Mental Shift #7: Leading with a “Go With What Is Known” Response

In Waitley’s (1984) classic, Psychology of Winning, he eloquently describes how the calm, peaceful lagoon-side of the great barrier reef lacks all the splendor, beauty, and life that the ocean-side of the reef boasts.

He reveals that the constant bombardment of the ocean on the reef creates life. It’s the pressure and the struggle that offers the opportunity for growth. The willingness to confront challenges, meet issues head on, and move forward with faith is what transforms us and our schools. Again, this is counterintuitive to our self-preserving nature, but it is also the understanding and attitude that will transform schools.?

The COVID19 pandemic, at times, presented itself as an indomitable force, wreaking havoc on our lives, but it also unveiled incredible creativity and professionalism among educators--an implication that supports the idea that moving forward schools will succeed through acute, discriminate change.

There is certainly a place for large scale policy, such as educational standards, but as Richard Elmore observed, policy is not the solution, in fact, he advised, “become a better practitioner and get back into schools as quickly as possible. You will have a much more profound effect on the education sector working in schools” (Elmore, 2010).

This is not to downplay policies that seek to ensure that every child receives a world-class education, but general solutions and sweeping policies plateau because they fail to reach the deepest corners of schooling. Impact in those areas comes from the work being done on the front lines. Humans in the classroom and supporting personnel are the ones who are able to make the greatest difference.

This requires schools to evaluate the effectiveness of every aspect of schooling and make necessary changes based on input from the staff, research, and data. Schools need to conduct an audit to fully gauge and understand what is occurring in a school so that we know more about our actual impact and so that we look into other ways that might be better at meeting our students’ needs. Audits don’t inspire enthusiasm or excitement, but they do offer clarity in the current status of learning. This is the power and the necessity of our teaching and learning model called A.U.D.I.T. in schools.

Model: Accomplish, Understand, Decide, Initiate, and Test

The last thing we can afford to do in education is propose one more idea or solution that is packaged as an initiative but neglect to remove other initiatives to make room. Structural mechanics may be taught in some of our schools, but it is not used to determine how much the educational community can hold. Like bridges, schools are impacted by many forces and can only bear so much weight before they collapse. In schools, this is evidenced by teacher attrition, poor morale, and toxic cultures. An effective instructional A.U.D.I.T. will review all the initiatives underway, determine what needs to be eliminated, and provide insight so that leaders can go with what is known.

Our audit asks five overarching questions of the school instructional learning team, often composed of administrators, teacher leaders, and support personnel. The A.U.D.I.T. is designed to ensure that every school wide effort is the most effective option by aligning resources and integrating systems and programs.?

First Question: What do we want to accomplish??

The first question is straightforward and gets right to the point. What is it that we want to accomplish? This question should directly tie to the Disciplined Tunnel Vision that was described in Chapter Five (this is an excerpt from 7 Mindshifts for School Leaders), along with core values and key performance indicators. Knowing the outcome is necessary for achievement and needs to be clearly understood by everyone. To ensure alignment to our Disciplined Tunnel Vision, our second question is on understanding.?

Second Question: What Do We Need to Further Understand?

Too often, educational teams jump to conclusions due to their expert blindspots. The question, What do we need to further understand to achieve our aim? prevents overlooking details or key points. Looking back on our reading focus described in Chapter Five, “asking and answering questions about unknown words in a text,” the A.U.D.I.T. helps to establish the model lessons that the reading committee will develop, leveraging the most effective instructional practices.?

Third Question: What Decisions Do We Need to Make?

After we have questions one and two answered, our next critical question is, What decisions do we need to make? This is when courage kicks in and we challenge the status quo and the untouchables that may prevent change and progress. Again, these should be aligned to our key performance indicators within a particular area but will also consider related areas like the professional learning for new staff. This is the sophistication and intersection of The Octopus Approach, Disciplined Tunnel Vision, and running an effective A.U.D.I.T. Schools are not static; plans and initiatives need to evolve as needs grow. This is why many teachers are frustrated and feel that initiatives are ineffective or irrelevant. There is little differentiation regarding the skill level of the educator.

For example, if a school decides to make reading a priority then every teacher should be skilled in selecting appropriate texts, effective reading strategies, and how to provide meaningful feedback to students. However, professional development should be designed for the adult learners, their expertise, and years of experience. A new teacher should not be in the same professional development as a veteran teacher if the veteran teacher already possesses the skills to effectively preview text, implement summarization, or use questioning techniques in the classroom.

Fourth Question: What is the Most Effective and Efficient Way to Initiate the Plan?

The next question emerges, what is the most effective and efficient way to initiate our path forward? This is the art of weighing each aspect of our system so that we can chart appropriate next steps. Timing is critical for success. As Mike Tyson famously said in preparation for his fight against Evander Holyfield, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” (Berardino, 2012). The initiation phase needs to consider all aspects of schooling identified through our systems approach.?

Fifth Question: How Will We Test Our Work?

Lastly, we ask our final question: How will we test our work and our outcomes to determine if we are improving? Education is obsessed with inputs but often fails to accurately measure the outcomes of those inputs. We have a tendency to rely heavily on other forms of data, such as standardized tests that don’t necessarily align well with the particular area that we are working to improve. The use of annual standardized assessment results perpetuates this general approach to change. Instead, schools can benefit by learning from Dominos and their persistence with ensuring that customers are satisfied. When they used customer satisfaction as the measurement for success, profit, and growth both fell into place.?

These questions are represented in our model for conducting a Professional Learning Audit shown in Figure 7.1. The questions force schools to review the strategies and initiatives at every level to determine their effectiveness. The A.U.D.I.T. essentially asks why we are doing something and whether or not it is making a difference.

This process also requires everyone to dig deeper to fully understand the problem and the potential solutions. Let’s consider running an A.U.D.I.T. on a common untouchable, school start times.

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