Education

Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Is It Selfish for a Gay Couple to Have Kids via Surrogacy?

Education / Ethicist / Nonjudgment / Relationships

Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Is It Selfish for a Gay Couple to Have Kids via Surrogacy?

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one's actions instead of imposing values on others, here is my take on today's post, "Is It Selfish for a Gay Couple to Have Kids via Surrogacy?" My husband and I are gay and are exploring the possibility of having children using an egg donor and a surrogate mother. Sometimes when we mention this in conversation, people ask us, in a chiding tone, Why don't you adopt? They often then argue that with so many children in need of good homes, it would be ethically superior for us to adopt, instead of spending a small fortune so we can have children to whom we are genetically…

February 14, 2016

How to Decide Without Regret in business and life

Choosing/Decision-Making / Education / Leadership / Models

How to Decide Without Regret in business and life

After teaching, coaching, studying, and practicing leadership for twenty years, I announced my online leadership course, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere." I'm hosting a series of free webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my second webinar, free, this Sunday, February 14, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. How to Decide Without Regret ... in business and life Click to register! From the registration page: What You'll Learn in The Webinar Why deciding is hard, and it's not what you think! How to make deciding easier, even something to…

February 12, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership

Another problem with traditional education: Employers are disappointed by traditionally educated students

I've written "Why I avoid lecturing when I lead and teach", asked "Does lecturing turn schools into prisons?", and discussed "How lecturing is the opposite of how we learn". As if those reasons weren't enough, the most-credentialed students that traditional education produces disappoint employers in areas where jobs. This video of the director and producer of a documentary on project-based learning shows what they learned from people who hire at top Silicon Valley companies don't value credentials of traditional education. https://joshuaspodek.com/mlts_interview Compare these outcomes with the student voices from my last course, "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun." Do they sound like they're waiting for someone to tell them what to do?…

February 11, 2016

Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

Education / Entrepreneurship / Events / Exercises / Leadership

Three Leadership Secrets You’ll Never Learn Reading A Book

I've taught, coached, studied, and practiced leadership for twenty years. After announcing my online leadership course on my blog, "Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere," I'm hosting a series of webinars on the most actionable, useful, effective, and exciting parts of the course. My webinars will always deliver exclusive, valuable lessons you can use that day and how to build for the long term. Attend my first webinar, free, this Saturday, February 6, 1pm Eastern Standard Time! All you need is an internet connection. Three Leadership Secrets You'll Never Learn Reading A Book Click to register! From the registration page: What You'll Learn in The Webinar The value of behavior and experience beyond reading, no matter how valuable what you read What researchers…

February 3, 2016

Audio / Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Creativity / Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / Models / Nonjudgment / Relationships / Tips

Introducing the most effective leadership course available anywhere

If you read this blog, you know I care about leadership and how to improve yours---in business, personal, family, and every other part of your life. I presume you do too. As much as you've learned from the blog, you can learn more from doing. If you want to improve because you're moving up the corporate ladder, just finished school, starting your own projects, or any other reason that you have to lead people and teams, developing leadership skills from practice will improve you most effectively. Anyone can improve their ability to lead, and the most effective improvement comes from experience, not books, lectures, or case studies. Or even my blog. I created what I believe the most effective course in leadership you can find…

February 2, 2016

How Inc. Magazine improved overnight

Education / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com / SIDCHAs

How Inc. Magazine improved overnight

Inc. Magazine, in its own words: For 35 years, we've been the premier publication dedicated to entrepreneurs---the most innovative, most courageous, and most essential business leaders in America. In that time, Inc. has won widespread recognition for maintaining the highest editorial standards as we've documented that world. How did it improve overnight? They hired me as their latest columnist! Today marks my first piece, "How I Wish Business School Had Taught Me Leadership." First time here? My editor tells me I may see more readers than usual, with Inc.'s 1.57 million Twitter followers. If you're new here, the links below give you an idea of what to find here. If you like it, subscribe to my newsletter with the purple button at the top right.…

January 25, 2016

Two types of students?

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Two types of students?

