Claim OwnershipShifting for Impact
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Description
Educators have long wrestled with how to manage productive change in their schools. Besieged by well-intentioned voices suggesting they take “this” or “that” course of action to improve student performance, school leaders and their teams have often found themselves heading down one road only to exit onto another.
As a result, the intended changes don’t stick, and their desired outcomes remain out of reach. In these episodes, we’ll hear from educators who successfully navigated change and from those who support educators in that quest.
As a result, the intended changes don’t stick, and their desired outcomes remain out of reach. In these episodes, we’ll hear from educators who successfully navigated change and from those who support educators in that quest.
17 Episodes
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Listen to more of the interview we conducted with Mary Howard where she distinguishes between change initiatives and a culture of change. Listen especially for what she means by a collectively embraced “passion-fueled mindset,” and the difference between initiatives that are merely an act of “doing” instead of “becoming.”
Listen to part of an interview we conducted with Steve Paul where he outlines the goals, steps and benefits of a “Performance Acceleration Meeting.” Listen for why he puts a heavy emphasis on behaviors that affect the “Healthy”-side of his business.
Listen to our interview with Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit (2016) and founder of Box of Crayons, an organization that promotes coaching as the essential leadership behavior. Listen as Michael recounts the five layers of resistance to coaching – and how he counters them.
Listen to our two-part interview with Amnon Levav, Chief Innovation Officer of SIT - Systematic Inventive Thinking, where he reviews the firm’s “Function Follows Form” innovation process. Listen for why innovating with constraints and manipulating what you already have yields better results than trying to innovate out of thin air.
Listen to part of our interview with Evan Robb where he described how he set the stage for another change initiative - revising the school’s grading procedures. Listen for the strategies he used to increase engagement and get people ready to embrace and implement the change.
One who didn’t stop applying at least one of the principles from Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005) is Deb Gustafson, former Principal of Ware Elementary School in Fort Riley, Kansas. Listen as she describes how she applied the Flywheel principle and achieved dramatic results. Pay particular attention to what she determined had to be the all important first step of the school’s flywheel.
Listen to part of an interview we conducted with mindfulness author and expert Michael Bunting where he describes the “7 Disciplines of the Mindful Leader.” As he talks, think about how these disciplines would be especially relevant to the change leader.
Listen to part of an interview with Greg Ewing where he describes a change initiative when he served as superintendent of Cobb County School District in Georgia. Note how leaders revised their plan as they gathered and assessed new data.
Listen to more of the interview we conducted with former Superintendent Dr. Karen Rue where she describes the need to listen carefully to her faculty during the district’s technology change initiative. Listen for why it was necessary to assemble the right team to determine the real problem they were trying to solve.
Here we speak with Sarah Elkins, author of Your Stories Don't Define You, How You Tell Them Will and a communications coach who specializes in working with clients on the stories they tell themselves – and on what happens to them as a result.
Here we speak with Courtney Ackerman, a researcher and writer who focuses on organizational psychology, especially with how it pertains to the areas of wellbeing and healthcare. Here she speaks about cognitive distortions, or faulty patterns of thinking. As you listen to her description of a few of these distortions, consider the impact that someone who operates under one or more of these faulty patterns of thinking might have on a complex organizational change.
Listen to part of our interview with Margaret Zacchei as she describes the work she led to change the culture and climate of her school by focusing on shared leadership, and increasing student and staff engagement. Note how eliciting and using feedback effectively was key to this change effort.
Listen to part of an interview we conducted with mindfulness expert Oksana Esberard where she describes the characteristics a mindful culture would likely exhibit. As she talks, think about the implications of those characteristics on an organization’s “why” and its ability to deliver on behalf of that “why.”
Listen to part of an interview we conducted with Kimberly Davis, author of Brave Leadership (2018). Note where she discusses the need to have an external focus verses an internal one – a focus on serving some higher purpose outside of yourself – to achieve the impact you want to have. And note, too for why being vulnerable challenges us to our core.
Listen to part of our interview with Rona Wilensky, creator and first principal of New Vista, an alternative high school in Boulder, Colorado and Ivette Visbal, a founding faculty member and currently the school’s Dean of Students. Listen for evidence of how these two leaders wanted to change the concept of high school education relative to instruction, student choice, responsibility, and community involvement. Listen, too, for how “healthy” played into their thinking about the school culture.
Listen to part of our interview with Mike Oliver, Principal of Zaharis Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona where he talks about realizing the importance of creating an environment where people can take risks and think creatively.
Listen to part of our interview with Jonathan Adams, Assistant Principal at the International School in Luxembourg where he describes his work to clearly articulate the “why” behind a literacy initiative and ensure that those implementing the change viewed themselves as valued contributors.
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