Change Done Well National Charter Schools Conference

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Why I chose to do this topic: There have been many articles recently in national publications about the “human capital crisis” in public education. The argument goes like this: Research says that students get higher test scores from quality teachers. Also, quality leadership is a critical component of school success. So, in order to succeed as a school, we need many more quality teachers and leaders to work in education. Ed schools, many argue, are turning out teachers that are well-versed in educational theory, but their practical experience (that is, experience in which they get constructive feedback on their teaching) is typically weak. Organizations like Teach for America and New Leaders for New Schools are attempting to fill the gap. They train eager, idealistic people in the latest teaching techniques, provide coaching and support, and send them off to urban schools. But, the need is much bigger than those large organizations can meet. Some are calling for huge incentives to attract “ivy league” graduates or private-sector “bridgers” into the teaching profession – a great and smart idea, but there are far too few of them to address the challenge. And the few admirable social entrepreneurs who eschew the boardroom for the classroom are likely to move to cities like New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, or Washington, DC. But, I live in Albany, NY. It’s a place where not a lot of people come to transform public education. So, I started thinking about how a school in Albany might address ITS human capital crisis. How would it attract and retain great staff? There are a lot of Albany’s out there (Helena, AR; Rochester, NY; Sheboygan, WI; Sacramento, CA). So, today I will argue that at some point, we will have to face reality – we are going to have to get creative and work with the people we’ve got. (that doesn’t mean lower our standards; it means, create schools that truly know the context they live in, and can adapt in order to make the most of it.Secondly, the whole point of charter schools is to operate with less burdensome and restrictive regulations. Even if your school isn’t suffering from a human capital crisis, your school must still innovate, try new things, and be creative in order to provide a great education that opens the doors of opportunity for students who are counting on you. So, charters must develop resilience in order to deliver on the promise of the charter movement.

Straightforward.

The Point: Define resilience. This is a term that we usually associate with individuals. We all know it’s important for students and adults to be resilient in order to keep moving forward when life places obstacles in our paths. Similarly, organizations face challenges every day (e.g., changing laws/regulations, staffing surprises, enrollment shifts, competition from other schools, challenges from opponents, etc.). So, it’s just as important for organizations to be resilient in order grow and excel (and not merely cope and survive).

The point: Even With Processes, There’s Unpredictability. This image represents a school year from the vantage point of the principal or academic dean. While any school follows these steps (and many others), it matters how well each step is executed. Each step has a downstream impact that will inevitably affect school culture, quality of instruction, and ultimately student achievement. For instance, if recruiting for new teachers starts late, the school will not have the best candidates from which to select. The existing staff may view this as a lowering of standards or ineffective leadership. They may resent the new hires, and morale and effectiveness may suffer. Or consider what happens if hiring is delayed. The school runs the risk of teachers starting work after Summer PD is completed. If that happens, the new hires won’t be fully on board or fully acculturated. This leads to uneven and inconsistent application of school norms, and everyone – including students – may be left wondering if any rules apply at all. Another example: if the quality of teaching is poor, then state test results will be low. Not only is this devastating to the kids, but it signals to the staff that it’s OK to do a lousy job. Permitting poor performance will drive away quality teachers (who view leadership as not “walking the talk” on accountability). After all, who wants to work in a failing school? It will also attract teachers who may not be mission-aligned and who may be less qualified to raise student achievement (since it doesn’t appear to be an organizational goal). In short, processes are important, but they have to be viewed in the context of the whole school.

The sum total of everything that happened in your school – everyone’s decisions and behaviors – generated the results you’ve got now. That is, it’s not simply the new computer system or new curriculum, it’s how people used those things that gave you your results. Further, it’s not simply the existing employee handbook or student discipline code, its how people interpreted and implemented them that gave you your results. This is difficult, because you chose the curriculum because “the most successful schools use it” and you have written your student discipline policy based on a “proven model.” Let’s take a quick look at why schools sometimes fail to achieve good outcomes even though they emulate (or replicate) what they’ve seen work elsewhere.

The Point: Typical Change Efforts Don’t Work. I hope you are all thinking about ways to change your organization. I suspect that’s why you’re at this conference. You want to implement new ideas that you pick up here. Let me offer a word of caution. It’s easy to screw up change efforts. In fact, even the biggest and savviest companies in the world aren’t very good at it. (That’s not permission for you to try and fail, however). We know why change efforts fail. They typically focus on improving processes and they exclude people who would be affected by the change. Look at this chart. 70% of change efforts fail! They fail because of cultural factors, not because the process isn’t being fixed properly.