I teach, but not how nearly all my teachers taught me. I teach experientially. I try to avoid lecturing. I try to include in the classroom the challenges life will challenge students with, not abstractions. Nearly all my students come from years of lecturing and abstract learning. I find two broad types of students. I don't think they're different types of people. I think they come from different types of backgrounds. The first type wants to learn about leadership or entrepreneurship. The second type wants to learn to do them. I spent most of my life and education in the first type. Obviously, I've moved into the second type and prefer it. Which type are you of the following, if either? The first type often…

January 21, 2016

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises

Take my entrepreneurship and sales classes at NYU this spring!

You can get results like the aspiring entrepreneurs in my course last semester that I posted about yesterday, the ones who wrote "This is one of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun. Josh is an incredible teacher, mentor, and friend to everyone in the class who is passionate about the subject matter. If I could take this class all over again, I would." and "Message for future students: Take the course seriously. Take advantage of every aspect of the course... it's easily been one of the most valuable courses I've taken." I'm teaching an accelerated version of the course for working professionals at NYU's School of Professional Studies, starting February 3. It's a six-week evening course…

January 14, 2016

“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”

Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership / My Favorite Posts

“One of the greatest classes I have ever taken. It was engaging, thought provoking, challenging, and fun.”

I compiled feedback from students in the entrepreneurship class I taught at NYU last semester. Though the students were undergraduates, I taught basically the same exercises as I do with executives and seasoned executives, who get similar results. As much as my vanity would like to take credit for some of these reviews, more credit goes to the style of teaching I use---inquiry-driven project-based learning---and the people who developed it over the past century or so. I'm using what works. As you can tell, though the course was nominally about entrepreneurship, this active, experiential style also made it about responsibility, initiative, hustle, empathy, and other deeper and broader areas than just academic or abstract information. Also, of course, most of the credit goes to the…

January 13, 2016

Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Do We Have to Send Our Kid to a Bad Public School?

Education / Ethicist / Nonjudgment

Non-judgmental Ethics Sunday: Do We Have to Send Our Kid to a Bad Public School?

Continuing my series of alternative responses to the New York Times column, The Ethicists, looking at the consequences of one's actions instead of imposing values on others, here is my take on today's post, "Do We Have to Send Our Kid to a Bad Public School?" My wife and I are an interracial couple living in Oakland, Calif. We are both first-generation college graduates for whom solid public-school educations made all the difference. We are struggling with choosing a public school for our son, who will enter kindergarten this year. State test scores came out recently, and our neighborhood public school, which is filled with some of the city's poorest kids, scored very low. I have to believe there is something seriously wrong with how…

January 10, 2016

Awareness / Education / Nature

The value of science education

With New York City hitting 72 degrees Fahrenheit in late December, part of one of the most extreme month-long temperature deviations ever recorded, people seem to be starting to understand that the climate getting hotter can affect them in their lifetimes. It won't affect them as much as the temperature hitting thirty degrees too hot in August, though I'd expect people would just turn their air conditioners on higher and not go outside if the temperature hit 110 or 120. India faces those temperatures and people have learned to handle it for tens of thousands of years without air conditioning. I still often find people don't understand that their behavior affects the climate. Grown adults I know with college educations from prestigious schools ask me,…

December 27, 2015

Education / Events / Exercises / Relationships

How to Make Meaningful Connections Workshop: January 26 in Brooklyn

The Media Center is "a new kind of collaborative workspace dedicated to supporting and connecting the next generation of media and tech entrepreneurs, innovators and artists by providing industry resources, events, mentorship and educational opportunities," created by the City of New York's Made In NY program and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP). It's a vibrant space with an active community in an exciting area of Brooklyn. On January 26th I'll lead a workshop there on How to Make Meaningful Connections, 6:30-8:30pm at 30 John Street. I've led this workshop many times and people have loved it and put it into practice immediately. Sign up here From the registration page: Making connections is critical to building a career and a life—and a major challenge. Who hasn't…

December 17, 2015

Education / Habits / Tips

How to learn

If you want to learn, find an experience to teach you and make it happen, not just the answers written out. Let the experience create the answer for you. When I wanted to learn something, I used to get a book and read about it. We learn more through experience. I teach that way. I also realize I've adopted the habit of trying to do things to learn. If I want to find out if an exercise works, I'll try the exercise, not read about exercises and analyze. If I want to find out if I can swim across the Hudson River, I'll swim across it. If I want to see if I can buy food without packaging, I'll do it. Those are behaviors, where…

