Educational Mission: Back to the Work of Why

““Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate
integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and
bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by
which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover
how to participate in the transformation of their world.”
—Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed”

An election approaches in the midst of pandemic, economic crisis, racial injustice, environmental disasters, and social unrest. I find myself asking: how do we, as adults, help young people make sense of our world? What is the role of school and of education now - in the lives of our children?

Complexity is here. Actually, it’s been here for quite some time. Sadly, we struggle to make progress in addressing essential human needs and rights. Every thorny challenge, when reduced to one issue or interest, is often avoided, argued, or made worse. Tensions escalate. Violence erupts. Political posturing overrides empathy, listening, and civil discourse. Individuals and their actions are met with outrage or applause, so that they might be held up in defense of one point of view or another, or so that they might illuminate or distract from the bigger, underlying issue that is at the core. And in the chaos, some of us lose sight of the pain and suffering, the lived experiences, the rippling implications, and the larger consequences to society. We lose the “big picture” and deep understanding of how individual actions or incidents relate to a much larger context too complex to name. The roots of our problems continue to grow. 

What do our children see? 

Our children see too many examples of adults behaving badly, with glib, unkind, and ill-informed retorts and arguments grounded in attack rather than reason and evidence. Our hard truth is that we don’t all agree about the truths, and thus, many adults have staked out their corners to merely argue positions.  They stop seeking truth, because they have their truth. They stop listening. Children see adults throw up their hands and dismiss problems, or opponents, as intractable; they see adults react with avoidance and dismay, or moral authority, or worse still, contempt.

How’s that working?

For the sake of conversation, let’s look instead to our children for direction. All of us have experienced the child who relentlessly asks “why” questions in a spiraling line of inquiry that, if we are patient, takes us to places where we no longer have easy answers.

A child’s method is an earnest and wise approach to making sense of the world and of testing assumptions we adults may have long forgotten to test.  If we allow ourselves to be uncomfortable in exploring the why, to be patient with the ambiguity, to follow the student, to go where there is no single right answer, or where the answer no longer makes sense, we just might make some headway. Young children are unconcerned with ideology. They are observers and actors, far more curious about questions and where they might lead. Adolescents grapple with ideas, and push boundaries -- seeking community with their peers as they test and challenge others. Our job is to engage them at whatever stage, to help them formulate good questions, to explore their provocations, to develop the skills of empathy, inquiry, analysis, and respectful dialogue, and to notice and integrate what works. In other words, in matters of philosophy, humanity and the great questions of our time, our job might be reframed from the responsibility to teach,  to the responsibility to  help them learn. Whether in circle time, the physics lab, the art room, or the playing field, these opportunities present - and we must be ready.

Educators must be “on the balcony”— now more than ever.

What happens when difficult questions, challenges, and uncomfortable statements emerge from students? Barring bigoted, hateful, or personal attacks, great teachers know students’ search for answers on the “big questions” cannot be reduced to one issue, one argument, or one set of data. We pursue truth in the complex space where our histories, cultures, choices, and values converge, where what we observe and what we know coexist with the possibilities of what we may not know, and what assumptions can be tested. We must look at all of it now, and we must relentlessly ask why - knowing that there will be many answers yielding more questions.

We must try to make sense of where we are with students - not by reducing and narrowing our questions to one answer or one perspective - but instead by widening them to embrace multiple viewpoints, leading us toward a deeper understanding; one that often lies at the intersections. That means allowing diverse perspectives to enter the classroom, with respect and tolerance, and with an open pursuit of inquiry and evidence. That means the educators do the work alongside the student, developing the skills and capacities through modeling, practice, and feedback.

Parents, educators, and schools begin by welcoming questions that begin with “why” and seeking the many perspectives that might inform that exploration. We do this when we invite learners to lead, when we are willing to engage with their hard questions or uncomfortable observations, and when we acknowledge, rather than judge, the natural emotions or wonderings that spur the questions.

• We do this with dialogue, structured and informal

• We do this with rigorous research and inquiry, 

• We do this with disciplined and creative work, 

• We do this in open and respectful conversation that includes everyone in the room, 

• We do this with care, and in our best moments, we do all of this with love. 

Pedagogy and practice are our essential tools.

By designing learning experiences, and then allowing for the questions and challenges that emerge, teachers work with students to find relevance and meaning, and to make sense of the content. The content itself becomes less important, as students are encouraged to explore, probe, create, make, compose, build, perform, and produce what matters - and to produce with excellence. 

Because so much learning happens in dialogue and relationships, let’s ensure that foundation is strong. The  subject matter or discipline is important context, and as students are invited to explore, with their many perspectives, let’s ask why, let’s listen, let’s see things anew, working through discourse to learn and to find common ground.  

So what does it look like  to be on the balcony? 

To be on the balcony is to is to insist that we, as educators, focus on learning - that we rise above our own perspectives to empower our students as they make sense of our world:

• As leaders, educators model the way, inviting these questions and cultivating conversations between and among students of any age to develop them as independent learners, critical thinkers, and respectful citizens. 

• As facilitators, educators help students explore: to establish perspective and understand context, to seek evidence, explore content and data, analyze different arguments, and construct knowledge. 

