EPISODE #291

Asking the Right Questions Part 4

You're listening to the school leadership reimagined podcast episode 291. 

Hey, builders. Before we jump into today's show, I need to know something. Are you and I connected on the socials? Because if we're not, we need to be. So connect with me. I'm on Facebook obinjackson. I am on Twitter obinindsteps. I'm on LinkedIn Robynjackson. Let's connect and let's keep the conversation going. Now onto the show. You're listening to the School Leadership reimagine podcast, episode 291.

How do builders like us make a dramatic difference in the lives of our students in spite of all the obstacles we face? How do you keep your vision for your school from being held hostage by resistant teachers, uncooperative parents, ridiculous district policies, or lack of time, money, or resources? If you're facing those challenges right now, here is where you'll find the answers, strategies, and actionable tips you need to overcome any obstacle you face. You don't have to wait to make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. You can turn your school into a success story right now with the people and resources you already have. Let's get started. 

Hey, builders. Welcome to another episode of the School Leadership Reimagined podcast. 

I'm your host, Robyn Jackson, and today we are going to wrap up our series on questions worth asking. This is the fifth question, and I believe it is the most important question that we need to ask ourselves. Regularly. Did I say that right? Regularly. There it is. And that question is this. Do you really believe that 100% is possible? Now, the reason I think this question is so important is because if you're a builder and you've been here for any length of time, then you probably say it has to be 100%. I believe in 100%. I'm a builder. That's what builders do.

It's the foundation of what it means to be a builder. Builders believe and work towards 100% success for all their students. And so we do the work of coming up with our 100% vision and making sure that that vision is clear and compelling and that that vision passes the tingle test. We put systems in place designed to get us to 100% success. We talk about the time, we share our vision stories with people and help them to believe in 100% as well. So from the outside looking in, it looks like we're all in on 100%. But it's really important as a builder to do a gut check every now and again because holding onto that 100% vision is a lot harder than any of us will admit. You see, when we say we believe in 100%, immediately we open the door to a lot of doubt, because in most cases, we've never seen anybody get 100% success anymore.

Now, for those of you who are in BU, you know, you have people in BU who have hit that 100% mark. So you're seeing it, but I'm talking about just in general. It's not common to see principals or superintendents reach 100% success. And so it's hard for us to kind of hold onto that vision, especially when we've never seen it. And then the other thing that happens is that once we say we want and we are working towards 100% success, everybody comes out of the woodwork with all the reasons why it can't happen. And they always temper it with, listen, I know it's important to believe in every child, and hey, listen, I know that we should believe in every child, and I want every child to be successful.

And then here comes the big but. But.

And then after that are all the reasons why you can't get there. And if you're hearing that day in, day out, it's kind of hard sometimes to really hold onto that, to wonder if you're the one who's crazy because everybody else is telling you that it can't be done. And then there's our district. Now, listen, I'm not mad at people in your district. Don't you be mad at people in your district. They are just speaking from their leadership perspective, right? Leadership does not teach us to go for 100% success. Leadership, the paradigm of leadership doesn't even have space for 100% success, which is why we're not leaders.

We're builders. But you may work for a leader, and that leader may be telling you, I mean, listen, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but 100% is not really possible. And they may try to take you away from those 100% strategies and get you focused on those leadership strategies, because in their minds, 100% isn't realistic. And it's more important for you to try to eke out another 3% or a 5%. And in fact, that's what they've written into their plan. So that's what they're going for. And so it can be hard to hold on to that hundred percent vision when your boss or your leader is telling you to abandon it and is pushing you towards a 5% vision or 3% vision or no vision at all. We know this as builders.

We know that we're going to face these challenges. But what we don't talk about a lot is the toll that those challenges takes on us and on our belief. You see, when you first start that 100% vision, it's like an awakening, right? It's been in you all along, but it's been squashed, it's been pushed down, it's not been encouraged. No one has given you, quote, unquote, permission to believe in 100%. And so even though that belief is there inside of you, you ignore it. You're chasing leadership stuff. And so you're trying to do what you believe leaders do.You're trying to conform yourself into what it means to be a leader. 

But in your heart, you're not a leader. 

