Tag: How To
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4 Ways to Boost Creativity
Creativity – LinkedIn lists it as the number 1 job skill. School taut it as a top aim of education. Cultures value it as the cornerstone of art and entertainment. But how is it nutured? Per usual, this blog aims to give actionable ideas. So let’s avoid the philosophy and get to the tactics. Here…
4 Steps to Obliterate Obstacles
Whether it’s a thorn or a dam, an obstacle can stop progress. As a leader, it falls on your shoulders to remove obstacles. Here are 4 simple steps to obliterate obstacles: Find the consensus that something is truly an obstacle. Next, gain clarity on the obstacle and label it. Facilitate a shared vision for the…
Three Cs of a Successful Daily Routine
Communication. Start the day with people. Manage your communications first thing in the day, and by doing so, you are making people your priority. Creation. Use your fresh mind in the morning to focus on producing and creating. Whatever projects you have will be better off with your early to mid-morning brain. Clean Up. Don’t…
Year in Review 2019
Twenty nineteen was a year of expansion. Many lessons were learned from failures and challenges: Embrace growth when it occurs, even if unplanned. Action is the only true form of knowing, everything else is anticipation or theory. Adjustments don’t equal improvements, plan no-go dates for each adjustment and have the discipline say no when the…
Questions a Great Manager Asks
…and principals too. Because you are the manager of the school, and no, manager is not a bad word. How was your weekend? Would you like more or less support from me? Do I give you enough feedback? What’s your prefered way to get information about what’s happening outside your classroom? What are you currently…
Back to School Letter 2.0
It’s almost time…you’ll be in the office soon getting ready to welcome your team back. You might even draft a back to school letter. Let’s think about the traditional back to school welcome letter. How can we use it to touch people, shape culture, and impact learning? Here’s one idea…The Welcome Back to School Letter…
How to Find Star Teachers, Interview Tips
There are many great ways to conduct teacher interviews. Here are three simple interview tips that focus on finding star teachers. Experience is overrated, ask about scenarios instead of theory or beliefs. Create a scale for each question to make evaluations during the interview. Ask your current star teachers the interview questions. If you pose…
Go No Go Date
If you plan something new, if you’re creating innovations, if you are committing effort in a new direction, don’t commit indefinitely. Instead, use a go, no-go date. This is a defined time period where you plan a go, no-go meeting to determine if the innovation needs to continue or stop. In typical improvement planning: Make…
How to Create Your Vision for a School
This post details how to create your vision for a school. There’s a difference between your vision for the school and the school’s vision. Both are important to a school’s success, but how do you define your vision? One quick method is to start with a rectangle. In the upper left hand corner place today’s…
Learning Walks
You know about walkthroughs. Maybe you’ve studied instructional rounds. I’ve share my research paper on formative classroom visits. But what are learning walks? And how can they help your school? What are Learning Walks? A learning walk is an opportunity to visit multiple classrooms and learn from observation. Learning walks are typically done with a…
They won’t read my emails!
It’s a problem, I know. Unlike a meeting, the campus mail, and a conversation, email is: Cluttered general reminders Filled with spam Cheap to deliver Void of human body language And maybe a few more reasons that make it a difficult platform for leading a school. But if you must communicate via email, and there…
When Groupthink Takes Hold
James Stoner conducted a study in 1961 about people in groups. It has been replicated hundreds of times since then. In the 1970s, Yale researcher Irving Janis continued the research. The term groupthink was born. How Does Groupthink Happen? What are the conditions for groupthink? A group is comprised of like-minded individuals A leader expresses…
How to Create a Stop Doing List
This is so simple. Or at least we can make it that way. Meeting #1: Brainstorm Gather a team together. State the purpose before arriving, so they can already have some thoughts stirring. Commit to only 15 minutes. Plus, another 15-minute follow up. Ask two questions: What do you do, that you’ve been told to…
This Year, Create a Masterpiece
Art is about doing the work that brings immense value to you and those around you. Each day the canvas is new. Your work is your art. Each day you have the opportunity to create a masterpiece. So instead of New Year’s resolutions, take a moment and reflect on your 2018. Follow these small steps:…
What are OKRs? How Can They Help Your School?
