About a month ago I sat in the car with two friends driving back from the Cubs/Sox game. We have known each other for over a decade, talked about family, kids activities, sport, and theater. We have seen each of our kids enter school together, watching hard as they work to find their paths to join and success. For the past several year, we have traveled to see the Cubs/Sox rivalry game. As one friend puts it, we have a Cubs fan, a Sox fan, and Switzerland in our group.
On this particular day, as we traveled home together after watching the underdog Sox rout the Cubs, we began sharing stories of how we found our career paths. One friend, a former teacher, shared a story of how he began to consider teaching. He talked about most teachers find guidance in a teacher who they connected with and in some ways wanted to fashion their work in that teacher's mold. However, as a kid, he had no such mentor before him. Then he shared a conversation he had with a faculty leader, the faculty leader asked I'm, well if you could make it better, what would it be like. From this question, our friend began a dream. He fashioned classroom learning experiences based on what could be rather than what was. He considered how would I like to be engaged in the content instead of how was I engaged with this content. He took risks and in doing so he opened new doors for himself, his students, and eventually through his work and his students work for full communities.
For many of the people we work with there is a goal of college and career readiness. Questions of what type of work am I suited for, what experiences would I enjoy, and what am I passionate about. Perhaps these are not the only question. Perhaps we could also ask, where can I make a difference? Where do I see new possibilities? Where could I question the norm and make a brighter future? What can I make better than what was here before?
I often speak of our teachers as leaders and difference makers. They open doors of possibilities for students to enter new horizons. Most importantly they are raising a new generation of potential leaders and difference makers. I hope we are creating paths for them to grow, for them to make their classroom experiences not only as good as their mentors but better. For in doing so, great things are possible, just like an under-talented White Sox team beating an all-star laden Northside rival.
On curriculum nights there is not a lot one can do when you are the superintendent. Sure there are the moments early in the evening when you can wander around and reassure anxious teachers that they are well prepared and wish them luck. There are also the moments when parents and guardians arrive during which you can greet them, listen to them, and encourage them to explore the many unique strengths of your buildings and programs. The night itself is by most appearances not your night. It is briefly a moment for the principal to shine as they welcome families and share part of the school's story. It is an opportunity for parent volunteer leaders to share the unique opportunities they work so hard to create and recruit more families to be involved in many of the important strengths of the school community. Most importantly it is an opportunity for teachers to connect with families and begin to share the story of the school year.
As I walked from room to room and listened a little to each presentation, I could feel a smile cross my face. I heard teachers discussing how they connect with families to share the story of their children's learning experiences on a regular basis. Teachers talked about using Seesaw for student portfolios, twitter to share images of engaged students, ideas the class was exploring, and learning targets. In classrooms there were discussions about how learning was differentiated, the idea that some children are working on different skills, explorations of growth mindset, conversations around guided math and reading, and use of a blend of digital and traditional materials to engage students in the learning. Many of these ideas have been the focus of our professional work during the past few years. As I smiled, I thought about why were these ideas pervasive throughout our buildings.
Capacity building begins with leadership. Early in our journey, our administrative team discussed many different ideas for professional growth. We explored different options and examined them within the strengths of the school. Discussions began four months before considering bringing them to instructional team leaders. Some ideas were embraced, others put off for further consideration, and some turned away. Once the administrative team embraced and owned ideas for potential focus, teacher leaders were engaged. Led by the principal leaders, teachers discussed the early options for professional growth, identifying which ones they felt connected meaningfully for staff. Together principals and teacher leaders designed ways to explore the professional growth. They developed learning opportunities. Identified methods to phase in learning experiences. They worked to share feedback and adjust experiences. In our world of learning about differentiated instruction, instructional strategies, and technology, different teacher and administrator groups developed strands of exploration. They adjusted the growth train to meet the needs of the students and staff, at times going slower and other times going faster based on feedback and observation.