You're a builder. And when you first discover buildership, you realize that, oh, no, no, I can believe in 100%. That dream isn't invalid. It has a place. It just doesn't have a place in leadership. And once you realize that, that awakening feels so good, so refreshing.

It's like, ah, yes. And you get that enthusiasm, that initial jolt of energy, and at the beginning, it feels so good. And then when you do your vision story with your staff and you see everybody on your staff say, huh, 100%, I could do that. And you awaken that in them all, that feels really good. And then the work happens, right? The initial rush of excitement about that 100% vision, it fades. It does. Because then you have to actually do the work.

You have to sustain the vision. When you hit a setback, you have to hold onto that vision. When you start hitting pushback, because initially everybody's really excited about that vision. But then after you settle down and they have to do the work and they hit the frustration and they come across a kid that they don't know what to do with, and they. Or who they don't. This is the English teacher in me. I'm working out the grammar. It's not that, it's who, forgive me, I do that.

They come across a kid with whom they don't know how to work. They come across a parent who is fighting them every step of the way. They try something in the classroom that they think is going to work, maybe something you even told them will work. And it doesn't work the way that they expect. And when those things happen, people are quick to say, you know what? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe 100% isn't possible. And so even though we continue to pay lip service to 100%, our belief can begin to drop, especially if we are not being intentional about feeding that belief.

And so when you. When you check in with yourself every once in a while and you say, do I still really believe in 100% and my 100% vision? It's important because you may not be even aware of the ways that your vision has been eroded over the last few months or the last year. And so it's really important for you to check in with yourself, because here's what happens. If your belief starts to wane and you ignore it, then you're going to go around and you're going to still be talking 100%, but your behavior is not going to match your belief, what you say you believe. And what will happen is if we start to let that belief drop, we will begin to act in ways that sabotage our 100% vision.

Now, I am speaking from experience here. 

When I first started mindsteps, one of the things that was really, really important to me was the belief that any teacher could become a master teacher with the right kind of support and practice. I believed that if we were allowed to work with any teacher and help them adopt the seven principles of effective instruction, then any teacher could reach all of their kids. Now, that belief sounds kind of crazy, right? Especially when you, right now, immediately, I know as soon as I said that, you started thinking about a teacher with whom you've worked for, whom that doesn't sound even possible. When I used to go to schools, I would say, any teacher can become a master teacher with the right kind of support and practice. And principals would come up to me and be like, hold my beer and let's go down. Let me take you to a classroom and let me show you a teacher that can't do it. And so over time, that belief got challenged a lot because I went into some classrooms where there were some teachers who were really struggling, some because of skill, but a lot of them because of will, because they just. They just weren't willing to do what it took to help their kids succeed.

You know those classrooms you go in where you're just like, please stop. If I let you say another word, I will feel like I am committing malpractice from just sitting here. I can't even watch it. Those kinds of classrooms. And I would go into over and over, city after city, school after school, and I would just see these awful classrooms. And then I had to ask myself, do you really think that that teacher can become a master teacher? Not just get like, we can help that teacher just stabilize so that nobody dies in their classroom? But that teacher can become a master teacher.

Do you really believe that? And so I'm going all over the world and doing all these speeches, and I'm writing books. Any teacher can become a master teacher. And without even realizing it, I started to hedge my bets. I started to say, well, I mean, any teacher who wants to or any teacher has the capacity. You know, I started. And I thought that I was just being more realistic, that maybe I came into it too naive. Maybe I was even being insensitive to principals who are really struggling to help teachers by saying something like that.

Because the principal is doing their best. And I'm telling them, you can take that teacher and become a master teacher. And that principal has done everything they can with that teacher, and that teacher refuses to get better. And so that principal is now going through the process of removing that teacher. And I'm saying, you should never have to remove a teacher. Like, am I even being fair? And I begin to question myself now. There's nothing wrong with questioning your beliefs.

You do need to check yourself every once in a while. 

But what I didn't do was in the process of checking myself, I lost sight of what made me believe that to begin with. And I started letting other people's doubts create some doubt in me. Now, on the surface, I'm still talking about it. I'm still signing books and telling people, yes, you can do this. You know, I'm writing new books and kind of explaining how you can do this. But I have to admit, I don't know that I was as convicted as I was at the beginning. And one day I was working on something.