• As compassionate adults, educators honor students as they are: withholding judgment as they raise the bar for scholarship, empathetic listening, and respectful dialogue. 

School leaders and educators, let’s get on the balcony. Let’s invest in developing the tools and capacities to help students learn, ask questions, listen respectfully, and make sense of their world. Let’s ensure we create conditions for young people to enter the world better equipped to lead than the leadership they see now. Then we might  do what Freire calls us to do: to empower learners “to deal creatively and critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world”.

The Case for the Executive Committee

During the course of the pandemic, many board leaders have asked us about the purpose and role of their Executive Committees.  We couldn’t be happier about this question. It’s our view that a purposeful and well composed Executive Committee (EC) can be integral to a successful board / head partnership, a healthy board culture, and effective governance. 

We know this may be counter to the prevailing wisdom: when we ask trustees why their EC operates in form but not function, the most common response is that they have been told this is best practice, designed to guard against becoming a “board within a board” and assuming power that renders the larger body of trustees ineffectual.

We certainly don’t support an all-powerful EC that functions as a “board within a board”’  But the solution to, in effect, disable the EC in order to guard against a power play strikes us as the wrong solution, designed for a misdiagnosed problem. The problem is not that ECs exist; the problem is how ECs are designed and operationalized. The key to an effective EC is its mission and membership: it relies on capable trustees who cultivate, with their head of school, shared institutional purpose and a commitment to transparency. 

If we consider the Executive Committee to be a facilitating body, represented by the committee chairs and a few select trustees chosen for their perspective and capacity, we transform its purpose and function.  In this conception, the EC operates as an important glue -- forging a strong communication loop between Head and Board, and distributing leadership in a way that promotes transparency, effective and efficient communications, and opportunities for meaningful learning and development among trustees. In short, the EC is a mechanism to better support your Head, develop trustees, and ensure a healthy climate and function for governance. 

Portrait of a High Performing Executive Committee

A high performing Executive Committee has a clear purpose: in short, an EC should function as a facilitating and representative agent of the board, with the express purpose of ensuring strong Head support, upholding norms and standards for board engagement, promoting transparent communication, and cultivating depth and breadth of leadership.

A high-performing Executive Committee strives to achieve important benefits: 

• Distribution of Leadership and a Stronger School-Board Partnership:  In many schools, an inactive EC is often coupled with a Board president- Head of School relationship that drives the school board partnership.  There is no question that a healthy Board Chair/HOS relationship matters, but it can be enhanced and strengthened by expanding it to the EC. As a matter of fact, the risks associated with Chair-Head centric leadership are perhaps greater than those associated with an EC that operates as a “board within a board”.  

  • By opening the circle to a well composed EC, Heads are offered better advice, broader perspective, and improved dynamics for collaboration. 

  • Likewise, Chairs are better supported, with EC colleagues who can “pinch-hit” in times of need, and share in the efforts to facilitate the work of the board. 

• Improved Transparency and Coordination: an effective  EC is naturally positioned to act as a facilitator and two-way feedback loop to the board’s standing committees, task forces, and individual trustees.  

  • As issues and questions present themselves, executive committee members can initiate dialogues, with individual trustees and groups - to share information and solicit input.  

  • Committee work can be coordinated; intersections and overlaps are identified and cross disciplinary work  encouraged. 

  • Issues the Head brings to the EC for purposes of information and/or thought partnership can be communicated to the wider board in a more transparent approach that is inclusive of all trustees. 

• Board Learning, Leadership Development, and Succession Planning: a strong pipeline and continuum of capable board leadership is essential to stable and effective governance, but not every school has enjoyed a long line of board leadership. In some cases, it’s because the job, whether as board or a committee leader, is viewed as undesirable. Moreover, research indicates that healthy board leadership and the longevity of a successful Head’s tenure are correlated; where we see frequent Head transitions, we often also see weakness in board leadership.  

  • A high functioning EC is an excellent context for leadership development, offering high potential board leaders the opportunity to learn, work, and contribute around enterprise-wide matters, in active partnership with the Head.  

  • Board Chair transitions, and committee chair positions,  are well supported by EC colleagues who are ready to support and mentor new leaders. Working closely with the Governance committee, a healthy executive committee cultivates a thriving leadership pool.

Tips for Executive Committees That Work

Commitment to consistent practices and protocols can  be helpful in ensuring a healthy and high functioning EC:  these practices mitigate against some of the risks that have discouraged boards from activating their committees and, instead, encourage the healthy benefits we list above.

• Design for Trust: Compose your committee with the chairs of your standing committees and include other trustees who bring valuable expertise, perspective and/or capacity to the Head of School. Consider and delineate what meetings can be used as a confidential and low risk environment for the Head to discuss sensitive topics or concerns, and where you might have an “open” meeting” for the purposes of transparency and information sharing.  Ensure that issues that go beyond conceptualization in private meetings are properly vetted with the wider board, using the EC members as agents for agenda setting and communication.

