WHAT NOW? WHAT NEXT?

Posted on 03/04/202005/04/2020 by David Armstrong

I’m taking a chance here. A chance that you are just far enough into lockdown to be starting to wonder how things might look on the other side.

And here’s where that question gets both exciting and scary – it’s going to be different.

Before digging into this thinking any further I’d like to make a plea.

Please, please don’t try and make the distance learning programme you are about to roll out on the 15th April the same as “school”. In times of crisis it is normal for people to try and hold onto what they know. It’s understandable. The risk though, is that our eager, slightly bored teachers, with secure jobs, warm homes and solid internet connections might just try.

Yes, a few of your families may want 6 hours of online learning activities daily, but what about those who are newly unemployed, sharing small spaces, and worried about their Nana? We have absolutely no way of knowing or controlling the learning environments our children will be operating in.

This is not a time to try and control people, it is a time to be flexible, kind and wise. A time to put humanity first and to stop any extra stress on families . . rant over.

Different – “different” is a word that implies uncertainty. Humans don’t like this. We are hard wired to seek predictability, stability and the known. ‘Different’ can be a frightening place to consider.

And when different arrives in the blink of an eye (what were your plans 4 weeks ago?), it’s even harder.

So What now?

Luckily (or unluckily), this is not the first time in history that major disruption has occurred and smart people have researched the way leaders (like you) can be most effective in the coming weeks.

Bernard Walker and Tracey Hatton from the University of Canterbury, wrote a useful article about this which you can read in full here, but a brief summary of their five principles is:

1. 1. 1. Take an employee-centric approach – look after your team first.
    2. Quality communication – find the balance between enough and too much. Listen to your team.
    3. A common vision – keep the vision for “what now” clear.
    4. Collaboration and networking – connect with other groups/people for the advantage of all.
    5. Personal and organisational learning – keep up to date. Seek information.

None of these look extraordinary, but together they show you exactly what successful leaders facing crisis do. Number 3 is where I need to focus right now. My team need absolute clarity about what our game plan is.

What Next?

The flip side of huge disruption is possibility. The possibility to do things differently, and better, and more fitting for a changed world.

Crisis brings opportunity for change – think of the way new societies formed after WW2, or the development of more productive varieties of rice when population growth in some countries threatened starvation. Change happened quickly and on a grand scale.

And that’s where you come in. You’re a leader in the most important community of all, the community where our future lives – children. Hold onto that hope for a moment as I describe what I believe is coming.

There’s tension about to occur in our post-COVID-19 world. The status quo of ever expanding globalisation, free movement of people wherever and whenever they desire, aligned with humankind’s belief that we can control everything, has just been tipped on its head.

Many people may presume that the situation will be temporary, and that at some point – in a few weeks, months, maybe even a year – all will return to “normal”.

The business world particularly will want that. Big corporations that have created models that (used to) make lots of money, will be planning and hoping that they can go straight back to exactly that.

However, a “once in a life time pandemic” rewrites some fundamental rules. It strips away control and requires communities to respond whether they like it or not. And, what say it’s not a single, one-off event? What say our world is very likely to have another such experience?

Well, that’s exactly what is likely based on research and knowledge within the scientific community. If you need proof, have a look at this short (8 minute) Ted Talk that Bill Gates shared in April 2015.

None of the above is meant to scare people or cause more worry. I share it because it supports my belief that we must, very soon, lift our eyes up and start looking for the changes we will need to make in our schools. The changes that our children will need from us.

Where to start?

Obviously, we are in the very early days of change, and the day to day reality of being locked down at home is still a novelty (but wearing thin quickly!). We can’t ignore this, but it does also bring the opportunity to think.

I am fortunate to be part of the Springboard Trust this year (a programme aimed at increasing school leaders’ strategic capacity, and one that many of you in NZ have probably already taken part in). It just so happens that we (the participants) are currently being challenged to review our school vision statements to see whether they align with the reality experienced by our children and their needs looking ahead.

This means that I have had the opportunity to recently reflect on “what matters most” for our learners.

This I believe, is where we all need to start in our quest to serve our communities in a post COVID-19 world. The answers are most definitely not apparent yet. It is going to take time to clearly see the emerging needs, but we must start looking for this clarity.

We need to talk to with others, keep up with “real” news, and consider which aspects of our school direction are helpful and which need to change or be added to.

A simple truth is that we can’t lead if we don’t know where we’re going, and now is the time to start working this out – together.

Dave

What do you think? This is a huge topic and discussion is going to be essential – jump over to our Facebook page or leave a comment below.

YOU’VE GOT THIS

Posted on 20/03/202005/04/2020 by David Armstrong

A day may be a long time in politics, but not as long as a week in a school with a pandemic virus doing the rounds.

There’s a lot happening right now, and you as a leader, are right in the middle.

. . .

The adrenaline junkies among us are probably feeling excited, those with imagination feeling nervous, and everyone wondering just what the next day will bring.

So how do you lead?

With support is my recommendation.

The really big calls will be made by the Government and filtered to you through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. As a good public servant, you will follow the plan. So relax and be thankful that you’re not Jacinda right now.

The middle tier stuff – things like how much to tell your community and how often, or whether to run that camp, should be done together with your Board. There’s a need to ensure management (you!) and governance are seen to be working together – a united front is a confident front. Ring your Board Chair, listen to their opinion and together be visible to your community.

The smaller things such as planning a possible programme for students at home, are best done with your team at school. Re-purpose a staff meeting and nut things out together. (Just keep it simple though!)

At a time like this, your community is looking for strong leadership and you can best provide that by sharing the decision making with others, then fronting the plan with the groups effected.

You’ve got this!