I don't remember what project, some PD that I was about to do. And I started backing off of the PD to make it more palatable to. Instead of, you know, the PD that I used to give teachers was just saying, like, look, let's be. This is. This is designed to help you become a master teacher, and here's why you should become a master teacher and why you want to, and here's how it's possible. That was always kind of the ethos of my pd. But I started kind of. I get pushback, and it would be a lot of work.

The first hour of those PD sessions always was about convincing teachers that they could do it, that being a master teacher was what they wanted. And that was hard. It was hard work, and it was hard to kind of hold onto that, especially when I would go into PD situations where the teachers were already predisposed to not want to hear what I had to say. And a lot of times when I was going in for a one day pd, it was being thrown on the teachers. They weren't prepared for it. It was a lot of work to just get people to be open to the idea that they could become master teachers. And because it was so much work and because I was facing so much opposition, even when I got them there, I was so exhausted, I was just like, I mean, I just don't even know if it's worth it. And I'm only gonna be here for a day and they're believing it and then the principal's gonna come in tomorrow and ruin.

You know, I just. All of those things I was feeling. And so because I was feeling all those things, I just, why bother? And I didn't say that consciously, but unconsciously. That's what I was starting to think. So I started dialing back my pd. I started doing the stuff that I knew would make people happy, them, the tricks and strategies, but not leaving them with the conviction that they could become master teachers. Because I say, I only have a day, I can only do so much in a day.

But that's not the work. 

The work, my life's work has always been about 100% success. When I was a teacher, I did it with kids. When I was, when I was work training with teachers and coaching teachers, it was the idea that all teachers could become master teachers. And I began to back away from it, still said it, but my actions weren't aligned with what I was saying. And then one day I was in the middle of delivering a three day PD and it was day one. And I'll be honest, I was just trying to get through the three days. The teachers were.

I saw some initial pushback from teachers and I just said, I'm just going to get through these three days. They don't really want to learn, they don't really want to become master teachers. So let me give them some sleep that, you know, teachers were like, just give me stuff I can use right away. So let me just give them some stuff they can use right away and let's just leave. But I'm going to tell you, it did not feel right. And so day one they're happy because I'm just giving them a whole bunch of tricks and strategies and filling their toolbox and doing the stuff that, you know, they're expecting PD to do. But I wasn't challenging their thinking, I wasn't changing the practice and I wasn't helping them to develop the conviction that they could and should Become master teachers. I went back to my hotel that evening and I just said, you know, I can't stand doing this work anymore.

I don't want to do it anymore. And when I started thinking about why, you know, I went through all the things, the travel was hard, yes, but travel's always been hard. But what made the travel easier was that when I got there, when I could help teachers develop that conviction, then I was actually changing teachers lives. I was empowering teachers to become master teachers and then that impacted thousands of kids lives. That's what felt really good. But if I wasn't doing that anymore, then I didn't need to be doing pd because then I was just like everybody else. I was just delivering PD and I was a commodity rather than being, you know, something that was going to be a change maker and something that was going to actually change lives. Hey, it's Robyn here.

Real quick. I just want to interrupt this episode for just a second because if you are enjoying what you're hearing, then would you mind sharing this episode with somebody else? So all you need to do is just go to your phone, if you're listening to on your phone or your podcast player, and then click the three dots next to this episode and it'll give you the option to share the episode. Now if you do that, three things are gonna happen. First, the person that you shared with is going to think you're a hero, Especially if they're struggling with what we're talking about right now. They're going to love you. Secondly, you're going to feel good because you're going to get the word out about buildership and start building this buildership nation. And third, you will get my eternal gratitude because I really want to get this out to the world and you'd be helping me out. You'd be doing me a huge favor. So please share this episode with someone right now who's, who's dealing with this same issue. Someone you think would really benefit. And now back to the show.

And so I had to have a long talk with myself and what it got down to was do I really believe that any teacher can become a master teacher? And if I don't, I need to get out this work because I'm never going to be somebody. I won't even feel satisfied just going around and selling pd. I could have sold a lot more.

I could have made a lot more money if I had done it that way. 

I was really convicted on doing this work to help every teacher become a master teacher. And by the way, My definition of a master teacher. A teacher is someone who can help every child in their classroom be successful. That's it. If I'm not going to do that, I need to do something else. And so after I had that talk, I made a decision. I'm gonna go in.

