“You Can Please Some of the People Some of
the Time. . . But You Can’t Please All of the People All of the Time”
Dear Colleague,
Introduction
As many of you know, I consult with school
districts all over the country . . . helping them to get “to the next level of excellence”
especially in the areas of:
* Strategic planning and organizational
development (especially under the new ESEA/ESSA);
* School discipline and classroom management
(especially as related to disproportionality);
* Multi-tiered services, supports,
strategies, and programs for academically struggling and behaviorally
challenging students; and
* Strategic and intensive interventions for
students with significant social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health
needs.
As I also do a lot of special education
expert witness work (in Due Process, State, and Federal court hearings), I also
try to help districts and schools avoid these costly (to everyone) and often
contentious confrontations.
Finally, because I tend to work with
districts and schools in long-term relationships (from one year
to—sometimes—a decade or more), I usually see the “revolving door” where
superintendents, district-level administrators, and school administrators come
and go, enter and leave . . . on average, every three years.
_ _ _
_ _
My Blog two weeks ago, The Revolving Door
of the Superintendency: A Case
Study on Resetting the Course of a School District. . . When Mission,
Vision, and Values Count More than Resources, Requirements, and Results
[CLICK
HERE to read]
described
the leadership of a Superintendent who I am working with on the West Coast, and
how he has led a resurgence of staff collaboration and commitment in his
district by resetting its Mission, Vision, and Values.
Today’s Blog continues that story—in
a different district where I am working—by discussing how some
administrators sometimes perpetuate staff dissatisfaction and disaffection
because they “make decisions for the greater peace, NOT for the greater good.”
_ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Back Story
The District in question is a diverse, largely-rural,
high-poverty county school system with many high-needs students. . .
academically, behaviorally, relative to school readiness and attendance, and
relative to parent/guardian engagement and support.
As a consultant for the district for many
years, I have worked with (already) two different superintendents and an acting
superintendent.
Underlying the “revolving superintendent
door” here is a School Board that often has conflicting philosophical beliefs
and school management perspectives . . . where one faction dismisses a
superintendent until another faction regains the majority vote to dismiss the
next superintendent.
The current superintendent is trying to stop
the “revolution” (pun intended) by placating as many people as possible. . . on
the Board, within the staff, and extended out to the parents and community.
But he is, unfortunately, missing the
Boat: In placating everyone, there is more inconsistency, more distrust, and more
(public and “underground”) accusations of favoritism than ever before.
More critically: More
decisions are being made for the adults THAN FOR THE STUDENTS . . . to the
degree that the students’ academic, behavioral, school readiness, and
engagement needs are suffering.
Ironically, these negative student outcomes may
result (eventually) in the Superintendent’s dismissal . . . because the
District may end up in “school improvement” at the state department of
education level.
_ _ _
_ _
NOTE WELL: I am not saying that administrators
don’t need to plan, organize, manage, and make decisions strategically . . .
And I am not saying that
administrators sometimes have to “go slow to go fast,” and make deft, sometimes
imperceptible “chess-like” moves to position themselves, their staff, and (especially)
their students for success . . .
But, I am saying that if we please the adults to the detriment of
the students (and their outcomes), we have lost the essence of our
educational mission, vision, and values.
It’s the difference between feeling good
(because the superintendent is giving me what I want) and doing good
(because our students are getting a sound and successful education).
_ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
A Primer on Making Decisions “For the
Greater Good”
In a December 19, 2015 blog (CLICK HERE), I discussed The
Ultimate Organizational Strategies for School Success. Described within a “voyage” or “journey”
metaphor, the strategies were summarized in the following Seven C’s:
* Charting the Course
* Collecting the Supplies
* Cruising with Purpose
* Checking Coordinates
* Correcting for Drift
* Containing Crises
* Celebrating the Voyage
Below, I revisit these “Seven C’s,” and
briefly discuss the negative (or just unintended) effects when administrators
make decisions “for the greater peace,” rather than “for the greater good.”