• Design for Two-Way Communications: As always, you can never over-communicate. Communications can be for the purpose of transmitting information and updates, agenda and goal setting, soliciting trustee input, and ensuring trustee engagement and support. Build a systematic process for two-way communications between the EC and the Head, and the EC and the wider board. Your approach might include regular meetings between Head and EC, with minutes that are posted to the Board portal; targeted updates by EC members to their committees and key trustees or relevant stakeholders; and regular check-ins with all trustees after board meetings or for input on critical issues. Consider how technology can assist with dialogue and confidentiality - whether via your board platform and/or other messaging and project management tools.

• Design for Integration and Enterprise-Wide Governance: The EC ensures that dialogue across, within  and between committees and task forces is well coordinated - helping to synthesize strategic work and facilitate effective work planning and decision-making. See our Adaptive Boards white paper for a deeper dive into committee structures that encourage strong coordination.

• Design for Clarity: a well supported and high functioning EC stems from clarity of role and purpose. If you are just getting started and evolving the role of your EC, take time to work with your trustee colleagues to clearly articulate the role and function of the EC. Clarify expectations for transparency and communication, and ensure that you’ve defined the rare occasion when and under what conditions an EC might meet in private with or without the Head (for example, in cases of student or staff privacy, discipline matter, or if you are discussing a matter pertaining to head performance).

• Design for Data Enriched Dialogue:  EC’s function better with the right data and a forum for effective inquiry and exchange. By ensuring dialogue inside EC, there is opportunity to practice conversations, “test” issues, and collect data and input that inform a deeper dive into strategic or mission critical decisions the Board will undertake.  EC’s can help a Head direct and even centralize data collection and analytics, building infrastructure for effective strategic planning, oversight, and policy development. 

Don’t let old and antiquated practices hinder your ability to build and operationalize an effective Executive Committee. Every board must examine for itself what structures and practices are most valuable to effective governance, ensuring the capacity to flex and adapt as needed. An Executive Committee that can partner effectively with your Head and lead and facilitate the work of the Board is a great place to begin.

June 2020: A Call to Boards and School Leaders

A Blog in Three Parts

By Georgy Ann Peluchiwski and Stephanie Rogen

This three part blog post is a result of several conversations between Georgy Ann Peluchiwski and Stephanie Rogen as we reflected independently and together about where we find ourselves at this moment in time in our world. In our dialogue, we traced a throughline of lessons learned from our work together in support of the Latin School of Chicago -- and in our work with many wonderful schools. While this short series in no way fully wrestles with the complexity and gravity of where we are now, we hope it offers some inspiration and some practical guidance as we work towards a better future for our students and our communities. 

Part One: A Call to Communicate

Is this time different? We think it has to be, and it starts by communicating with purpose, so that we can expand and sustain conversation and action in pursuit of racial justice.  Following the horrific death of George Floyd, on the heels of Ahmaud Arbery and a long and shameful history of similar incidents, the national outcry for change erupted once again - bringing people out onto the streets despite a global pandemic. School leaders, knee deep in addressing the complexities of Covid-19,  struggled to make sense of this for their communities when everyone was socially distanced; connected at best, by Zoom. Most schools, if not all, sent some communication as an attempt to acknowledge the anger, hurt, fear, and care for their Black community members, and to promise that they would be part of the solution to address serious inequities in our country.  School communities are responding to these statements, and a wide array of voices are sharing experiences, demanding progress, questioning collective commitment, and seeking specifics about how their schools will effective positive and sustained change. In GLP’s work with schools, we’ve noticed the wide range of emotions, stories, and demands evoked by these school communications, and in some cases, significant reactions and backlash from alumni. Social media has expanded the platform for better and for worse, reminding us that we have many voices within our communities, and the work of communication must be open ended, inclusive, ongoing, clear, and profoundly human in tone if we want to make progress.

Whie it’s imperative to communicate, it’s not easy. Schools that fared best in their initial statements spoke with deliberate and careful consideration of both tone and content, centered in mission and values. 

So now what? Whatever your initial response evoked, you need to keep communicating to cultivate and sustain a productive dialogue in and with your community. 

Broadly, the best strategy is to address your community honestly, to listen openly, with genuine interest and compassion, and to follow up with actions:  This is an ongoing and virtuous cycle, one that invites dialogue, seeks a range of perspectives (most importantly students), incorporates feedback, and results in clear next steps. It’s not a one time response or statement of position. Rather, it’s the beginning or the continuation of the most important conversations we have in any community: how might we become better learners, better citizens, and better people, so that we might all participate in a better world?

These invitations and messages may be delivered by your Head of school or your Head and Board together.  In either case, the Board must be fully aligned and supportive of the Head - this is a matter of institutional purpose.

Specifically, we offer a few tips that might be helpful as you move through this cycle:

• Acknowledge that members of your community, faculty and alumni included, are hurting.  Trustees: act as ambassadors of this message anywhere you can, as stewards and guardians of the institution. Heads, school leaders, faculty and staff: hear the voices and experiences, and ensure you have the space and support to make sense of them together, as you consider how to protect, value, and serve your current students better.

