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December 2019
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5 MIN READ  This article is the 1st in a series on "Breaking Knowledge Barriers". I have had the opportunity to work for some amazing visionaries and leaders in Southern and Northern California. I landed some of my first jobs out of college thanks to the help of staffing agencies who liked that I could type over 100 words per minute, knew ten-key, had loads of customer service experience, and was visibly eager to make a difference somewhere. As I grew in skills, roles, and responsibilities, I watched myself stretch and reveled in the expansion that can only happen when you’re granted the opportunities to. My supervisors were pretty good at spotting my drive, resilience, growth mindset, risk tolerance, and desire to learn as much as I could. After being an Executive Assistant, Office Manager, Accounting Coordinator, Program Specialist, Grant Writer, and then Executive Director, I found my passion and strengths as an operations executive. With that passion, I helped start a statewide nonprofit that supports over 15% of California’s public 6th-12th graders with college and career planning tools, and I’ve consulted with multiple nonprofits and leaders to help them achieve their visions. The moral of this short story for me is that every step of the way, when I had the opportunity to bet on myself, I did and often, I won. What I skipped in the story are the massive mistakes, failures, misperceptions, wrong assumptions, and poor leadership that I had to struggle through in order to get new roles, take on new responsibilities, and absorb new skills. If this sounds anything like your own journey, then perhaps like me, you also had to navigate strong bouts of insecurity, depression, loneliness, codependency, nagging self-doubt, and creeping suspicion of everyone and everything. If this sounds like you, then I invite you to keep reading. 
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 | They sounded like:
And then they grew into:
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Until finally, they reverberated in my heart and soul into a thundering:
Hearing myself tell myself what I needed was so powerful, I still shiver just thinking about it.
- I need to give up my need to be anything other than who I am, right now, in this very moment.
- I need to give up my need for something more than what I have, when I have so much to be grateful for, right now, in this place, as I am in this very moment.
Hearing myself tell myself what I needed was so powerful, I still shiver just thinking about it.
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"What Can I Give Up" Activity
Check out my “What Can I Give Up?” Activity that I often share with my clients to help them figure out how to let go of certain things holding them back in their lives. I show a personal example of my use of SMART Goals to create actionable steps towards giving up a specific habit. Included is a free printable for you to do the activity as well. Enjoy! |
Do you watch Parks and Recreation? If so, then this moment of realization for me was like Leslie Knope owning, “I am big enough to admit I am often inspired by myself.” In this moment of telling myself that I was enough, that I didn’t need to be anything more, that I wasn’t something broken that needed fixing, I tuned into who I was again - someone with love and compassion who can inspire the best in others. I had just gone so long without aiming my strengths at myself.
I continue to learn from this lesson, to break it up into smaller chunks, to dig deep into the nuances of my needs. I have some take-aways that I want to share with you as strategies for leadership development and self-care. This is aimed at entrepreneurs, managers, and those who run businesses, teams, and projects. But really, these strategies are relevant to anyone who is struggling with a leadership challenge in their personal or professional life. I have written a separate blog post for each strategy in this "Breaking Knowledge Barriers" series. Click here to go to Strategy #1 on Practicing Mindfulness.
Related articles
- Article 1: Breaking Knowledge Barriers Series: Womxn of Color in the Workplace.
- Article 2: Breaking Knowledge Barriers Series: Strategy #1 Practice Mindfulness.
- Article 3: Breaking Knowledge Barriers Series: Strategy #2 Roll Call! Identify Yourself.
- Article 4: Breaking Knowledge Barriers Series: Strategy #3 Acknowledge. Accept. Adapt.
- Article 5: Breaking Knowledge Barriers Series: Strategy #4 Finish Strong. Start Fresh.
