Leading Flourishing Schools: Cups, Torches & Lightbulbs!

'Capacity' is the key: You cannot pour from an empty cup!

with Alistair Kerr

The Legacy of School: Helping Or Hindering Our Adult Lives…

One of the greatest gifts we can receive from our time at school is the discovery of the skills, attitudes, and beliefs that underpin lifelong learning. Yes, curriculum knowledge is important but, the impact on our lives from knowing that the capital of Peru is Lima is far and away surpassed by the love of learning and the knowledge of how to learn. Lifelong learning is about resilience, creativity, and the ability to adapt to an ever changing and uncertain environment (no matter what may unfold), and underpins all success in life.?

A Teacher Affects Eternity - H. Adams

This most precious of gifts is sparked and then cultivated by dedicated educators, who know and care for their students. These educators not only meet each and every student at their academic level, but they help them push far beyond what they imagined they were capable of. We call these very dedicated educators ‘unicorn teachers’ because they have such a magical and monumental impact on the students in their care. When you close your eyes and think of the teacher that had the biggest positive impact on your career and life, that’s your unicorn teacher.?

BUT sadly for many of us, when we close our eyes to think of the teachers that have had a massive positive impact, we may not remember any, or if we’re lucky we may remember one or two at best. This is not because our memories are failing us but rather because the way many schools operate inadvertently block the potential for magic moments and unicorn teachers. As you will see, if we make simple changes to the way we run our schools, changes that do not disrupt all the other essential activities and obligations, changes that can be easily applied across different countries and cultural contexts, we can increase the magic moments and unicorn teachers in the lives of current and future students…

Teaching & Learning Require Energy: 'You Cannot Pour From An Empty Cup'!

In every school, every student, every teacher, and every staff member who works behind the scenes arrives each day with a baseline level of capacity (energy, focus, and beliefs) that directly impacts the teaching and learning experiences that will occur. If you imagine capacity like water in a cup some students, teachers, and staff have cups that are full to overflowing, while others have barley a few drops. Obviously, to get the most out of teaching and learning more capacity is better and School Culture plays a major role in the preservation or depletion of capacity.?

In schools with a low capacity culture (characterised by ill-defined, and inconsistent support systems for staff and students) tremendous amounts of energy are burned across the school on navigating competing priorities, uncertain relationships, and poor communication (see diagram below). This leaves little to no energy left over for quality teaching and learning. In short, schools with low capacity culture drain the cups of students, teachers, and support staff alike, and you cannot pour from an empty cup.

In stark contrast, schools with high capacity culture (characterised by clearly defined, and consistent support systems for staff and students) help staff and students to preserve tremendous amounts of energy to engage in quality teaching and learning because priorities are clear and known, relationships are supportive, and comprehensive communication enhances performance and support across the school (see diagram below). In short, schools with high capacity cultures help all staff and students to flourish by keeping their cups as full as possible.?

High Capacity School Culture: Support Systems vs. Personal Influence – The Lightbulb vs The Torch.

Creating a high capacity culture where all staff and students can flourish is THE MOST important thing that a school leader can do to ensure the success of their school, and throughout the world there are some extraordinarily dedicated school leaders who have taken it upon themselves to use their individual influence and personal effort shine the light of improvement. But while admirable, individual influence and personal effort isn’t sufficient for this most important of tasks.

Just like the narrow beam of light from a torch (see diagram), the impact of an individual leader’s individual influence and personal effort is narrow. Thus, where the leader’s focus is maintained excellence is guaranteed, however an individual leader’s focus can’t be everywhere all the time. When leaders rely solely on their influence and personal effort not only will performance be skewed to reflect their own areas of focus but also the risk of burnout will be exponentially magnified as the size of the school increases.?

To achieve ultimate success in creating a High Capacity Culture, School Leaders need to broaden the effects of their influence from the narrow beam of torchlight to the all encompassing glow of the lightbulb - for ultimate success, school leaders need school wide systems that are understood and practiced by everyone.

High Capacity School Cultures: The ‘BIG 4’ Support Systems?

As you can see in the diagram, there are 4 key support systems which need to be embedded in a school to create a high capacity school culture - one which maximises the collective efficacy of teachers and the self efficacy of students - which in turn enables all staff and students to flourish!

1.???The system of?Maximising Self & Collective Efficacy

2.???The system of?Boosting The Return On Data?

3.???The system of Communication Using The Platinum Rule?

4.???The system of Building High Performance Teams

How Strong Are Your School's Support Systems?

If building a school culture where all staff and students can flourish is important to you, then maximising everyone's 'Capacity' is the key! The sustainable way to do this is by building 4 key Support Systems in your school that shine brightly enabling everyone to feel calm, clear and supported - freeing up their energy to focus on teaching and learning - to increase the number of magic moments - unicorn teacher effects - positively changing the lives of students forever.

To get started on journey the first step is to assess how well the Big 4 Support Systems are currently working in your school context. We have a super quick (60sec) school diagnostic tool you can complete HERE. From there you can see your strengths and the areas to improve and begin a larger conversation with your school leadership team and staff before embarking on some targeted improvement strategies to build the Support Systems needed for a High Capacity School Culture.

Thank you for your commitment to building a High Capacity School Culture so that all of your staff and students can flourish!

Dr Pete Stebbins PhD

Dr Pete Stebbins, PhD,?is a workplace psychologist, executive coach & author of the recently released book:?"Leading Flourishing Schools: Building High Capacity School Culture"?Pete has many years of research and professional practice behind him working extensively in education and health. Pete is the director of the?High Performance Schools Program?working with a large number of schools to maximise staff and student outcomes.