• Be authentic and transparent about where you are as a school.  You may have a long way to go. You may feel you really have not started the work. You may feel that you are deep in the process. Wherever you are - you are not there yet! So speak candidly and lean on your mission and core values as guideposts for the journey. If there is clear, concrete criticism for which you must take responsibility:

• Accept that you are where you are on the journey, and that many constituents are hurt and angry. You may have both current community members and alumni whose lived experiences at your school don’t live up to your current aspirations. 

• Apologize, and promise to do better. It’s okay to be vulnerable and imperfect, in fact it may create an important opportunity to bring your community together to do the hard work that is required. If you are ready, or in process, name what it is specifically that you are doing or that you will do. 

• Model the way. Trustees and leaders have a special responsibility to lead by example: to take the first steps towards serious reflection, learning, and constructive action. As a way to begin, you might consider the appointment of a special group of the board with the purpose of assessing governance in all its dimensions, to ensure the board reflects and represents the culture, composition, and function you want to see in your school, and to examine how policy development can support progress.

Leaders and boards who work together, with one voice, to address their communities with empathy, compassion, and honesty can build a strong foundation for what’s next: a collaborative process that engages everyone in making our schools more just, more inclusive and equitable. Even in times of calm, leading with one voice can be challenging. Let’s start there.

Part Two: A Call to Trustees (from an Independent School Board Chair)

As a white female board chair who has spent two decades working in schools and other non-profit organizations in Chicago, I am personally struggling to find a productive and  meaningful way to contribute to combating racism in our schools and communities.  I attended both a public and an independent school in the 1980s, worked in finance, served on several non-profit boards, and have been a parent and/or trustee at the Latin School of Chicago for the past 18 years.  While I have seen many positive changes in all of these contexts, I recognize with great sadness how far we still have to go.  

Independent schools, like many other institutions, have been actively prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion work as central to their missions.  How this work plays out in the specific context of each school varies; school policies, strategies, and choices reveal the complexity and underlying tensions between rhetoric and the practice. Some of us have been more successful than others.  It is more important than ever that we get this right. 

During the past four years, I have had the great honor of supporting our outstanding head of school, Randall Dunn.  Randall, a Black man, and I, a white woman, have navigated deep divisions in our community that arose in response to actions and initiatives undertaken to create a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable school. We’ve made some mistakes, we’ve had to adjust our thinking as we expanded our perspectives, and we’ve made progress.  I have learned so much from him and from our collective work with our community, and I credit Randall for keeping Latin focussed and committed on what matters most: evolving our culture and program in service of all of our students and families. His leadership is successful because he has been steadfast in purpose, and flexible in practice.  

Three lessons learned in leading the change:  

• First, this is difficult and uncomfortable work. We have to be willing to lean in to the conversations and the work, sometimes amidst uncertainty and criticism. We may be afraid, we may disagree, and we may make mistakes, but we can’t make progress if we avoid what’s uncomfortable.

• Second, we must be unwavering in our commitment to make progress. We need to get this right, and that means we need to acknowledge our mis-steps along the way, and swiftly change course, so that we sustain the work, and expand our insight and skill in achieving our goals.  

• Third, we need to unite in our shared leadership and responsibility for this work. We, as a Board, must move together into the uncomfortable space of frank examination. We must be the change we hope to see - and our progress depends on the recognition that as a Board, we model the way, leading in lock step with our heads and school leaders.
  

Call to Action: 

Today, I ask that we, as trustees, commit and challenge ourselves to examine how we can be part of the solution and agents of change in our schools.  This work likely begins with some frank self-assessment and some tough questions. To begin, let’s acknowledge that many of our boards are predominately white and often over represented by families with long histories in our communities; ones who often command significant economic resources. Given that context:

• How are we able to serve all of the students in our schools equitably?

• Are we willing to challenge the status quo even if it implicates us and our leadership? 

• Do we have the diversity of background, identity, knowledge, skills, and perspectives we need to authentically represent and steward our communities? 

• Are we asking the right questions of ourselves as leaders and listening carefully to all voices in our schools? How do we know? 

• Are we demonstrating true commitment to not just increasing awareness and tolerance but to sustaining deep work to address systemic racism and to prepare the next generation of leaders? 

• Do we speak with one voice? Can we effectively resolve conflict “inside”, so we can act in concert “outside”? 

• How are we holding ourselves and our schools accountable? 

These are big questions, but we can and must begin to do this work. 

Part Three: A Call to Act 

Once you have begun communicating your commitment and engaging your community, it is time to consider how you will act upon this commitment. As a Board and leadership team, there is work to do within, and as you do that work in partnership, you must also move outward to engage your community and undertake concrete, school-wide actions towards your goals. A sound process that establishes a frame for design and decision-making is helpful, if not essential, to productive work and consistent, clear communication.  To design that frame, we offer these suggestions to shape your next steps:

1. Start with Questions: asking people how they feel, what they need, and what might work can lead to deeper commitment, understanding and progress in the long run.

   • What does your community need as a whole? What do key constituencies need?

   • What do you know? What have you learned? What do you NOT know?

   • How can you use focus groups, small dialogues, town-halls, or other opportunities for listening, so that you increase your understanding of where different parts of your community are before moving forward? How can these forums also create opportunities for listening and healing?.

