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By: Ryan Steuer, CEO
Magnify Learning
Dallas, TX
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Where will you and your school be in three years? One thing is certain: you'll be somewhere. How do you make sure that “somewhere” is on purpose and not just where you've ended up?
Are your teachers fighting apathy in their classrooms? Are they burned out and leaving your school? Are you finding it tough to find your passion? Maybe you're on the other side of that and you've got your passion and you're ready to run. How do you know you're running in the right direction? You are a visionary leader who sees education change as a moral imperative. You are made for a time such as this, and I'm here to guide you down the path to fulfill your vision. Welcome, visionary leader and visionary learner.
Define the Dissonance, Define the Ideal, and Set the Path
There's something wrong with today's education systems. There's something (maybe even many things) that needs to be improved. We know that. In the previous post we talked about defining the dissonance and the ideal. Now it’s time to define the path forward.
Looking three years out, where are you going to take yourself and your staff? You need a plan in order to step confidently into the future. Every school leader should define the next three years of the vision with four future facing steps. Maybe it's implementing Project Based Learning in the classroom. Maybe it’s student-centered learning PLC’s. Whatever your focus is, you want your team to move in a certain direction.
Develop Your Own Experts
The first step is to determine what it takes to develop experts in this work. I call it “train to expert.” Your staff cannot remain novices in your intended direction. If you're going to be a premier PLC school, you need to have experts in PLC’s. If you're going to be a premier project-based Learning school, you need PBL Certified facilitators on your staff who are qualified enough to lead PBL Workshops in other schools, while also capable of sustaining the work that's happening in your own school. You can't have novices running this work for a decade and have it succeed.
The tricky part for you as a leader is the innovation curve. You've got early innovators on the front end of that curve. You've got some early adopters, an early majority, late majority, and some laggards. Everybody's coming into your vision from a different place. You've got some veterans that are rock stars; you've got some newbies that are rock stars. You've got some veterans and newbies that could use some help. They're all on this plane together. They need some experts on board.
How will this happen? You've got to build until you have your own experts. You can't continually lean on someone outside of your organization. Sure, there's always a place for outside organizations or consultants. You need someone to come in and shake things up a little bit; I play this role a lot and I do think it's necessary. But you've got to have experts on staff that are sustaining the culture, and the importance & integrity of the work – someone about whom you can say, “Visit room 239, and you will see this working well.” It’s a critical facet of training the early adopters and the rest of the innovation curve.
Build a Culture
The second future facing step that you need to take is to build a culture. How does this happen? First, look at the internal culture of your building. Why do people want to work and learn at your school? Every school has strengths in its DNA. Determine what keeps people showing up each day at your school and not some other school (after all, most of them could leave today and have a job somewhere else). Capitalize on those strengths and use them to build identity.
With that positive identity known, seal it up with super glue. Make it a goal to eventually develop an irreversible culture. Remember that phrase. It's powerful. An irreversible culture will ensure that if and when you move on to a different opportunity, the culture won’t fall apart when you do. Whomever steps into your role will step into a culture that teachers will fight for. Any new leader stepping in will need to learn, value, and nurture that irreversible culture, or risk not gaining acceptance by the staff.
Internally, you need that irreversible culture. What about externally? Your culture is being judged. What are you known for? That's where that community breakfast comes in. The people that are in your town, surrounding your school, need to know what is going on inside your building. Be a part of that conversation, shape the dialogue. If you say, “That doesn't matter. We're just going to do good work,” I would push back on that. Should you do good work? Should you focus internally? Yes, but as an outward facing leader it is imperative to show the great parts of your school to your community and tell the story of what you are known for.
The third future facing step to take in defining your path is to nurture connection. There are two ways to do this: 1) Connect in person with your staff and 2) Provide opportunities for them to connect with each other. Your staff meetings shouldn’t be an opportunity for you to just list the things that need to happen in the next week. Do that in an email. Use those rare times when your staff can get together to focus on connection. In future blogs and podcasts I will give you very specific connection protocols and opportunities that you can practice. Naturally, you can create your own. Never underestimate the power of a balloon volleyball game to bring people together. However you do it, find ways to connect the veteran with the high-flying newbie (or the high-flying veteran with the overwhelmed newbie.) They need to talk to each other. Your whole staff needs to be connected so they can intertwine some of those great best practices that are already in the room.
Your team should also connect online outside of your district. There's a larger PBL movement happening around the country and they (and you) need to connect to that. Allowing ideas to cross-pollinate will lead to even better ideas, which is the fourth future facing step.
Innovate.
Create new systems that haven't been there before because they're going to specifically work within your local context. Take the Project Based Learning knowledge that you gain from someone like Magnify Learning and then say, “This is what it looks like in our local context.” That special sauce will be yours alone, for others to see and hear about and adapt for themselves. Cross-pollination will breed more innovation for you and others. Be generous with your work. People notice that and they tend to bring it right back to you. It is reciprocal.
In summary, develop your own experts. Build irreversible culture. Connect people inside and out. As you connect, collaborate,. Build on the work of others, and share your work. These steps will bring your vision to fruition. You're going to engage your learners, tackle boredom, and transform your classrooms.
Go lead inspired!
I’m Ryan Steuer – author and thought leader who specializes in Project Based Learning training, coaching, community, and content to help educational leaders fulfill their vision of deeper learning in their schools. I’ve worked with leaders in school districts of all sizes, from 400 students to 100,000 students. These visionary leaders care about their students, but they are often stressed, overworked, and overwhelmed with the work ahead of them. That’s where I come in! I help leaders achieve their PBL vision, lead their staff, AND stop working weekends.
When I’m not guiding school leaders through Project Based Learning mindset shifts, I am outdoors with my wife and 5 kids - canoeing, hiking, biking, and traveling the US in our RV.
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