Dear Colleagues,
After months of build-up, the new Star
Wars movie was released a few days ago. . . not surprisingly, to record audiences.
On the one hand, it is amazing that this
film series- - which began in 1977, and actually has two more installments
planned (in 2017 and 2019)- - has transcended generations of children,
adolescents, and adults.
On the other hand, it is equally amazing
that the characters- - from Yoda on- - have influenced the same generations
with lessons that apply to friendship, business, and life itself.
And so. . . in the spirit of holiday giving,
this Blog message describes the “ultimate core/essential” strategies for school
success- - organized in two sets of 7 C’s.
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Process Dictates Products and Outcomes
With the assumption that schools have
“enough” resources, materials, personnel, professional development, and other
supports (and, I know, that we always need more). . .
Why are some schools more positive,
productive, and successful than other schools that have the “same” amount of
resources and supports?
To answer this question, I want you to think
about the one or two educators who most positively influenced you- - at any
point in your preschool through graduate career.
Was it the smartest teacher? The teacher who taught your favorite
subject? The teacher whose class
contained your best friends?
Unlikely.
You are probably thinking about the teachers
who were most enthusiastic. . . caring. . . optimistic. . . inspiring. . . and
who may have changed your life.
For me. . . it was my high school music
teacher. . . someone who I keep in touch with to this day.
By way of analogy, my point is: The most successful schools are the ones that
“mix” their available resources with staff enthusiasm, caring, optimism, and inspiration.
These are the schools where the
underlying processes that motivate
success, result in the products
and outcomes of success.
Remember, the teams that have the best
athletes win championships only when they play as a team.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The 7 C’s of Organizational Success
So. . . what are the underlying processes
that help organizations (i.e., districts and schools) to maximize their
success?
These are summarized in the following 7
C’s:
·
Charting the Course
·
Collecting the Supplies
·
Cruising with Purpose
·
Checking Coordinates
·
Correcting for Drift
·
Containing Crises
·
Celebrating the Voyage
Let’s
briefly describe each of these components.
#1: Charting the Course
Joel Barker said, “Almost all successful
individuals and organizations have one thing in common—the power and depth of
their vision of the future.”
This is the essence of strategic planning. Charting
the Course focuses on specifying the goals, objectives, and outcomes of
your school’s (or district’s, or grade level’s or classroom’s) current or
desired journey or “voyage”—whether in the organizational, climate, academic,
social-emotional-behavioral, and/or personal/ interpersonal (or combined)
areas.
Critically, and as much as possible, your
desired outcomes should be described in specific, behavioral terms so that they
are observable and measurable.
For example, rather than saying:
“I want to improve positive school climate
this year,”
you
might want to specify instead:
“I want to increase the number and ratio of
positive and prosocial to negative and antisocial interactions between students
and staff, respectively, based on (a) classroom and common school area
observations; (b) incidents reported in the classroom and referred to the
office; (c) student, staff, and parent surveys and self-reports; and (d)
student, staff, and parent focus group outcomes.
Relative to Barker’s quote, your goals are
your “vision of the future.” Without your goals and vision, there truly is no
strategic plan.
_
_ _ _ _
#2: Collecting the Supplies
This step focuses on identifying and
gathering the needed resources so that your journey has the highest probability
of success. Significantly, many people
think only about money as their primary resource.
And yet, there are other resources that
sometimes are more powerful. For example:
* Other people- - colleagues, mentors,
consultants, or other professionals- - can be resources.
* Written, audio-visual, or multi-media
information sources- - books, DVDs, web-based trainings or references- - can be
resources.
* Time- - to do research, to engage in
training, to devote to self-improvement, to focus tenaciously on a strategic
goal- - is an essential resource.
* Places and facilities- - libraries or
other research sites, model or exemplary practice sites, simulation or
job-related training sites- - are possible resources.
* And, finally, technology- - with all of
its wondrous innovations and advances- - is a resource.
The point here is that goal-setting is not
enough. If we are under-resourced, we may never build the momentum needed to
reach our goals, or we may need to abandon the journey because we run out of
provisions. So, part of strategic planning is to “plan for the journey before embarking
on the journey.”
However, relative to this planning, we
sometimes need to over-plan and over-resource for the journey. That is, we need
to plan not just for the “best-case scenarios,” but also for the “worst-case
scenarios.” Functionally, this means
that we sometimes need to have more resources available to help us meet our
goals than needed.
Once again, goals are not successfully
attained when challenges are underestimated or when resources are not available
to address emergency situations.
_
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#3: Cruising with Purpose
You are able to Cruise with Purpose once
you have (a) developed your strategic plan, (b) identified and gathered the
resources needed, (c) prepared for potential difficulties, (d) chosen the
optimal time to begin, and (e) determined how and when you are going to
evaluate your progress.
With all of this accomplished, you can
embark on your journey with direction, determination, confidence, and purpose.
While all of this sounds natural and easy,
many people complete all of the planning and preparation, but never embark on
the journey.
Sometimes this occurs because of a fear of
failure, a fear of the unknown, or a fear of taking or being in the lead.