Dave

SMALL CHANGES WORK

Posted on 06/03/202006/03/2020 by David Armstrong

I did an extraordinary thing last weekend. I rode a 36km mountain bike event.

Being in the race wasn’t extraordinary. Several hundred other people did the same. And it wasn’t my time nor the place I came, because it was by far my slowest ever for completing the event. It was by no means my longest or toughest race, and I hadn’t had to overcome any debilitating injury.

What was extraordinary is that I did it without any training and got to the end in pretty good shape!

No training, zero, nada, zip.

While sitting on the grass at the finish line, half a beer in hand, I realised that things have changed. I have changed, and it happened without me realising.

. . .

To give context, I have to briefly go back 7 years to the time when I was first talked into riding a bike at a local event. It started with a classic piece of misinformation – “come on Dave, anyone can do it, you’ll be fine.” Naively, I turned up and had a go.

It was exhausting, confusing, and at times terrifying. I’m not sure what your definition of “fine” is but mine does not include bruised, sweating profusely and gasping for oxygen like a fish on a riverbank.

I was not fine.

Luckily for me I have persistent friends. They let time obscure the pain and then found another event to do. An “easier” event, much easier I was told. So, I did it. And this time it was not quite so new or frenetic and while I finished exhausted, I actually enjoyed most of it.

We started riding in more events and after the first year I was really enjoying the experience. My bike got upgraded, my biking fitness increased and I found that my times were improving. My competitive nature enjoyed the contests and to go faster I trained when possible. Life/work kept this to less than I would have liked but still, every event involved some focused training.

But not last weekend.

Last weekend I had to literally dust off my bike, pump the tyres up and move the junk that had accumulated around it in the garage. (Biking has been sacrificed to some other things I am doing at the moment.)

The thought of riding a race without any preparation worried me. After several years of turning up to events I understand how much energy goes into riding fast off road for an hour and a half. What say I “tanked” (ran out of energy) or made a bad (think hospital time) mistake because I was exhausted?

But none of that negative stuff happened. I just rode the thing with a friend. Simple.

A few years ago, this just would not have been possible.

. . .

If you’re incredibly patient and still reading, here’s my point –

The impossible can become possible given time and tiny incremental improvements.

An example in my professional life is batching (i.e. making regular time to work on one thing at a time). A year ago, a “normal” day involved bouncing from task to task from the moment I arrived onsite to the moment I left. I jumped on the figurative hamster wheel and spun it hard. I was super accessible all the time and responded to others’ needs/wants straight away. I would often end up at the end of a day/week having done a thousand things but not the one important task I had planned. Things needed to change.

Just then, along came a sabbatical with the opportunity to reflect and the possibility to learn from others and I heard about “batching” (read more here). It seemed impossible that I could create a space in each day where I wasn’t interrupted. But I was determined to make change so I started small – half an hour, three times per week. Door shut, phone/email on “shut up mode”.

It was awesome so I incrementally added to it. Now, a year later, it is no big deal to be focused for an hour, even two. The team around me accept it and actively help me achieve it. It is a game changer that frankly, seemed impossible a year ago.

. . .

Maybe you couldn’t imagine anything worse than a bike race, fair enough. But maybe you would like to work less hours, or to run better meetings, or lose some kilos, or turn 40/50/60 in great shape, . . . we all have things we wish were different/better.

It’s the little actions that make the difference. One less meeting a week, one more glass of water, 30 extra minutes of batching, . . . if you make them habits, they will add up to you being measurably different over time. All you have to do is choose something positive, start very small and keep doing it.

Dave

ONE PERCENT BETTER

Posted on 21/02/202017/02/2020 by David Armstrong

Two weeks ago I challenged you to find a couple of habits to either change or create.

How’s that going?

Because now is the perfect time to set yourself up for a better year – a more effective year or a happier year or a healthier year . . . maybe even all three. Imagine that.

And the best way to start is to go for the low hanging fruit. The things that you either do, or do not do daily, that shape your days – habits.

Habits are the human auto pilot system and auto pilot is a great way to handle most things without conscious effort so you can concentrate on the new and more interesting.

I mentioned James Clear in a previous post as being a well-known guru in changing habits. We briefly discussed the four factors that have to be present for a behaviour to be habitual – a cue, a craving/need, a response, and a reward. A top piece of professional reading would be one of James’ books on the topic as he gives practical and actionable advice based on research – and he’s easy to read!

However, to create, or change a habit you have to do things differently and good intentions often go hand in hand with our own versions of procrastination – so I’d like to suggest a way to start.

. . .

In this post I want to introduce an idea that runs right alongside changing habits – the concept of “one percent better”.

1 % better.

Several of the current crop of thought leaders have run with this concept – James Clear, Tim Ferris, Joe Ferraro, to name a few. The reason? Because it works.

The theory is super simple; if you do something one percent better over a period of time, you end up a lot better. Those of you into numbers will be able to work out that a daily improvement of just one percent equals being 37 times better at the thing you are measuring after a year. 37 times better!

The flip side of course is that if you get one percent worse at something, even weekly, you will be in a much tougher position at the end of a year. Think an extra cigarette each week, or 10 minutes extra sitting.

The power of one percent is that it is a tiny amount. A really achievable amount – for good and for bad.

Last week, Steve wrote about his team’s reaction when they thought for a fleeting moment that he was going to suggest they all ran a half marathon (the mental picture made me smile). You can understand how they might have felt. A half marathon (21 kilometres) is a huge distance for a non-runner to contemplate. So huge that a reasonable person would probably refuse.

But what if that non-runner was simply asked to go as far as they could comfortably? They might only handle 200 metres on their first day. Then each day from there on, they ran 1% more (only an extra 2 steps on Day 2). At the end of a year they would be running (at their own pace) over 7 kilometres – that is the power of one percent; little achievable gains add up.

