Tag: tactic

Touch Pause Engage

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Olga Guryanova

In the sport of rugby union, there’s a thing called a ‘scrum’ where the opposing teams’ forwards push against each other while trying to win the ball. By design, scrums mean large forces are put on the players shoulders, necks and backs and to limit possible injury, these contests used to start with a sequence called touch, pause, engage.

The opposing players reach out and touch their opposition (which ensures they are close together), they then pause to allow everyone to be ready, and only then do they engage with their opposition.

.   .   .

I recently listened to an experienced school leader explaining how they had learnt to slow down when faced with difficult situations. Hard won experience had taught them that to react quickly was often to react ineffectively. As they were talking, I couldn’t help but notice that they were describing a touch, pause, engage strategy.

When debriefing scenarios that have gone badly between adults,  missing any one of these steps is usually the reason why.

For example, if an issue arises, it is tempting to jump straight to ‘engage’ and to try and sort the situation out immediately. The problem with this is the emotions are likely to be very strong and this usually makes it impossible to resolve anything.

Likewise, if an issue arises and you decide to wait to let people ‘cool down’, but don’t at least acknowledge the issue exists, you create a vacuum that will inevitably be filled by people’s imagination. Not good.

And if you do acknowledge the issue, and give some wait time to let emotions cool off, but don’t then work to actually resolve the situation . . .

.   .   .

My suggestion when the next curly situation arises is to:

Touch – despite any time/workload impediments, reach out via email/phone/message and let the person know you are aware there is a problem and that you are committed to resolving it. This can be very brief but fills the void of ‘nothingness’ that could exist. Give them an estimate on when you’ll get back to them.

Pause – don’t do anything more for a while. Over night is a good pause period. You can gather a little intel if appropriate but without any pressure to come up with a solution.

Engage – organise a meeting/phone call and start working through the situation. If it is still heated (emotional), add another pause. Rinse and repeat as needed.

It took me a while to understand that the touch phase often makes or breaks the eventual outcome. Practice makes perfect here, but a couple of things I’ve learnt are; phone calls trump emails, if you have to email, the only purpose is to tell them you’re on it – keep it very brief, set your pause period and stick to it.

Happy Friday.

Dave

Get new posts directly to your email -

Hell Yes or Hell No

Posted on by David Armstrong

 

When you can’t do everything, you need to prioritise, and this is where the world’s simplest sorting tool shines –

Hell yes! or Hell no!

Example:

“Can you add me to your reliever pool?”                       Hell yes!

Should I start work on the 2025 budget?                       Hell yes!

Have I got the time to chat to that upset teacher?      Hell yes!

“Will you be a rep on the beach clean-up team?”         Hell no!

“Would you like to lead next year’s pet day?”                Hell no!

“Can you sit in on the I.E.P. sign-off meetings?”            Hell no!

That instinctive, ‘gut’ reaction is where the magic happens.

Of course, some of the ‘nos’ may morph into, ‘if time allows’, which is only reasonable, but by putting the ‘yeses’ first in line, you’ll be sorting efficiently.

And as a wee tip that has never let me down, anything to do with people is usually a ‘hell yes’.

Good sorting.

Dave

Credit to Derek Sivers

Will Power is Overrated

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

“Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the cookie jar when you walk into the kitchen. Get rid of the cookie jar.”   Seth Godin

Let’s apply this thinking –

If staff are distracted in meetings,

Start with screens closed.

If you don’t want mountains of clothing in the ‘lost and found’ cupboard,

Remove the cupboard.

If your grounds are covered in food wrappers,

Ensure wrappers are removed before heading into the playground.

If a group of kids keep playing after the bell,

Introduce a schoolwide ‘rule’ that any points scored after the bell don’t count.

If the area around the Otto bins is covered in rubbish,

Move the bins to a more public space.

The secret is to change the fundamentals so you don’t enter a loop of nagging people to show more will power or self-control.

Change the rules – change the game.

Dave

PS The examples above are real. I dare you to act on example 2 regarding ‘lost’ property. The trick is to completely remove any central ‘dumping’ area and insist that found items are returned to the area in the school where people of that size work. It’s magic in action.

PSS A fortnight ago I asked people to share whether or not they were meeting the WHO guidelines for basic weekly exercise. The results are below (61 people responded). Where do you fit?

