Identifying Your “Vital Few” Leadership Actions for High Impact in 2016-17

In our Learning Leadership Academy (LLA), we help school and district administrators develop thoughtful, high-leverage plans for expanding their impact on student and teacher learning.  In order to accomplish this, participants identify a “vital few” number of prioritized leadership actions, ones they can apply skillfully and consistently over an extended period of time that match the greatest identified needs of their local context.  In this article, I share three tools we offer leaders for use in making these important local decisions and then drill down deeper into one of the tools in particular.

The three tools we share to help educators find purposeful focus for their leadership action are:

1)    Theory of Action

2)    The RBT Clock

3)    Learning Forward’s “Managing Change in Practices” Chart

Our members have identified all three approaches as helpful tools, which can be used individually or in unison to help leaders consider the wisest areas for investment of their valuable time.  The first approach (Theory of Action) arguably takes the most effort but has been found very helpful by participants in our SAIL and LLA Academies to both build a common understanding of the root causes behind the school’s current levels of performance and to develop collective commitments for targeted action.  Discussion of this first approach exceeds the parameters of today’s article.  However, you can gather a quick idea of how a theory of action works and why you need one through this ABEO document.  

The second approach (The RBT “Clock” from Research for Better Teaching, Inc.) identifies twelve research-based actions that are arranged on the graphic like hours on a clock.  A leader wouldn’t try to implement all twelve strategies at one time, but rather might select 1-3 actions that seem most relevant to his/her local situation.  I showed how one might use the RBT Clock in my article in the Sept. 1, 2016 edition of The AWSA Update.  

For today’s article, I would like to briefly discuss how the third tool, Learning Forward’s “Managing Change in Practices” Chart, can be used.  To use this tool, take a look at the far right column to review the seven options listed vertically under the header of “Educator Effectiveness and Student Results.”  You are asked, given the best information you have available at this time, to identify the one option among the seven provided in the far right column that best describes the biggest current problem in your school, whether it be “pockets of excellence” or “misalignment of goals” or any of the other five options in between.  Once you identify which of these is your school’s biggest problem (i.e., root cause) contributing to its current level of performance, then you move horizontally on that row to find the green “gap” that is currently missing / underdeveloped in your school, as described by the header at the top of that column.  So for example, a principal who identies “lack of focus” as the biggest problem facing the school would be directed through this chart to focus on the use of “data” to help remedy the situation.  On the other hand, a principal assessing that “pockets of excellence” present the greatest current problem would find that effective implementation of “learning communities” would be a highly relevant focus for the school.  With this information in hand, a principal can better think through what specific leadership actions he/she might then take to support progress in the identified area(s).

In summary, if leadership focus is prerequisite to all other responsibilities of leadership, then one of the most important things you can do is thoughtfully consider the “vital few” areas where you intentionally plan to invest your time and develop your own capacity.  I encourage you to try out one or more of these three tools to assist you in this very important work.  And as always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  Best wishes in all things, everyone, and seize the day!

References

Bryan, C.  (2014)  Managing Changes in Practice.  Adapted from Ambrose, D. (1987).  Managing Complex Change.  Pittsburgh, PA: The Enterprise Group, Ltd.

Hadfield Elementary SAIL Team.  (2015)  Our Theory of Action - Literacy and Math.  School District of Waukesha.  Waukesha, WI.

Rasmussen, H.T. (2014)  What’s a Theory of Action and Why Do We Need One?  Retrieved from abeoschoolchange.org/blog.

Reeves, D.B.  (2010)  Finding Your Leadership Focus: What Matters Most for Student Results.  New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Research for Better Teaching, Inc.  (2015)  Making Every School a Reliable Engine of Constant Adult Learning or Where to Show Up and What to Do.  Acton, MA: RBT.

Schroeder, J.  (2016, September 1)  locking in the time for high impact.  Association of Wisconsin School Administrators Update, 1-2.