🎤 Quotable quotes: “They can take your phone, but they cannot take your voice."
— Unknown
Across the country, more schools are restricting cell phones. Students are not going quiet. They are getting creative. Handwritten notes are back. Laptops are open. Shared Google Docs are turning into live conversations. The tool changed. The human need to connect did not.
🏟 Why This Matters for You
In Lead It Like Lasso, we remind leaders that people come before process. When systems shift, great leaders protect connection and redirect it well.
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Tools do not define connection. Phones are convenient, but they are not the source of our voice. When one tool disappears, the desire to be heard remains. Leaders need to focus on sustaining connection beyond the technology.
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Adaptation is leadership in action. These students did not stop communicating. They looked for another path. That is what leaders do when the playbook no longer fits.
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Systems need compassion, not rigidity. When rules become cages, people find cracks. Great leaders design guardrails that keep learning strong while preserving dignity and ingenuity.
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Value lives in relationships. Notes, side chats, and quick check ins often carry support, belonging, and empathy. Those outcomes matter even when they do not show up on a report card.
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Close one door, open another. Removing a tool reveals a new one. When one mode of connection is cut, new ones emerge. Great leaders celebrate creative, healthy ways people stay connected.
There is a recurring thread throughout Ted Lasso that captures this perfectly. The Diamond Dogs are Ted’s go-to circle for honest conversation, laughter, and listening. They are proof that real connection does not need technology or formality. It only needs intention. No phones. No filters. Just people willing to show up for each other, to share, to listen, and to laugh.
Just like those students finding new ways to communicate, the Diamond Dogs remind us that meaningful connection does not depend on the system. It depends on creating space where people feel seen and heard.
So here is a challenge. Look at a system in your world that feels too rigid. What is one small change you could make to help people stay connected, seen, and supported, even when the usual tools are gone?
🫶 Stay curious,
— Nick & Marnie
Your tea sipping, note passing, connection believing friends
More leadership musings
🍪 Biscuits with the Boss:
What is one communication tool you rely on? If it vanished tomorrow, how would you reach out instead?
📚Beard’s collection:
📖 Susan Cain. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Crown Publishing, 2012.
Sometimes leadership sounds like silence. Cain’s research reminds us that reflection and depth are superpowers in loud rooms. Ted listens. Beard observes. Both lead.
📖 Cal Newport. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. Portfolio, 2019.
This one’s for the leaders who are brave enough to close their tabs. Newport argues that intentional disconnection is not withdrawal — it’s reclaiming your attention. A perfect read for anyone rethinking their relationship with tech (and phones).
📖 Jonathan Haidt. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penguin Press, 2024.
Haidt argues that when childhood moved indoors and online, connection got rewired — and not for the better. Phones made communication constant but stripped it of presence. The antidote, he suggests, isn’t disconnection but reconnection — with people, play, and purpose. A powerful read for leaders and parents who want to rebuild real-world belonging in a screen-first world.
🌎 This week in Here - There - Every F’ing where
We did our Season 3 Episode 7 (The Strings that Bind Us) Rewatch podcast. Oh those writers are clever :) You can check it out here:
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Lastly, we are super excited that two school districts are piloting The Business of You with their students (embedded in a course for juniors taking personal finance and for a program for 7th and 8th grade leaders!). If you are interested in bringing this to your school, let us know. They have kindly agreed to share their lesson plans :).
Believe!
Nick & Marnie
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