About Author: Meredith "Mer" Curry
Mer has always had a passion for education and helping historically underrepresented groups achieve access and success to higher opportunities. She has consulted nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses in addition to her volunteerism and mentorship of students.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
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We are grown-ups with a lot of growing up left to do
I believe that as adults we still have much to learn and practice when it comes to growth mindset and building mental toughness and emotional intelligence. If you run a business, team, department, or project, you need to be able to triage and communicate goals. In your own life you may need to set one or two SMART Goals a week around things at work or at home to help you get more organized, bring more clarity, or simply create more space in your life for the things you love.
I encourage us all to continuously work on developing our growth mindset, to use SMART Goals as one tool in our toolkit in our everyday routines, and to share our goals with our circles of influence so that support can come to you in the form of intentions and good juju to come.
Want support thinking through your goals?
Let’s talk about the goals you want to set for your life, your team, or your business! Schedule your free 20-minute consultation now.
5 MIN READ
I have been in education for almost two decades and there are a few buzzwords that have stuck with me. One of those phrases is “growth mindset.” Yes it’s catchy, but it is also chock full of hope and reason and strategy. This became really catchy when Carol Dweck’s research first came out in 2016. I further developed my understanding of what it meant to develop a growth mindset by working with non-profit organizations to incorporate the research into lesson plans, or find online tools that could assess for or help to teach elements of the theme to K-12 and college students.
Today, I write about how a growth mindset can be applied as adults. I write to claim that “An old dog can’t learn new tricks” is absolute rubbish and written by those who didn’t want to have to learn any new tricks. I believe growth mindset is a tool each and every one of us can have in our toolkit. I also believe that learning how to adapt SMART Goals into our lives as professionals can help us reinforce our growth mindset from everyday situations to those challenges that come straight out of left field.
Today, I write about how a growth mindset can be applied as adults. I write to claim that “An old dog can’t learn new tricks” is absolute rubbish and written by those who didn’t want to have to learn any new tricks. I believe growth mindset is a tool each and every one of us can have in our toolkit. I also believe that learning how to adapt SMART Goals into our lives as professionals can help us reinforce our growth mindset from everyday situations to those challenges that come straight out of left field.
| What is a growth mindset? I recommend TransformingEducation.org’s Toolkit as the resource to learn more about Growth Mindset. Though the content is written around students, the information is true about people of any age. As adults, we hear ourselves everyday, saying to ourselves or out loud, “I just can’t…” or “I never…” or “I’ve never been good at…” or “I don’t ever want to…” This is considered a fixed mindset. One in which we are inflexible, where we believe we cannot change. This can be fueled by shame, self-doubt, our image of our weaknesses and strengths, and any number of factors. On the other hand, if you have a growth mindset, you believe you have what it takes to change. You understand that if you put in the work, persevere, practice, and push through even when it gets really difficult, you can find a way. |  |
You say to yourself, "This is tough but if I keep trying, I can get better at…” or “I’ve never done this before, but I’ve learned lots of new things, so I believe I can learn…”
Do you see/read how the self-talk is different? Recognize that the fixed mindset sounds awfully familiar, much like the negative self-talk we have about so many other things. Like what we should wear, where we can travel, who we can befriend or date, what job we can apply for, and what we deserve. These thoughts are choices. But sometimes these choices have become so redundant that they’ve become rote, meaning you don’t even think about the choice anymore. This is where SMART Goals comes in.
Do you see/read how the self-talk is different? Recognize that the fixed mindset sounds awfully familiar, much like the negative self-talk we have about so many other things. Like what we should wear, where we can travel, who we can befriend or date, what job we can apply for, and what we deserve. These thoughts are choices. But sometimes these choices have become so redundant that they’ve become rote, meaning you don’t even think about the choice anymore. This is where SMART Goals comes in.
What is a SMART Goal?
SMART Goals are taught to students as a way to help them define and focus their goals for their life. As an adult and entrepreneur, I see SMART Goals as a way to shake the fiction out of our goal-setting (fiction being bias, self-judgment, shame, thoughts, etc.). Instead we can use SMART Goals to get to the facts, the brass tax, about this goal that we’ve communicated to the universe and what we really mean and intend by it. Below is an example of how I used SMART goals to figure out how to better prioritize a minute task that was taking up so many hours of my day.