Another, probably more “real life” example is sitting. We all know we sit too much and it’s bad for us. There are stats out of America that show the average adult sits for over 12 hours per day. If we pretend the New Zealand situation is similar for a moment, you can quickly see the power of a one percent improvement. A mere 6 minutes less sitting each day is trivial – anyone can do it without much effort. But 6 minutes less is a one percent gain, and over time will make a drastic difference to total time sitting.

So before you surrender to the myriad of daily habits that defined 2019 for you, I’d like to encourage you to choose a couple of habits to change or create, and to make your first step towards doing so, to be a tiny, little, insignificant 1% improvement.

You can most definitely do this.

Dave

A CHALLENGE

Posted on 07/02/202009/02/2020 by David Armstrong

It’s the end of Week 1 (possibly Week 1.5 if you were very keen). You’re still running nicely on the energy built up over the holidays. Waitangi Day helped too. There are a zillion things on the go already at school but you’re handling them. Your team has launched with the nervous energy teachers always bring to the start of a new year. There’s excitement for the new and optimism to spare. It’s all systems go.

Now cast your mind back to Week 9, Term 4 last year.

What was your energy like then?

. . .

Some variation of “different” is a likely reply.

And that’s why I want to lay down a challenge.

I challenge you to change the way you roll in 2020

– to identify the things that make you an energised leader, and to do more of them.

– to identify the things that make you a less energised leader, and to do less of them.

The real trick of course is to act on these good intentions and that is where the critical word “habit” comes in.

Habit – “a thing that you do often and almost without thinking, especially something that is hard to stop doing”

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

Last year I had two words on my office wall – “Be Intentional”. This year I am adding two more below – “Change Habits”. And that’s it so far in my 2020 master plan. I want to intentionally change some habits.

Every day for each of us, is based largely on habits. From what you do when you wake up until you finally go to sleep that day (and even that sleep time will be shaped by the habits of the day).

The power of a habit is that it runs on autopilot. You just do it, and the evidence around long-term gains in personal wellness and professional effectiveness point to developing positive habits as being key. It’s just too hard to keep adding more deliberate actions – we need a lot (most?) of our days to run sub-consciously.

Those of you who have been following the Forty Hour conversation, may remember a post from last year about resisting the status quo. What we’re saying here is similar but with a crucial difference.

The status quo of what you do is all about what is expected by others. For example your team may think, “a good leader is always on site, fully available”, or, “it is wrong to show emotion when challenged”.

Whereas a habit is entirely personal. For example, you regularly skip lunch and then eat 3 Moro bars mid-afternoon because you’re starving (not pointing any fingers here!).

You can modify negative habits and introduce better ones. You have the power – BUT – the reason they are habits is also the reason they are hard to either change or introduce, there is a barrier to change; the way human brains are wired.

One well-known writer on this subject is James Clear. If you want to get deeper into the topic, his book, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones is a great place to start.

He discusses how habits are just ingrained behaviour based on a cycle which he labels –

CUE – CRAVING – RESPONSE – REWARD

Because a habit relies on each stage being present, we can change old habits (or create new ones) by messing with any one of the stages.

An example James uses is around waking up in the morning.

Cue: You wake up

Craving: You want to feel alert

Response: You drink a coffee

Reward: You satisfy your craving to feel alert. Drinking coffee becomes associated with waking up. Having a coffee in the morning becomes a habit.

In this example you can’t change the cue (waking up) but you can do something about the other stages. You could substitute the coffee for going for a quick 10 minute walk instead. The reward will be the same (feeling alert) but the habit different.

Which brings me back to where I started this post. I challenge you to find a habit to create or identify one to change.

My motivation to do this is I want as many good/productive/healthy behaviours as possible to be automatic – that is, I want to make them habits because I don’t have to think about habits, they just happen.

THE PILE

Posted on 06/12/201906/12/2019 by David Armstrong

What does your desk look like?

Mine looks like this . . . frankly, it’s a mess. Every time I manage to shift something a new piece of paper magically appears from somewhere. People think they’re doing me a favour if they put the new stuff in a new pile.

And PostIt notes! I usually try and keep all (OK, most) notes electronically, but that’s not working right now in Week 8. The damn PostIt notes seem to be breeding and forming their own little tribes, all competing with each other for a bit of attention and the fast-shrinking desk real estate.

And the box of non-health approved chocolate fish . . . they should have swum off over a week ago and it just hasn’t quite happened . . . maybe tomorrow.

Which brings me to the pile.

The one you built over the past Term and/or year.

Some people have an actual pile. A regularly added to vertical stack of paper that lives in their office (or home). Some hide it in a cupboard or a filing cabinet and some have it on obvious display.

Some people have a digital pile. Folders or desktops full of files, links, and website favourites that don’t clutter up a physical desk but do clutter up a computer drive. Digital piles are still piles!

Whatever the particular type of pile, they all have characteristics in common – they represent an eclectic mix of optimism, possibility and indecision. The items added definitely have value. If they didn’t, you would have rejected them, and both figuratively and literally thrown them away. You wouldn’t even remember what they were.

But you didn’t do that with your pile inhabitants. They piqued your interest enough to make you keep them. To let them contribute to your failure to keep a clear desktop.

For any particular item, you may have optimistically planned to “get back to it” but here you are in Term 4 Week 8 and the evidence is you haven’t managed to. Perhaps the item represented possibility – an awesome PLD course, a new maths scheme, or free dog safety training for everyone . . . too good to reject, not good enough to action when you had to prioritise.

Which is why all piles are essentially about indecision. And no one wants to be an indecisive school leader. So a pile also comes with a slightly negative vibe, the merest whiff of failure faintly wafting from the evidence of your indecision . . .

