… it’s how we learn!
One of the main reasons XP has been successful so quickly is our ability to copy success. To see success somewhere else, and copy it.
That sounds like a really obvious thing to do, but a lot of people seem to have massive barriers to this.
When I visited High Tech High in 2012, I actually didn’t think about not copying their design principles. I saw that HTH’s success came from the deep belief, understanding and implementation of the design process which was rooted in their design principles.
When our first school launched in 2014, we had changed maybe a word or two, and added our understanding and interpretation to this, but they were essentially the same.
When we visited Springfield Renaissance and King Middle schools, we nicked their Habits of Work and Learning (HoWLs) and put them together. Yeah, we changed like one word (We changed ‘nice’ to ‘kind’), but they were the same.
When we heard about ‘crew’, we decided to call our pastoral system, ‘crew’.
When we saw Expeditionary Learning’s ‘three-dimensions’, we realised we had three dimensions too, and we aligned to them.
When I sat next to Scott Hartl (CEO of EL) in Atlanta during EL’s national conference, I had a black band on my right wrist. It said, “XP. #WeAreCrew”. Scott sat to my right and on his left wrist, he had a red band. It said, “EL #WeAreCrew”. I leant over to Scott and said cheekily, “Scott…? Are you copying me…?”. He laughed and said to me, “...as long as you keep recognising us, I promise not to sue…!”
For me, stealing ideas comes naturally. I don’t feel dishonourable or dirty. I feel proud that I can recognise why something is successful and then do the same. I feel like I am honouring the power of the idea and amplifying it in the world.
When Steve Mahoney, who was the Principal of Springfield heard we’d ‘repurposed’ his HoWLs, he asked if I could bring him one of our posters. When I met him in Boston, and delivered on his request, he was visibly emotional, that his idea had been amplified by us. This was a very powerful moment for me. He was proud that he had given his idea to me and we had built on it, that some part of Steve was forever enshrined in XP.
He didn’t ask me for a percentage. He wasn’t offended that we’d ripped off his intellectual property. He was proud that his idea had come to life, given birth as it were!
Coming from England, I am forever grateful for my American colleagues sharing so much with us, so graciously to further our noble mission. Larry Rosenstock (CEO of HTH) said to me, “You can take anything you want from us, apart from our name!”.
This was quite a surprise to me, coming from England, thinking Americans are all about monetising IP, when my experience is totally the opposite.
In England, we seem to feel we must come up with our own ideas. That copying is cheating, and it is not allowed and totally frowned upon.
...and maybe this comes from our experience at school?
It’s ironic that in a place where we are trying to transmit ideas to each other that ‘copying is plagiarism’ - we’re always copying each other! It’s how we learn! How we push ourselves further, by standing on the shoulders of giants!
When anyone visits our school, I say that we are an ‘open source’ school. If we can easily share the things we do, we will. You can have anything, but our name! (Thanks Larry!)
I repeat great things I have heard other people say. Sometimes I recognise and reference them, and you know, sometimes I don’t. Because it’s the concept that is important, not the person. If I use a quote, I investigate its origins first, as so many quotes are misquoted or attributed to the wrong person, or the origins are unknown!
George Bernard Shaw famously said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas”**
This is the fundamental principle of how we learn.
You don’t have to ‘come up with your own words’ if someone else has come up with some great ones already!
The transmission of concepts.
Sharing stories.
Meme theory.
Alan Moore’s Ideaspace.
Copy me. No please… Copy me!
(...** or did he…? https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/13/swap-ideas/ )