 

WHO has some Advice

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Bruno Nascimento

Just over halfway through the year . . . how did that happen?

No doubt you have a few important things to do next week. If you shared your calendar, I’m pretty sure we’d see meetings, school events, PLD, class visits, strategic reviews, duty commitments, reports due, etc, etc.

But would we see important sustainability things?

Would we see scheduled exercise, blocked out time for reflection, lunch with a friend, a coffee catch-up with a colleague, time to prepare healthy food, a late start after a late finish?

If the answer is ‘no’, it’s very likely that some/all of those things won’t happen. You will be gambling that you can somehow just fit them in. The result is that next week will be a net drain on your personal well-being and capacity to do your job sustainably. If subsequent weeks are the same, in 9 weeks’ time you will probably be a bit ‘crispy’. Sustainability is a cumulative game, what you do/don’t do today adds or subtracts over time. 

If your answer is ‘yes’, then you win. You win more energy, more sustainability, and more capacity to lead with excellence.

This “Is it on your calendar?” question is something we’ve written about before. All the really important things are in your calendar/diary system. Why do you always remember a Board meeting? It’s on the calendar. What’s the last day to submit your Strategic Plan? Just check the calendar. What are you doing today? That’s right, have a quick look at the calendar.

And we’re talking about important things.

Any one of limited exercise, poor diet, lack of sleep, or social isolation has a tangible and deeply serious impact on your health over time. If you combine them . . .

So, today you can improve this situation in 5 minutes. Here’s the minimum amount of exercise to add to your calendar for next week –

Exercise:

From the World Health Organisations’ minimum guidelines for adults aged 18–64 years.

  • Should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week, or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or an equivalent combination of both.
  • For additional health benefits, adults should increase their moderate-intensity physical activity to 300 minutes per week, or equivalent.
  • Muscle-strengthening activities should be done involving major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

That’s 2.5 to 5 hours moderate activity for the week, and two muscle strengthening sessions. You’re got 7 days to play with and I know you can work this out!

Just for fun, click here and share your current reality.

You can do this.

Dave

 

Make Time to Journal

Posted on by Steve Zonnevylle

Photo by Jan Kahánek

We do so much writing in our professional lives that whenever I hear the word “journaling” my mind kind of freezes over. We write reports, newsletters, strategic plans, opinions, instructions, curriculum documents, more reports – we’re constantly writing.

Turns out though that “journaling” is one of those things that can really help us with our well-being at work. Studies show that journaling can be a powerful tool for enhancing well-being by promoting emotional expression, self-reflection, stress reduction, problem-solving, goal setting, and gratitude. 

It has a versatility and adaptability about it that means you can almost do it anywhere and at any time.

I reckon we should make time to journal our thoughts at school – during our professional day.

Tapping away on your keyboard, or writing longhand into a book, no-one needs to know. Journaling has the advantage of making you appear to be “busy” to anyone who might poke their head through the door and make some sort of judgement about how you’re using your time!

Making time, just for you, to get your thoughts, concerns, wonders and ideas down daily sounds easy. You just need to make that time, and then get on to it.

So what could you write about? The great thing about journaling is that you don’t need to follow the same theme every day. Just getting your thoughts down onto paper is immensely beneficial to your well-being.

In fact I’m getting benefit from just writing about journaling – it’s helping me clarify my own thinking as my fingers bounce across the keyboard finding ways to turn words into ideas. 

So, as I said, what could you write about? Well, how about these ideas for a start: 

  • Gratitude Journaling: Keeping a gratitude journal, where you regularly write about things that you are thankful for. This has been linked to increased happiness, reduced depression, and improved overall life satisfaction.
  • Structured Thinking: Writing down your problems and finding potential solutions can help you greatly in building up problem-solving skills. By doing this it allows you to organise your thoughts logically and approach your professional challenges more systematically.
  • Cathartic Release: How about just writing as a process to release pent-up emotions and stress. Write down exactly what you’re feeling – no-one else will ever read this. Go-to-town with how you’re feeling.  This act of releasing stress can lower physiological stress markers like cortisol levels .
  • Cognitive Restructuring: Write about  the challenging situations that you find yourself in. By doing this you can help yourself  reframe negative thoughts and develop a more positive outlook, which in turn contributes to better mental health and resilience .
  • Positive Emotion Amplification: How about focusing on some of the positive experiences and accomplishments that you’ve been through recently. Amplify these positive emotions and it’ll help you to foster a more optimistic outlook on what you’re going through.