SMART Goals are taught to students as a way to help them define and focus their goals for their life. As an adult and entrepreneur, I see SMART Goals as a way to shake the fiction out of our goal-setting (fiction being bias, self-judgment, shame, thoughts, etc.). Instead we can use SMART Goals to get to the facts, the brass tax, about this goal that we’ve communicated to the universe and what we really mean and intend by it. Below is an example of how I used SMART goals to figure out how to better prioritize a minute task that was taking up so many hours of my day.
- S = Specific. When you write down your goal it should be as specific as possible which will force you to be clear. Say it in one sentence.
- M = Measurable. What will you measure to know you are successful? How will you quantify your objective?
- A = Achievable. State one or more ways that you will make this goal realistic. Who can you bring in or what tools and tactics can you use to achieve this goal?
- R = Relevant. Note that here, I depart from the traditional SMART Goal definition which is “R for Realistic.” I think as adults, we’re more likely to talk about goals in terms of pragmatic realism, as opposed to being too dreamy. Since we want to think outside of the box, instead I ask us to think about how this goal is relevant to our profession or life.
- T = Timing. Goals need deadlines for real umph. So set a due date, or a range of days/weeks/months in order to accomplish this goal.
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AdvancED Activity WHAT CAN I GIVE UP?
As leaders and entrepreneurs, our daily lives can quickly become overwhelmed with tasks. This two-step activity is meant to encourage you to think about everything you need to do in order to decide what you are willing to give up. Then, you will use SMART Goals to take action toward prioritization, organization, and achievement of your goals. Click here to download the What Can I Give Up Activity sheets (PDF). |
We are grown-ups with a lot of growing up left to do
I believe that as adults we still have much to learn and practice when it comes to growth mindset and building mental toughness and emotional intelligence. If you run a business, team, department, or project, you need to be able to triage and communicate goals. In your own life you may need to set one or two SMART Goals a week around things at work or at home to help you get more organized, bring more clarity, or simply create more space in your life for the things you love.
I encourage us all to continuously work on developing our growth mindset, to use SMART Goals as one tool in our toolkit in our everyday routines, and to share our goals with our circles of influence so that support can come to you in the form of intentions and good juju to come.
Want support thinking through your goals?
Let’s talk about the goals you want to set for your life, your team, or your business! Schedule your free 20-minute consultation now.
About Author: Meredith "Mer" Curry
Mer has always had a passion for education and helping historically underrepresented groups achieve access and success to higher opportunities. She has consulted nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses in addition to her volunteerism and mentorship of students.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
Photo Credits:
https://www.transformingeducation.org/growth-mindset-toolkit/
Sources:
https://www.transformingeducation.org/growth-mindset-toolkit/
Sources:
- Growth Mindset Toolkit
- LeaderKit_Sample.pdf
- Growth mindset for adult learners, OCTOBER 11, 2017
- Shift to a Growth Mindset With These 8 Powerful Strategies
- Is Mindset Culture Shift Possible for Adults? June 15, 2016
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1. First, analyze the data you currently collect and store, and how it is currently being used and accessed. For many education and non-profit organizations specifically, documentation like data dictionaries, information governance policies, and records retention schedules are uncommon and/or out-of-date. These can be extremely helpful to develop as part of your assessment of how CCPA impacts your organization. Examples of questions you may ask yourself are:
2. Second, develop short and long term plans to ensure your organization is in compliance with CCPA. Your analysis will likely bring up ideas and issues to solve right away or in the future. An example of an approach could look like: 
3. Third, implement your short term plans and have a plan for the long term. After implementation, evaluate those short term plans and use that experience to inform the long term plans. This should include keeping track of updates to CCPA over time, as well as other relevant legislation. Some additional recommendations: 
Questions and Answers
The webinar Q&A gave me the opportunity to drill deeper into the recommendations I made above around short term and long term planning. Find them below!
