Friday Mindset #198

Happy Friday!

No time for nonsense, let’s dive straight in…

Something we're reading...

…or rather watching whilst taking notes. We loved David Epstein’s Range, and have since been intrigued and impressed by his video output. we’re going to suggest this one for you - Epstein covering 40 things he wished he’d known in his twenties.

He splits the forty into roughly two halves. The first twenty-one are more general, and take roughly ten minutes to go through. The second nineteen are more personal. It’s the first twenty-one we were particularly impressed with. There’s a whole slew of thought-provoking, engaging, challenging advice in there, much of which will be interesting for students to hear and discuss.

It’ll take ten minutes to watch, but you’ll want further discussion.

Students can make notes as you go, pick their top three and justify them; or choose three they don’t feel apply, or put them into thematic groups. They can choose ones which give them a sense of possibility, ones which they felt were harsh truths… some students might have a responsibility for explaining certain numbers (1-3, 4-6…) back to the group. Whatever approach you want. It’s going to be a really interesting tutorial activity…

(Subscribers, we’ve taken two of his forty pieces of advice - two we’re focused a lot on at the moment - and trimmed them out for you, so you’ve got a couple of short, 45 second clips further down!)

Portal Talk...

We’ve been criss-crossing the country recently, working with staff and students on effective coaching conversations. A recurring challenge has been getting beyond this familiar exchange…

“How’s it going?”
“Fine.”
“Anything you’re struggling with?”
“Not really.”

A wonderfully efficient conversation. You could fit it in while the kettle boils.😂Whether either person leaves any the wiser is another matter…

The fact is, better conversations tend to start before the conversation. This is where the VESPA Portal can make a real difference—not by replacing the conversation, but by giving it a much better starting point. Students complete the questionnaire and receive their report. Crucially, straight afterwards, they capture their emotional response to the results. Are they surprised? Reassured? Frustrated? Do they recognise themselves in the feedback, or is there something they disagree with?

A score gives you something to notice. How a student feels about that score gives you something to explore.

Students then set actionable goals, drawing on The VESPA Handbook’s 100 Positive Learning Behaviours. So instead of starting with “How’s it going?”, the conversation might begin:

“You said your Systems score surprised you, and you’ve chosen to plan your study sessions for next week. What usually gets in the way of sticking to a plan?”

Now there’s something to work with. The questionnaire provides the starting point. The person makes it a coaching conversation.

Here’s the animated walkthrough guiding the student through the process of answering the questionnaire:

Find out more, or book an appointment with Tony, here.

Something to try...

OK, subscribers. A new VESPA activity for you this week! Over the summer we read Cate Hall’s You Can Just Do Things, a book about agency. It’s a good read, and it’s inspired two new VESPA activities.

This week, you’re getting the first of them. It’s an attitude activity called The Study Crisis Manager, and we’ve really enjoyed putting it together - it’s a good one for getting students to objectively assess where things are going wrong…

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