Finally, capacity building means having boots on the ground. Our administrators, instructional coach, and association leadership all collectively owned the changes we were exploring. They modeled the changes through their instructional practices. They encouraged growth in others through small conversations and discussions. They made themselves available to help when people needed it and make sure others are being heard when they are asking for it. Finally, they recognized that growth is a journey that occurs differently for each person. They cultivated support for people to grow at their own rates and identified supports for staff members from both the teacher and administrator ranks when people needed a hand.
Capacity building is about building shared ownership. It begins with exploring ideas together and listening to what people connect with and value. Organizations grow when the time is taken to build investment from the administrative team, teacher leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom staff. At times this means we go slow to go fast. However, by taking time to narrow a district's focus and cultivate that capacity, sooner than you think you may hear that consistent message from classroom to classroom as you wander the halls. It is a celebration of success for all of us.
I can't say I really remember this, but people tell me there was once a time where the person "in charge" made all of the decisions. Organizations had organizational flow charts and literally the buck stopped at the top and the top made the call. As we have evolved in our leadership perspective, we created advisory committees to take input into our decisions. Then we learned we needed more than input, in order to build some level of investment, we needed representative leadership. So the committees evolved into decision making bodies. Now when examining successful organizations, the evaluating groups look for this shared stakeholder leadership. In reality this is not enough. Our leadership role needs to continue to evolve if we want our organizations to move forward.
There is a case for shared ownership. In a variety of districts, I have been involved in decision-making committees from 3 people to over 40. Representing anywhere from 6% to 50% of important stakeholders. Frequently in schools, those on the committee struggle with the idea of whether they are simply sharing their viewpoint or representing a greater stakeholder group. A position as leader I don't think I have ever helped a stakeholder negotiate through. The reality of most committees, is that the stakeholders work extremely hard and invest in a decision. They weigh a multitude of options, explore a large range of scenarios, and land on a decision that they feel will be best for the organization and it's constituents. From their a communication plan is developed, a professional training plan created, and then implemented. Any where from 9 months to 36 months later everyone stares at each other and asks why didn't this work.
The challenge is shared ownership. In previous incarnations of organizational leadership, the job was to make the decision. This evolved into make the decision and communicate the decision. Then to make the decision, communicate the decision, and support the implementation of the decision. We need to take this further. The organizational leader's new job is an ongoing one. The leader must scaffold understanding and ownership of the decision throughout the system. If we want something deeply embedded into our professional world, we need to get the constituents to buy the decision in the same way that the original committee did. From this, leaders and committee members need to keep constituents looped in to the work of the committee while it is going. They need to be having ongoing dialogues during the decision making process, training process, implementation process, and beyond in order to transition ownership of the process from the committee leaders to the organization. Without it, while there may be initial excitement for the work of the shared leaders, the process will fail.
Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with a community group of stakeholders. We discussed what we could do for the school and how we could do it. There were some good ideas shared. Just as we might have moved forward, a committee member suggested we take our ideas and get feedback from our constituent groups. While this meant a delay of a couple of months to beginning the work, it was a terrific step in building in shared ownership of the work of this team. The short delay will support us in accomplishing greater long term results.
Over the next year in Illinois schools, we will be hearing a lot about shared leadership as we explore the Every School Succeeds Act (ESSA). I encourage us to think beyond this. While shared leadership is a start, shared ownership will ensure that it is effective. In order to accomplish this, we may need to work on fewer goals, but work to build investment in these goals more deeply. The new job of the leader, is not to make the decision, but rather to catalyze the organization constituents around the decision.
I was a swimmer growing up. My siblings and I grew up in an inter-aquatic household. My mother was a national level swimmer and my dad had been thrown in the pool at a young age, been scared to high heavens, and avoided swimming for a great portion of his life. My parents saw it as part of a covenant, their children would be comfortable around water. So we went to Indian Boundary YMCA and participated in swim lessons. We learned in groups of five or six from teenage teachers, returning each week to learn a little more, and when we hit the wall with that, we joined swim team. On swim team, the teen-age instructors turned into college age and adult instructors. The learning more frequent, the adjustments more nuanced. While the workouts were told to us, I can remember vividly discussing and reflecting with Coach Oda on ways to improve my stroke. The work became job-embedded. The improvements were made from shared-ownership rather than the gradual release method of earlier lessons. As a result, the changes were as much mine as they were coach's.
