When people leave an organization, the way they're treated sends a powerful message—not least to the people who stay on. That's the point made by my most-retweeted post from this week, below.

Other posts considered the teaching methods of "math master" John Mighton, as well as author Paul Tough's assertion that noncognitive capacities are not taught, but rather are absorbed from the environment in which students learn. Which do you find most interesting?

Those Who Leave, Those Who Stay
When employees leave—whether they’ve been laid off or fired or have departed for another job—many organizations act as if they never existed. Research (which I’ll examine below) demonstrates that this approach deprives companies of a valuable source of continuing connections and intelligence from within their industries. But I’d like to suggest another cost of the practice of “disappearing” former employees: [READ MORE HERE]

Secrets of a Math Master
This morning I had the privilege of watching John Mighton teach math. I’d read about John’s work, I’d talked to him on the phone, and I knew that his program aligns closely with what we know from the research about how children learn. But today was the first time that I’d seen John in action—and it was amazing. I’m not exaggerating when I report that kids were jumping out of their seats to answer John’s questions, were running up to the front of the classroom when called on to demonstrate a solution, and were begging John to leave his notations up on the whiteboard instead of erasing them when the class was over. What is John’s secret? Talking with him afterward, he made it sound very simple: [READ MORE HERE]

It's the Environment, Stupid 
In his new book, Helping Students Succeed, author Paul Tough notes that “for all the discussion of noncognitive factors in recent years, there has been little conclusive agreement on how best to help young people develop them.” Perhaps, he goes on to suggest, we’ve been thinking about them in the wrong way: “Rather than consider noncognitive capacities as skills to be taught, I [have come] to conclude, it’s more accurate and useful to look at them as products of a child’s environment": [READ MORE HERE]

Want to let others know about this newsletter? Here's a suggested tweet:

Employees who stay, secrets of a math master, and how noncognitive skills are learned—this week's Brilliant Report: http://bit.ly/1syTDG6