Q: What does it mean to develop a data dictionary?
A: A Data Dictionary is a document (Word, Excel, Google sheets, etc.) that summarizes the major data elements, their expected formats, and their sources for all data that your organization collects from California stakeholders. Common components include: Source, element/value name, description, data type, field size or character limit, last update date, example value, and validation. Once you have a data dictionary in place, it can be used as a:
Q: What other short and long term plans might we develop?
A: There are two more plans that I think make sense to develop in the short or long term depending on your organization’s capacity:
Q: Who else do we need to involve?
A: Be strategic about who you engage internally and externally so that you have a comprehensive lens around data privacy, without having too many cooks in the kitchen hindering progress. Examples of strategic partners include:
Q: If we could only do one thing right now, what might it be?
AdvancED opinions and recommendations in articles should not be considered as legal advice. That said, my recommendation on how to best start this process includes:
Do you have additional recommendations, or questions, regarding data privacy in California? Contact me!
6 MIN READ
Thanks to an invitation from FormAssembly, the #1 Enterprise Web Form Platform, I presented my insights and best practices on a data privacy webinar on August 21, 2019. Watch the recording and read FormAssembly’s blog here!
The webinar focused on The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which will go into effect on January 1, 2020. As FormAssembly’s guest presenter, I spoke to the implications for nonprofit and educational organizations who may not have people or processes in place to specifically track data privacy and how it impacts organizations. The following are some key insights that I shared on the webinar. Whether you are a customer whose data is getting collected, or you work for a company that collects data, this is for you!
Tackle CCPA in Three (3) Steps
The CCPA is chock full of guidance for organizations, however it may be difficult to know how to get started. I suggest the following three steps:
The webinar focused on The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which will go into effect on January 1, 2020. As FormAssembly’s guest presenter, I spoke to the implications for nonprofit and educational organizations who may not have people or processes in place to specifically track data privacy and how it impacts organizations. The following are some key insights that I shared on the webinar. Whether you are a customer whose data is getting collected, or you work for a company that collects data, this is for you!
Tackle CCPA in Three (3) Steps
The CCPA is chock full of guidance for organizations, however it may be difficult to know how to get started. I suggest the following three steps:
1. First, analyze the data you currently collect and store, and how it is currently being used and accessed. For many education and non-profit organizations specifically, documentation like data dictionaries, information governance policies, and records retention schedules are uncommon and/or out-of-date. These can be extremely helpful to develop as part of your assessment of how CCPA impacts your organization. Examples of questions you may ask yourself are:
- The CCPA works on an opt-out basis while under the GDPR, consent requires a positive opt-in. What basis does your organization use to collect data from internal and external stakeholders?
- Do you have a data dictionary? Even at the highest level, consider documenting the types of data collected, the sources, the intended uses, and how the data is stored, archived, and scrubbed/deleted over time.
- Can stakeholders get a hold of their data from you? The CCPA highlights that people have a right to obtain and delete, or opt out of the collection, of their data.
- Is there data you are collecting that you aren’t even thinking about? The CCPA has broadened the definition of consumer information to include things like internet activity, biometric data, and browser cookie data. Look at your policies around the use of data from Google Analytics and similar tools.
2. Second, develop short and long term plans to ensure your organization is in compliance with CCPA. Your analysis will likely bring up ideas and issues to solve right away or in the future. An example of an approach could look like:
- In the short term, considering bringing in or creating a Data Governance Committee responsible for understanding CCPA, GDPR, and other relevant legislation at a high level.
- Engage this committee by reviewing whatever analysis was done in the first step. The analysis may not include a data dictionary, but it should include a full list of the tools that will need to inform a future data dictionary. For AdvancED Consulting, that would include tools like Salesforce, FormAssembly, and Google Suite and Analytics.