I'm pretty confident that the reason I graduated high school and college was swimming. It taught me so many lessons, whether it was organizing my day, reminding me that there were 1000's of people out there better than me, teaching me to learn from my failures and improvement comes from reflection, refinement, and work, or simply making me so tired that I had to sit in the chair when I was in class. As I learn more about schools and how they work, the more I realize I can learn from my swimming experience.
In swimming, I was in an incubator. It started in lots of small guided instruction learning opportunities. Sure they were teenagers leading the groups, but they were small, intense, and had lots of repeated practice with modeling and direct feedback. As I got older, the incubators changed. The coaches were there and setting up the course for the day, but more importantly, they were guides on the sides. They asked questions, held reflective conversations, and provided consistent opportunities for technical analysis and feedback. I see similar things now in the reconstruction of the Chicago Bears. While no one knows if it will work, the Bears for the first time have created an incubator around their sophomore quarterback Mitch Trubisky. The head coach is a former quarterback and offensive guru. The offensive coordinator is an offensive guru from Oregon. They have hired Brad Childress, a former head coach, offensive coordinator, and offensive guru to be a special consultant to the coaches. The backup quarterbacks sole strength is understanding and dialoguing about developing as a quarterback in this system. They brought in an offensive line coach who was seen as a guru in both college and professional football. The whole organization has become an offensive football incubator meant to support the growth of their quarterback and offensive side of the football.
As I think of schools and think of our opportunities to grow students, staff members, and instructional leaders, I wonder where are our incubators. One wise instructional coach once told me the reason our implementation failed was simply we didn't have enough boots on the ground. We didn't have enough coaches and instructional leaders who understood what we were doing well enough to provide the immediate timely job-embedded learning support that when snags occurred, they could get the support they needed. Support as a system was too little, too late, and too far away. As a result, many well-intended instructors would retreat back into arenas they were comfortable when the process became too overwhelming.
If we want to continue to improve our schools, we need to go back to our coaching roots. We need to provide ongoing coaching support to our teachers and our leaders in meaningful ways. As we first walk in those classrooms and as leaders in buildings and departments, we need to consider guided support. As we build confidence and skills, we can release to that job-embedded reflective support. In both situations we need enough boots on the ground in order to incubate for growth and success.
I see students every school day. Walking through the halls, visiting classrooms, seeing them congregate outside of schools. Occasionally a student asks me what do you do? Its a challenging question. Often before I answer, they respond, "are you the principal's boss?" To which I say no. Principals don't need bosses, they often need partners and coaches. I respond that I work with the principal and we try to solve challenges together. When I was an Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, words every first grader wants to speak, I would respond to the question by saying "I am responsible for the learning program." There was the kicker, the response wasn't I created this program or started that program, but rather I am responsible for this thing.
At our earliest stages in education, we often want to cite the client for credit and limit the credit of other participating factors. We speak of the child who has grown so much in third grade and sometimes we praise the classroom teacher who worked with that child. Rarely do we acknowledge the PE teacher who setup situations for the child to feel socially successful. The instructional coach who spent hours working with that teacher encouraging instructional activities that would engage the child and supported that teacher as they tried something new. The assistant principal who worked diligently to ensure that the classes were balanced so that your child had enough time and attention during the instructional period or worked with another family to ensure home supports were available during their time of crisis. At times, we acknowledge the principal, but not for the hundreds of hours she spent coaching staff members through quiet conversations, working committees to ensure the right learning opportunities were available and that his teams supported these for implementation.
