Ambiguity of Silence

James Robinson • August 30, 2024

Reduce ambiguity by speaking up.

There are different shades of silence.  Some silences have an edge to them, while others are so unnoticeable that you don’t know that they’re there at all.  Regardless of what category of silence we are discussing, there’s one attribute that most forms of silence share– and that’s ambiguity, which can be detrimental. I learned this early in life and I relearn it often– even now, less than one month away from my 50th birthday. 


As an introverted leader, silence has become my most loyal partner– along with countless books, classes, small teams, walks, journals, and data. While silence helps me process thoughts, listen, create  and re-energize, it also creates ambiguity if I don’t share those thoughts, takeaways and creations with people.  As a consequence of this partnership with silence,  ambiguity allows people to employ guesswork to create your narrative for you, or to make assumptions about you or your work, or to overlook you,  and all of that, in my opinion, is dangerous.


Why? 


Because the narratives and assumptions may not be true at all. Then you have to make the decision to respond and react to dispel it OR to let it go. It’s not a good use of time because it’s reactive. If you’re an introverted leader, you may be in a perpetual battle between sharing and not sharing; who to share with and who not to share with;  when to share; and how not to be awkward. 


I get it.


But in my experience, it’s just  better to share, to get your thinking out in the world, so that people know where you stand and who you are. 


It’s not that easy to do. 


It takes courage, audacity ,getting out of your comfort zone, practice and an understanding of incentives. 


Now that I’m on a school leadership hiatus and launching a Jungian Coaching Practice, I find myself driven by different questions and incentives than before.


One of those questions is simply about potential: How many solutions and ideas never get executed because an introverted leader never shared it? 


It’s a simple question that puts 100% of  the responsibility on those of us who fit the “introvert” descriptors. There’s a reason for this. Most organizations favor extroverted leaders and workplaces. Frankly, I don’t think that’s going to change, nor should we expect it to. Therefore, the responsibility to change and share is on the individual  introvert.


Again, it’s not easy, but the consequence of not doing it could be detrimental to all.



While it’s easy to become our own obstacle by bemoaning the extroverted world and hanging onto the label as being an introvert,  a more fulfilling life may be to take responsibility and exercise courage to  make change happen. 


And that’s why MINING and SHINING IDEA LAB exists to help other introverted leaders contribute to the world while tapping into unrealized potential. Sign up for a 20 minute Excavation Call today using this link/


Precious Metal Notes

Venturing into the Courage Gap, #1

By James Robinson • February 21, 2026
context In an earlier post, I wrote about the need for a self-inflicted sabbatical from educational leadership in 2024. The time-off allowed me to step back, read, study, think, and create at a level I've not known in years. Although we went without my salary for six-months, the data reflects it was also the most stress-free time in recent years-- likely driven by the walks, meditation, prayer and just leveling myself to a position of just learning again. The openness matters. During that time, I created a series of talks, titled The Courage Gap: Another gap in education that a consultant can't close. Originally, they were called "Career-Suicide Notebooks", the reason being my plan was to walk away from education all together. Instead, what I learned will inform my work for years. I've heard it said that Buddhist monks can see the world in a grain of rice. After being immersed in education for several years, I see the world in a school ecosystem. Often, schools enter my creative work and the way I think about creativity enters my work in schools. The first video is called 33% and it looks at the proficiency scores of 4th grade students on the NAEP Assessment. Additionally, it looks at the broad economy that works to maintain the status quo. It's a very performative video, very low-brow-- but it sets the context for the rest of the talks. Moreover, many of the issues can be extrapolated across sectors.

Lettuce Entertain You: Why Fluency Matters

By James Robinson • February 21, 2026
Lettuce Entertain You “Lettuce entertain you” is a classic line from an old reading assessment passage. When kids read it aloud, assessors listened for more than just smooth delivery—they hoped for laughter, or at least a chuckle, as a sign the pun landed. Too often, though, the reading was fluent but flat. No chuckle meant the joke flew right over their heads; students weren't picking up on the playful language. In one district, coaches and a principal were so eager for better results that they printed t-shirts featuring “Lettuce entertain you” with a cartoon head of lettuce. The goal? Prime students to spot the pun. It backfired into a perfect illustration of two broader lessons that apply far beyond reading: Fluency goes beyond word-calling and prosody—it's also about the fluency of ideas, vocabulary, and real understanding. Outcomes aren't a competition; chasing short-term wins can undermine genuine mastery. Fluency In reading instruction, we often emphasize how smoothly words flow from a student's mouth—rate, accuracy, expression. But we under-discuss the clearest marker of comprehension: real-time emotional responses. A laugh at a pun, a gasp at a twist, or a puzzled frown when something doesn't add up—these are the tells that a reader is truly processing and connecting with the text. Genre knowledge matters too. In a mystery or whodunit, fluent readers adjust tone for foreshadowing or suspense. True fluency integrates decoding, word knowledge, genre conventions, and quick comprehension. This isn't unique to reading. Fluency of ideas—the ability to recall and apply mounds of knowledge fluidly, under pressure, with little time to look things up—is a universal hallmark of expertise. A doctor in the ER doesn't have minutes to Google symptoms; they need instant recall of anatomy, pharmacology, differentials, and protocols to make life-saving calls. That's fluency in medical knowledge. A chef in a busy kitchen doesn't pause to consult recipes mid-service; they fluidly combine ingredients, techniques, flavors, and timing to plate perfect dishes under the heat of the line. That's fluency in culinary craft. An artist doesn't deliberate over every brushstroke in isolation; in flow state, they draw on a deep reservoir of techniques, composition principles, color theory, and intuition to create without hesitation. That's fluency in creative expression. States have experimented with measuring aspects of this in reading. Tennessee came close around 2020 with a foundational literacy fluency component on the TCAP ELA assessment (especially in Grade 2). It was a simple yet powerful timed task: students read short, grade-level statements and quickly marked YES or NO to indicate if each was true. In a minute or so, it gauged decoding speed, basic vocabulary, and instant comprehension—exposing gaps that many elementary programs overlook . See the snippet below: