E17-The Palace & Kingdom Philosophy
The Palace & Kingdom Philosophy
Early in my career, I experienced a game situation that involved different levels of communication and power that affected how you are perceived, how effectively you operate, and all the conditions that affect the various subgroups. After a while, I started to see some trends that became part of an organizational philosophy that I've listed above, the Palace & Kingdom philosophy. Bear with me for a bit as I describe the folks and their varying levels of knowledge and power. It resides in our concept of royalty making decisions (The Palace) that affect the people that reside in those areas (The Kingdom). Perhaps you've heard the Palace called the Ivory Tower. Same principle.
At that time, I had a King who had a very cynical view towards the people that I was closest to in that school district, and the same types as my previous work. They were teachers and coaches, mostly male, probably teaching because they loved athletics...that type. Teaching school was a necessary condition for them to do what they really wanted to do, compete and coach. Generally, they were not too favorable on things that would cause them too much work teaching. For the purpose of this essay, I will call them the Resistance. Granted, these people had a lot of familiarity to me, my Dad and his uncle were two of them that I followed into the profession--PE teachers/coaches. Overall, the King wasn't completely wrong; I was just so comfortable talking shop with them. I didn't see them as adversaries like he did.
In addition to cuts, we were also pursuing additions to our budget, all at the time when we were teetering on the edge of statutory operating debt (SOD in school terms). Given that I was newer to this side of the profession, of course, I followed the direction of the King. This is where another subgroup of the Kingdom came into play here. These were those that had grievances with the system and their peers. I'll just label them the Grievance. In general, the Grievance is not really that popular in the Kingdom, particularly with the Resistance, because they are too cozy with the Palace. They may have a lot of energy, they may be Innovators, but they don't have a lot of influence either way. They may be perceived as wonky. Innovators can tend to flame out because they apply a lot of energy into various projects, but are really not a big enough element to be claimed by the Palace or the rest of the Kingdom. Around the rest of the school district, these people seemed to be more seen as outcasts or suck-ups and roundly ignored by their peers.
The King or the Palace that doesn't know the Kingdom well relies on those motivated enough to come to the Palace to share information, even if it is not the best information. The Grievance is far more likely to share with the Palace, as they don't have a lot of power in the Kingdom.
When we were in cutting mode (seemingly perpetually in that school district), it seemed like we were going to target those in the system that were most ingrained in it, the Resistance. While my experiences told me that everyone and everything needs to come into play at those times, including the Resistance, I was fairly disillusioned by the scope of the King was talking about doing with those people and groups. The more that I listened to the Resistance, the less power I had with the King and the rest of the Palace. I felt "at sea" because my roots were in the Kingdom, but my new role was in the Palace. It was like being potentially disowned by your own family.
The more I watched this play out over several years, the more I learned. Being new to the District, I was led by the Palace to listen to the Grievance, as they were admin-friendly, and to dismiss the Resistance. The more the Palace listened to the Grievance, the more power they gained in the budgeting process. In this school district, the Grievance had gained too much power, all the while the Palace was seen as a group of people that didn't know anything about the Kingdom. Eventually, the Resistance co-opted another very large group of people that I will call the Compliance. The Compliance always followed the rules whether they liked the rules or not, because that is what they do. The Compliant generally has a lot of proficiency in their work; their success actually defines the whole organization, but they don't get too involved either way with self-promotion or powerful advocacy. They just want to do the jobs they were paid for, and don't want to get into "politics".
When the Compliance follows the Palace, and the Palace has good intelligence and communication, generally great things can happen in the organization. When the Compliance follows the Resistance, administrative heads roll. Ultimately, the end result was that the King was thrown out of office, and the school district sought a new King to hire.
Simple questions and philosophies emerge. Are decisions going to be made by the Palace or can they be made with more voices from the Kingdom? Whose voices in these decisions have more power--the Resistance, the Compliance of the Grievance? Is the Palace or the Kingdom more informed? If this decision is made, how will it affect the Palace AND/OR the Kingdom?
Lesson: The Palace ultimately makes the decisions, but how they are done is a skill that defines your leadership. The Palace needs good communication both internally and externally. The Palace need to intentionally HEAR and intuitively LISTEN to the voices of the Kingdom. The Kingdom has less power, but more knowledge of how these organizations really work. The Kingdom basically does the work of the Palace, but have little input into how the Kingdom makes decisions. The Kingdom may become disenfranchised with the direction from the Palace, but gains power in the Kingdom by resisting the decision matrix of the Palace.
This whole story is completely related to the Everett Rogers' model of Diffusion of Innovation. You can read about that in the opening prospectus or just read the Shortform version yourself. Administrators need to understand that they are considered part of the Palace. Congruently, they also need to understand the representation and voice of the Kingdom. Your success as an administrator will often be viewed by your ability to balance the two.
Next Podcast --- Bill Sommers, Wednesday, January 7, 2026
I am excited to share the stage with Bill on our first podcast of 2026. He is kind of like the Michael Jordan of school administrators and educational leaders of the past half-century. He is 79 years old and still prolific as an influencer of good coaching and practice. I just got off the phone with him and he is as energized and informed as ever. You can browse the Learning Omnivores site for many resources that we will be referencing on the 7th! Have a Happy New Year.
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