   • As Head of school, what do you need from your board? As a board, what do you need from the Head? Talk openly and frankly about how to stay the course together, and leverage the strengths within.

2. Build The Case: demonstrate that you are not merely reacting and that this work is necessary and mission driven  

   • How can your mission, vision, values and current strategy support and forge alignment with the commitment to act? How might it cause you to adapt your strategy?

   • Work backwards from what you believe is essential for learners: how and why is this essential to the outcomes that matter most for your students?

   • In developing your case, you may want to consider how you incorporate and reflect the  feedback and learnings from the community.   

3. Articulate The Vision: your vision emerges as you listen, become clear about where you are, and build the case for where you want to go. People need to see the destination, and you need to help them 

   • How can vision help people make sense of the many words, ideas, approaches? and theories associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion work at your school. 

   • Consider creating a vision statement for DEI specifically. What other work is important?  

   • What will success look like in your school?  What is it that you aspire to for your students, families, faculty staff and broader community?

   • How will you seek evidence of progress?
     

4. Assess Culture/Systems:  You’ll need to do deeper diagnostic work in  order to identify and solve the right problems. Are you ready?  

   • Where are your various constituent groups? What are their current attitudes, values, interests?  

   • What opportunities and challenges might you face in light of the above?  

   • What language matters to you and how will you define the words you use?  What is right for your school? Do you have common language, definitions and understandings for this work? 

   • What practices or policies are out of sync with where you want to go?

   • How is your current leadership talent, organization and culture currently aligned to the vision you have? What support do you need, board, parents, professional development for faculty and staff?  

5. Craft the Plan:  

   • Create a plan of action that involves your faculty, staff and students

   • Ensure your plan addresses climate, culture, and program/content.

   • Don’t be afraid to highlight and describe work that is already underway or prior accomplishments. These serve as launch points for what is next.  

   • Set expectations clearly; insist on integration rather than a siloed exercise.

   • Insist on deep alignment and agreement between school leadership and the board as to what the work will look like and that it matters.  Externally, the head and the board must be one as you move forward.

6. Communicate Commitment and Accountability. As we mention in part one, communication never stops , and it’s a two-way process.

   • How will you communicate, with frequency, and in many contexts, the case, vision and plan?  

   • How do you demonstrate commitment and create pathways for feedback?

   • What accountability structures can you build in to improve odds of success and demonstrate commitment?

7. Measure and Assess:  

   • Define goals and measure and assess progress periodically (may be qualitative measures).   

   • Assess, and reassess.  Use this information to communicate and course correct where needed.You will not get it right the first time.  That’s okay, continue to assess, ask, adapt and act until you do.

8. Rinse and Repeat! As with your communication, this is all part of the virtuous cycle of positive change and progress.

   • Be prepared to respond if there are mis-steps, while honoring your commitments and values.

Conclusion

This is a call to leadership in an acutely painful moment in history, but in truth, this is the call to work that never ends. Like learning, this is profoundly relational and human work: we must commit to it as an essential part of our mission and purpose in schools. True change will take all of us acting in partnership to lead with compassion and courage to do the right thing for all members of our community. Boards have an important role to play, so lean in, listen, and lead. Our schools, students and our country deserve no less.

Remote Governance and Crisis: Implications for the Future of School Leadership

• Guest Blog Writer: Georgy Ann Peluchiwski is a GLP critical friend and collaborator, working with us as Faculty in our Women’s Leadership Summit program and on several governance related projects. She is currently the Board Chair at the Latin School of Chicago.

Any crisis, including the current pandemic, lays bare the essential elements of our schools and their leadership.  Our strengths shine through. Gaps in governance or leadership that existed pre-crisis do not go away, but are magnified. Our clarity of our purpose and our values is revealed - for better or for worse. And individuals reveal what is most core in their capacities - both their positive attributes and their vulnerabilities. This “laying bare” can be good or bad, depending on your pre-crisis state, but in either case there are things school leadership can do to respond and lead effectively.  For those heads and boards who have weathered a crisis together in the past, they likely have “muscle memory” to draw upon in working through the present situation.  For others, who are either new to working together, or don’t have prior crisis experience, they will have to create structures, formal or informal, to organize for a successful response.

In the context of a pandemic, the shift to “remote governance” empowers us to laser focus on the things that matter most.  I think about it as the corollary to the pivot to “remote learning,” in which we are forced to ask: what is most essential that we MUST deliver on?  How do we keep our community engaged and connected?  What tools can we use to communicate effectively in a remote setting?

Finally, the “essentials” of governance and leadership are no different now than before a crisis.  The three domains of fiduciary, strategic, and adaptive still matter in the work going forward (see Stephanie Rogen’s white paper on “Adaptive Boards” for a more detailed description of the three domains). Additionally, GLP has consistently prioritized in its work with clients a focus on the interrelated elements of strategy, organizational development and capacity building as the keys to progress. A focus on these three elements has even greater implications for how we lead our schools into the future in the context of this pandemic. 

Looking through these lenses can help to effectively focus our efforts as boards working in partnership with our heads and schools.