As I said, there doesn’t need to be any rhyme or reason to your writing in terms of what you write about, it’s all up to you. But studies do show that regular journaling will make you feel better and will promote resilience, so why wouldn’t you find time in your “busy” day at work to put pen to paper?

All you need to do is start. Close the door of your office, set your timer for twenty minutes and write. Go on, do it! You won’t regret it.

Steve

 

Audit Time and The Power of the MVP

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Kelly Sikkema

It’s audit time in New Zealand schools. A state appointed auditor has a close look at the financial performance of your school (with a few random ‘add-on’ questions included).

This can be a process akin to dental surgery or it can go quietly in a low-key type of way. What I’ve learnt over time is that the amount of stress involved is directly proportional to your understanding of the MVP – minimum viable product. And, if you like acronyms, you are the other MVP in this process (most valuable player).

MVP in the sense we’re using it here is straight from the land of product marketing. It describes the least developed product/thing/widget that can be put into the market for consumers to consider – in effect, you get your biggest amount of bang for the least amount of bucks.

As your personal stash of ‘bucks’ is both important and finite, it makes sense not to over use them on tricky audit questions. Recognising this happy balance improves with experience, but there is a simple hack that anyone can use which will get you 90% of the way to a sign-off – it’s leveraging the infallible power of “yes” or “no”.

“Do you have a policy for disposal of assets under the value of $50?”

Yes or no.

“Do your cash handling policies, procedures, and practices ensure the risk of fraud is properly managed?”

Yes or no.

Sure, sometimes an explanation is required, and in these cases the concept of MVP is again the best way forward. This bit could be called the MVWs (minimum viable words). Less is always more for these queries and any degree of overthinking should be squashed at inception.

I always find it helpful to remember that some hard-working junior auditor is responsible for getting all the required answers and in most cases, they simply want to get the job done. It’s a kindness to make it easy.

It obviously goes without saying that every answer should be completely honest and factual, and occasionally that will mean you must admit a deficiency. Again, this is not a problem to worry about, even if it leads to a “note” on the final accounts. Unless a note involves fraud or serious mismanagement, neither your mum nor Presiding Member should care.

I once received a note for getting 2 FlyBy points on my personal credit card related to a school purchase. I still remember it because it annoyed me greatly. The school had ordered a piece of computer equipment from a well-known national retailer. No one had time to collect it during the week, so on a Saturday morning I hopped in my car and drove down to the shop. As I waited at the checkout for the helpful person to process the order, they said, “FlyBys card?” Without thinking I handed them my own one.

So, on a Saturday morning, in my personal time, using my own car and with no malicious intent, I earned our school a “note” . . .

I rest my case.

It’s possible that by the time you read this post your audit will be complete – congratulations, you can go back to leading learning. But if you’re still in the process, keep it simple, keep it brief and this too will pass.

Dave

Mindfulness in Bed

Posted on by Steve Zonnevylle

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

Last week David wrote a powerful piece called 4am. It’s well worth reading if you haven’t already done so! It reminded me a lot of the sleep pattern/habit that I’m currently in and which I find really annoying!

Most mornings I find myself lying awake in bed, about an hour before I’m meant to get up. This happens a lot, and as I said, I find it very annoying; primarily because instead of enjoying the last hour of sleep that I need, I lie there scanning the day ahead of me looking for dangers.

I’m not sure why my brain does this, but I suspect that I’m probably not alone. The dangers that my brain is looking for are most probably rooted in the mists of time, well before I was even born. It’s an evolutionary thing that modern brains have held onto and into the modern age, God only knows why.

The dangers that my mind is scanning for aren’t found on the savannah, behind some bushes, or in a cave. Yet you’d think the way that my mind works at this time of the morning, here in the 21st century, that these dangers still exist.

That unwritten board report – it’s a sabre toothed tiger.

That maths lesson with the class from 3G – it’s a Haast Eagle.

That talk that I need to present at a staff meeting – it’s an empty food basket.

I really should just get up out of bed and shut these thoughts off. I always feel better once I’m moving and the light of the day shows itself. But yet I lie there, in the dark, hoping that I can find that last hour of sleep before the alarm goes off.