And it doesn't matter if it's hard, and it doesn't matter if you're gonna get the pushback. If you believe that any teacher can become a master teacher with the right kind of support and practice, then it is your job, Robyn, to go in there and give them the right kind of support and practice designed to help them become a master teacher. So I scrapped all the cute things that I had planned for the next day, and I went in and I sat down, and I said, here, this is why we're doing this. All that stuff yesterday, tricks, Today we're going to get to the real practice. Did they applaud it? No. Did I hit some pushback? Yes.

Especially after I'd already set them up for three days of just all cool tricks and strategies. It took some work to reorient that session, but I did it. And on the other side of that work were teachers who were saying, I didn't realize I could teach this way. I didn't know that this was even possible. On the other side of that work were teachers who were saying, oh, my goodness, that kid that I've been struggling with. You mean I could help that kid? You mean that me, I can become a master teacher? Did I still have some teachers who weren't there yet who were saying, look, I'm not sure I want to do this?

Yeah, but you know what? Those teachers now had to grapple with that idea that they could become master teachers when they had never been asked to grapple with that idea before. And I believe that some of those teachers, having grappled with that idea, went and made the decision to become master teachers, and they would never have made that decision in any other circumstance because no one had ever given them that choice before. That's the work. And so when I work with principals now inside of bu, outside of bu, I'm always watching for it, because, you see, if you don't grapple with this question, you are leaving a lot of your effectiveness on the table. Right. It wasn't until I sat down and really grappled with that question for myself that my practice changed.

It wasn't until I grappled with that question that I changed from.

I left that that experience, and I came back to the office, and I Started designing workshops very differently than I was doing it before. I went all in. I said, okay, every workshop needs to be designed to help a teacher get closer and closer to mastery. Every book I write from here on out needs to be designed to help teachers get closer and closer to mastery. We would sit down and do the bad teacher test in the office. So when we were working on workshop materials with a team, we would go through and we say, okay, this looks like it's going to work. And then we would say, would this. If I did this this way, would it help the worst teacher I've ever seen?

And I've seen some really bad teaching. Would this help the worst teachers I've ever seen? And so we would reimagine the workshop through the lens of not just the best teachers, the ones who wanted to be there, but what would it take to help that teacher walk out of this workshop better? What would it take to help that teacher walk out of this workshop and decide to be better as a result? And then our workshops got really, really good, and the materials got amazing. And then we started seeing the materials work over and over and over again. It wasn't until I grappled with that decision that my behavior changed and I really began to act like I believed in 100% before I believed it. I was convicted.

I would tell a lot of people, but I let all that other stuff take me away from my conviction After I decided I believe this, and I don't care what anybody else says. And I would check in with myself regularly to say, if I really believe this, am I doing the things that reflect that belief? And that's the question that I think it's really important for you to be checking yourself with on a regular basis. You say you believe in 100% success. For some of you, you believe 100% of students will meet or exceed grade level standards. For some of you, you believe 100% of your students will be reading at our grade level by second grade. For some of you, you believe that 100% of your students are going to set and meet rigorous goals every single semester. For some of you, that 100% belief is that 100% of your students are going to graduate, enlisted, enrolled, or employed, whatever that vision is for you.

I know you believed it initially, but you have to check in with yourself every once in a while. And you ask yourself, if I really believed that vision, would I behave the way that I'm behaving right now? Would I be working on the projects that I'm working on? Right now, if I really believed in my vision, would I be doing this?

That's the question that changes everything. 

I recently we were in office hours in bu and no, we weren't office hours. We were doing our quarterly planning. So in bu, we get together once a quarter to kind of reflect on the last 90 days and to think about, okay, what do we need to do for the next 90 days? Where does our focus need to be? And it's a way to keep us anchored in buildership and keep us from being distracted from all the other stuff. And we were kind of reflecting on the last quarter and going through. And we use a process to help you do it. So it's not just like, how do you feel about, you know, like, we actually use a process to get at the feeling underneath. I mean, the thought process underneath the feelings. And one of the things that came out for a lot of us, me included, was when we asked the question, if we truly believed that 100% was possible in our school, would we be doing this?