Sometimes, it is due to competing priorities, a resistance to change, or the
belief that a secure present is better than a challenging future. And
sometimes, it is because of a lack of confidence, determination, or motivation.
Here is where the “strength of purpose” is
essential. Critically, while there are no certainties in life, are we truly
living life when we are determined to keep everything certain?
Inner strength and purpose allows us to
conquer our fears. . . it motivates us to make the future our priority, and. .
. it inspires us to take the first steps along the path to accomplishment and
success.
Trammell Crow said, “There’s as much risk in
doing nothing as in doing something.”
And so, in order to make planning and
preparation meaningful, we must take action. Said another way, once ready, we
need to hoist the anchor, engage the rudder, and let out the mainsails- - confident
in our ability to take advantage of the good and to adjust to the bad.
_
_ _ _ _
#4: Checking the Coordinates
This step is all about “formative evaluation.”
Formative evaluation involves planned,
periodic evaluations that occur at different points in time during the
journey to ensure that we are on course and not in need of mid-course
corrections.
Formative evaluation is important because most
goals are not accomplished in a direct, straight-line fashion. Typically,
progress involves different pathways, requires different levels of energy, and
occurs at different speeds. Progress also, at times, requires detours, rest
periods, and moments to consolidate the advances made.
Without formatively “checking the
coordinates,” schools, staff, and students sometimes get lost, miss the
progress made, or prematurely believe that they have reached their destination.
In addition, psychological research has
long shown that when students chart and graph their progress toward long-term
goals, both their motivation increases and more of their goals are attained.
Formative evaluation, then, is the feedback
process that all of us need when long-term goals involve a series of short-term
steps. If you think about it, most mountains are not climbed by ascending a
single steep path to the summit. Mountains
are conquered by patiently negotiating a gradual series of switchbacks that
increase the potential for success.
Similarly, most large bodies of water are
navigated by tacking the sailboat back and forth, maximizing the power of the
wind to successfully arrive at the desired destination.
Without formative evaluation, we may not
tack at the right time, we may tack too many times, or we may not tack at all.
William Drayton said, “Change starts when
someone sees the next step.” Drayton
understood formative evaluation and the Seven C’s of strategic, organizational
planning.
_
_ _ _ _
#5: Correcting for Drift
Correcting for Drift involve the
actions needed when formative evaluations tell us that we are off-course.
Let’s face it—life is complex.
A few years ago, there was a retirement
commercial that began with an older gentleman chiding us, “What did you
think—life was an expressway?”
Clearly not.
With all the complexities in life (in
general and in school), and everything that seems to be bombarding us at the
same time, it is easy to get lost in the irrelevant details, the inevitable
detours, or the “crises of the day.” At times, all of this causes us to lose
our focus and drift from our path.
And so, using our formative evaluation results,
we need to periodically make mid-course corrections to stay on track.
Think about it this way: Many of you would be surprised to learn that
when a plane travels across the country, it is off-course 90 percent of the
time. This is because airplanes travel from one air traffic control center to
the next- - at least, until they are within fifty or so miles of their final
destination.
Thus, because the control centers are not
aligned with your departure and destination cities, during the flight, the
captain, the computers, and the air traffic control centers are constantly programming
the plane to make mid-course corrections based on their current formative
evaluation data.
Formative evaluations must be built into and
executed as part of the system, school, staff, and student goals in our
strategic plans. This helps us to make the necessary mid-course corrections so
that we stay on track to reach our goals. Without these corrections, we could
get so off course or so lost that our only option would be to give up the
journey and start over again.
The time we spend in periodically evaluating
and correcting our progress over time often saves us ten times the time
required to restart the process, once again, from the very beginning.
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A Mid-Course Summary
and Set-Up
The first two of the 7 C’s focus on
identifying your district, school, or staff’s strategic goals, designing a
functional action plan, and collecting the resources needed to begin executing
the plan.
Steps three through five of the 7 C’s involve
the actual implementation of the plan, along with the periodic evaluations
needed to ensure that you are progressing toward your goals- - making needed
mid-course corrections if you are drifting or getting off-track.
Step six involves both planning and
execution. It entails the advanced planning
that prevents most crises, but the strategic steps needed so that when crises occur,
they are quickly addressed.
Finally, Step seven emphasizes the
importance of enjoying the entire journey- - not just the end of the journey
when success occurs.
_
_ _ _ _
#6: Containing Crises
This sixth (of the 7) C, Containing
Crises, focuses on the planning that prevents crises (as you are working to
attain your strategic goals), and the responses that resolve them.
While we have talked some about prevention,
I want to introduce what I call the “NASA Approach to Crisis Prevention.”
This involves thinking, during the development
of a strategic plan, about everything that could possibly go wrong while
actually executing the plan, developing an “early warning system” as an alert
for potential crises, and then preparing response systems or contingency plans
to address any crises that might actually occur.
The reason why I call this the “NASA
Approach” is because this is exactly what NASA does when designing its space
ships, and what it is doing now as it conceptualizes its future trips to Mars.