The good news is that there is a simple solution. Throw the pile away. Delete it.

How many times have you come into work during the Christmas holidays and started flicking through your pile only to finally admit you will never do anything with any of it, so you pull over a rubbish bin?

Or look at your computer desktop and start deleting (although at least one person I know organises their piles into folders for each year which forever more haunt their back-ups and storage space)?

There is a real sense of lightness and freedom that comes from finally biffing a pile. It’s a figurative and literal cleansing that feels really good. I’m going to act earlier next year and dare you to do the same!

Dave

(If you are feeling worried that your personal reality is not good, you can draw some comfort from research done by the University of Minnesota and published in Psychological Science, that shows there are pros and cons to your current state! Read more here.)

Happy Week 8.5!

MADVEMBER DOESN’T HAVE TO BE

Posted on 22/11/201922/11/2019 by David Armstrong

Mid-term 4 seems to bring out a special blend of drama in many schools. I see the label “Madvember” popping up on social media and can’t argue based on recent personal experiences. Maybe the combination of warmer nights (sleep deprivation), spring (hormonal crazy) and the busyness leading up to Christmas is to blame? I don’t really know, but it is definitely different!

Set against this slightly chaotic background is the daily running of your school. There’s a lot on. And when there’s a lot on, it’s all too easy to let the busyness overtake the things that matter.

. . .

Recently, one of my amazing team leaders did what she does so well and noticed a member of her team struggling. They were stuck with a looming sense of paralysis by overload – lots to do and overwhelmed by where to start (starting is always the hardest!).

She met with the teacher, listened to their worries and then together they wrote what was essentially a priority list with a timeline attached. Clarity was restored.

This “fix” may sound ridiculously simple, but that’s because a nice sanitised blog post is far removed from the emotion and reality of the situation as experienced by the teacher inside it.

The point of this little slice of school drama is that now is the time when many (most?) of us have a constant feeling of being out of time with multiple deadlines crowding our calendars and more stuff coming daily. With less than four short weeks until the end of the school year, it can be difficult to know where to focus and impossible to meet all the competing needs. And as Steve posted last week, any “plans” can be trashed in a heartbeat by having to deal with an unexpected drama. On a bad day the stress is very real.

. . .

So how do you cut through the background “noise”, get the important work done, and stay well?

My suggestion – slow down.

What!?

Yes, slow the heck down.

You need to (temporarily) step off the hamster wheel and sit out to the side on a lilypad. A presenter I heard recently described it as “getting off the dance floor and sitting on the balcony” – you need space to get perspective. And you need to remove yourself from the busy so that you can see the important work clearly.

Given that we all have plenty of important work to do right now, it’s essential to deliberately reflect on what it is and when you’re going to do it. Just like the teacher I described at the start of this post, you need a priority list with a timeline.

. . .

So, on Monday morning at 9:30am, close your office door, put your phone on shut-up mode and get a nice clean piece of paper. Make sure your gatekeepers (office team) know you are in an uninterruptible meeting – with yourself!

Plot the next 3.5 weeks out on the paper and then add the non-negotiable work that needs to be done. I’m guessing you’ll have stuff like:

Finish appraisals
Keep in touch with your leavers
Employ a fantastic teacher (or two)
Be visible around the school
Get class placements close to right

Congratulations, you now have a plan!

Outside of this short (if it’s not short, shut the door again, and get clearer) list, the rest is “noise”. It’s just stuff that the world is throwing up (sometimes literally!) and either needs to be ignored or dealt with as quickly as humanly possible.

But now comes the real challenge – how do you focus on the important stuff, deflect the noise, and stay well?

The answer is to keep it simple and do the things that you already know keep you well. Things like regular exercise, enough sleep, eating lunch, capping your work hours . . . things that may seem surplus right now but are actually essential.

If you are anything like me, the temptation is to ignore all this stuff and sprint to the end of Term and hope to recover on the other side, but 3.5 weeks is not a sprint, it’s a middle distance race that can hurt both your wellness and happiness if not managed.

So I say, make the time. The time to walk, to eat, to chill with your friends and family. The time to look after you because the alternative is neither effective nor sustainable – you owe it to your school and yourself to arrive at Christmas with energy and good-humour.

Everyone you care about will thank you.

Dave

HAVING NO FINISH LINE IS GOOD

Posted on 08/11/2019 by David Armstrong

Let’s start with a question – is your job ever finished? Is there ever a point when all the work is done?

Most of you won’t hesitate for long before saying, “no”.

“What wears me down is the number of tasks I have to do. There’s just too many and I can’t finish them. There’s something new to add to the list every single day and I hate that. I’ve just done the NZEI survey about wellness and they asked about my hours working and they’ve gone up again this year. I know this isn’t good but what can you do? If I don’t keep running things won’t work, it’s just the job I guess.”

I believe that we can look at this reality from two completely different perspectives. One leads to stress and the other to possibility.

The first perspective sees an unbroken string of “stuff” that needs to be done now, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. There’s another Board report due, there are meetings to be held, there are parents to ring, the newsletter needs to be done . . . these things just keep coming. This is our job. What alternative is there?

The second perspective actually relies on acknowledging the inherent truth of the first – the job will never be finished.

Think about this, . . . it will never be finished. Long after you wear out your first Zimmer frame, the work will still be there. It will have changed shape, but it will still need to be done.

No matter how brilliant you are, no matter how hard you work, you can’t finish.

With that truth comes possibility because if you acknowledge there is no “end-point” you can ethically consider reshaping how you do the work.

The first part of the “how” is sustainability – yours. If the work has no end-point, it can be argued that you have a responsibility to do it in a way that allows you to be well, because to be well, gives you the very best chance to be an effective leader – to have energy, balance and a clear head.

