Eagles have been exploring investments and assets. One asked: “What is the most valuable asset?”
“Time. There is so much you want to do and we only have 24 hours. Time is precious.”
This week, we are blessed to have KC Lau, sharing his views and perspectives on money, investing, and life with the Eagles. We are grateful for his precious time and work.
Highlights of the week:
- KC Lau’s Sharing
- Freedom Levels and Collaboration Cards
- Strikes and Understanding Contracts
- Serious re-commitments
- Help: Moving the Garden bed
- Mr. Jia’s Owner’s Conference and Trip sharing
KC Lau’s Sharing
An aerospace engineer by study, turned professional pianist to a blogger of personal finance? KC Lau took an interesting path of life. On Wednesday, he spent an hour with us, answering many of the Eagles questions.
Earlier in the week, the Eagles had been listing questions as they did some research on his website. The questions ranged from personal to finance, much of it driven by their curiosity. After warming up with questions of “Why do you do what you do?”, Eagles dig deep into the world of Personal Finance.
While Eagles have been learning about the history of money and making decisions about their financial life, KC illustrated further the concept of money through the exercise of “how much will you pay for this 1 ringgit”?
He also exposed the Eagles to the concept of investment and other ideas through relatable stories and examples. How do you assess an investment? He applied the principle that all stocks are businesses, and used examples that every Malaysian can relate, such as Nestle or AirAsia.
More than learning, the Eagles made a rapport in an hour. Towards the end, they asked a special request. “KC, can you sing a song for us?”
He did. With a friendly, cool “I’m only… one call away.”
If only your personal finance gurus/ bankers are this candid with your customers 🙂
Freedom Levels and Collaboration Cards
As promised last week, Eagles are introduced to Freedom Levels and Collaboration Cards. The idea of Freedom Level is simple: Eagles who have demonstrated independence and responsibility earn more freedom. Eagles who are yet to do so have more guardrails so that they can build habits of independence and responsibility.
Even at the lowest Freedom Level, Eagles have much more freedom than any traditional school—working at their own pace, taking short Pomodoro breaks, choosing their own deep books and decisions on many aspects of the learner-driven community. However, he/she is not to distract others and is required to keep collaboration open, relevant and transparent. At higher Freedom Levels, Eagles can listen to music, eating while working, and eventually set their own schedules, projects and so on.
Now, how about Collaboration Cards? Collaboration Cards are deliberate tickets that Eagles note down key details of collaboration prior to starting any collaboration. The goal is to keep these moments intentional. Often, without high stakes, “peer learning” disintegrate into unintentional chit-chat or socializing. Eventually, at higher Freedom Levels, Eagles do not need Collaboration Cards.
A yellow card as a reminder that “we are collaborating with intentionality” here.
Learning to use freedom wisely takes time and practice. Freedom Levels and Collaboration Cards are tools to get there. After last two week’s dramas and distractions, Eagles embraced the adjusted environment with calmness and hard work.
The result: “I got so much work done.” was a common theme throughout this week’s session.
Serious re-commitments
The changing tone has its struggles. On Wednesday, the learning community had a crisis. The Eagle Council made a statement: their job is too draining and they want to quit. A few proposed solution. Higher pay, outsourcing some of their jobs, etc. There is no satisfaction. So, what is the root of the problem?
Digging deeper — the real issue is frustrations of the intentionality of the Eagle community. Reports of cases after cases have been logged. Many Eagle Bucks have been deducted too. But the cases of leaving scraps behind, lacking intentionality, and so on still persists. When the council took action, they were “it wasn’t me” and other forms of fight or flight reaction.
Would you continue to react this way, and end up wasting your precious time, distracted and having all the dramas and emotional rollercoaster… or would you respect the processes that you have negotiated and signed for? What sort of the community do you want to become?
Recommitment means really going through all the contracts and holding yourself fully commitment to the Hero’s Journey and this community.
Eagles discussed deeper on Thursday morning. Eventually, they made two changes: recommitting together and changes to the Eagle Bucks systems.
The real test: can you prove your words through actions?
Strikes and Understanding Contracts
Few Eagles have been getting Strikes. Earlier this year, the Eagles signed their contracts. Two contracts ensure accountability within the studio—Eagle Bucks Process and Strike Contract. One gain Eagle Bucks through effort and studio community service, and lose it through violating rules that they’ve signed. Strikes ensure that Eagles who go in debt (of Eagle Bucks) are isolated to an environment which has less possibility of distractions.
However, Eagles who were on Strike wanted more clarifications of their status. What does “Strike One” really mean?
Given that Eagles have decided to re-visit their contracts. It is the perfect time to ask “How can you make the Strike Contract clearer?”
The contracts are referred through much more often now than ever.
On a lighter note, here are two more highlights for this week:
Help: Moving the Garden bed
There is an emergency at the ES studio project. The garden bed that was erected last week had to be moved due to misplacement. We had it underneath it a major roof drainage spot. The Middle Schoolers volunteered with Dr. Ewe. Let’s see what the ES Eagles are going to plant next week!
Mr. Jia’s Owner’s Conference and Trip sharing
Mr. Jia shared with the community on his recent trip to U.S., El Salvador, and Guatemala. The challenge of building the learner-driven community is hard, but there are 40+ schools doing it and we are all learning from each other.
Not sure if it is good or bad news, but we are still the only Acton Academy outside of the Americas.
He also highlighted the few changes that are coming along the way at the ActonKL community. The major one being on working together towards building ActonKL’s Launchpad.
We look forward to working with the entire community to build a true platform for Eagles launching to the real world, to find their calling and change the world.
Like KC Lau said: time is precious, and we want to make the very best of it, for the next most important asset — our Eagles and children.
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