What Boards and Heads Can Do Now

For Boards:

Focus relentlessly on the essentials of governance:

1. Ensure adequate resources are secured to address crisis plans and communications, immediate financial needs, and access to information

2. Ensure support of school leadership (see “Ask the Head” below)

3. Mobilize around other fiduciary work —budgeting, scenario planning, election of board, other policy issues, PPP? What can or are we willing to do with our endowment?

4. Identify the relevant and high priority strategic and generative work-- boards and school leadership still need to be planning for the future. 

5. Support (and offer training if needed) effective remote work by agreeing on tools, norms, schedules and new methods of collaboration that everyone can use with ease

Ask the Head: What Do You Need? 

What can you take off the Head’s plate? Assume your head has the operational in hand, but listen for where they are feeling unsure and assess where the board can assist, either directly or indirectly.  Often, financial considerations, endowment use, and modelling in a crisis are places where Boards can do a lot of technical and adaptive work.  Your head may need your help to assess impact on enrollment, tuition, financial aid, philanthropy for budgets, and/or endowment considerations.  Your Head may also need a more “just in time” advisory group or task force that leverages trustee talents.  Don’t convene a special group without a defined need, but do inventory what you can offer and make sure you are aligning that to the Head’s needs.

For Heads: 

Keep your Board informed and involved

Share what decisions have been made and updates on the execution and ask for their support and feedback.  Then, help your board look beyond the horizon. You may have to be specific with your existential questions: some boards are “stuck” right now and may gravitate toward discussing micro things that feel “safe” rather than tackling the great unknown.  Heads with good board relationships should be honest about how it’s going, what they are concerned about, and where they need help.  If convening whole board for this doesn’t feel right, consider the executive committee, or officers. For heads without good board relations, consider convening a group that you select as a special advisory group, or finding individual trustees who have the expertise you need.

Together:

If you agree on where you are headed, it’s easier to work out the details together. Ideally, Heads should share, and trustees should be interested in the following information -- when in dialogue about these topics you should find common ground:

1. How we are delivering on our mission in the current environment (distance learning, ensuring community, wellness etc)?  Where might we be drifting?

2. What context matters? Talk about the competitive realities, and how others in your market are responding.  What are our relative strengths?  Weaknesses? Help educate trustees so they can address the big questions and be good ambassadors.

3. Ask the important strategic questions: What threats does this pose to the future? Financial, reputational, mission relevance?  Any opportunities? Innovation? Redefining value proposition?

4. Assess your capacity: who and what can you leverage to make progress? What’s limiting you and how do you remove obstacles and fill in the gaps?

And a Few More Tips…

1. Remote operations require a successful return to governance basics: support your HOS;  focus on mission and values; be intentional about fiduciary, strategic and generative questions; and prioritize work in order of now, next, and later.

2. Find the team and people you need. It’s okay if those you need are not technically in the right seats.  Who are the best thinkers, in school and on the board, and how do you organize them for what comes next?

3. Find the information you need.  If you don’t have it, ask for it. Go beyond school to get expertise or resources that make the difference.

4. Over communicate around expectations and needs. If you don’t know what your head needs or your board needs, ask and be specific. Be honest about where you are. It’s okay to not have all the answers, but be intentional about defining a process to get there.

5. Build in agility and flexibility. Use teams to work on problems -- avoid large committee meetings or conversations without clear cut agendas.  

6. You may have to slow down to speed up. Ask the right questions. Be thoughtful about potential implications to your actions at the outset so you can move fast and adapt easily as you implement.

Boards: What Will You Do if Your Leader Falls Ill?

There has been lots of planning inside schools and not for profit organizations for what happens when teachers fall ill,  or staff members are unable to work. Team teaching, standardization of curricula for remote learning, identifying staff short term replacements to map who can “fill in”  are ongoing leadership team discussions. Preparing to handle issues of trauma, loss, and anxiety at scale are emerging too, increasing readiness to provide care and support across the many scenarios any organization will likely face as we weather this pandemic. These are necessary, and important, considerations.

But what happens when your leaders get sick? You? Your Head? Critical members of the team? I’ve seen very little discussion on this topic, perhaps because boards and leaders feel they have well developed succession plans or perhaps because this feels like a second order of priority while they drive the first wave of crisis response. At the same time, I see leaders working harder than ever, playing “whack a mole”  through new, day-to day demands, anticipating an uncertain future, and carrying a heavy emotional weight as they steward their communities through this crisis. This is not necessarily “plug and play” transition planning.

The criticality of succession planning and the ways to ensure steady leadership - even if only temporarily - feel like different challenges right now.  First, the ability to reach outside and find talent to replace the temporary absence or tragic loss of a leader is limited -- and it’s everyone’s problem. The trauma to the community if its leader falls ill is naturally greater, and more emotionally complex, than that of a garden variety transition. The impact of multiple leaders falling ill is even more complicated  -- and a more likely occurrence than in ordinary times. And the work is different -- and not necessarily what people have been prepared to do. Questions abound: 

• What happens, for example, if the Head or ED, the CFO and the Program leader are all incapacitated? 

• How do we address the reality that the work is both different, and more challenging than it was in the course of “normal” operations? 