This is how we typically solve problems in schools. We identify a problem, figure out what’s causing it, brainstorm ideas (alone or with one or two people), and develop an action plan. So, let’s say teachers are coming in late (that’s the problem we’ve identified). We might ask around to find out why this is happening. “Why are people coming in late?” (deficit based question focusing on the problem). We get answers from folks like, “my kids have been sick, so I’ve been running to the doctor’s office a lot.” or “so-and so just moved to a new part of town and she’s still getting accustomed to her commute.” or “I think so-and-so has a new boyfriend and she’s staying over at his place a lot, so… you know.” or “I always make up the time at the end of the day; why don’t you see that, too?” Then you try to make sense of all this information and brainstorm ideas. What’s it going to be? A memo to the whole staff? “Feedback” sessions with the main offenders? A formal review of the personnel manual? All of the above? You feel like you’ve been inclusive because you asked around. So, you send a memo to everyone in the school (in which you restate the appropriate section of the personnel manual and say that “not everyone’s guilty,” but you’ve noticed that some peopleneed a reminder) and to your surprise, the next day several teachers are late! Why do you suppose this didn’t work? Have you ever seen a similar situation? What assumptions was the school leader making? Also, by focusing on the process (in this case, the school leader reminded people of his expectations and cited the manual), we erode the organization’s capacity to think objectively and creatively. “Well, I guess this is the way it’s going to be.” Some of the reasons people had for being late were legitimate, and a positive organization would focus less on the fact that teachers were late and more on a compassionate solution to either get them to work on time or to ensure their duties were appropriately handled.(By the way, sometimes it’s fine to send a memo and simply restate expectations. Not all change has to be collaborative. It works better, however, if there’s an established positive culture)

So, now we’re going to talk about how to initiate change in a way that will reduce the chances of failure.

We know that traditional change models typically don’t work.We know that they don’t work because of cultural factors.So, we need to focus on people. I’m talking about the adults, not the students.We are not very good at addressing and changing the adult behaviors (or the culture) in a school, even though it’s the most powerful lever for transforming performance. Why is changing the culture of a school so difficult? [people don’t like change – that is, they’re not resilient]Culture efforts work best when they’re co-created and supported or influenced by leaders. The most effective culture changes are learned and not dictated; they feel organic and not instilled. But they must be continuously cultivated because cultures tend to slide back to a neutral or negative position --- there is no “there” it’s a continuous effort.

The Point: We can do better. Spiral up instead of spiral down by focusing on a clear picture of the future.Most change activity is centered around identifying and fixing problems. If all of our effort is placed there, the best we can expect is an adequate or “good enough” school. It’ll be healthy (as in “not sick”), effective (as in “not ineffective”), reliable (as in “not error-prone”) – all good things. But, I think we owe it to students to do even better than that. All organizations have some part that works well. All organizations have experienced a time when all cylinders were firing and there was a lot of positive momentum. What happens if we stop relentlessly focusing on problems and focus on strengths? Instead of working on not being ineffective (which results in being effective), we need to think in terms of being excellent. It’s not good enough to be reliable, we need to be flawless. Flip the change model on its head – identify strengths, analyze root causes of success, brainstorm ways to repeat that success, and develop an action plan from there.Like any change effort, it’s continuous. That is, it requires work to maintain an organization’s capacity for high performance. People need to be involved, and a culture of trust, collaboration, transparency, and respect are critical to ensure everyone is working towards building individual and group capacity to move towards the same vision of the future.

This model helps organizations catalyze change quickly through a collaborative process of inquiry. It works better when more people from the organization are involved. Many large organizations (including the United Nations) have used this process to help them “get off the dime” and move in a positive direction. Typically, it’s facilitated by an experienced practitioner, but much of this can be “home grown.”

In our case, we want to know how to attract and retain good staff, so we frame the topic positively. In our case, it might be something like “Magnetic School Environments for Teachers” This is more productive than talking about “why teachers leave,” or “why morale is low.” In fact, Organizational Development research confirms that organizations move in the direction of what they study. That is, the questions we ask determine what we find. So, the topic choice (including the words we use) is fateful.Step 1: Discover those moments when the school is at its best. For those of you who know what action research is, this a reflective process of progressive problem solving that seeks to involve more people so they more readily contribute and own solutions. Draft a positive question where you ask a person to identify a high point moment at the school where (for example) it was a truly magnetic environment, where I felt bonded to the school and my colleagues, the days went by quickly but were highly productive; and everyone contributed regardless of their role, and everyone helped each other out. Interview everyone in the organization (or set up teams to interview others) and collect the data)When we attract a great teacher, what were we all doing that helpedthat person decide to say “yes.”

Ask interviewees to envision the school in its ideal future state. What does a magnetic school look like? Who would be there? What do people do to make it magnetic? What does the hiring and interviewing process look like? Who talks to prospective candidates? Why do people line up at the door to be a part of this special school? Take notes, these are important elements.What would the results be if all our teachers were fully engaged,loved their jobs, and stayed forfive years?

Circle back with those who have been interviewed and share the data with them (preferably in a group setting). Show them the themes that emerged from all the interviews. Share powerful quotes from colleagues that demonstrate that there’s a lot of strong work going on in the school. Typically the data sorts into categories; in our case, let’s say the data centered around advertising (how the school was portrayed in job ads), interviewing (what are the selection criteria and who can interview), and professional development (growth opportunities for staff). Ask interviewees to pick a topic they want to work on. Those people are now a committee that will review the data in detail and make recommendations. The people most interested in the category are most likely to follow-through. This isn’t an affirmation exercise; it’ll bring out the best professional in everyone. The results are typically new innovations, eclipsing of old patterns, and infusion of energy into the organization. What key areas can we work on and who on the staff has abilities (regardless of role) that can help?