So how do you achieve this?

I suggest it’s not rocket science. In fact, you probably already know how to keep functioning at your best. Each of us has things that if missing from our lives, lead to unhappiness and a less healthy way of being. We’re all individuals and our lists will vary, but your’s exists and 10 minutes of quiet reflection and some note paper should be enough to acknowledge the key ones for you to focus on.

My “essentials” list would include:

Making time to stop and be still (daily)
Capping the total hours I work across a week
Spending quality time with my family
Using the natural ebbs and flows of the job (as a tool to recover)
Exercising regularly (and outside)
Eating healthy food (well, at least healthier!)
Drinking less coffee and more water
Playing a sport I enjoy

What does your list look like?

Music? Movies? A passion hobby? Bonding with your cat? Whatever strengthens you is what you need to prioritise, make space for, and do.

. . .

The second part revolves around professionalism. Accepting that the job will never be finished, you need to manage your pace and energy commitment so that you are the very best version of a leader that you can be. That’s a professional response.

Effective leaders, people at the top of their game, know how to pace what they do. They put their finite energy and focus into the most important parts of their work. And they don’t apologise for or feel bad about making sure they can do this – sustainably. Like Bill Gate’s “think weeks” and Tim Ferriss’ “mini retirements”.

But herein lies the sticking point for many of us, while we may want to do the things that keep us well and effective, we believe (wrongly) that there is no way to fit these healthy habits in. So we keep doing what we’ve always done, with either a dogged resignation to “it’s the job” or a faintly held hope that “it’ll get better” someday. We all know the famous saying about doing what you’ve always done and expecting . . .

If you need a push to change how you work, consider this statement – “it is unprofessional to knowingly work in a way that is either ineffective and/or unsustainable.”

I’ll rest my case here – you have a choice. Either view the workload of being an educational leader as unavoidable, put your head down and commit to working as you always have, or , accept the reality that the work is never finished and so start changing how you do it.

Today is the very best day to make a start.

Dave

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HOW BATCHING CAN HELP YOU

Posted on 25/10/2019 by David Armstrong

Do you often get to the end of a day with a “to do” list at least as big as you had 10 hours before? Have you started a week with something important that needs to be completed but when you get to Friday afternoon it’s still sitting there – and now it has time pressure as well?

The good news is that you’re far from alone. We all have weeks like this. The better news is that you absolutely can do something about it – it’s time you learnt how to “batch”.

. . .

Batching, Pomodoro Technique, Focus Blocks . . . call it what you like, all work around the principle of having focused blocks of time where you remove distractions and stick with one important task for a set period of time.

Sounds simple? Not for a school leader we suggest. The very nature of leading a complex organisation centred around people, means that our jobs are littered with opportunities to do the exact opposite.

I believe many of us have been seduced by the mantra that we have to be highly accessible. We take pride in keeping our office doors open and will drop anything to talk to a student or staff member. We answer emails as they come in (personally guilty!) and admin staff put phone calls straight through as a default action. Our days are full of constant, unpredictable shifts from task to task.

The unintended, but inevitable outcomes of this way of working, are that we’re spending way too much time on the busy work, too little time on the important work, and a constant feeling of not quite being able to keep up. For some of us, these consequences will be very obvious, for others they will just form part of the mental load that we carry home each night.

It’s time for change.

The very first thing to acknowledge is that you will have to take deliberate action if you want to change your current habits. You are also going to have to change the habits of the people around you – particularly the “gate keepers”, the people who either send you distractions or block them.

Both Steve and I are currently experimenting with setting up more robust versions of “batching”. We intend recording some of the challenges and successes that we find along the way. Sharing our real-life experiences with you is a win-win – it keeps us accountable and potentially helps others make changes that are both personally and professionally helpful.

Step 1 – Identify a block of time (ideally daily) that you will aim to use for batching.

I did this by writing myself a new schedule for the entire day. I tried to make the plan workable by scheduling my availability to match the ebb and flow of a “normal” day. For example, I like to catch-up with parents and students before school as they come in for the day so that’s not a good time to pick.

From looking at my usual schedule, I have chosen 9:30am to 11.00am as my batching block. Before the first bell, I like to be “out and about” in the school. Once classes start, teachers and students are busy so I head back to the Office. At this point, there will almost always be the need to catch-up with the admin team or parents for approximately half an hour. At the other end of my batching, morning interval starts, and I will be on duty or simply just talking with staff and students.

Step 2 – make the space

There are two parts to this step.

Students, teachers, admin staff; they all have the potential to stop you batching. It doesn’t have to be this way. Even when the “wheels fall off” with a child, there are usually opportunities to slow down the necessity of an immediate principal response. In fact, a slow response can often be the best (a whole new topic). It is true that in a larger school there are more people available who can help with urgent work. If you are sole charge, it is much harder! However, we all have the option of when we schedule our batching and if your school doesn’t have two walking DPs just waiting to help, perhaps you can choose a time where it is more likely that someone else can run interference for you.

And really, that is the key; you need to get your people onboard with what you are doing. In my case, I met with the admin team and explained what I was trying and why. They readily agreed to help create the space. We have an understanding about when it is OK to interrupt and at this point, very little is getting through! Trust is key here.

Email, Stuff News, social media; they are constant distractors for most of us. They demand attention, and wreck productivity.

If you are batching, turn them off. Yes, off. Don’t just not look, actually shut the tabs, close your email, and turn the alerts off on your phone. You can do this, and it feels really empowering! If in a moment of madness, you got a smart watch that connects to any form of media, take it off and turn it off. If your cat gets run over while you’re batching, someone will tell you later.