And oh, my goodness. Oh, it hurt. Even I had to look at it because mine is a little different. If I really believe that I could help, because my 100% vision is 100% of the principles we support reach their 100% vision. And I had to ask myself the question, if I really believe that, is this the project that I would be doing right now? And I realized that I'm doing a lot of stuff, but I'm not doing everything that I need to be doing to get all the principles that I support where they need to be. And I had to refocus. If you ask yourself this question, do I really believe you're gonna say, of course I do.

But then if you ask the follow up question, well, if I really believed, is this how I would behave? Is this the work that I would be doing? Oh, my goodness. That's when it gets serious. And so I'm going to challenge you this week to do just that. To ask yourself that question. Do I really believe in 100%? And if I really believed it, is this what I would be doing?

Is this how I would be acting? 

And if you get in the habit of asking yourself that question, nothing will give you more focus. If you really believed in a hundred percent, is this what your school should be focusing on right now? If I really believed it, because although I believe that you believe on some level that 100% is what you should be doing, there's a difference between 100% is what we should be doing and 100% is what we will achieve. 100% is a worthy goal versus 100% is a goal we are running after and pursuing with everything we've got. If you really, really believed in 100%, would you be working on that project right now? Would you be focused on this issue right now? Would you be spending your time the way that you're spending it now?

Would you be reading what you're reading right now? Would you be going to that conference that you're thinking about attending? If you really believed in 100%, would you be assigning that teacher to that grade level? Would you be talking to that teacher that way? Would you be following up or not following up with teachers that way? Would you be writing what you're writing in that teacher evaluation? Would you be handling discipline the way that you're handling it? Would you be talking to parents or not talking to them the way that you're talking to them?

Would you be spending your day the way that you're currently spending your day? Would you be interacting with your boss the way that you're currently interacting with your boss? Would you be looking at that data versus this data over here? If you really believed that 100% is possible, would you be doing the things that you're doing? Would your behavior, your priorities, look the way that they look right now? And if the answer is no, then it's time to check in with yourself. And the solution is not to change your behavior. The solution is to change your belief.

Go back to what inspired you to create that vision in the first place. Were you creating that vision because it sounded sexy? Were you creating that vision because you got all caught up and excited at one of our free events and you were like, yeah, I need to go for 100%. Is that really your 100% vision? In some cases, you got the wrong vision. In other cases, you've gotten away from your vision and you need to get back to why you believe that's so important to begin with. Either way, you need to ask yourself on a regular basis, do I really believe in 100%? And if so, would I be doing the things that I'm doing right now?

Does my behavior reflect my belief or does my behavior reflect my doubt? 

And then if you realize that you've gotten away from your vision, the answer is to get back and get reconnected with your vision. Because if you really believed in your vision, then your behavior will follow. So take some time over the next week, ask yourself that question and grapple with the answer and then get back into belief with your vision so that that your behavior can be adjusted so that you can actually achieve your vision. Like a builder. I'll talk to you next time. Hey, if you're ready to get started being a builder right away, then I want to invite you to join us at Buildership University. It's our exclusive online community for builders just like you, where you'll be able to get the exact training that you need to turn your school into a success story.

Right now, with the people and resources you already have inside, you'll find our best online courses, live trainings with me, tons of resources, templates and exemplars, and monthly live office hours with me where you can ask me anything and get my help on whatever challenge you're facing right now. If you're tired of hitting obstacle after obstacle and you're sick of tiny little incremental gains each year, if you're ready to make a dramatic difference in your school right now, then you need to join Buildership University. Just go to buildershipuniversity.com and get started writing your school success story today. Hey, it's Robyn here and I want to thank you for listening to today's episode. Now, if you have a question about today's episode or you just want to keep the conversation going, did you know that we had a School Leadership Reimagined Facebook group? All you need to do is go to Facebook, join the School Leadership Reimagined Facebook group. Now, there are going to be a couple of questions that we ask at the beginning because we want to protect this group and make sure that we don't have any trolls come in and that it really is for people who are principals, assistant principals, district administrators. So make sure you answer those questions or you won't get in.

But then we can keep the conversation going. Plus, we do a lot of great bonus content. I'm in there every single weekday. So if you have a question or comment about the episode, let's continue the conversation. Join us at the School Leadership Reimagined Facebook group and I'll talk to you next time.

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