It’s a bit like I’m at the start line for a race. I’m waiting for the starting gun to explode, a whole hour before but my brain has already begun the run. I’m lying there trying to train my mind not to start the run until the starting gun goes, but my brain doesn’t want to listen. 

You’ve got to wonder – who is in control of these thoughts?

So, I’ve turned to Chat GTP3.5 and I’ve asked for a list of mindfulness techniques that I can use in bed. I’m going to give these a go over the next few days. I’m hopeful that I can train my mind over time to switch on for the big dangers only when I need it too.

What do you think of this list? Could these help you?

  1. Deep Breathing: Focus on your breath and engage in deep breathing exercises. Inhale deeply through your nose, allowing your abdomen to rise, and exhale slowly through your mouth, releasing tension with each breath. Counting your breaths or using a mantra can help keep your mind focused.
  2. Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Start from your toes and work your way up to your head, tensing and then relaxing each muscle group in your body. Pay attention to the sensations of tension melting away as you consciously release each muscle.
  3. Body Scan Meditation: Bring your awareness to different parts of your body, starting from your toes and moving up to your head. Notice any areas of tension or discomfort, and consciously release the tension as you focus on relaxing each part of your body.
  4. Mindful Observation: Use your senses to observe your surroundings from your bed. Notice the feeling of your sheets against your skin, the sounds of the night, and any subtle scents in the air. Allow yourself to fully experience the present moment without judgment.
  5. Guided Imagery: Visualize yourself in a peaceful, calming place such as a beach, forest, or mountaintop. Imagine the sights, sounds, and sensations of this tranquil environment, allowing yourself to become fully immersed in the experience.
  6. Gratitude Practice: Shift your focus away from worries or stressors by practicing gratitude. Reflect on three things you’re grateful for, no matter how small they may seem. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude can help promote feelings of peace and contentment.
  7. Mindful Listening: Tune in to any sounds you hear in your environment, whether it’s the hum of a fan, the rustling of leaves outside your window, or the sound of your own breath. Allow the sounds to wash over you without trying to change or analyze them.
  8. Relaxing Visualization: Picture yourself in a calming scenario, such as floating on a cloud or drifting in a peaceful stream. Imagine all your worries and concerns melting away as you immerse yourself in this serene visualization.

Steve

4am

Posted on by David Armstrong

An eon ago you woke up, and try as you might, you just can’t get back to sleep. Random thoughts, ideas and worries flick through your mind in a messy cascade of wakefulness. You don’t really know how long this has been going on, but it feels almost endless. And you know this is bad – there’s work tomorrow.

Eventually, you roll over and check the time. Surely, it’s nearly time to get up, but those glowing wee neon lights make your heart sink. 4am.

How will you possibly get through the day? And yesterday the same thing happened .  .  .

.   .   .

Sleep – the best of things and the worst of things. And many, many school leaders slide to the wrong side of the equation on a nightly basis. When Steve and I talk to principal groups we often ask how their sleep is going, and on average, 75 percent of all principals we’ve asked report significant problems with their sleep.

If you’re one of the three quarters of these sleep deprived school leaders, it’s time you stopped worrying about the science of reading and started considering the science of sleeping because there’s a growing amount of it, and the current buzz phrase – “sleep hygiene”, might actually change your 4am experience.

So why do you wake up or stay awake?

It’s almost certainly a combination of things, but three that drive a lot of people’s wakefulness are:

  • A high level of cortisol
  • Misuse of caffeine
  • Bad habits around screen use

Cortisol

Question – do you regularly feel stressed at work?

People operating with elevated levels of stress produce more of the hormone cortisol. It’s our bodies way to get through difficult situations and in the right amount, for a short time, is good. Too much, for too long is bad.

As part of our human circadian rhythm, everyone’s cortisol naturally peaks around 2 – 3am daily, which is fine, unless your base level is already too high. If it’s too high, the 2am boost pushes you into consciousness (even if you are tired).

There are many ways to deliberately reduce stress (meditation, exercise, diet, etc) and I believe our job choice requires us to make an effort to do so.

Caffeine

Question – do you know how much caffeine you take each day?

(cup of instant coffee 60mg, double shot café coffee 200mg, can of Coke 30mg, cup of tea 50mg)

We love caffeine. It’s addictive, it’s fun and it’s certain to wreck your sleep if used thoughtlessly.