- Have this committee identify the top three priorities for January 2020. For this to be effective, this committee should have authority given by your leadership to make these decisions.
- Document any other priorities for the 2020 calendar year that can be reprioritized by the committee at a later time.
- Create action plans for your top three priorities. Review with the committee for their insights on timeline, roles, capacity, and messaging to internal and external constituents.
- Finally, activate your Short Term plans!
3. Third, implement your short term plans and have a plan for the long term. After implementation, evaluate those short term plans and use that experience to inform the long term plans. This should include keeping track of updates to CCPA over time, as well as other relevant legislation. Some additional recommendations:
- Set benchmarks throughout to make sure you are on target for January 2020. Re-evaluate what is priority if needed.
- For example, perhaps one long term priority is to develop a staff training around CCPA and how it applies to your teams. However, your team is now planning to hire a significant group of new staff in Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. You may re-evaluate this as one of the new top priorities in order to have all new staff champion CCPA when it comes into effect.
- Once you meet your benchmarks for January 2020, re-evaluate the long-term plans and generate new short term plans for each quarter of the new year.
- Develop journey maps, such as student journeys and customer journeys, about your enhancements. What did it look like before you implemented your changes, and what does it look like now that you are in compliance with CCPA? What are the benefits to your teams? To your stakeholders?
Questions and Answers
The webinar Q&A gave me the opportunity to drill deeper into the recommendations I made above around short term and long term planning. Find them below!
Q: What does it mean to develop a data dictionary?
A: A Data Dictionary is a document (Word, Excel, Google sheets, etc.) that summarizes the major data elements, their expected formats, and their sources for all data that your organization collects from California stakeholders. Common components include: Source, element/value name, description, data type, field size or character limit, last update date, example value, and validation. Once you have a data dictionary in place, it can be used as a:
- Reference document for internal staff to answer questions and troubleshoot around data privacy concerns.
- Reference document to define processes for scrubbing/deletion if requested.
Q: What other short and long term plans might we develop?
A: There are two more plans that I think make sense to develop in the short or long term depending on your organization’s capacity:
- Data breach response plan to include scenarios involving unauthorized or improper use, collection, or sharing of data.
- Data mapping policies and procedures to guarantee that any disclosures made in the privacy policy are correct and accurate.
Q: Who else do we need to involve?
A: Be strategic about who you engage internally and externally so that you have a comprehensive lens around data privacy, without having too many cooks in the kitchen hindering progress. Examples of strategic partners include:
- Your legal team (internal or external) to review and revise website privacy policies, master service agreements, and employee privacy notices.
- Internal staff who will be trained and held responsible for responding to privacy inquiries and complaints. This should be explicit in job descriptions or performance review documents.
- Vendors and service providers that will need to review and execute updated Master Service Agreements.
Q: If we could only do one thing right now, what might it be?
AdvancED opinions and recommendations in articles should not be considered as legal advice. That said, my recommendation on how to best start this process includes:
- Identify a data governance champion or lead, empowered with authority to move this forward. Once identified, the role, responsibilities, expectations, and timeline should be communicated internally.
- Charge her/him with defining a way forward, and be clear on how that plan sets the foundation for January 1, 2020 and beyond.
- This person may be involved in data governance already, involved in tracking legislation and writing contracts, and/or responsible for reporting or analyzing data.
Do you have additional recommendations, or questions, regarding data privacy in California? Contact me!
About Meredith "Mer" Curry
Mer has always had a passion for education and helping historically underrepresented groups achieve access and success to higher opportunities. She has consulted nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses in addition to her volunteerism and mentorship of students.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
Sources:
- FormAssembly Blog: https://www.formassembly.com/blog/webinar-recap-data-privacy-trends-regulations-best-practices/
- https://www.caprivacy.org/
- https://fpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GDPR_CCPA_Comparison-Guide.pdf
- https://www.dataprotectionreport.com/2019/02/gdpr-ccpa-and-beyond-changes-in-data-privacy-laws-and-enforcement-risks-to-monitor-in-2019/
- https://econsultancy.com/california-consumer-privacy-act-ccpa-changed-data-privacy-united-states/
- https://www.bakerlaw.com/USConsumerPrivacyandtheCCPA
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3 MIN READ
Educators and Tools that Inspire.
