Transitions, Promotions, and Discharging the Loyal Soldier–An Idea to Try On…

James Robinson • July 10, 2024

Say goodbye to old roles with dignity and honor. Invite people into their new roles with clarity and excitement!

A few years ago, I was recommended the book Falling Upward by Richard Rohr–  a Franciscan friar, mystic and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. 


Prior to this recommendation, I’d seen some of his videos about Enneagram typology. My team loved the Enneagram assessment and found it a good entry point for understanding their peers. 


When I learned Father Rohr is considered a “mystic”, I  found myself skeptical, uneasy, and a bit triggered. Back then,  I perceived myself as a data and analysis guy. Mysticism went against all of that. However, when reading the text, I found there were more “A Ha” moments than not.  One of those “A Ha” moments came from reading the story of discharging the loyal soldier. 


During WWII, communities in Japan conducted a ceremony for soldiers re-entering society after finishing their wartime obligations. To help with this transition, the soldiers were honored and praised for their war efforts. After being honoring the soldier, an esteemed elder spoke-- directing the soldier to let go of the war, while providing expectations for their reentry into society as peaceful and productive citizens. 


There was clarity, honor, and a separation made between the past and the future. It dawned on me that we don’t do this enough in our organizations. 


As such,  I found myself jotting questions:

  • What could a Discharging Your Loyal Teacher ritual look like for a person promoted out of the classroom and into the position of Assistant Principal or coach? How about  for principals becoming principal managers or leaders transitioning out of the organization to pursue new challenges?


Implementing rituals and ceremonies for Discharging the Loyal Soldiers within organizations could benefit us all:


BENEFITS 

  • Honoring the Past:  This is healthy for everyone. Sharing past triumphs and accomplishments feels good for the honoree and all other people in the room. Add gratitude, and it's even better!
  • Clarity on Expectations :  Because the loyal soldier is being discharged and transitioning to a new role, clarity of those expectations is important for everyone involved.  Had the Japanese soldiers of WWII only been praised and discharged without expectations for the future, there may not have been any  transition in any real sense of the word. Instead, the soldier may have gone out into the world as a soldier during peacetime, which could be dangerous.  The same could happen in organizations as staff are promoted to new roles, but remain unclear as to what the expectations of the role are. 
  • Separation and Integration: I’ve used the rearview mirror vs windshield analogy often. As a rule, I used the analogy to focus my team more on the future during data talks or staff meetings. I aimed for a ratio of 80% future-focused talk and planning VS 20% past.  Looking at the past, we mined for strengths, replicable actions, and root causes. The rest of the time was future-facing, vision setting, and getting clear on expectations while inspiring hope.  A Discharging the Loyal Soldier ceremony should do the same.


Decorum and Structures


I’m a fan of decorum, structures and formalities when it comes to organizational rituals. If done well, they feel like secular holidays that employees look forward to a few times a year. Over my tenure in charter schools, I’ve been very fortunate to work for organizations that do this well, and I’ll share those experiences soon in another post. Until then, here are a few things to consider when setting up a ceremony :


  • Have Witnesses : We all love transparency. By holding the ceremony in front of an audience, onlookers can learn how to rise to the next level while becoming clearer as to what is expected of different positions at that particular time. Moreover, it may give people a goal to strive for, a personal vision for excellence while pursuing their personal mythology. 
  • Be Formal: Have you ever been invited to a party or event, then show up and there’s no balloons nor decorations to signify its importance?  I have, and it feels like any other day.  Ceremonies should feel different– there should be something pattern-breaking about them so as to become memorable,  desirable and something people look forward to .
  • Provide Tokens and Symbols: A token or symbol goes a long way in a ceremony. Be sure to provide honorees with something soulful to hold onto during the tough times , when the person needs to remember the new role that he or she has taken on . 


If your organization has a  promotion ceremony for staff, I’d love to hear about it. Just reply in the comments or send me a note. 


And if your organization would like to collaborate to create a ceremony unique to your people and needs,  send me a note.

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: