period of extreme self-absorption, narcissism and self indulgence – the source of much of our economic pain today. Thankfully, there is a growing maturity afoot among people and organizations, that is nudging us into be more concerned about others than ourselves, to serve others before self, and even to serve self by serving others first. If we want to become more inspired, restore our focus, re-establish a secure footing for our economy and make the world greener and safer, it will be done most effectively through service to others, empathy for their feelings and needs and listening more than talking.

I called the CEO of one of our hospital clients the other day and he was telling me how awful business was. “Why?” I asked? He explained that this had been a mild winter for flu and so the normal influx of sick elderly patients had not materialized, and this had wreaked havoc with his revenues. Is this how health care is supposed to work? Instead of working the system to meet our needs, aren’t we supposed to be running it for the benefit of others?

As it goes for people, so it goes for organizations and countries. Those who have been Twittering (if I may use that term to describe our incessant preoccupation with ourselves more than others) are in disarray today. Putting self first has caused a crisis for banks, airlines, wireless and energy companies and an army of derivative experts who are now trying to sort out their future. We – that is you and me – and our organizations, communities and countries will become more inspiring as soon as we shift more of our energy and technology into serving the needs of others – in a way that serves the needs of the world.

Oh, and by the way, I am watching the amazing Susan Boyle from England on “Larry King Live” – in case you should be interested!

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Rushworth Kidder, whose thoughts and writings are always insightful, has recently completed a small pilot survey of members of the Institute for Global Ethics, of which he is the executive Director. The question: What is the most threatening global issue facing humanity today?

Is it terrorism, violence against women, CO₂ emissions, governmental corruption, mass migration, water scarcity, or slavery?

Since the questions in the survey were based on the 15 major issues catalogued in the 2007 “State of the Future” report from the United Nations-affiliated Millennium Project, Kidder’s team asked one of the report’s co-authors, Theodore J. Gordon, to join a follow-up conference call with the survey participants. Gordon conceived of the Millennium Project in the 1980s and remains one of the world’s most highly respected futurists. He’s been studying future issues and trends since well before 1971, when he founded his own consulting firm, The Futures Group. So his answer was surprising.

Of the nine topics in the survey, respondents clustered three of them near the top: terrorism, CO₂ emissions, and mass migration. They followed with a group of five more: corruption; violence against women; global slavery; disease, AIDS, and pandemics; and imbalanced wealth distribution. The ninth issue, shortage of medical professionals, came in well below the rest.

But Gordon said it’s none of the above. He said, “If you look at all of these issues,” he said “and ask what’s common to them all, its lousy decision making.”

“There used to be a time,” Gordon continued, “when I thought futures research, my field, would make its contribution by improving decision making. But I’ve abandoned that thought. We could have the best insight into what the future might be through magic techniques not yet invented and decisions would still be terrible!” Translation: It’s not the specific issues that challenge us, but the way we fail to deal with issues of every sort.

Kidder writes, “That strikes me as a remarkable admission for a man whose life has been devoted to advancing and promoting futures research. Gordon wouldn’t want me to hold him up to unfair comparisons, but if Einstein after decades of work had told us that something mattered more than physics, or if Cezanne had concluded that painting wasn’t what it was all about, or if Darwin had intimated that he was outgrowing his commitment to evolution, wouldn’t we pay attention?”

I find in the organizations that I work for that there is a general weakness in the crispness and discipline of decision making. Too often, it is a disorganized process which relies more on positional power, ego and forces that psychologists call “the shadow” the personal foibles and demons that we all possess.

It’s not that the big issues are not important, but as long as we lack the will and the training to make high quality decisions, rooted in integrity, that are in the best long-term interests of our constituents, we will lurch from one crisis to another and be forever searching for a better decision than the last one.