Future Leaders Cohort '14, Weekend One.
"...trying to make a country where every child goes to a good school." Jay Altman
"Habits bypass decision-making and go straight to action." Taken from a rather good blog post (link at the bottom of this page).
Impossible as it may seem, I have tried to capture the things I learnt from the speakers Ben, Jay, Heath and, of course, everyone else at the first Cohort '14 weekend. I would very much welcome feedback, especially if I have misunderstood or misrepresented a vital nugget. I've probably only captured a tiny percentage of the experience here, and hopefully I'll be in position to go and catch the rest of it as a peer mentor soon!
Weekend 2
Week 1
Week 2
Sunday: Ben Marcovitz and the Hiring Cheat Sheet
Cultural coherence and alignment around shared values.
Ben talked on Saturday about the importance of culture and how to change cultures for the better - he used some useful allegories and examples such as the man bailing out water from his boat, the elevator and the supermarket. Different cultures come about because of the dominant ideology such as personal fulfilment in New York or efficiency in the case of the elevator. Having belief, such as "in just four years, you'll be ready for college regardless" is essential for building a positive culture. Strong purpose and values are also essential, and culture is about belonging, protection and family links - like gangs.
The mission is the 'what' and it must be R-Rated meaning it should seem impossible to outsiders and barely achievable to those inside the organisation. Isn't this is all starting to sound quite familiar, a bit like Future Leaders? One complex sentence is the key - if it's easy to remember, it's easy to communicate! It should also be razor sharp, binary and if you can't change the mission then perhaps call it your vision. Alternatively you could interpret your vision to suit different situations. The Mission at Sci Academy states that all children will aspire to college, but you could replace 'college' here for 'the most rigorous scholastic opportunity'.
The reasons behind our values - "staff need clarity of vision to get buy-in"
After the mission came the values (the how), and we looked at how to derive these: think about the limiting behaviours, flip these and now we have the key drivers for the mission. Turn these into words like perseverance, dedication, creativity and determination and there you have it!
"Leaders model the core values - you have to model them way
before anyone else"
What will the vision actually look like on the ground? This is where we develop the routines, language, systems and incentives - or put another way - the artefacts. Microscripting the artefacts leads to clarity of vision.
Social norms and artefacts - "Routines remove barriers to learning" and "Staff need to know why we are doing it - everyone does"
"With social norms you can focus all of your energy on teaching and learning."Did you know: The Sony Corporation was formed (presumably based on a set of core values) and then they said "so what are we going to make?"
Social Norms
"Structure liberates." Sir Michael Wilshaw
"Routines remove barriers to learning"As a learner, I think that micro scripting how the mission looks on the ground links nicely to the discussion on social norms, and Jay gave us all many ideas to take away:
Social norms - "This isn't where you can be different - be different on other things, but not this!"
This next quote is from Jay and it is so important; it is very typical of the way that such great ideas were put across so effectively over the three days.
"Embedding routines in the first two weeks is the multiplier."
"Adjust teachers to the fact that the work is Sisyphean." (to stop responding in an annoyed tone.)
In Greek mythology: The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. (The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus)
"Normalise feedback"
Leading an effective team
"your best days with the staff should be like your best days with the kids"
Ben clearly demonstrated how to recruit the right staff by alignment to the core values of the organisation. Throughout the recruitment phase, applicants were given numerous opportunities to opt-in to the core values. Those applicants who do not opt-in save the work in the long run because they don't need to be aligned or removed in the future. He also uses the process to identify areas of development for new staff. Returning staff should be reminded of the mission and values and used to align new staff at the start of the year.
Increasing alignment year on year - "Exemplar scenarios that fit the values are collated and shared at the start of each year."
"Only spend on the mission and values"
And just in case you missed it:
"Structure liberates."As a learner, I'm eagerly anticipating weekend two, the chance to network with inspirational leaders and a chance to present our own mission and values. In short, I feel very privileged to be part of this movement for positive change.
This post only captures a fraction of what we learned, but I shall be adding further details as we start to apply our learning on the eagerly anticipated Made Up Academy!
Further reading: Here's a really rather good blog post on developing classroom habits by MrThomasMaths.com
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