Education has been at the cornerstone of my life, all my life. Whether it is the tool that empowers me to know and do new things, or the medium through which I empower others, education is key not just to my success but to my joy. And I’ve always believed it can be that for all of us, but life throws us around and the idea of learning new things feels more like work or chores than pleasure.
Working in college access for over 15 years, I’ve definitely seen students lose their love of learning, sometimes to distractions or to hardships, but sometimes also because of the way education is fed to them. We cannot expect students to be engaged if we do not make an effort to engage them. We cannot expect students to meet us where we are if we can’t bother to meet them where they are. I have met some of the most phenomenal educators in my life, from Alerie Flandez in San Jose, Meghann Panagsagan Seril in Los Angeles, to Karla Talkoff in Daly City. A common thread is that they see the student as human, don’t lose sight of their potential, and they themselves love to learn and strive to find new ways to teach the different personalities and learning styles they meet every single day.
Working in college access for over 15 years, I’ve definitely seen students lose their love of learning, sometimes to distractions or to hardships, but sometimes also because of the way education is fed to them. We cannot expect students to be engaged if we do not make an effort to engage them. We cannot expect students to meet us where we are if we can’t bother to meet them where they are. I have met some of the most phenomenal educators in my life, from Alerie Flandez in San Jose, Meghann Panagsagan Seril in Los Angeles, to Karla Talkoff in Daly City. A common thread is that they see the student as human, don’t lose sight of their potential, and they themselves love to learn and strive to find new ways to teach the different personalities and learning styles they meet every single day.
I appreciate strategies that educators like Buddy Galletti have used to learn and to teach. Buddy was a Teaching Assistant for SCS Noonan Scholars (South Central Scholars when I worked there). Instead of going the route of teacher, he took a different, and totally interesting path. He became a researcher for Cal Poly, then a content developer for educational materials, and now he’s a software engineering student. Most of all, he’s a Mathematics Education enthusiast, and he’s been sharing his passion with the world with Buddy’s Math Problem of the Week. Buddy has taken his love of math, board games, sci-fi, and all kinds of awesome interests, to create puzzles for students.
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AdvancED Tip I track tools like Buddy’s Math POW and more in Salesforce! How? I created a place just for Resources, and I track the webpage, the source, the published date, what topics they are related to (college access, workforce development, policy, identity), and what I got out of it. Why? Because later on when I’m asked for resources or when I want to share a specific set of tools, I can easily search for them and share them with my clients, friends, or other people in my network!
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Buddy is an educator that inspires me because he accepted his love for teaching, but also his desire to teach in ways that aligned with his own passions and interests. A lover of learning, he is back at school and every week he is applying what he learns in the world and in the field to a new problem for students to munch on. Buddy’s Math POW is an inspiring tool because these puzzles are fun, visual, and Buddy will reward you for your efforts. If you complete the puzzle, submit it, and get it right, he’ll list your name in the next week’s puzzle announcement!
I hope you are inspired to find other cool learning tools out there, or to create your very own. Comment below some great learning tools you have used or hope to try in the near future. Also, be sure to check out our AdvancED Toolbox for some of our favorite tools.
I hope you are inspired to find other cool learning tools out there, or to create your very own. Comment below some great learning tools you have used or hope to try in the near future. Also, be sure to check out our AdvancED Toolbox for some of our favorite tools.
About Author: Meredith "Mer" Curry
Mer has always had a passion for education and helping historically underrepresented groups achieve access and success to higher opportunities. She has consulted nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses in addition to her volunteerism and mentorship of students.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.