These two steps are enough to get started. In my next post on the topic I’ll share my schedule and some links to general thinking about batching. If you want to listen to an expert on the subject, check out Tim Ferriss’ 5-minute explanation below. If you have questions or want to share your batching story, please comment (bottom of this page) or message us, we’d love to hear from you.

http:// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghVdzAeX0bg

Dave

MAKING A START

Posted on 04/10/2019 by David Armstrong

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about “reasonable” and the “status quo”. You can read it here, but in a nutshell, I stated that to change the status quo of your school leadership role you have to be “unreasonable”. I wasn’t suggesting that you have to be a pain in the proverbial sensitive spot or walk all over other people’s rights, rather that the status quo is maintained by reasonably doing what is expected, whereas change relies on you doing things differently.

I finished the post by posing a few questions designed to move the conversation from theory (“go on, just be unreasonable”) to practical (“this is what you might do”). Let’s have a look at them now.

. . .

What does ‘unreasonableness’ look like in the context of your role?

Since the concept of being unreasonable is simply what it means to challenge the status quo, there are plenty of opportunities that you can consider. Let’s just pick a couple –

Exercise – your job means that you frequently have meetings and other community commitments in the evenings or weekends. These work events probably mean that you struggle to fit healthy physical activity into your schedule. People might assume a reasonable school leader knows this is “just part of the job” and will accept that their personal wellness has to be sacrificed.

But, what about challenging that status quo and fitting in the necessary exercise at other times? For example, in the afternoons of any days with evening meetings, or the Monday morning after your school Fair weekend?

Challenging students – you receive a call from someone at the MOE. They want you to enrol a student who has a long history of behavioural issues at previous schools. They only offer a minimal amount of practical support because “it’s a limited resource” and round out this attractive pitch with, “it’s your turn” (or a euphemistic version of the same).

Sticking with the status quo, and therefore being reasonable, you would swallow, accept the situation, and start the inevitable damage control with your teaching team and community.

But, you could be “unreasonable”. You could: seek your Board’s support, ring your local MP, insist on limited onsite time based entirely on the resource given, choose to value the rights of staff and other students when deciding on possible disciplinary responses – in effect, challenge the status quo. If this annoys someone, good work, it proves you are making a change.

Remember, being unreasonable (in this context) doesn’t mean you are a “bad person”, “unprofessional” or any other negative label that pops to mind, it simply means you are challenging the status quo. You can do this!

Will making this choice lead to a conflict with your own personal morals or values?

In short, probably.

Just as teachers are usually people who value literacy, school leaders are usually people who like to be seen as professional, collaborative and . . . reasonable. It’s who we are and who people expect us to be.

Steve echoed this in his last post – “I’ve made a career based on being reasonable”.

And that’s a problem, a big problem, because it’s almost a guarantee that a large part of your own personal identity story has you pictured as being reasonable, following the rules, not rocking any boats.

Personal identity stories . . . they are the intimate, detailed stories that all of us carry in our heads. They define who we think we are and who we want others to think we are. They are self-constructed over years until we have a mental image of ourselves. (And they are largely completely fictional, but that is another topic!)

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of the psychology behind this, you can find any number of explanations on the web. Here’s one that is easy to digest on The Atlantic.

Regardless, if you seriously consider making a change in how you operate as a school leader, there is going to be tension between the leader you think you are and some of the choices you will have to make to do things differently. That’s why the status quo is so seductive. It’s a comfortable place to live.

The good news is that feeling tension between your values and something different, means that you are actually considering real change. You are reaching out into the unknown and metaphorically starting to flex your legs, ready to take a step out of the box that defines your picture of school leadership.

If you have built a career based on reasonableness, over years – what critical shifts will allow you to change?

I believe there are some stages to go through before you can get to the actual change(s).

Firstly, you have to want to. I know this sounds simplistic, but until you come to a point where you know things have to change, the cards are stacked against anything happening. For me, I reached this step when I realised that no matter how much experience I gained, and no matter how “good” I was getting at my job, it just kept growing in size and complexity – even after nearly 20 years working in the field. That, and the creeping realisation that I was continually putting my own wellness behind doing the job. This was, and is not, OK.

Others get to this point because there is a crisis, perhaps in their health, a relationship, or their happiness in the job. While crisis is a great catalyst for change, it is also an unhappy place filled with unpredictability and pain. A better plan I suggest, is to heed that inner voice and start changing while you are in control of the process.

Once you have decided that the status quo can’t continue, you are in good shape to take the next step – which is to get very clear about what is important work and what is not. We have written more about this in The Forty Hour Principal, but in essence, the important work is always to do with people. Gaining this clarity is a critical step because choices have to be made and some things will either be done differently or not at all. Sabbaticals help with this type of thinking, as does coffee with friends who are willing to challenge your status quo.

Once you have that clarity, it becomes much easier to rationally prioritise what work you will focus on and what work you will put in the optional pile – what is actually important and what is merely status quo reinforcing habits. Your list will build quickly once you move into a change mindset.

At the very point that you find yourself seriously considering which parts of your current job reality can be changed/deleted, you have already made the critical thinking shift needed to challenge the old way of doing things. Congratulations!

Who are you going to upset? (Because real change requires this.)

The people on this list are important. If a possible candidate is on your team, it’s a good idea to communicate very clearly why you are going to make a particular change. If you’ve been upfront and clear, then fire ahead. Others may not need as much effort – the guy who drives past your school at lunchtime and sees you out for a walk, may shake his head and mutter something about “teachers and the real world”, but that’s OK, just add him to the upset list and ignore.

A win/win outcome might be what a reasonable person seeks, but to make real changes, to move away from the status quo, you are going to have to annoy someone (at least in the short term).

