The Noticing Notebook

I came across a concept in chapter five of Zach Mercurio’s book, The Power of Mattering called a noticing notebook.

Essentially, a leader takes some kind of tool like a notebook and at the end every week, they write down names of people they interacted with and little details that were shared with them. This exercise helps the leader remember those little details, so they can follow-up on those details the next time they interact with each individual.

The chapter shares sentence stems for those follow-up conversations. Stems such as, “The last time we spoke you mentioned…” This allows people to experience how they’ve been seen, heard, and noticed. Being noticed is a fundamental component of mattering.

As Mercurio writes, “The ability to make others feel significant is a fundamental human skill.”

He digs deeper into the kinds of questions we can ask people to ensure they are deeply noticed whether it’s in a follow-up to an interaction or at the start or end of meetings.

Essentially, good questions have three components:

• Open: it’s open-ended versus the finality of a yes or no answer.
• Clear: it’s time-bound. Thus, it’s not so open-ended that it’s challenging for a person to give an honest answer.
• Exploratory: there’s is truly no right answer and it’s not leading, so the response is received with genuine curiosity.

Example:

What is something you find yourself thinking about as you leave this meeting?

Open: it’s not a quick yes or no response.

Clear: it’s one thing and not all the things, and it’s specific to thoughts after a meeting.

Exploratory: there is no right answer.

In a world where we seem to gather less, talk less, and spend less time in community, it’s vital we practice not only listening to others but ensuring others feel heard.

This is where our power lies in the classroom as teachers, in the schoolhouse as principals, and in the school community as district leaders.

It’s a skill we must practice if we intend to build and keep trust. It’s a skill needed across industries and workforces.

We cannot give to kids that which we do not have ourselves.

Noticing is a small thing that makes a big impact, and if you’ve read Legacy of Learning, you know I’m about mosquito moves. Big moves can intimidate me. Small moves executed consistently? That I can do.