The Canary in the Coal Mine

As I was reading recently, I came across the word prodrome, which I subsequently learned means an early sign or symptom, and is from the Greek prodromos, to run before.

And that got me thinking - are there prodromes that we ignore (and at what peril) as we work within our systems?

I see a proliferation of thought-leaders challenging us to pay attention to this, heed this, be mindful of that. But those exhortations seem like empty noise, the old man yelling at the cloud, or the soapbox on the public square of old.

Education is not one system. Education in these United States is not one system, it isn’t even fifty systems. Education is tens of thousands of systems.

There are public systems, there are private systems, there are charter systems, there are home school systems. And within those systems, there are systems. Systems beget more systems (and networks beget networks).

Each of our systems is unique; unique to our communities, to our stakeholders, and to our time. By the very notion of being, no system will ever be the same as it is right now.

But those prodromes, they do exist, and it is our responsibility to be mindful of them.

Until as recently as the 1980s, coal miners would descend into the earth with a canary, not to keep them company, but to serve as a caged prodrome. Perched in their cage, these tiny birds would succumb to any leeching carbon monoxide quicker than their human counterparts, and with their demise alert the miners to silent changes in the system.

Today, the canaries are gone, but there are sensors that serve to trip lights, alarms, and safety response teams. Miners lives, and livelihoods, are better today, in part because of these prodromatic revisions to their systems.

Our systems, no matter how unique, must be poised to meet the charge of our prodromes. Which is why we must constantly assess and adapt to our each new situation. This is best explained in Col. John Boyd’s OODA loop, whereby fighter pilots are trained to observe, orient, decide, and act.

Our responsibility - no matter our title - is both system maintenance, and preparation. Heraclitus extolled that the only constant is change. By our very nature, we, and our respective systems, must be continuously changing - because every other system is changing as well.

So heed those prodromes unique to your systems; listen to the chirping of the canary in the mine you are working. But be mindful of the changes in other systems, they can foretell your own change.