To minimise the ripples, I suggest you start small and go after the easiest things to change that potentially have the greatest impact. For example, create a ‘no interruptions time’ daily between 9:30am and 10:30am. Diarise it, explain what you are doing to the people who might interrupt it, and set the bar for an emergency interruption high. I can promise that this “space” will have an immediate positive impact on both your productivity and sense of calm.

So, who might this upset? I’d suggest anyone who routinely interrupts you is a likely candidate as you are stopping their status quo behaviour. Hold strong, keep doing it, and in a surprisingly short time you will have made change.

If any of this post resonates with you (or not!), or you want to tease out some of the thinking further, put your thoughts in the comments section below, or head over to The Forty Hour Principal Facebook page and we can discuss them there.

Dave

BE UNREASONABLE

Posted on 20/09/201905/04/2020 by David Armstrong

Synopsis of the Post

Being reasonable maintains the status quo.
The status quo is not working.
Changing the status quo for principalship will take deliberate action – which may upset some people.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

George Bernard Shaw

This quote perfectly represents what must happen if we are going to change the way principals and other school leaders work. We are going to have to be unreasonable.

Before anyone panics, let’s just unpack this assertion a little.

I have a growing certainty that change in how we lead schools is needed. I base this belief on regular discussions with colleagues and the reality of my own personal experience. The job as it currently stands is too big/complex. Even the most skillful, dedicated professionals that I know (and they are amazing), are struggling to keep up, and even more so, they are struggling do it sustainably and healthily. If this applied to just a few people, you could argue that individuals vary in their capacity – some are cut out for the gig and others are not. But it’s not a few individuals – it’s most people.

If you doubt this statement, have a quick read of the aptly named “Stress and Burnout – New Zealand Primary School Leaders’ Occupational Health and Well-being Survey – 2018” It’s hard to argue with the data!

Which brings us to the ‘status quo’ – a neat little Latin phrase that is at the heart of the issue that faces us if we want to make change. Translated it means, “the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social or political issues”. And right there, at the intersection between the status quo and change, is where both the possibility and the difficulty lie.

As mainstream educationalists, we are part of a “system”. A big, politically designed system that was first built in the late 1800s – compulsory schooling. As an example, in 1877 New Zealand made it compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 16 to go to school. And guess what, that rule is still just the same today, 142 years later!

142 years . . . and most of the fundamental “rules” are just as they always were . . . that’s a whole mountain of status quo that anyone considering change is going to have to push against.

. . .

The shape of your current job is part of this. For example, if you are a principal, you are probably the only one in your school in this role. Why is that? The job has become exponentially bigger but there’s still only one person doing it. That doesn’t make logical sense and is perhaps why those of us who do the work, often operate somewhere between busy and almost breaking.

Just as was the status quo nearly 150 years ago, you are responsible for almost every aspect of the smooth running of your school, but what this looks like today has changed out of sight.

There’s also a building tension between how a school performs its core function of educating students and what these students actually need to successfully navigate their world. The outcomes we are looking for are different, but the structure of how a school works hasn’t changed.

The predictable response to these problems from “the system”, is to ask us to do more of the same, but just do it better. This is a key reason why your job continues to grow in size. Every Government initiative, every new health and safety requirement, every push to better train teachers, every changing nuance in the way ‘modern’ parents expect you to do your job, adds to more. But, you’re still only one person.

Let’s use the analogy of the old London Bridge. 150 years ago, it was made of wood and stone and was adequate for the amount of traffic crossing it each day. Over time, the traffic increased so the bridge was rebuilt – in different ways, with evolving materials. This was done many times and the only thing that remained the same was that it got people from one side of the river to the other. The bridge builders adapted the world (the bridge) to the changing needs.

But what if they hadn’t? What if they had just tried to keep doing the same thing in the same way? The bridge would have become massive, inefficient, and eventually broken with the weight of outdated methods and materials. The stranded commuters on either side would not have accepted this. They would have screamed for change.

Well, the educational world has changed at least as much as any outdated transport system, but the shape of your job is still essentially the same. The status quo remains and how you operate is locked into a shape that was largely created for a different world.

You can try and be the “reasonable man” (or woman!) and adapt yourself to the status quo, but before you do that, have a look at the statistics on school leaders’ health, have an honest discussion with your colleagues, have a look in the mirror and talk to those who love you – is trying to bend yourself to fit the current model really OK?

I say emphatically “no”!

It’s just the opposite, we must deliberately redesign the roles we do in ways that allow us to do them with integrity, health and sustainability – we must adapt the world to us. The system won’t want us to initially; there may be tension, people might not understand, but that’s OK. That’s what real change looks like. If you’re not upsetting anyone, you’re not changing anything.

Now is the time to start being “unreasonable”. Now is the time to do things differently. Are you brave enough to try?

Further thinking . . .

If you answer “yes” to the question above;

What does ‘unreasonableness’ look like in the context of your role?
Will making this choice lead to a conflict with your own personal morals or values?
If you have built a career based on reasonableness, over years – what critical shifts will allow you to change?
Who are you going to upset? (Because real change requires this.)

We will try to answer these questions in future posts. If you have others that jump out at you, please take a moment to share them through the comments below. The more collaboration we have, the more momentum we have.

Dave

THE SABBATICAL GIFT

Posted on 18/08/201905/04/2020 by David Armstrong

It’s three weeks into my sabbatical and I’m sitting outside with a cup of coffee and Tim Ferriss’ “Tools of Titans” ¹. The day is one of those amazingly clear but crisp examples of winter that we get way down here in South Canterbury.

I stop for a moment to appreciate the calm and while I do, just sitting there, I can’t help but think about what a “normal” 10am on a Tuesday would be like. It starts me thinking about why the two scenarios are so different.