• How does day to day management learn and recalibrate in this context -- and how does a new team form -- one that is ready to work? 

• Is the organization ready and is the Board ready to act?

I wonder how boards and leaders are approaching these questions. Frankly, I wonder if they’ve even had time. In the ideal case, there are already succession plans in place for every senior leader, with clear identification of internal people who can steer the ship -- at least for an interim period. But these plans are designed largely on the assumption that the organization is solving for one role only. And that’s where the vulnerability is as we consider the current state of COVID-19 planning. 

Boards need to talk openly with their leaders about a deeper and more flexible response to contingency planning for leadership.  One possibility is to create a “leadership map” that helps boards and leaders quickly tap into the people and resources they need when leaders can’t work. Your map might include:

• A clear profile of the capacities, skills, and dispositions that matter most in a phase of crisis leadership - and who in your organization has them!

• An inventory of what roles are critical, and identification of a minimum of one, ideally multiple stand-ins.

•  An inventory of staff/faculty who are capable (enough) to step into a broader role, along with a scan of retired leaders who may be able to step in temporarily.

• An inventory of board capacity, and readiness to support an interim leader(s)

• An inventory of functions that can be outsourced in the case of extended illness or multiple illness (in accounting and payroll for example)

• An examination of what roles or functions might be combined, divided, or even eliminated -- at least temporarily, in the event of leadership gaps. This analysis allows for a broader view of the available talent pool inside your school or organization.

• A strawman for agile teams that can work collaboratively on mission critical functions -- increasing resilience and building stronger cross-functional coordination at a time of rapid execution when the “left hand may not know what the right hand is doing”

Even if no one is sick now, it’s time to “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”. In the corporate sector, this issue is high on CEO minds. If boards have a plan in place for how to respond in the case of their leader(s) falling ill, they can continue with even greater confidence the critically important work of ensuring the community is cared for and the mission is sustained. What are you doing to get ready? Please share your best ideas and tips with us -- and we’ll shine a light on them as we continue this conversation!

It Really is a New Normal...Now What?

In the face of new challenges without clear solutions, leadership expert Ron Heifetz reminds us that: 

“Progress on problems is the measure of leadership; leaders mobilize people to face problems, and communities make progress on problems because leaders challenge them and help them to do so.”

Yesterday, in “Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst”, I made the case that we should expect and prepare for a protracted period of disruption (12-18 months) for schools - and frankly, for all aspects of our lives, as our world battles the spread of COVID-19 and works to develop an effective vaccine. Later that day, I read a similar take in MIT Technology Review, and a bold call to action in the Atlantic.

As crazy as things feel now, if the virus spreads as forecasted, even with strong efforts to mitigate, we will likely see a big resurgence of infection in the fall/winter of 2020.  Our new normal is likely to be one of ongoing “social distancing” and intermittent school closures in communities or regions where the need to isolate is acute. So what we do NOW is the emerging playbook for what’s ahead -- and if we embrace it our potential to successfully support thriving learners, adults and students, is greatly improved. It’s time to “make progress on problems”.

I outlined a few areas for awareness:

1. Don’t approach your closure and your move to distance learning as temporary

2. It’s going to be about a lot more than “school”

3. The economic impact to schools (and all of us) could be severe

4. What matters most in learning must be redefined

5. Adults and their children need support more than ever in learning 

what might schools do NOW and how do we get ready for what’s next?

Build a “new normal” response team that does more than respond: While the triage reality may feel overwhelming, we are also tasked with looking out to the horizon. Not only do you need in the minute leadership capacity, you need to do scenario planning. Engage members of your board who can offer thought partnership and who can help model contingency plans.  Clearly define and carefully compose the team who can make decisions, anticipate needs, and unleash and distribute leadership throughout your school. Cluster your best talent around this, and set up a protocol for how you’ll work. Acting now will ease the burdens, ensure no one feels isolated, and showcase your best efforts in communicating with, serving, and sustaining the needs of your community. GLP counsels schools to build agile teams as a regular part of our work. McKinsey offers some guidance here, as does the Clayton Christensen Institute.

Establish a clear plan for adult learning -- now!  This will be a work in progress as faculty and staff adjust to working remotely.  For teachers, the upskilling, both in the use of technology and in the effective design of remote learning experiences and adaptation of curriculum, will take time. I loved this article from Kirk Wheeler that calls our attention to the many pieces of this puzzle.  The American School in Japan continues to adapt and assess their dynamic Distance Learning Plan — this is also a strong launch pad for schools coming up to speed. We recommend using ZOOM as the best platform to gather faculty together and to break out in smaller teams or groups to design, learn, and engage in dialogue. 

Rethink all your assumptions about learning and learning design: First and foremost, do not ask teachers to replicate their classroom experience or lesson plan online. It won’t work for a whole host of reasons and it won’t be good for students. Instead --invite teachers to be creative and try new things. Now is a time for experimentation grounded in the hands of your learners -- as Thomas Arnett of the Clayton Christensen Institute guides us, they will need to take on more of this work and self direct. What does that look like? Most of all, it’s about allowing families to exercise control over learning time and objectives; employing resources already available so they can engage productively; and ensuring ample opportunity to connect virtually in dialogue and in community. And the first order of the work is to establish connections, set expectations, and build community in your new environment— the next few weeks may well feel like the first weeks of the school year.