The Destiny phase initiates a series of inspired actions that support ongoing learning and innovation - or “what will be.” It focuses specifically on personal and organizational commitments and paths forward. The result of destiny is generally an extensive array of changes throughout the organization in areas such as: Management practices HR processes Measurement systems Work processes and structuresWhat areas can we work on that will help ensure these changes actually stick?

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Change Done Well National Charter Schools Conference - Presentation Transcript

Change Done Well
How Resilient Organizations Attract and Retain Great Staff
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Conference
Washington, DC
June 22, 2009
The “Problems”
I can’t find enough high-quality teachers and/or leaders to work in my school.
We interview great people, but they end up going somewhere else.
My best teachers keep leaving.
We’ve had x principals in y years.
I have a good staff, but the school isn’t getting the results we’re hoping for.
My school leader is working 18 hour days.
Session Objectives
Define Resilience
Link Resilience to Organizational Change
Provide Evidence of the Value of Resilience to Attract and Retain Great Staff
Offer A Way Forward for Schools
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from setbacks, learn from failure, be motivated by challenges and believe in one’s own abilities to deal with the stress and difficulties in life.
Why Resilience is Important
Why Resilience is Important
Your school is perfectly designed to achieve the results it’s getting right now.
Change Done Poorly
Cultural Factors
Source: The Performance Culture Imperative, McKinsey & Co.
Change Done Poorly
- Schools are problems that need to be solved
- Language reflects (and sustains) culture
- Loss of power to inspire
- Breakdown in relations / Fear
- Less creativity/innovation
- A vague image of the future
- Focus on processes; people left out
- “The experts must know”
- Increased hierarchy
- Fragmentation / winners & losers
- Sisyphus Syndrome -- exhaustion
Strengths-Based change
“The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths…making a system’s weaknesses irrelevant”.
Peter Drucker (in an interview with Dr. David Cooperrider)
Behavior (a.k.a. Culture) Change
The most powerful lever for transforming performance.
Co-created
Influenced by leaders
Learned (not dictated)
Generative (can grow in any direction)
Dissonance is the default setting
“Fixing culture is the most critical – and the most difficult – part of organizational transformation.”
- Lou Gerstner
Retired CEO of IBM
The Clock Is Ticking
“In order for GE to succeed with speed, the company needs to create a culture that breeds an endless search for ideas that stand or fall on their merits rather than the rank of their originator; a culture that brings every mind into the game.”
Jack Welch’s Final Letter to Shareholders.
A Strengths-Based View of Change
Normative Momentum
Normative Momentum
Dynamics of Reaction
And Restoration
Dynamics of Pro-Action
And Extension
Fix Problems
Build Capacity
Source: Lecture by Dr. Ron Fry
A way Forward:Resilience/Change Exercise
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Resilience-Building Change Map
Imagine a time when we’re
at our best…
How can this change endure?
Affirmative
Topic
What would the school
look like if…
What should be the ideal …
Source: Appreciative Inquiry Commons
1) Choose Topic (Carefully)
Topic Selection
Task force or strategic group with leadership support
Fateful. Schools move in the direction of inquiry
Frame it positively
Reduction of lost bags vs. Outstanding arrival experience
Why is morale low? vs. What makes the team fully engaged?
Pay attention to the words you use
“no not woods” vs. “fairway”
2) Discover Strengths
Create interview questions that elicit stories of when the school was at its best.
Positive questions will yield richer stories
Interview the “system”
Inclusion gives you an accurate picture
Anyone impacted by the change effort
How you ask is important
Authenticity matters
3) Build Ideal Future Vision
Interviewees imagine what their ideal school looks like
Engagement and support rises
Future begins to seem possible
What is one thing that we can do today that will get us closer that vision?
Documenting suggestions and action steps
4) Co-Construct / Design
Analyze interview data
Identify consistent themes
Each theme on it’s own poster
Vote with your feet
Committed teams are formed
Groups meet to consider action steps and develop provocative propositions
Groups present bold ideas to whole school
5) Sustain Your Efforts
Support Ongoing Learning and Innovation
Continue to think in terms of the positive future
How will we make change stick
Focus on Commitments Made
Person and organizational
Welcome the Change Cascade
Change in one area affects other areas
Call To Action & Conclusion
"If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
--Thomas Edison
Likely Outcomes
Higher Engagement of Staff
Tighter Connection to Mission of School
Higher Job Satisfaction
Likely to Work Harder and Stay Longer
Better Sense of “What It Takes” to Succeed
And Who Would Be a Good Fit
Greater Openness to New Ideas & Feedback
More Resilient Organization
Higher Student Achievement*
Go Back And …
Make Resilience a Priority
Consider it an investment in sustainability
Leverage Strengths
Change the conversation to change the culture
Take Action
Don’t just change, use an intentional change process
Think Bigger
Don’t get stuck “fixing problems”
Persevere
Change is messy, frustrating, rewarding, and important
Questions? Comments?
Thank You!
Paul Thallner
pthallner@gmail.com