J.M. Varner's Blog

The generative AI images below were created with Nano Banana from Google and offer a few different visual depictions of the Notebook Discovery scene from “Mister Teacher Person (A Squirrel Hill High Novel)”.

Stacy King exploring the bookshelves in the classroom….

Stacy King discovering Mr. Payne’s cryptic notebook hidden at his desk….

Gentle People Leadership: There are healthy ways to motivate that do not utilize “fear”.

Inspire and Support.

Invite into Collaboration and Engagement instead of using “fear” as a motivator.

Strive for Accountability through Expectations, not “fear” of punishment.

People Leaders (managers, administrators, teachers, parents):

Strive to be a genuinely kind, caring, and appreciative person who, with a few genuine, authentic, and specific words of appreciation can positively impact the motivation of the people you lead.

Despite its odd name and confusing terminology, Polyvagal Theory offers insights for those in positions of leadership over other people, including managers, administrators, teachers, and parents.

(Disclaimer: I am no expert on this theory, merely a lay person attempting to apply and share what I am learning from it that resonates with my own experiences.)

People Leaders can benefit from an understanding of Polyvagal Theory.

In short, Leaders of healthy, happy, productive teams will intentionally work to create safe, nurturing, supportive work environments to assist team members in maintaining the state at the top of the image included below. (Notice how leader and team members are standing side-by-side.)

“Bosses” may (inadvertently?) be creating and maintaining unhealthy environments that (whether consciously recognized or not) threaten team members’ feelings of safety and well-being, pushing them into the unhealthy, non-sustainable middle or bottom states in the image.

(Image Source: https://adaptiveedgecoaching.com/the-polyvagal-theory-understanding-your-mind-and-body/ )

Some questions and thoughts for reflection and application:

People Leaders (managers, administrators, teachers, parents): Are you (intentionally or not) sending the message that those you lead are “not good enough”?

Do your words, said and unsaid, imply it?

Do your actions (and inactions) reinforce it?

How does this message impact their motivation? Their well-being?

This is not to say that there is not room for growth and improvement — we all can grow and improve.

But growth and improvement occur when we feel safe and confident that those who lead us support and value us as people who are striving to grow and improve.

People Leaders (managers, administrators, teachers, parents): Do you demotivate your team by (consciously or otherwise) denying them autonomy and self-determination in decision-making relevant to their roles by:

Always having the answers?

Being the “smartest person in the room”?

Making decisions FOR versus WITH your team?

Creating the illusion of “seeking team input” in an attempt to cover up/obfuscate any of the above?

Healthy motivation (not based on fear) comes from a place of healthy social connectedness which creates a feeling of safety, acceptance, and belonging.

Feeling authenticly respected as a partner in decision-making relevant to one’s role is an essential element of feeling grounded and safe in a healthy, socially connected environment.

Do you employ fear-based practices and / or communication approaches that may be sowing seeds of distrust and pushing your team toward fight/flight or shutdown states?

My psychological mystery Mister Teacher Person (A Squirrel Hill High Novel) is Free through July 23, 2022. Grab your copy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MMOZ83G

"Michael Payne (A Squirrel Hill High Story)" Kindle Edition is Free on Amazon through July 18, 2022!

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014K2TW0M

Digital Me (A Squirrel Hill High Novel Book 1) Kindle Edition is FREE on Amazon July 3-7, 2022!

Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GU3QNUC

“To Google” (verb): To look up a search term with the Google search engine.

Google Search has become so ubiquitous that its very name has been transformed into a common verb used to describe the activity of web search itself.

But while Google Search is by far the most used search engine, is it the “best”? Is there even such a thing as “best” when it comes to search engines?

One measure of this is the quality of results rendered for certain types of searches. Take, for instance, searching for product reviews when evaluating products for potential purchase.

This type of search is where my frustration with Google Search began. Searching on Google for product reviews would frequently not offer actual reviews but rather lists and other top 10 type sites that were basically, well, useless junk.

This led me to turn to an unconventional source to get actual hands-on product reviews: YouTube.

Another constellation of searches that resulted in near-useless results from Google Search is technical related queries for various things such as software configurations, Android settings, etc. The frustration here with search results from Google? Far too often the initial page of results would include years-old webpages or forum posts regarding similar topics for software or hardware that is, at the time the search was conducted, already multiple years out-of-date and/or defunct. How helpful is that? (Yes, you can drill into the search settings and specify a date range for search results, such as no older than a year, for example, but it becomes quite tedious to have to do that just about every time.)

So what’s the answer? I can’t say there is one magic bullet to cure this problem in one shot, but rather will point out that, contrary to the now popular term, “Google it,” there are search engines out there other than Google Search.

In addition to that aquatic animal named search engine, Microsoft (*gasp* yes, that Microsoft) Bing and the new (as of this writing) Brave Search are two options worth a try.

Ultimately, it is about delivering useful (to you!) search results that you can use.

The takeaway: Don’t be afraid to try out search engines other than Google Search. After all, it’s all about getting results.

In the market for a new laptop, perhaps for Back to School? Considering a Chromebook?

When it comes to Chromebooks, there’s one big thing you need to know before you buy — something that isn’t obvious and is not widely known:

Chromebooks will only receive software updates from Google for a limited period of time.

Says who? Says Google:

Every Chrome device receives regular updates from Google until it reaches its Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date […] When a device reaches AUE, automatic software updates from Google will no longer be provided.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366

When is this mysterious date upon which your device will stop receiving updates? This list from Google lists devices by manufacturer and model along with their “expiration” dates. The “expiration” dates are generally several years after the model is introduced onto the market.

So what’s the big deal with Chromebooks ceasing to receive updates? From personal experience, in addition to behind-the-scenes operating system software, the Google Chrome web browser will also stop receiving updates. This can lead to problems accessing websites that use the latest and most up-to-date web technologies.

For example, I had a Chromebook that stopped receiving updates in late 2019 (it was an unexpected shock to suddenly and out of nowhere receive a message on the device that it will no longer receive updates — a shock I hope the readers of this article will at least see coming if they decide to purchase a Chromebook). The device was still mostly usable — albeit less secure — until early 2022, when popular websites (WordPress.com, LinkedIn) would no longer load on the Chromebook, and other weird things started happening, such as product images not displaying when searching for items on Walmart.com.

While it would be a subject for a separate column to debate the merits of planned product obsolescence along with the consumer and environmental implications attached to that approach, suffice it to say that the point of this column is to make potential (and perhaps even current!) Chromebook buyers aware of this not particularly widely advertised limitation of Chromebook devices.

So if you have a particular Chromebook in mind to purchase, be sure to first check the list from Google linked above for the device’s “expiration” date and factor that timeframe along with the purchase price and how long you typically use a laptop into your decision making. A Chromebook on sale for $98 dollars with 4 years of support left (to use a recent example I came across) might be a good deal, where as that deal may not be so good as the price escalates and/or the support window shrinks.

A look behind the scenes of Mister Teacher Person:

The main character’s name, Stacy King, is inspired by the names of Stacy Smith and Patrice King Brown, both of whom were real life television news persons at the KDKA television station in Pittsburgh, PAThe fictional television news station KPGH in the novel is inspired by the KDKA television stationThe fictional Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in the novel is inspired by St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhoodThe public library in the novel is inspired by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill branchThe photo on the novel’s cover features the intersection of Forbes and Murray in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood and was taken by the authorAnd more….