The 2020 pandemic has challenged leaders to respond quickly to what work looks like in providing continuity of services. Successful leaders ensure that their organizations will survive, remain relevant, and come out stronger given periods of intense challenge. And for the wisest of leaders, they accept these challenges with new perspectives and fresh ways.
Education District leaders, principals, and teachers on the frontlines have admirably kept the lights on, or more appropriately, the computer screens illuminated. There are examples of continuity of services, delivering opportunities to learn while attempting to stay relevant in the eyes of their public constituents, at least for the short term.
Despite the calls from leadership luminaries, the likes of Mary Parker Follet (1930s) and Peter Drucker (1950s), Education district leaders still have not answered the reasonable call to stop giving “orders” or “directives” and instead, empower those on the front lines who are better positioned to lead the future. Education does not own this organizational challenge. Nucor (NYSE: NUE), a profitable steel producing company has compensated for their size by developing a flow of horizontal knowledge power, giving their front line employees decision making capabilities with staggering results. Education could learn from them.
Top Heavy and Insulated
Growing Education Districts tend to become top-down, military-like command structures that pay attention to, promote, and institutionalize those who become more bureaucratic. Bureaucratic behavior gets rewarded and creates more layers. The levels and numbers of administrators continue to grow accompanied by increasing directives down to principals and the classroom experts. And the pressure builds for teachers who juggle the increased top-down requirements in an environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). At the same time, Districts are not asking the right questions to learn of ways to propel education forward given a new digital world.
This results in wide-spread classroom teacher isolation and insulation, lower teacher engagement, and a decrease in the willingness to bring forth game changing teaching methods. After all, what classroom teacher has the energy to innovate while navigating the increasing top-down initiatives and interacting with 25+ inquiring minds. And the most severe impact is burnout and teachers leaving the profession. This also applies to school principals charged with the delivery of daily education and viewed from the top as enforcers of the directives. They face a particular challenge of leading from the middle.
Teachers become invisible in these heavy organizations despite accolades from District leaders for following top-down instructional methods, many appearing in Twitter and really directed at the community. Yes, bureaucracies tend to focus more heavily on politics. This state of affairs directly impacts on the quality of education. Responsibility ultimately rests with District leaders although the bottom is often the recipient of blame for the failures in education. Education is not immune from significant opportunity losses from the employee disengagement seen in the U.S., estimated to be 3 trillion dollars across the board. Does anyone really know what is the opportunity lost within schools?
District Leaders Adopting Coaching Skills
District leaders should take to heart the lost potential and opportunities, and redirect excessive numbers of administrators and supervisors to new roles. These officials would be responsible for broadly asking new and open-ended powerful questions, listening at new levels of intensity, and supporting and sponsoring the emergence of game changing ideas from front line experts, the teachers. This would be performed with a new, mutually beneficial mindset that seeks the best input to realize improvement truly focused on developing game changing ways in education.
The District machine can be lacking leaders who have adopted coaching skills. This is contrary to an upward trend cited in an International Coaching Federation (ICF) 2020 global coaching study, finding an estimated increase of 40% in managers who have adopted coach-like skills as part of their leadership style, as compared to a previous study.
The repurposed administrators might be known as “Chiefs of Questioning and Listening,” “Innovation Provocateurs,” or simply as “Illuminators,” all shining light on the bright ideas shadowed by today’s suffocating organizational structure. Hal Gregerson, Executive Director of MIT’s Leadership Center, in his most recent book “Questions are the Answer” (2018) makes the case that innovation begins with leaders who leverage the power of questions throughout their organizations to solve tough challenges. Design Thinking, originating at Stanford University and having proven its success in solving hard challenges, always seeks the user as a first step to understand the obstacles and potential solutions. For instance, the redesign of an MRI device resulting in less frighten children, producing better scans, saving time and money. It started with understanding the children’s perspective staring at the machine. Teachers are the frontline users, why not start with them for change.
Realistically, the above way forward will likely not happen given the overwhelming interest in preserving organizational and professional status quo in District bureaucracies. So then, the way forward for real and needed change in education rests with front line teachers.
Teachers Are the Bridge to the Future
If the top will not become the “Illuminators” and the like, then teachers need to systematically take on this role. Teachers should start by reflecting on the mental models that influence their everyday reality. Are they a source of unique expertise worthy of honest consideration and meaningful responses and actions? Yes! Internalizing this and allow others to respectfully know it. This can be the anchor which will always be there and keep teachers heading in the right direction for lasting change and improvement.
Change is highly personal and lengthy. This requires the purposeful use of limited energy and taking care of oneself along the way. The concept of energy, not time, is key. Teachers and their administrators are aware that there are 24 hours in a day and many work well beyond contract hours, sometimes to exhaustion. If wellness programs are available within the District or community, take advantage of them. If not, ask that they be established. Instead of a singular request for wellness programs and other support, partner with “coalitions of the willing” to jointly raise the possibilities. Remind the District that organizational effectiveness and performance are capped by the health of its employees.
Given a new mind set and emphasis on self-care, teachers can look next to carve out short blocks of energy to design and implement “small experiments.” This may feel like an exercise in underachievement, but it is really about learning in small increments so as to design the future. Observe what works and has promise. Informally enlist the support of others – teachers, specialists, and members of the community as you build specific coalitions of the willing who will provide feedback, refinements, and support to your innovative efforts. Teachers do not have to do this alone. Teachers should also enlist the support of principals and include in discussions their expectation that they serve as gatekeepers keeping the bureaucracy at bay, and as the vehicle for gaining attention and additional support for impactful ideas when the time is right.
The creation of impactful educational change rides on the front lines, District leaders just have to ask, listen and support frontline experts in new ways.
Ed is a Professional Certified Coach who has worked with education leaders. The viewpoints expressed within this article are based on his experiences and observations. Ed Higgins © 2020