December 7, 2015

You don’t learn from someone telling you the answers like you do through experience

Effective learning doesn't come from telling you the answers. It comes giving experiences that lead you to find out the answer for yourself. That's why we value experience and not just someone who can repeat what others told them. You don't hire someone because they can tell you what they read or heard. You hire them for what they've done. That's why I create my courses as I do. Traditional education has a lot of teachers telling students answers or assigning reading that tells them answers, also known as theory, and not enough giving people experience that leads them to discover or create their answers for themselves. I believe my courses do that. If we could just tell people answers, we wouldn't value experience in…

December 5, 2015

Education / Fitness

Academia and fitness

In college and graduate school I held academia in high regard, mainly because I valued education and learning. Spending time outside academia showed me how much education and learning happens outside academia. Returning to academia showed me that people in it don't all keep learning that much. And what schools teach isn't always that useful. Since I played sports all through college and graduate school, I also conflated academics and fitness. Every university has well-equipped gyms. Back in school now as an adjunct professor who considers exercise and physical fitness an important part of what I teach, it's dawning on me that I know almost no fit professors, and I work with many. Would you expect many? Do you expect the great historical figures schools…

December 1, 2015

Awareness / Education / Leadership / Models / Nonjudgment / Perception

Op/Ed Friday: Almost nobody is acting for equality, which is why we aren’t getting it

If you don't act for equality, it doesn't matter how much you want it, you aren't going to get it. Almost nobody is acting for equality so we aren't getting it. Many people think they are acting to create equality, but their behavior is counterproductive to equality, despite their intent. Why do I say people aren't acting for equality? What are people doing if they aren't acting for equality? Many people belong to groups that they feel are disadvantaged. They feel they don't have the same opportunities. Or that social structures are holding them back. I should say we because everyone everywhere has claim to some way they are held back. The most common ways are by sex, skin color, belief, income, etc. Many people…

November 20, 2015

Inspiration in education

Inspiration in education

If you like learning, you like learning effectively, which our mainstream educational institutions could improve in. I'm constantly learning and experimenting to improve my teaching. I think I'm getting a lot better at it. A tremendous resource and inspiration is my long time friend and founding Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Chris Lehmann. I normally don't post TED talks, much less TEDx talks (I find they make people feel inspired but don't change people's behavior, which I find a waste of time), but he has changed my behavior---in fact, I learned the foundation of my teaching practice from him and his community. Also, a few months ago I posted videos from John Taylor Gatto, which got me thinking a lot about education…

November 18, 2015

Education / Events / Exercises / Leadership / Nonjudgment

Learn and practice Marshall Goldsmith’s Feedforward, December 1 in Manhattan

Want to learn and practice one of the most effective leadership techniques? Then join me for a workshop, Tuesday, December 1st at 6:30pm in midtown, and get a copy of the #1 bestselling leadership book included! This is an encore workshop from attendee enthusiasm at the last one. From the announcement from the Columbia Business School Alumni Club (everyone is welcome): The Workshop Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club invites you to a workshop on Marshall Goldsmith's FEEDFORWARD hosted by Joshua Spodek, PhD MBA '06 including a copy of his #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller TRIGGERS with admission Click here to buy tickets. The Economist named Marshall "World's #1 Leadership Speaker" and Harvard Business Review named him "World's #1…

November 16, 2015

Art / Education / Exercises / Leadership

Why leadership and entrepreneurship training can learn from acting training

Longtime readers know a big inspiration for how I teach leadership and entrepreneurship is how we teach acting, based on the self-awareness, emotional expression, mutual support, and ability to perform I see in great actors. Leaders and entrepreneurs can use many of the same skills, and much of my teaching practice involves using what works in teaching acting for teaching leadership and entrepreneurship, with appropriate changes. To learn the training in more depth, I trained in one style of acting, called Meisner Technique after its originator, Sandy Meisner, and was rereading a book by the guy who founded the school where I trained, who studied and worked with Sandy for decades, Bill Esper. The following passage illuminates a lot about learning leadership and entrepreneurship, though…

