Post 20: How Did That Happen? Connors and Smith

 

 

One of the most frustrating things for teachers is when they don’t understand what administration expects.  My first year teaching, I was in this situation.  My evaluator would come in and do an observation and have some corrective feedback.  I would address the feedback and await her next visit with enthusiasm, “She’s going to be happy this time!”  Alas, the next time, she would have a different criticism.  And the cycle would repeat.  I’d address that criticism and welcome her back with high hopes for her to crush those hopes with a different criticism.  I was willing to do whatever she asked of me.  The problem was . . . I had no idea what she was asking of me.  If she had explained her expectations, I would have been happy to rise up and meet them.

Roger Connors and Tom Smith write about expectations in their book, “How did That Happen?  Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way.”  The book opens with a diagram showing the “Inner Ring” and “Outer Ring” of the Accountability Sequence.  The first half of the book deals with the Outer Ring.  This is where the leader Forms, Communicates, Aligns, and Inspects the expectations.  This is similar to the Good to Great Hedgehog Concept.  The principal’s expectation should be the central message of every classroom visit, very professional development opportunity, and every leadership team meeting.

Let’s say that the expectation is that teachers will improve student/teacher relationships throughout the school year.  First, the principal should define what that means and how it will be done.  The process may be that each teacher is expected to know each student’s name, refer to the student by name, greet students at the door on the way into class, and use more positive praise then negative correction.  The principal should come up with a thorough plan how this will be regularly communicated by creating a catchy motto, posters, PowerPoint backgrounds, letterhead, an advisory committee, a newsletter, and progress reports. 

Next, the school systems should be aligned to allow these items to come to fruition.  The first week of school might be block scheduled so that teachers can have activities to get to know their students.  Passing periods might be lengthened so that teachers can regroup after one class and prepare to greet students at the door.  Each teacher might get a set of table tent name cards for their students to create the first week of school.  The computerized attendance system could be set up with photographs of students to make the connection of names and faces easier.  Department meetings and faculty meetings should have regular time set aside to remind teachers of the importance, the research behind, and the progress towards meeting these goals.  New teacher training should include a section on student/teacher relationships to keep the culture alive.  A section of the internal intranet site should be dedicated to sharing data, research, best practices, and anecdotes about relationship building.

Then, a system should be set up in order to observe whether the movement is occurring, whether it’s working, whether it is sustaining, and what next steps might be necessary.  This doesn’t have to be the principal alone.  In the spirit of Instructional Rounds, mixed groups of teachers, administrators, students, and parents might walk around together to observe progress.

Maybe this all sounds like over-kill, but this is what is necessary if change is really going to happen and cultures are to be changed.  Otherwise, teachers will get “initiative fatigue” from the surface skimming of a new, poorly-formed initiative every year or even month.

What expectations do you have that are so important that they should be formed this way?  How have you Formed, Communicated, Aligned, and Inspected to ensure thorough implementation?  Tell your story in the comments section below.

Here is a video of Tom Smith, one of the authors of "How did that Happen?" and "The Oz Principle" talking about the book.