The problem with caffeine is that it binds to exactly the same receptors in your brain as does the natural sleep-inducing chemical adenosine. One function of adenosine is that it builds up over the day and at a certain level makes you feel sleepy. If you take caffeine, it blocks the adenosine from working.

With a half life of 5 – 6 hours, that 2pm coffee you had after lunch is still 50% active at 8pm and 25% active at 2am . . .

Based on this long effect, it’s generally well-known that taking caffeine after midday is not a winning move. However, drinking coffee first thing in the morning can also negatively impact sleep.

Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist and researcher at Stanford University, has studied what happens when caffeine is taken in the first hour of waking. If you do this (and I always used to!), you’ll get the usual ‘lift’ as it blocks your adenosine, but at the cost of stopping your naturally rising cortisol from waking you up.

There are two downstream effects – firstly, that adenosine doesn’t disappear. It stays circulating waiting for a receptor to bind to and unless you keep adding more caffeine, will eventually succeed and cause the dreaded afternoon energy slump. But the bigger effect is that by stopping your body using cortisol to maintain a natural rhythm across the day/night you impact on your sleep too. A double whammy. Mr Huberman suggests waiting at least an hour, ideally two after waking, before feeding your caffeine habit.

Screen Use

Question – do you have a screen device in your bedroom?

Are you looking at a screen in the hour before going to bed, or worse, scrolling on your phone while in bed? Most people I know do one or both of these things . . . and they wreck sleep.

We’ve all probably heard that blue light emitted by screens effects sleep. It does this by supressing the hormone melatonin which regulates the good old circadian rhythm. What happens when you mess up your circadian rhythm? You also mess up your sleep cycle.

Any light when you should be asleep is bad, but the blue wavelength has the strongest suppressing effect on melatonin. It’s not rocket science to know what to do about this, but it can be incredibly hard to make change because addiction and habits are involved.

One simple step to take is to keep your phone out of the bedroom.

.   .   .

I’m no sleep scientist but have had my own struggles with sleep over the years, which is why I try to keep up with the thinking. I strongly recommend that you do your own homework in this area and happily, there are plenty of experts publishing practical guides that can help.

Two books to read are:

              “Why We Sleep”, Matthew Walker

              “Sleep Book: How to Sleep Well Every Night”, Guy Meadows

Two podcasts to listen to are:

              Sleep Toolkit: Tools for Optimising Sleep and Sleep-Wake Timing, Andrew Huberman

              The 6 Sleep hacks You Need – Matthew Walker

Sleep well!

Dave

An earlier post Steve wrote on this topic.

Get new posts directly to your email -

The Staffroom Term Planner

Posted on by Steve Zonnevylle

It’s the beginning of a new Term. 

You find yourself standing in the staffroom looking at the Term planner. It’s full of rows and columns, numbers and days. 

At one point, very recently, the planner was pretty much empty. Now you look at it and you see the empty boxes made up by the intersecting lines (the days) filling up with stuff; special events, deadlines, meetings, discos, camps, school productions, more meetings, working bees, school reports and other meetings. 

Maybe it’s colour co-ordinated. Maybe you have a key to the side that tells everyone what the colours mean. Maybe there’s a friendly motivational quote adorning the top of the board just to soothe the busyness of it all. Maybe.

There’s something about the staffroom Term planner that seems to keep everyone on track. If it’s not on that planner then it may never ever happen. If you want something done, it needs to be somewhere on that piece of board.

If you’re lucky you’ll be looking at two or three weeks towards the end that aren’t quite filled in the same as the initial weeks. There’ll be a few blanks.

If you’re wise you’ll keep it that way.

If you want to help your team get through the term without feeling fried, frizzled, overworked, over stressed, burnt out, exhausted and crawling on all fours, then jealously guard over those blank spaces. And if you can’t do that, then write into the blanks imaginary “stuff” that only you know aren’t true – call them space savers. 

No one else needs to know.

Your future self will thank you.

Steve

 

It’s All Bite Sized

Posted on by Steve Zonnevylle

Photo by amirali mirhashemian 

I used to like reminding my students, when they’d tell me that things were too hard or just simply too much, that the key to beating this sort of stuff is to think of it all as a hamburger.

Yup a hamburger. Stick with me here.