See the trick is the more we go up the ladder, the less we understand the role of the leader. Moreover, the better the leader, the less they take credit for the wins and the more they take responsibility for the failures. Good teachers often cite that they have magnificent hard working students who make a difference. The frequently diminish the value of their instructional preparation and tireless work while maximizing the value of their students resilence and work. Good principals do the same, citing the hard work of their teachers, students, and teams. The same is true with assistant superintendents and superintendents. As we go up the ladder, in healthy organizations the leadership takes less and less credit, disbursing it amongst the many stakeholders in the system. Furthermore, the leaders take responsibility when things falter. They take the daggers and arrows so that those underneath them can learn and grow. They help their constituents learn from their mistakes and move forward. This cultivates a safe risk-taking atmosphere in which people are willing to try to expand their horizons.
As a community stakeholder, this makes judging leadership tricky. In healthy organizations, we rarely hear what the leader brings but we see the price tag. We ask questions, why does this building need an assistant principal, an instructional coach, assistant superintendent, or superintendent? If the organization is healthy, we don't physically see the value they provide. However, if it is unhealthy, we are sure to notice that something is missing. That's the challenge, those additional personnel take responsibility for the failures as they are coaching and building the necessary supports for success, but they don't take the credit once it is achieved.
I'm not sure what the former superintendent of my child's elementary school district did on a day to day basis. However, I can observe the changes under his leadership from that of his predecessor's. I can see the risks teachers and principals took and the growth outcomes that have occurred. I never heard him take credit for any of it, but praise everyone from the teacher's assistant through the Board of Education. An interesting juxtaposition, one as leaders and community members we will continue to explore as we learn to value credit and responsibility.
Whether you are a coach, parent, principal, teacher, or superintendent, there are certain things each of us commonly do in order to produce the best results. When we lose focus on these ideas, things begin to fall apart. At first it's subtle, but over time it can cause any organization to falter.
Leaders first inspire us to become the best version of ourselves. They recognize each of us is different and encourage us to embrace that uniqueness. Think of children, whether in your family or in your class. Each of them is different and to expect it to look the same, sound the same, and be the same is silly. I have two brothers. All of us swam, but only I swam in college. All of us did well in school, but none of us were as strong performers as our parents. Two of us earned doctorates in different things but none of us became medical doctors like our parents. We were encouraged to go out and find our path and challenged to do well on that path. None of us were required to follow their path. The same is true in my work environment. I may be a proponent of guided instruction and flipped learning. That doesn't mean that guided instruction will work for every teacher, every student, and every situation. It is a tool that will work for some but not all. If it doesn't work for a specific instructor, then we need to work with them to find ways to differentiate for our kids in a style that both meets the needs of the student and the skills of the instructor. The same is true with flipped learning. It works for a multitude of students, teachers, and situations but not all nor is it the only way to be successful. Leaders understand the underlying goal, talents of their teams, and inspire them to become the best they can be to reach success.
Leaders cultivate the resources and opportunities that create pathways towards success. A good parent understands that their children may not always be the best students. At times they sit with them to help them learn to do homework. Sometimes they help them organize how to study. Other times they invite tutors and specialists in for support. At times they have their children work independently or with friends. We don't try all these things at once, We stage experiences to maximize growth. As leaders of organizations we need to do the same thing. We need to trim down as many initiatives as we can. Focus our teams on achievable next steps, while encouraging them towards the overall goal. We need to understand that growth is not always linear and that not everyone will follow the same path. As such, we need to respect the different growth rates and cheerlead our teams and individual members to make their next achievable step.
Finally, leaders help everyone understand success is neither overnight nor instantaneous. It requires patience and consistent work. One does not wake up and suddenly discover they can sing opera. It takes years of study to become a "overnight" success. Just because I start taking Spanish, I am not instantly going to be able to read a novel in Spanish. Many of us expect change and growth to be instantaneous. It can't be. If we want to implement guided instruction. We need to start with one subject matter and one unit. We need to plan, try, fail, try again, adapt, learn, and eventually build toward success. Each of us wants to be there when we begin the journey. However we need to take the journey to be there. As leaders, we need to understand the importance of the journey and support our staff, teams, and families as they take that journey.