Keep it simple: As one head of school commented to us, there are so many resources for remote learning it can be tremendously overwhelming.  You don’t need all of it, and you can discover slowly what works for your school and your learners. Start with where you are. For example, if you are school working on the Google platform, focus there.  As teachers discover particular strategies and resources they love, share them. Build a virtual PLC if you do not yet have one where people can congregate for learning, for fun, and to share resources. To get started with online learning design, here’s an easy guide that aligns tools to purpose. Relax your expectations: decide what matters most for learning in these early days, and emphasize how teachers and students remain connected— and set yourself up for success next fall and beyond. 

Be hopeful but also be realistic in your communications:  We really don’t know what’s next. Help people prepare and engage in the potential realities ahead. Don’t promise families or employees that all will be back to normal soon— it may not be. Instead, stress the values that comprise your community, invite them to adapt and learn with you, let them know that there will be bumps, be vulnerable, and reassure them that you will navigate this together.  At the same time, ensure clarity and precision in the decisions you can communicate. Whether it’s about expectations for learning, expectations for work, expectations for communication, or how school will operate, it’s important to be calm, clear, and definitive so people know where they are amidst a lot of confusion.

Share, share, share: What we learn in the next few weeks will be the foundation for how we adapt and thrive going forward. Our collective efforts to collaborate, share, and innovate need to be in the spotlight and spread— so all schools, families, and communities benefit. We will be hosting ZOOM conversations next week— please let us know of your interest in this quick survey.   And if you need real time help, a resource, or a sounding board,  Stephanie is offering free “just-in-time” 30 minute calls for the next several weeks for anyone who wants to connect. You can schedule here.

Our goal is to stay in the “middle” and connect people, ideas, and resources as best we can. Let us know what you are doing so we can shine a light on you— together, we are better! 

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst.

I grew up with a family member who invoked this wise guidance in just about every context. How spot on it feels now. 

Yesterday I read the March 16th COVID-19 modeling and analysis from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team. Largely credited as a major influence on both the US and UK response to COVID-19, the paper is both sobering and edifying. The opening sentence of the executive summary sets the tone: 

“The global impact of COVID-19 has been profound, and the public health threat it represents is the most serious seen in a respiratory virus since the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic.”

There’s a lot here that matters for schools.  While the future is neither certain or predictable,  the likely outcomes and the many possibilities in the face of those outcomes are pertinent to schools and worth examination. 

Everyone should read this report closely, but here’s a quick summary from my read: 

• Until we have a vaccine, we are reliant largely on public health measures “non-pharmaceutical interventions” (NPIs)

• There are two basic approaches: 1) mitigation (slowing the spread of the epidemic) and 2) suppression (reversing the growth of the epidemic).

• Mitigation involves some combination of case isolation and quarantines with social distancing. Suppression involves the more comprehensive combination of measures, including school and university closures, case isolation and home quarantines, and strict social distancing. Needless to say, both take a heavy toll on people and the economy - and are hard to sustain.

• Given how this virus transmits, this forecast makes a strong case for suppression as the preferred option, in order to not overwhelm the healthcare system (critical care beds) and to reduce mortality.

• Even with aggressive mitigation (think New York right now), the forecast is that once things look better (China now) and policy is relaxed, we are predicted to see another outbreak requiring yet another suppression response within  2-3 months. 

We are not out of the woods until we have a vaccine (12-18 months away) and until then, we’ll be dealing with outbreaks, capacity issues, and serious illness with fatalities in our country and around the world.

The takeaway?

We should expect to see policies like the ones we are currently undertaking to be in effect, at least intermittently, from now until mid -- late 2021. We are in a new normal, and with new data everyday, we will have to adapt - globally, locally, and at the systemic level.

What does this mean for schools?

1. Don’t approach your closure and your move to distance learning as temporary:  this is our new normal and we need to adapt and thrive.

2. It’s going to be about a lot more than “school”: think human suffering, loss, isolation, community stress, and deep disruptions to economic and social well-being. Schools can help children and families if they stay focused on their commitment to community care.

3. The economic impact to schools, like hospitals, could be severe: Schools with low reserves and weak enrollment are at risk, and some are facing the potential for closure. Boards and school leaders will need to consider all the potentialities. The economic impact, while uncertain, is sure to be significant, and schools need money and contingency plans to operate successfully. 

4. What matters most in learning must be redefined: all our efforts to transform schools and learning may be here now -- and we may be forced to do what so many of us have been talking about for a long time -- allowing our students lead the way, drive their own learning, follow their interests, use technology productively, and learn to create, make and innovate beyond the walls of a classroom.

5. Adults and their children need support more than ever in learning: faculty learning to teach from home, parents and teachers working from home, children trying to learn at home, parents who need to go out to work and arrange for care for their at home children….and the list goes on. 

Be well, be safe, and stay tuned for my next post: questions and issues for school leaders and boards as we build resilience in the face of this uncertain future!