I pondered this same question periodically over the rest of the sabbatical. There were obvious explanations around the practicalities – I’m not at work, therefore; no meetings, I’m not taking phone calls/replying to emails, someone else is dealing with staff/student/people issues, finances, strategic goals, etc, ad Infinium.

But while these are all real, I think there are bigger ‘meta’ advantages that are creating this sense of calm and my list today is:

My head is not juggling multiple tasks
There are very few interruptions
I am in control of my day – it is predictable
I have time to be well (exercise, clear head = sleep, eat/drink healthily)
I do one thing at a time (and compete it before doing another)

(I’m much like Dave, and I can’t believe how the sense of freedom opens up the possibilities of my whole day. I relish in the sense that I’m not tied to my desk or the physical boundaries of my school. My day opens up before me with an infinite list of opportunities and choices. I don’t feel in anyway constrained by the usual daily noise and nonsense that I get in my role at school. Of course, much of the noise and nonsense is actually a figment of my own making.

It’s the space of this sabbatical that is giving me the opportunity to unpack the habits and thought grime of nearly 25 years of principalship – it gives me the space to declutter.

Equally importantly, it allows me time to practise some key new habits that will help me positively do my challenging principal role for the next five years. Because let’s face it, I’m heading back to my school, back to my desk, back to the issues that I left behind. This time I’m planning on being a lot more intentional about the way in which I tackle the challenges ahead. Steve.)

This is the first sabbatical ² that I have applied for and with the experience fresh, can honestly say that I should have applied earlier. I had reasons not to (self-justified), such as changing schools, not having a suitable reliever, ERO coming, . . . but I now know that these were mistakes.

If you are wondering whether you should apply, my emphatic advice is “YES”! The very fact that you are considering the idea means that you should. Just do it.

Colleagues who have experienced sabbaticals (some several times) have warned that I will find it incredibly hard to “climb back on the horse” and resume business as usual. That returning to the incredible busyness of school leadership will be difficult after experiencing something different.

I understand that possibility, particularly the reality that being time poor brings with it, but am hopeful that by implementing some of the aspects of the 40HP I can mitigate the impact – a real life test if you like!

Dave

Notes

¹ This is an amazing book that is a collection of thinking and experience from dozens of thought leaders – “Tools of Titans”, Tim Ferriss, 2017.

² Currently in New Zealand, a principal who meets certain service criteria can apply for a 10 week sabbatical. There is both a “project” component and a “refreshment” component to the time.

BOILING THE FROG

Posted on 01/08/201912/09/2019 by David Armstrong

An interesting thing happens when you take a break from daily principalship. You notice things that previously you just took for granted.

It’s much like the famous analogy where a frog is being slowly cooked in an open pot on a stove top. The frog could obviously hop out at any time but doesn’t. Meanwhile, the water in the pot slowly gets hotter. The frog just sits there until it is too late because the heat increases very slowly and from the familiar safety of the pot, they don’t realise what is happening.

Having a sabbatical is like hopping out of the pot. From the outside you can see (and feel) how hot the water is. Your perspective changes and you are likely to realise a couple of things:

I don’t want to get back in (because the water is too hot).
I have to get back in (so how do I turn the temperature down)?

If our job didn’t require imagination, creativity, the ability to do emotional work, and all the other high level skills needed to lead our communities, it might be OK to slowly “boil” over our careers. It wouldn’t be good from a personal perspective, but a lot of us seem willing to accept personal sacrifice.

However, what makes that scenario unacceptable, is that it is not good professionally either. It diminishes our ability to do our jobs.

Someone who is consistently operating at, or slightly beyond capacity, will start to exhibit a variety of symptoms. They will find it hard to focus on the important work (people) and are likely to lose their creativity and positive energy. They will, simply put, be a less effective leader.

If nothing changes over a period of time, it is also likely that their health and personal wellness will take a hit. Disaster for the school and disaster for themselves.

With that grim little description noted, it becomes clear that the “heat” of the job needs to be managed, and as we’ve said before, it’s very unlikely that someone else will do this for you. You either have to take control of the dial or hop out of the pot.

. . .

Getting out is certainly an option. We tell our students that they will have multiple careers, that the only thing that we can be sure of is that change is a constant. If we believe this, surely the same applies to us – we are people who currently choose to lead schools.

However, life is seldom simple. There are bills to pay, responsibilities to meet, a long list of practicalities to consider. But perhaps the best reason not to leave, is because you are needed. Our world needs positive, strong, healthy leaders and where better to take up that challenge but where the future lives – in our schools.

So, I believe that we (at least most of us) need to move our focus to the second option. Turning down the heat.

With the perspective given by a sabbatical, I can see several ways that I can try and do this. We all have different aspects of the job that contribute more or less to our personal “over heating”, and I certainly have plenty on my list! The trick then is to prioritise.

One of the principles that business leaders use to maximise their effectiveness is the Pareto Principle¹, sometimes called the 80 / 20 Rule. It’s a rule that both Steve and I are trying to use when decision making. Simply put, 80% of the results of any human endeavour are caused by 20% of the effort. This 20% is the “low hanging fruit”; the factors impacting you that are easiest to change with the biggest potential benefit. In my case, I identified the following:

The way I handle email
How I get to the important work (or not get to it!)
Fitting regular personal fitness into each week

Your list may, or may not look similar, but you won’t know unless you find space to consider what you are doing with a clear head. I’m not suggesting that you need to trek to Nepal and sit on a mountaintop to work this out, but I do think you need time out of your school and no interruptions to clarify where your changes need to happen.

We will be sharing our “test dummy” findings as we progress and already know the path will have some ups and downs – I’m calling it an adventure!

David

¹ The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch, 1997