All of us want to succeed. In order to do so, we need help from those leading us to see what we can be, help us have the opportunities to get their and support us as we move towards that goal.
The memories are decades old but it feels like yesterday. The tight elastic strap pulling against the base of my skull. The plastic cups of the goggles pinching against my forehead. My hands rotating back and forth as loosened up behind the blocks. There was always the humid drench that came with the pool, that feeling when you are wearing only a swimsuit, it's dark outside, and yet you are still a little sweaty. All of this simply before the race. Each race I entered, I knew I wasn't going to be the best that day. Growing up those honors belonged to Fetyko, Fetzer, Khoo, Hacker, Moss, or the Johnson brothers. I would be seeing them go flying by at some point. As I went away, the names changed to Walker, Blowers, Miller, Robbins, Kemeny and others, but the result didn't. It wasn't about that anyways. It really was never about that. Hundreds of times, I stood there behind the blocks, rotating my hands back and forth focusing intensely on how was I going to be better today. A buzz or gunshot later and I would be off, the water sliding around me as I hit the pool. A minute something later I would be done with the race and hyper-analyzing what went well and what went poorly as my chest pounded and my breathing fluttered. A ritual that occurred decades ago, week after week, for years in reality and for decades in my memories.
When I took my new job this year, a wise person told me don't make changes. Wait and see what is going on. Resist the urge to change it. I went into the role and kept that mantra going through my head, whether it was on the transition days before I started the job or during those first early months. Resist the urge to change things. No one wants their cheese moved by the hyperactive kid running up and down the hallway. Well, the no changes thing didn't last until lunch the first day. Due to a mixup with a training, I had ordered the staff pizza and we were eating it in the commons. The staff was dancing and I wasn't sure why. It took a couple of explanations because I was slow on the uptake, but apparently eating in the commons was taboo. I wasn't three hours into the job and changes were already occurring. A couple of months more and a couple hundred more inadvertent changes and we were rolling.
This year we have changed a lot. We started the year with very little social media presence, now as I go across twitter and instagram many of our staff members are sharing great experiences with their students. I walk up and down the halls and technology is a canvas through which differentiated learning is occurring. Each day I see amazing new things from our staff and our students. Change is everywhere. However, I think it's more than change. As a society we have tried this evolution of practice many ways. Systematic change through organizational theory. Individual change through who moved my cheese. Shift theory encouraging organizations to make adjustments. The most recent vintage is growth mindset. The difference between growth mindset and it's predecessors is that the locus of control is a combination of internal and external as opposed to solely external.
Our work on sharing our story through social media has come as challenge by choice. I introduced it as something I was going to do. We shared how it was done and more specifically how to see what I was producing. A few staff leaders jumped on and the stories became far more interesting. Each member not joining because they were obligated but rather because they chose. Over time others join and the fabric changed even more for the better. A year out it feels as if we have done this our whole careers. The stories are good and people have grown from sharing their stories and seeing the stories of others.
Our work on technology and instructional practice has come through committees. Some of which I attend and some of which I have not. Each committee has started us on a journey. Created opportunities and choices for staff to explore rather than recipes for staff members to follow. Opposed to the short time frames of SMART goals, we have created overly long time periods for people to explore. We talk of baby steps instead of giant leaps. Recognizing how you are improving on your growth journey rather than comparing yourself to your teammates or other teachers. All of us need to be on the journey, but not at the same point and not working at the same rate. Some will take baby steps and some will take giant leaps.
The results are amazing. I am learning to get comfortable with the idea that we have changed a lot. We simply have. However, these changes come as much from inside each of our team members as any district or building initiative. Growth mindset was here before I arrived, studied and explored by teachers within the school. It will be here for a long time. We may not be the best. However each of us are getting better every day and that is a cool thing to see, celebrate and be a part of. It's been a really long time since I last touched the pad at the end of the race, but that feeling of working with amazing teammates to improve each day, that is alive and well.