What I used to tell them is that when they (or anybody actually) bites into their favourite, huge, big, gigantic hamburger, that they never swallow it all in one big bite. Nope, they take little bites. And they take these little bites because their mouth is simply far too small to cram a whole big hamburger into their gob.

Unsurprisingly it’s the same for Leaders too. When we eat a hamburger – when we eat anything actually – we tend to chew off as much as we can, and no more. And if we’re really clever we’ll also take a little moment to savour what we’re eating while we’re at it.

This is the same for those times when the task in front of us is simply far too big, or far too much. There’s no way you can tackle the whole task in one big bite – so don’t even try. Break it down into “mouthful” pieces. And although the task might not necessarily be as tasty as your favourite hamburger, you can still take time to savour, or get some meaning, out of the situation.

There’s no challenge in front of us that can’t be tackled in bite sized chunks. So stop looking at a task and thinking it’s far too big, or onerous, and instead take a little bit of time to wonder where you’d be best to take that first bite.

Steve

Amplifying or Creating? – Culture Change the Easy(er) Way

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Sergio Capuzzimati 

The thought below came out of a recent conversation with a colleague where we were discussing the the willingness (or otherwise) of some newer staff members to take on extra responsibilities when needed. They were frustrated at this situation and wanted change, but at the same time were grateful that many others were willing to step forward. 

Culture, an eclectic mix of elements, thoughts, actions, and ways of doing things. And it’s also one of the biggest things that is laid at your principal door. It might even be in your Job Description and it’s an ongoing work stream that every school leader has to deal with.

.   .   .

We use the word all the time in conversation about our schools and it’s often in a judgement – “School X has an awesome culture; you can feel it the moment you step onsite”.

People will say things like, “you need to visit Suzy over at Y School, their playground culture is so settled.”

So off you go to have a coffee with Suzy and wander through their grounds to see this for yourself. Then you come back to your place and tell your team about the goodness. At this point it’s possible that some goals start to be set and plans formulated to develop a new playground culture at your school. Maybe you need to.

The problem with this approach is that culture is very complicated and nuanced – it can be incredibly difficult to understand exactly what is driving that “settled” playground. And it’s all too easy to start following a particular path of action that should have worked, but doesn’t.

I suggest that there is an easier way, a way that is more likely to get you to where you want to be and doesn’t involve translating someone else’s magic mix into your setting – instead of new, how about amplifying the ‘good bits’ of your existing reality?

A major plus of this approach is that you are starting in your own context with the assets available and already intimately known by you.

The cliched reality that ‘you will get what you focus on’ is your driver here, and it’s a lower key, positive way to create change.

Is your mission to create a completely new culture? Or might it be better to amplify what is already good?

Dave

Plenty of Service But No Servants

Posted on by David Armstrong

 

People often comment on the financial difference between working in the public sector and working in a business. When contracts are being negotiated comparisons are made and we often end up bemoaning  the relative under pay.

But it’s not under payment that is causing me to age a little more quickly this week, it’s people. Specifically, some of the people we are mandated to serve – ‘difficult ’ parents.

.   .   .

There’s a fundamental difference between how you can deal with difficult people if you are running a business as opposed to running a school.

Imagine owning a bookshop where a particular customer is always rude to staff or publicly criticises the decisions you make – it wouldn’t be long before you asked them to leave. Or perhaps you run an irrigation supply business and one particular farmer is often awkward to deal with and abuses your sales rep – it’s likely that you would simply stop working with them.

Therein lies the problem for public servants, we can’t simply stop working with our most difficult people. And unlike a retail business where an unpleasant customer calls in once then goes away forever, difficult adults in our school communities stay with us – often for years.

So, both management and teachers have to continually work at maintaining relationships with people that for varying reasons do not reciprocate this responsibility. Its often an unequal dance with one party demanding/expecting something more akin to servitude than service!

So here’s a question – what standard of behaviour is acceptable for parents in your school? In effect, is there a ‘line’?

Many years ago, a principal of mine had a very clear personal view that there was a line, and that crossing it meant you either changed or left. In the top righthand drawer of his traditional old school desk was a stack of ‘transfer slips’. These small pieces of paper were for recording the basic details of a student’s enrolment and were used when a student was moving to another school.

