Our Plates Are Full: So How Do We Engage In This Environment?
Our plates are full.
And, when someone (including us sometimes) adds something more to our plates, we often keep everything else we already have stacked on that plate.
It becomes impossible to juggle all the responsibilities, but maybe even more importantly, it takes away the energy that is needed to handle everything we need to do in a day.
This cycle repeats, and when more and more is added to our plates, our energy continually is spread thin.
In looking for guidance on how to handle this reality, I recently read, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr. The authors make the case that engagement is tied directly to our energy levels. That energy (not time or any other factor) contributes to whether or not we have a full level of attention and commitment.
The book lays out Four Energy Management Principles for Full Engagement (and the benefits of full engagement impact our performance whether in the workplace or as a student in the classroom or on your own as an individual entrepreneur or creator):
Principle 1: Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
Human beings are complex energy systems, and full engagement is not simply one-dimensional. The energy that pulses through us is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. All four dynamics are critical, none is sufficient by itself and each profoundly influences the others. To perform at our best, we must skillfully manage each of these interconnected dimensions of energy. Subtract any one from the equation and our capacity to fully ignite our talent and skill is diminished, much the way an engine sputters when one of its cylinders misfires.
Principle 2: Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.
We rarely consider how much energy we are spending because we take it for granted that the energy available to us is limitless. … The richest, happiest and most productive lives are characterized by the ability to fully engage in the challenge at hand, but also to disengage periodically and seek renewal. Instead, many of us live our lives as if we are running in an endless marathon, pushing ourselves far beyond healthy levels of exertion. … We, too, must learn to live our own lives as a series of sprints— fully engaging for periods of time, and then fully disengaging and seeking renewal before jumping back into the fray to face whatever challenges confront us.
Principle 3: To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.
Stress is not the enemy in our lives. Paradoxically, it is the key to growth. In order to build strength in a muscle we must systematically stress it, expending energy beyond normal levels. … We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity.
Principle 4: Positive energy rituals—highly specific routines for managing energy— are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.
Change is difficult. We are creatures of habit. Most of what we do is automatic and nonconscious. What we did yesterday is what we are likely to do today. The problem with most efforts at change is that conscious effort can’t be sustained over the long haul. Will and discipline are far more limited resources than most of us realize. If you have to think about something each time you do it, the likelihood is that you won’t keep doing it for very long. The status quo has a magnetic pull on us.
These apply to us as teachers, leaders, and parents. But they also apply to our students. Many are stuck sitting in classrooms for hours at a time with their energy concentrated in other areas of their life. Answer these four questions to take a quick pulse on where you are (and where your students may be) in terms of full engagement:
Are you physically and emotionally prepared to give your attention and commitment to the learning process?
Is your energy level consistently a series of highs and lows or is there a steady pace you can keep to stay engaged?
Do we consider learning a process like athletic training? How might that mindset change energy levels?
Do you (or your class) have positive rituals and habits that lead to sustainable energy and engagement?
Energy is so quickly diffused but it is so essential to the learning process. In fact, it is tied directly to the work of the late Phil Schechty and the Center of Engagement.
The Connection Between Energy and Engagement
Schlechty’s work around engagement is one of the most enlightening and simple frameworks for educators to use. What I found fascinating about his levels of engagement is that I could see myself in the classroom working towards compliance instead of engagement.
FYI I know there is a typo right above, but I do love this graphic regardless!
Especially, when energy is at a low from an adult and student standpoint, it is extremely difficult to reach a level of high attention and high committment.
As a new teacher, I spent my days working towards compliance. And most of us have been taught that compliance is a good thing. We’ve seen this in our own lives as students. We’ve seen this in our own personal lives. We’ve seen this as employees. Compliance is almost always rewarded.
And so compliance is easy to do, it is easy to teach, and it is easy to reward. But when all we work towards is compliance, we get nowhere near full engagement. There is still definitely a place for compliance in much of what we do in school and the world, but if that is our only goal for students we’ll never reach engagement.
What Schlechty explained so well is the difference between compliance and engagement. In his levels, the two factors that dictate whether a student is compliant or engaged are commitment and attention.
In an article I wrote I put it like this:
For some reason, classroom management’s connection to student engagement was not part of my discussions as an undergrad, student teacher, or even first year teacher. We seemed to miss the piece that a “well managed classroom” doesn’t necessarily mean students are learning, and classroom management is actually very easy when students are engaged.
Students in an engaged learning environment have high attention and high commitment because of their motivation and desire to actively learn, create, and contribute to the experience.
Students who are strategically compliant or ritually compliant may have levels of attention and commitment. But the attention and commitment have been forced by extrinsic factors (grades, tickets, rewards, quiz tomorrow, etc).
I would argue, that they need ENERGY in order to reach high attention and high commitment.
This is not only for students, but also for teachers, school leaders, assistants, parents, and anyone involved in the learning process.
If you are reading this, chances are you (like me) are struggling with how to manage it all every single day.
There are many things out of our control. Many circumstances are out of our influence.
We can only focus on what we can control and influence and how that impacts our energy, but also the energy of those around us.
If you are a community member or school board member, think about how you can make decisions that will renew energy, not take it away.
If you are a school administrator think about how you can alleviate unnecessary stresses that are impacting energy in your staff.
If you are a teacher, think about ways to increase energy, and engagement will often follow.
Our plates are full.
The big word in that sentence is “our”. It’s all of us.
We need empathy for others, and grace for ourselves right now. There is no other option, except to be compassionate with each other in this moment.
