Tag: How To
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…