November 10, 2015

Education / Freedom

Why America body-slams kids in school, in video

Continuing yesterday's post on why we body-slam kids in school, I wanted to reiterate the role of the United States' overall culture---you and I included---in creating school environments where cops body-slamming kids is inevitable. Three movies illustrate our culture's views on violence and kids. American Sniper First, watch the closing scenes of American Sniper, which show real-life footage of the main character's funeral. You don't need to have seen the movie to get that he's a military man. He was conflicted, but served his country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-nbnCFeq3A His popular support was incredible. Large numbers of people came out to support him. Municipalities shut down public roads and spent a lot of money showing more support. Look at all those American flags. Now here's my question: Could…

November 3, 2015

Education / Freedom

Why cops body-slam children in schools

You saw the video of the cop slamming the student in a grade-school classroom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C39aib3nkvM Everybody is quick to talk about race and belligerent cops. What everyone is missing We're so accustomed to regimented schools, we miss what an anti-educational environment we've made our schools into. Notice that during this violent interaction, none of the other students or the teacher acts with shock, to defend her, or to do anything but comply with docility to the authority of a badge. The environment was more like a prison than what I think of as what is natural for kids, let alone a place for kids to learn. What is natural about kids sitting in rows for hours every week day, not getting to play or move…

November 2, 2015

Education / Entrepreneurship / Inc.com

Business plan competitions undermine entrepreneurship

Years ago no schools taught entrepreneurship. Some enterprising people had the idea to create business plan competitions to motivate entrepreneurially-minded people to create business plans. I applaud their idea and its implementation at the time. Business plan competitions filled a gap in academia by promoting action and learning by doing. That was generations ago. The academic gap no longer exists. Today business plan competitions are an academic distraction from business and entrepreneurship that undermine them. They distract the people they are supposed to help the most---those who know least about entrepreneurship. No customer bought a product because the company founder won a competition Entrepreneurship is about customers, profit, and other business fundamentals. Competitions skew students' perspective in many ways. They Focus students on judges instead…

October 29, 2015

Education / Entrepreneurship / Fitness / Freedom / Habits

Interviewed by Columbia Business School on Endurance Sports and Business Success

Do you like business success? Then read "Going the Distance," in Columbia Business School's alumni magazine, on how sports contribute to business success in an interview of me. Here is part of the interview, to whet your appetite: Skills mastered through endurance sports fuel success in business, says marathoner and serial entrepreneur Joshua Spodek '06. [...] First things first: why run?Â One of the attractions of running is that there's a freedom to it. Pair of shoes, socks, shorts — and you're free. What is the biggest challenge you face when running long distances?Â You're not doing this for physical pleasure; you're doing it for this emotional reward. To me, that mental challengeÂ — thinking about it as an emotional reward — is just as hard…

October 29, 2015

Education / Entrepreneurship / Leadership

Are U.S. universities today like U.S. automakers in the 70s and 80s?

The more I work in American universities, the more I see their decision-making and leadership behind the scenes. The more I learn about student-focused project-based learning connecting students' lives to what the schools are trying to teach and move away from more abstract academic approaches, the more I see alternatives to the education I got that I think serve students' and society's interests more. I care about students in schools like I care about customers in businesses: I view their needs and interests as paramount for guiding the organizations' direction. Faculty matter, as do employees, the community, and others, but I expect the organizations that focus on the people they serve will succeed most. Universities' leadership lies with its tenured faculty, often untrained in managing…

October 24, 2015

Seeing my inspiration, Inside The Actors Studio, live

Art / Education / Entrepreneurship / Exercises / Leadership

Seeing my inspiration, Inside The Actors Studio, live

If you've talked to me in the past few years, you've heard how watching Inside The Actors Studio inspired me to learn how actors came to excel so much at skills leaders in other areas of life work hard to achieve but rarely do. On top of that, many great actors on the show dropped out, were kicked out, or otherwise didn't finish much school. Meanwhile, graduates of Ivy League business schools who studied leadership at the pinnacle of our educational system didn't measure up. The schools didn't even teach whatever the actors learned. My curiosity led me to discover about acting training, including its roots as far back as Constantin Stanislavsky, through the American Laboratory Theater, the Group Theater, the Actors Studio, and more.…

October 12, 2015

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