What is an OKR? It’s a simple way to design and use strategic goals. Objective: The statement of outcome or goal. Key Result: The defined and measurable benchmark that leads to the objective or is an effect of the objective. This post about OKRs for schools is a bit lengthy, so I created this table…
New Year Resolution
If it’s worth committing to, then it’s worth starting now. It doesn’t get better because it’s reserved for the new year. If it’s worth the resolve, don’t save it for a New Year Resolution. Start today.
A Season of Gifts
When you value people, you celebrate their gifts. This is how you craft culture.
We’ve Tallied the Votes…
And we found voting to be a great way to run a democracy, but for a school… Voting can lead to… Mediocrity by watering an idea down to it’s most palatable version. Involvement by gathering various views. New insights that would otherwise be kept secret. Politics and division. Slow decisions. Thoughtless decisions. Representative decisions. It…
Spreadsheet for AB Testing
It’s really about one thing: using assessment as a tool for learning…but not merely a tool for student learning. It’s about using an assessment as a tool for teacher learning. It’s feedforward, not just feedback. It gives the teacher specific data on the next steps forward. That’s why AB Testing is among the most effective…
Who is Situational Awareness For?
It’s back to school season, and that means one major thing for school leadership: time to build capacity. One major area to focus in on is Situational Awareness. Take a look at this data to see why: Who is Situational Awareness For? Anyone who interacts with others. Yes, that’s everyone. Specifically, let’s start with your…
3-2-1 Strategy for Continuous Improvement
Here’s an instructional leadership strategy that will simplify your school’s system for continuous improvement: 3. What are 3 areas your school will focus on improving this year? 2. What are your 2 key performance indicators (KPI)? 1. One area of instructional improvement for each teacher, each semester. The key in this strategy is a collaborative…
How to Hold a 30-Minute Meeting
How to hold a thirty-minute meeting…it’s not hard to do. Plan a 15-minute meeting and then talk slow. Allow tangents. Read a PowerPoint. Or not. Instead, just plan a 15-minute meeting and be done. Or better yet, use a variety of communication channels to disseminate information. Provide redundancy, so key points aren’t missed. Then slice…
Impact Serotonin
Serotonin is one of the four chemicals your body produces that create the emotional state of happiness. If you lead a school, you have the ability and responsibility to impact serotonin. Here’s why and how. Why? Low levels of serotonin are associated with feelings of loneliness and depression. In a school culture, these are toxic…
Meaningful Work
Are students completely absorbed by their work (in a good way)? Are teachers absorbed in creative and innovative projects? Does playful describe your work? Does extreme engagement describe your teams? These questions are at the heart of the Mafost Mashup Episode 5: Meaningful Work (click to listen on Apple Podcasts or Google Play). I’d like to expand…
Time to Reflect
Supercharge your intentional growth with these nine types of reflection!
Pizza Panels
Pizza panels are simple ways to engage parents and students in developing a shared vision. They really are a must-do for summer break. What is a pizza panel? Group of 5-10 students Discussing questions drafted by school leadership Eating pizza In front of an audience (at least parents) Any age group To get started with…
Interview Tip: Get to the Truth
Don’t attempt to win friends in an interview – be direct. This is my favorite interview tip and the best way to get to the heart of what it’s like to work with someone. Be direct when someone says something you like – tell them you like it and why. On the flipside, be direct…
How is Organizational Trust Built?
What was it that made humans, or the ancestors of humans, so primed for survival – no, more than survival…what was it that made them so ripe for thriving? It was the innate ability of a tribe to unite and support each other. To understand that self-interest was only filled when the interest of the…