E1-Think Big, Act Small

 Think Big, Act Small

One of the first things I would tell anyone who builds schools or organizations is to always think of your larger plan, and review that plan as to how you are getting there.  How will this plan affect the macrostages that you exist in – long-term, district-wide, regional, state or national as examples of larger stages – if conditions support it and given enough time and energy to realize that benefit? If it’s a good plan, and you stick with it for a longer while, you’d be surprised at the progress you will make. 

To accomplish anything robust with change, you will have to learn to start with small, bite-size tasks that support your mission and then replicate these micro-acts successfully, in enough places, with enough time, to allow them to create large macro changes. This is quite likely the reason that big change doesn’t happen in complex organizations and for a myriad of reasons: 

1. Our schedule doesn’t support change [Structure]

2. Competition from other initiatives [Mission Creep]

3. Existing practices run counter to change efforts [Structure-Power of the Status Quo]

4. Can’t change personnel fast enough or often enough [HR]

5. Can’t find licensed people or those with the skill to accomplish task [HR]

6. Lack of institutional training time [HR]

7. Lack of money to purchase services or products needed [Budget]

8. Lack of energy or time to initiate or followup properly [HR]

9. Lack of support from a boss or board you are working for [HR]

10. Counters existing laws, practices or guidelines [Structure]

11. And on and on and on

Many of these concepts are seemingly beyond our control. This is also not an exhaustive list. I’m sure we could get a whole longer list. We can almost universally speak about why things can’t happen with more precision and fluency than speaking about how things can happen. Our training as educators tends to be around the idea of how to operate in the system that we gained experience in, as well as the one we were hired in.  

Schools that change things with any significance do so in a fairly long and strategic road. Metaphorically, they are mapping their initiatives with a wide scope with a long view of change. Significant changes to such a complex system take a lot of time and require a lot of sustained focus on what you are trying to change. 

So, once you determine what your big plan is, then you can start mapping out the change process, along with the personal strategic planning that will be applied to the task at hand. [This is kind of the template for the August meeting.] Over time, the change initiative gains specificity, as smaller successful measures take hold. This engenders confidence, as well. In essence, we think big, but act in small, more tolerable ways to accomplish your big task in the end. 

I recommend you start your journey of change by looking at something big, let’s say, “I want our students to be more engaged in school.” That sounds like a tall, multi-phased task. Most would say it is impossible, or “why would you even suggest something so unreachable?” 

If I approached things that way, of course, there is no way those changes could ever happen. However, we can start by helping to make something more engaging. In doing that, we may need some baseline information such as, “How engaged are our students right now?” How would we even measure that accurately? 

Let’s start with an idea, test that idea, and then see how it works. What if we just found the least engaged area of our student experience. Who on your staff, your team or your parent group would argue that this isn’t worth taking a look at? That’s a great place to start. Which of my teachers would be best for that task? Is there something that they are teaching that we could move them from that wouldn’t take away from a great student experience elsewhere? Better yet, is there a teacher in my school that may be supervising a losing engagement experience who could potentially transform, both teacher-wise and student-wise to a winning engagement experience? 

I once had to teach a second-semester low Algebra I class with students who failed both 7th and 8th Grade math, and had now failed their first year of HS Algebra in the Fall. They didn’t like me and I didn’t really like them either, not personally, but in the school setting. Essentially, they hated school and had little hope or joy in graduating someday. I got assigned back to them against my wishes when they were now 9th graders. I asked, why aren’t they still taking 7th and 8th grade math – they failed it? Why does the administration just move these kids on? I had a litany of reasons to resist, but I was still getting them at the end of the day for second semester on January 15. 

To make a long-story much shorter, I didn’t teach them Algebra I. I brought every book I could find in the building that had real-world math concepts and gave them the choice of where we were going to find common ground, in essence, alternate content with an alternate delivery. All 8 students got through my course, had positive views towards mathematics and actually me as a teacher. These kids are nearly 50 years old today and they probably give me more positive feedback than any other students I had. Some stated that they never would have graduated from high school if they hadn’t had me at that time. 

I was ready and capable of changing something and was supported by my Principal and Superintendent to do so. There were a litany of reasons not to change from all directions. We changed a lose-lose engagement scenario to a win-win outcome that had greater impacts than even we dreamed of. I was not the catalyst of this change. I would never have chosen to do it. I can’t even answer if there was any solid intent from the administration. Maybe they had no choice? Yet, at the end of the day, I had the skills and capability to change. And, those students finally backed off in their resistance to Math and school. 

What if your school made only two of those style changes per year? What impact will that have on your student body? What if you continued to improve things for just two groups of eight students per year? Those eight students could be like the 9th graders that I had. They continued on as students in other people’s classes for the next three. They continue on as people and citizens and as high school graduates today. Think big, act small and then keep your focus for a longer period of time than most. I believe that in the end, you can literally change a school, or any organization, from this to that. 

I just had this thought as I am writing this – what would happen if I entered “think big, act small” in the Google. I kid you not, there is a book out there with this exact title. Of course, there is. https://youtu.be/oX6LPh82Uws Here is the ten minute summary from that book, which is a business book by Jason Jennings. I’m listening to it right now. You can decide if it’s worth listening to, but the same principle is in mind. Don’t think about the profits, think about the inputs that help you to be profitable. The path for change in one sector of life often mimics the path of change in a different sector. 

To me, great leaders are ones who do simple things with more regularity and for longer periods of time. They sustain their change initiative by keeping their eyes on the same ball. You have so little time with your teachers TO CHANGE. You need to maximize their time and attention on microscopic things that can impact the larger system when applied to the problem for a longer period of time, like five to seven years. 

If you have a champion in your school–a teacher or program that seems to have a positive outlook and the capacity to change SOMETHING… ANYTHING–build your change initiative initially on those that have the greatest potential to experience growth for the students and your school.