I recently completed serving as a
facilitator of a multi-day workshop intending to support the implementation of
a district initiative. I had the good fortune to work with a group of
highly-motivated, exceptional school administrators whose ability to
collaborate is clearly a strength. In this entry and the next, I will document
the process we followed to identify a strong set of outcomes extremely likely to
create a successful rollout by securing a strong focus, commitment, capacity-building, and monitoring system.
Last spring, the administrative
team identified a research-based program, Caring Schools Community© (CSC), to
implement at grades K-6 in the fall. A recent review of the district’s history
identified at least three past K-6 programs that began in a similar manner that
included district expectations for principals and teachers. Sadly, these efforts
faded without ever knowing the amount of teachers utilizing the program’s
resources or impact of the effort. In these cases, implementation began with a
“what we are going to do”. Yet this approach failed to generate enthusiasm and
staying power. Adding to the mix, each time the district invested significant
financial and time resources, and the plans called for the same with CSC.
While efforts to improve how
students interacted with each other have always garnered support, the need to
significantly impact student behavior has never been greater. With harassment
and bullying on the forefront of the public’s mind for numerous reasons
including increased internet access, school districts are tasked with getting
this right. It is no longer acceptable to act from the mindset that “boys will
be boys, and girls will be girls.” A research-based program with two ½ day
trainings, CSC needed a strong implementation plan in order to influence
classroom instruction and student behavior. I realized that something different
needed to be done for CSC to have an impact and not end up on the “this too
will pass” pile.
Simon Sinek (2010) laid out a
simple plan for gaining support by first focusing on 'why' by asking for your beliefs, your
purpose. Begin by answering 'why' rather than 'what'. So the admin team temporarily
put aside the ‘what’ (CSC) and looked at the ‘why’. And what they found was
remarkable!
Conversations among the team
led to the surfacing of the belief that by respecting and valuing differences,
the feeling tone at a school, or school culture, would improve. The team shared
its belief that school needs to have a safe and supportive setting. So despite
already having selected the ‘what’, the team reflected on the ‘why’. In other
words, the problem involved improving school culture. We now needed a bridge
from the belief to the action.
That passage involved
identifying how we would accomplish this. Further discussions grappled with a
common challenge, surfacing strategies that could serve as indicators of
success. During this time, the
team recalled the long-standing focus, school attendance, to help them to
formulate the operational problem- students were missing too much class time
due to behaviors that occur outside the classroom. So with dialogue and debate,
the team established that it wanted to reduce lost instructional time due to
harassment and bullying and in so doing this would indicate improvements in
school culture. That was a remarkable awareness and something that would not
have become apparent without describing the problem and focusing on beliefs.
Next up: How the team went from
‘identifying the problem’ and ‘how to address it’ to ‘what it will do’.
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