More specifically, NASA spends an incredible
amount of time in development and training in the areas of crisis prevention,
intervention, and response.
For example, as they are designing the space
capsules that will travel to Mars, they are building them with what are called
“redundant” or “back-up” systems. That is, during the design process, NASA
engineers will envision every possible hardware or software system failure or
misfortunate that might occur from lift-off to touch-down. Guided by these
“worst-case scenarios,” they will build back-up systems into the shuttles- - extra
fuel cells, additional computer capacity, by-pass systems and strategies, and
emergency procedures for unlikely, but possible, events.
Crisis prevention is also integrated into
every astronaut’s training prior to leaving on a mission. Indeed, beyond
preparing for the scientific parts of their mission, astronauts spend a large
amount of time on “crisis response” procedures. Once again, after imagining
every possible crisis that might occur on the shuttle, NASA conditions the
astronauts so that they can respond to any crisis situation at virtually an
automatic level. This training and response is essential- - especially when the
difference between survival and catastrophe, at times, is counted in seconds,
not minutes.
As a reminder:
The point here is that schools need to
think, as part of their strategic planning, about the potential crises that may
affect or completely ruin their potential to succeed. While good planning may
actually prevent most crises from happening, planning also results in
interventions that are available to contain and minimize crises if they do
occur, and responses to repair the damage once they are over.
_
_ _ _ _
#7: Celebrating the Voyage
Step number seven, Celebrating the Voyage,
focuses on celebrating the fact that (a) we can plan and improve our
student, staff, and school outcomes by (b) making incremental progress toward
our goals- - succeeding at different stages in the process; and that (c) we
should commemorate and celebrate our short- and long-term successes that result
in short- and long-term contribution, growth, and achievement.
This step, then, celebrates the steps during the journey, as well as the
journey once the destination has been
reached.
Of the possible areas of celebration, I
would suggest that the first one above is the most important.
Too many times, we focus on “the win,” “the
award,” or “the recognition.” And yet, the reality is that we do not always
reach our ultimate or long-term goals.
Given this, we need to refocus our
“perceptions of success”- - demonstrating sincere motivation and appreciation
for the accomplishment of creating the strategic plan itself, for the care in
preparing for the journey, for the thrill of taking the first steps, and for
the excitement of experiencing new challenges and opportunities.
We also need to teach our students this
lesson.
Indeed, when working with parents and
teachers, I often remind them that:
“It
may take a whole village to raise a child, but it also takes a whole child to
raise a village.”
By this, I mean that we need to help our
students, at levels appropriate to their development and maturity, to create
strategic school (and life) plans for themselves (at different age levels and
across the stages of their lives). Moreover, we need to help them understand
that “success” is represented- - as above- - by the journey itself, the
short-term accomplishments, and the ultimate or final results.
As a final step in Celebrating the Voyage,
I would like to define “Failure” so that we can contrast it with “Success.”
I firmly believe that “the only
failure . . . is not being able to explain why you have
been successful or unsuccessful.”
To me, then, Failure does not occur when we
do not “win,” attain a goal, or accomplish a task.
Failure occurs when we do not fully
understand why we have not succeeded, and when we do not learn from or
change the conditions so that we might succeed in the future.
Conversely, when we are successful, we fail
ourselves when we do not determine how that has occurred. Indeed, when
we understand how we have succeeded in the past, we can duplicate the effort or
conditions so that we can continue to succeed in the future.
_
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Summary
Now that the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA- - also now known as the “Every Student Succeeds Act”-
- ESSA) has been passed and signed into law (last week by Congress and the
President, respectively), we know that the educational “landscape” will change.
In a nutshell, our state departments of
education will have more decision-making authority over the criteria and
evaluation of school success, and our districts and schools will need to adapt
to these new criteria.
But significantly, with the new law, there
appears to be a change of perspective- - moving from a deficit,
failure-focused approach to an asset, success-oriented approach.
Regardless, the change will give our
districts and schools another opportunity to recalibrate, rededicate, and renew
their commitments to students’ academic and social, emotional, and behavioral learning,
progress, mastery, and application.
And through it all, the 7 C’s will again
take “center stage” in discriminating the schools that are successful, and
those that lag behind.
And so, even as you approach the holidays, recognize that most districts and schools are already planning for the next
school year (2016-2017). Thus, please think about the 7 C’s and how they can help you
and your colleagues move to the “next level of excellence.”
·
Charting the Course
·
Collecting the Supplies
·
Cruising with Purpose
·
Checking Coordinates
·
Correcting for Drift
·
Containing Crises
·
Celebrating the Voyage
_
_ _ _ _
Meanwhile, as you take your well-deserved Winter Break
and progress through the Holiday Season, please accept my best wishes
for a safe, restful, and joyous time with your families and friends.
My next Blog message will continue- - in the
spirit of New Year’s and New Year’s resolutions- - the discussion above with a
focus on the 7 C’s for staff
success.
So be well, and stay tuned. May the (holiday) force be with you !!!
Best,
Howie