When he felt all avenues had been exhausted, he would calmly open the drawer, pull out a slip and place it on the desk. He would then say something like, “I’m sorry that we can’t meet your needs, perhaps another school might”. An interesting effect was that often the parent would immediately start retracting some of their more unreasonable statements and demands. 

Putting the slip on the desk was effectively drawing a solid line in front of the behaviour.

As we sit here at the end of the Term, with pressure on everyone’s’ time and energy, perhaps we need to get more direct with some in our communities. Perhaps we need to rehearse a verbal version of the old transfer slip – “I’m sorry that you feel like that, but that’s all we can do.”

Fullstop, no more commentary.

While the almost universal implementation of ‘zoning’ has made shifting schools difficult for most, the well known saying that, “you’ll get what you are willing to accept”, is never truer than deep in Term 4 – service needed, not servitude.

Dave

 

Get new posts directly to your email -

Welcome to the Jungle

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Chris Abney 

Three weeks to go in Term 4 – welcome to the jungle!

This is the time when I start to have a nagging feeling that the human brain (mine) isn’t made to work at this pace. I was standing in the playground after school this week and simply could not remember the name of a parent. I value connection and knowing someone’s name is a critical part of that, but my mental resources were drawing a blank. I suspect some of you might relate to this.

I have a completely un-scientific theory that I can check what capacity (slack) my mental game has by doing the Stuff Quiz (a daily NZ news site quiz). My observation is that in the holiday periods my scores get better and at pressure times worse . . . so that day I checked. I can report a reasonable 10 out of 15 result so not disastrous thank goodness.

.   .   .

How about you? Are you picking up clues that your mind is running out of spare capacity as we race to the end of Term? Now might be exactly the wrong time to be doing too much high level strategic thinking and is also probably why those teachers still writing reports can struggle to string a coherent sentence together – system overload.

It’s at times like this that I deliberately slow down. I know projecting an aura of ‘busy’ negatively affects others in my kura – people ‘catch the vibe’ from their leaders and if I am clearly flat out, I subtlety turn the pressure dial up for all.

Personally, I have two simple strategies I use to try and manage any impact my busyness has on our team –

  1. Physically slowing down
  2. Making space/time

Slowing down – I’ve confessed before that back in the early days of this adventure, I used to almost run around the site when super busy. In hindsight, this crazy behaviour was akin to getting a super soaker full of stress and spraying it on those watching me.

These days, when the pressure really comes on, I physically walk slower. Simple as that. I pause, chat to kids and move more slowly around the site. I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but try it and see for yourself. Walk slower and talk to at least a couple of children every time you are out and about.

Making space/time – I’ve built a wee habit in the mornings where I get up a bit earlier than I once did and get the day straightened out in my head. I look at my schedule, check my email and generally get the shape of what will happen clear. Once I’ve done that, I write a single Post-It note with the one or possibly two critical pieces of work I have to do that day. That note sits where I can see it all day and at the end, finished or not, is biffed. Tomorrow I will make a new one based on what that day brings.

This is a win/win/win strategy. It means I have both clarity and peace about what needs to happen that day, and it also means that when I arrive on site in the morning, I can focus on talking with people and making those critical ‘start of the day’ connections. I can’t overstate how useful this tactic is.

A 15 minute investment each morning is all it takes.

Dave

 

Get new posts directly to your email -

What would this look like If it were easy?

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Ignacio Amenábar

Principalship is sometimes described as hard, complex, or challenging, which can all be true at times, but what if it wasn’t? What if it was easy?

And interestingly, ‘easy’ is very subjective.

I’m guessing we all have aspects of the job that we find easy, but that others may well find difficult. For example, the yearly prizegiving speech. You may love giving that annual inspirational address to a packed auditorium. You look forward to it and get a real buzz from the delivery – it’s easy. But just down the road, another principal lies awake worrying about it as the fateful day gets closer. If public speaking was the primary task of the first principal, their job would be easy. If it were the primary job of the second principal . . .

I know a school leader who is amazing at creating timetables. Give them the parameters and intended outcome, and in less than 5 minutes they’ll have a functional masterpiece nailed. Give me the same challenge and I’ll struggle for ages and have to write drafts, redrafts and probably more drafts before I get it right. If timetabling was a big part of this gifted individual’s daily work, they would be cruising.

If something has a degree of challenge, and you are good at it, it also usually becomes enjoyable, fun even. (Having fun while working could be close to the holy grail!)