_ _ _
_ _
#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 a district’s current or
desired journey or “voyage”—at the organizational, instructional, staff, and
multi-tiered student levels.
Relative to Barker’s quote, the goals are
based on the mission, vision, and values of the district . . . but also on the
history, resources, needs, and outcomes for the students.
_ _ _
_ _
When decisions are made for the Greater
Peace than the Greater Good:
The needs and outcomes of the students are
sacrificed, and poor decisions are made relative to the hiring of new and the
placement of current staff; the selection of curricula and the evaluation of
instruction; and the identification of short-term goals versus the unwavering
focus on long-term outcomes.
_ _ _
_ _
#2: Collecting the Supplies
This step focuses on identifying and
gathering the needed resources so that the district’s educational 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.
_ _ _
_ _
When decisions are made for the Greater
Peace than the Greater Good:
The district may not attain the “return on
investment” needed to support student, staff, and school outcomes. Indeed, the district may become incorrectly,
inefficiently, redundantly, and/or under-resourced. Thus, it may never build the momentum needed
to reach its goals, or it may need to abandon its journey because it “runs out
of supplies.”
So, part of strategic planning is to
correctly “plan for—before embarking on—the journey.”
_ _ _
_ _
#3: Cruising with Purpose
Districts Cruise with Purpose when
they have (a) developed effective and targeted strategic plans, (b) identified
and gathered the essential resources needed, (c) identified and prepared for
potential challenges, (d) chosen the optimal time to begin, and (e) determined
how and when to evaluate their multiple areas of progress.
With all of this accomplished, districts can
embark on their “journeys” with direction, determination, confidence, and
purpose.
While all of this sounds natural and easy,
many districts complete all of the planning and preparation, but never embark
on the journey.
Sometimes, the “coordinates” of the journey
are incorrect from the start—because of the decision-making at the top.
_ _ _
_ _
When decisions are made for the Greater
Peace than the Greater Good:
The District cannot “cruise with purpose,”
because the (student-focused) purpose is less important than the (adult-focused)
agendas.
In fact, when this occurs, the journey is largely
doomed from the start. That is, the
district begins the journey going in the wrong direction. While the district will get “somewhere,” it
will not get where it needs to be.
Parenthetically, there are times when
administrators consciously decide to not make a decision—as a way to
avoid disappointing, aggravating, or provoking one or more constituencies.
First of all, a decision “to not make a
decision,” is a decision... one where the results of the
“non-decision” may increase the probability of a negative or unintended effect. Indeed, Trammell Crow said, “There’s as much
risk in doing nothing as in doing something.”
Second, a non-decision means that the
district may either drift for a while (requiring later time, effort, and
resources to reset the journey), or that a number of different people may take
the lead on the journey (resulting in “too many oars rowing in too many
different directions” such that the boat is traveling in circles).
_ _ _
_ _
#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 the district is 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.
_ _ _
_ _
But . . . when decisions are made
for the Greater Peace than the Greater Good:
Objective formative evaluation may
help the district to recognize that it began the journey going in the wrong
direction (see #3 above).
But if the formative evaluation is subjective
and focused on maintaining the greater peace, then the evaluation will be
designed to . . . and likely will result in . . . “validating” (usually,
incorrectly) that “we are meeting our goals.”
William Drayton said, “Change starts when
someone sees the next step.”
But if a district is evaluating goals, implementation
activities, and outcomes that are poorly designed from the beginning, the “next
step” may seem logical, but it will be incorrect.
Said a different way: Most large bodies of water are navigated by
tacking the sailboat back and forth, constantly evaluating and making the
mid-course corrections need to reach the desired destination.
But if the coordinates to the destination are
wrong from the beginning, all the tacking and mid-course corrections in the
world won’t matter—you won’t get where you need to go.
_ _ _
_ _
#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, and as noted above, 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.
_ _ _
_ _
But, once again . . . when
decisions are made for the Greater Peace than the Greater Good:
Unless the district realizes that it is
drifting, and immediately implements a “correction action” plan, all of the
mid-course corrections are either moot . . . or will “drift” the district even
further off-course.
_ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
#6: Containing Crises
This sixth (of the Seven) C’s, Containing
Crises, focuses on the planning that prevents crises (as districts
work to attain their strategic goals), and the advanced planning that prepares
them to quickly address most crises as they arise.
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 design 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 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 districts 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.
_ _ _
_ _
But . . . when decisions are made
for the Greater Peace than the Greater Good:
The time, resources, and energy spent in
crisis prevention and planning typically is wasted, because they are geared to
the wrong goals and outcomes.
More critically, however, is the
potential that more crises that are more serious and more difficult
to stabilize and resolve may result because—underlying what appears to be “the
greater peace”—are the disaffected and distrustful feelings of different staff
and other district constituencies who either are instigating these crises, or
(at least) are not committed to helping the superintendent resolve them.
Back “in the day” when the Ed Sullivan show
was on, there was a performer (see below) who used to spin ten, fifteen, or
twenty plates simultaneously on their own thin metal “pole.”
While this professional knew what he was
doing, there are times when administrators focused on the “Greater Peace” are,
in essence, simultaneously “spinning a bunch of plates on poles.
And what is the likely outcome? A bunch of broken plates that cannot be
repaired or used again.
_ _ _
_ _
#7: Celebrating the Voyage
The last of the Seven C’s is Celebrating
the Voyage. It 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.
_ _ _
_ _
When decisions are made for the Greater
Peace than the Greater Good:
“Celebrations” are often illusory. That is, because a district’s goals,
objectives, and outcomes are focused on placating the “special interests” of
selected individuals (to achieve the “greater peace”), any “successes” that are
celebrated are more adult-centered than student-centered.
While celebrations are important, those that
are consistent with the district’s mission, vision, and values—and that reflect
legitimate student outcomes—are more valuable, sustainable, and meaningful.
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
The “real” messages in this Blog are the
constructive, proactive, and student-centered ones embedded in the descriptions
of the Seven C’s:
* Charting the Course
* Collecting the Supplies
* Cruising with Purpose
* Checking Coordinates
* Correcting for Drift
*
Containing Crises
* Celebrating the Voyage
The “anti-messages” involve the negative
outcomes—at the system, school, staff, and student levels—that could occur at
each Seven C stage when administrators make decisions for the Greater
Peace (of different adults), rather than the Greater Good (of the students).
Once again, I understand the dynamics
and complexities of being a great superintendent (district administrator, or
school administrator). And, I understand
that—as above—administrators have to make deft, sometimes imperceptible
“chess-like” moves to position themselves, their staff, and (especially)
their students for success.
But I also know that the
decision-making approaches being used by the superintendent in the district I
described at the beginning of this Blog are similarly used by other
superintendents across the country—especially when they are working in districts
that have experienced a “revolving superintendent door.”
But also as noted, these decision-making
approaches—often motivated by self-preservation—typically are counterproductive
and unsuccessful—for students, as well as the superintendents themselves.
Indeed:
“You Can Please Some of the People Some of
the Time. . . But You Can’t Please All of the People All of the Time”
And if superintendents are trying to please
staff and constituents in order to “manage” their success, they will lose the
capacity to “leader” their districts to real success.
_ _ _ _ _
I hope that this BLOG has provided one or
two (or more) kernels of wisdom that will help you—regardless of your current
school, agency, or other position—to self-reflect, self-correct (as needed),
and self-determine your leadership success.
As always, I look forward to your comments.
. . whether on-line or via e-mail (knoffprojectachieve@earthlink.net).
If I can help you in any area of the school
and schooling process, I am always happy to provide a free one-hour
consultation conference call to help you clarify your needs and directions on
behalf of your students.
Meanwhile, as you “journey” to the end of
this school year, I hope that the Seven C’s will help steer you straight
to the successes you deserve, while also helping you to navigate through any
rough waters that you encounter.
Best,
Howie