.   .   .

So, one way to make the job easier is to spend as much time as possible doing the things that energise you, and the least amount of time doing the things that you find difficult or energy sapping. Some experts even call this ‘job design’ – where you deliberately craft your role in a way that maximises your strengths (and minimises the time you spend on things that drain you).

On the flip side, this strategy means change – someone else will be doing the things that you struggle with, or those things are deleted, or they are done differently. If you have a scheduling guru in your team, doesn’t it make sense for you to release them to sort that pesky learning support timetable? You could even teach their class while they do.

.   .   .

Before any of this can happen, some thinking will be required.

Which regular aspects of your role could be: done better by someone else, done differently by you, not done at all? And which would you like to do yourself, or do more of?

You need some time on your own personal ‘lillypad’, with a blank piece of paper in hand, to think about this. And folks, this needs to be done off-site.

I suggest you start with the negatives – the things you hate doing. Even giving yourself permission to consider what they are, will have them rushing out onto the paper. That’s because they are usually closely linked to an emotion or two.

Then make a second list – the things you enjoy doing. The parts of the job that energise you. I’m guessing pretty much all of us will have something about hanging out with the kids in this list, but after that it will diverge uniquely. (If you genuinely struggle to think of things here, that is a tangible sign that change is needed, things are not OK, and you may need to talk to someone you trust.)

Once the lists are started, it’s time to picture yourself doing less (of the difficult) and more (of the energising). It may sound ‘cheesy’ but literally visualising what your job could be like with a better balance of responsibilities helps make change.

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.”  W. A. Ward

Picturing something is that vital first step in making an abstract idea real. There’s more to do after making that first leap, but without it, what you decide is ‘impossible’, stays that way.

Why not?

Dave

 

Get new posts directly to your email -

Cutting Corners Like a Boss

Posted on by David Armstrong

Photo by Felix Berger 

Corner cutting is about taking the shortest or most direct route to where you want to go. You’d think that would be a good thing, but this little idiom also carries the unhappy thought that you might be leaving something important out or are going to hit a metaphorical curb.

Imagine standing up at your next Board meeting and saying, “great news – the whole team is cutting corners.” I’m thinking there would be a very awkward silence before someone asked you to explain.

.   .   .

In reality, that’s exactly what we have to do as school leaders. There are time limits to the work we need to get done, and ever more competing work waiting to be started. The Ministry has 31 current initiatives or reviews listed on their website today, so it’s fair to assume that new work will not be in short supply in the foreseeable future . . .

Even a rockstar principal (like yourself), will be unable to methodically work through the items. You are going to need to look for some speed and that’s where judicious corner cutting is a vital strategy.

Let me give you an example.

The auditor has just sent you the 14th email requesting yet more information. You could methodically work your way through each item, carefully considering whether a particular piece of information or evidence exists, then compose a detailed response with supporting commentary/evidence. This process could take several hours, which might be acceptable practice if you were an accountant, working in a controlled and quiet environment, with skilled secretarial help and no interruptions from the public. But you’re not.

Or

You could reply directly to the emailed items with the briefest (and truthful) possible responses. For example –

“Does the Board have processes and controls, regularly reviewed, and understood by key management staff, to mitigate the possibility of individuals being the sole receiving and banking personal?”

Answer: No

“How have you enhanced the abilities of individual employees?”

Answer: With focused PLD linked to individual development needs.

Are these the best possible answers you could give? No. But are they answers that will allow the hard-working junior audit staff to tick an item off their own list? Possibly yes.

And while there’s definitely an experience related ease to identifying which corners to cut, anyone can do it with the right mindset. It’s about deliberately giving minimum time and effort to the things that don’t fit the description of ‘important work’, but that do need to be done.

In a busy day, it’s very easy to mix up whether you are looking at a potential shortcut or whether it is actually important work. When torn with what to do first, my personal sorting thought is; “is this directly to do with people?” Anytime I’ve ignored this rule, I’ve made more work and/or more future hassle. Here’s an example from an earlier post.

Next week will give you many opportunities to look out for cuttable corners, and if principalship was an online game, you would absolutely get bonus points everytime you found one and took it. No shame, just satisfaction in using your professional judgement like a boss.

Weekend well!

Dave

 

Get new posts directly to your email -

Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions