EPISODE #332

Hey builders before we begin today's podcast, I want to make sure that you know about something really cool. We're doing next week It's called the october reset now. Normally, this is something I do for people in bu and the 100 collective But we are making a few tickets available for free for people who are not in those programs And here's what we're going to be doing during the challenge

So on day one, we're going to reset you if you feel like already you are getting distracted You're not quite focused on the things you should the day-to-day is taken over And it's keeping you from doing the work you really want to do day one It's going to help you get reset refocused in spite of the distractions so that you can keep pursuing your goals Then on day two we're going to reset your staff if you find that you're Repeating yourself more and more if you find that your staff is starting to drift off course a little bit If they're already showing signs of fatigue and it's only the beginning of october then day two is going to help you get your staff Reset refocused on what matters and then on day three We're going to reset your plan because by now you probably Are looking at all those plans you made this summer and you're already noticing how you're off track or you haven't gotten started yet We're going to show you a very simple way to get focused on Doing the work that is most important this year so that you can actually see results So day one we're resetting you day two.

We're going to reset your team day three We're going to reset the plan at the end. You're going to walk into the rest of october with more energy more focused Um, and you're actually going to see results before you go home for winter break So join us for the october reset by going to buildership university.com Reset that's buildershipuniversity.com slash reset now on with the show You're listening to the school leadership reimagined podcast episode 332 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 a 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 robin jackson And today I have a voice it's not a hundred percent, but it's back last time Um, we did a rewind because I was just I had no voice at all I am on the mend and so there's a voice and i've missed talking to you And so i'm hopping on here today because I want to talk about a phenomenon that i've noticed now You've heard me in the past talk about the october surprise We all know what that is right that that thing that throws you off track in october.

It usually happens around october I don't know why Uh, maybe it's the month of halloween. I don't know but there's always something some curveball that that comes your way Usually right about now that can throw you off your game So i've talked about that in the past And as bad as that october surprise can be at this point We kind of know that it's coming and as builders we're ready for it the more that you put Solid things in place the more equipped you are to handle the october surprise so that it's not even that much of a surprise anymore So i'm not talking about the october surprise today. I want to talk to you about something Much more insidious than the october surprise.

This is not a curveball that happens. 

This is something that's happening right now under the surface in most schools and what makes it so insidious is that You kind of feel like something's off, but you don't really know what it is And you don't even start to experience the results of what's happening now until january Long after there's anything you can do about it And it's one of the reasons why january and february and march feel so hard Because of something that starts happening this month right now at this point in the school year I call it the october drift and today I want to talk to you about the october drift I've noticed that the october drift follows a very specific Pattern and so I want to lay out what that pattern is so that you can not only recognize it But you can break it. You can break it now and keep it from Pulling you off course from your 100 vision so that this year you can actually Have the year that you were meant to have and and build the school that you're trying so hard to build So let's talk about the october drift. The october drift has five parts. There are five parts to the pattern So the first thing that you have to understand is that the drift isn't random It is it's not random at all. In fact, it's very Designed right? So it what happens is that schools are built on urgency cycles, right? So you have Benchmark testing and so you go to the benchmark and then you scramble really hard with the results studying results And you go to the next benchmark.

There are all kinds of deadlines. Uh testing drives your calendar or Grading drives your calendar and because of that there are these peaks and then there are these valleys, right? And it's during the valleys in between the peaks that that's where the opportunity to drift happens Because the default setting for the school system is that we're going to have these peaks and valleys and therefore you have drifts and if you don't Intentionally create these reset points During the times of the valleys then drift is going to happen no matter how hard you try And so what builders do is first of all, first of all, we recognize that drift is there It's always there and october is one of those valley months, right? We have the peak of back to school October we start going into the valley at the end of october So around november we get our first set of grades and then we go back up to a peak And then there's holidays coming and we go back into the valley and then we go january So we know the pattern of the school year and during those times where we have those valleys Those in between times that's when we are most susceptible to drifting and if we don't intentionally Build resets in during those valley times we will drift we it's just inevitable It's the way the system works So the first part part of the pattern of drift is that it usually happens during the valleys And the way that you break that pattern is you have to put intentional Resets during the valleys october is the first big valley that we face and this is a time for a reset The second part of the drift pattern the thing that that has us kind of start drifting Of course, and it's imperceptible at first, right? So when you first start drifting in october, it feels like oh I can quickly get back on track but it's not so easy right and What happens the second thing that happens that that perpetuates this drift? Is that the story that your school is telling starts to change? So at the beginning of the year you try to reset the story, right? That's one of those big peak times, right? So you do your back-to-school speech you talk about what this year is going to be you try to remind people about the bigger Why that is driving this work? And somewhere around october that story starts to shift and change because Nobody remembers your speech at this point. You probably don't even remember your speech.

Nobody remembers that back-to-school excitement We are now in the middle of school year and it's a long time before we get to the end of it And so your school improvement plan or that big, you know, that big speech you gave at the beginning of the year It's no longer driving the story of your school Now there's another subtle story that's starting to take over that some of that is oh i'm really tired already Some of that is oh, we're not doing as well as we thought we could be doing Uh, some of it is we just need to get some to survive till testing some of that story is oh It's a long time till december And that narrative is starting to creep in To the overall story that your school is telling and that narrative is starting to take over And so what you'll see is you'll start to see that you're having to repeat yourself more You'll see that you're starting to make Compromises on the way that you intended to do things this year and you think it's just a one-time compromise And then next time we do it, we'll be back on track and we'll do it the right way But that compromise becomes the default without even realizing it Conversations start changing around this time and at the beginning of the year There's this moment where we are in front of people and we are sharing a story and people are eager to hear it What is the story of the year going to be? How is this year going to be different? but in october Where our pd is like we're rushing to get stuff done There's often a district mandate that's come in last minute that you're scrambling to try to you know address So that's taking over your pd time your staff meeting time and so you'll start to hear This undercurrent of a story and that story is starting to shift your culture your start your culture starting to drift off Always happens around this time. We know the pattern. So, how do we break it? Well, this is the time in october to start sharing your vision story again You share it at the beginning, but and that's not enough, right? The vision story has to keep being repeated Remember whoever controls your narrative controls your culture and right now without you even realizing it.

There are some Underlying narratives that are starting to take control of your culture. 

You got to pay attention to it Not only do you need to pay attention to it now is your time to take back over the narrative So in office hours, we've been talking a lot about this in bu Because principals are starting to see that, you know, the people who always come in and bring the negativity into your culture Their story they're starting to hear rumblings of their stories. It always happens this time of year but it happens because we are not being intentional about Recapturing the narrative And we get can I say it we get a little lazy around october part of it is because september is so busy That october we just like But you can't afford to get lazy about the school story If you haven't repeated your vision story this week You need to do it if you haven't taken time to create your vision story You need to write it if you aren't paying attention to the underlying narratives that are starting to take place and you are intentionally reframing those narratives in your 100 vision Be careful because those narratives are just going to gain momentum Until they overtake the narrative that you're trying to tell and then you have to work twice as hard to undo it In january in february in march.

So now is the time to Go back to why we're here to go back to what are we building to go back to why that's so important And the role that we all must play in doing that if you have not done your vision your mission and your core values Now's the time Now's the time and if you have done them now's the time to reinforce it So what does that look like? It looks like telling your vision story again What does it look like? It looks like reminding people about The the the core values that are non-negotiable in your building and reinforcing those. What does it look like? It looks like Making sure that everything you do in the school is anchored in your mission That you're not doing anything that is even slightly off mission. What does it look like? It looks like auditing um the the actions that you take and making sure that those actions are Reinforcing the story that you're trying to tell what does that look like? it looks like talking to parents and reminding parents about the vision mission and core values and Helping parents figure out the role that they play in that process before they start making up roles for themselves so you now is the time to reinforce that narrative because We're in one of those valley periods and if you don't do it now What will happen is another narrative begins to take over your culture and start pulling your culture ever so slightly at this point But you'll start to see it later on when you in january.

It starts pulling your culture a little bit off track Okay so number one you have to be intentional about the Understanding the pattern that you you got to get a valley and so you have to put resets in those valleys Or you begin to drift number two You got to pay attention to the narrative because when you start to drift the narrative is one of the first things that starts to drift You got to be intentional about recapturing control of your narrative and reinforcing your vision mission and core values during this time number three a lot of times when you begin to drift what happens is that Uh, you you because you lose sight of your clarity um People Are are forced to rely on their own commitment and that gets old, right? So I always like to say that when clarity erodes commitment doesn't matter If you are not clear about what you are doing then People's commitment will not matter because even though your staff may still be working hard right now If you don't give them clarity their commitment will begin to erode And this is why most motivation strategies fail because you're trying to motivate people because you think it's just about the energy When in reality, it's about the clarity. So at the beginning of the year you shared your vision story You got people all excited about that Maybe you even had a one plan and you shared your one plan with your staff But people need they hear that at the beginning of the school year, but they haven't gotten into the school year yet So now it's time to go back and to help people Get clear about the work that they're doing It might mean that you need to put some systems in place It might mean that if you don't have a one plan Then you need to put a one plan in place so that people understand how you're going to get to your vision

This is the time when you need to get clear.

Because here's what happens in october In september and august when you are just starting people are really excited And they're excited about the idea, but the school year is still a concept at that point In october is when stuff starts getting real And so that vision mission and core values that you talked about in august and september They understand it conceptually, but they may not understand how it applies to their day-to-day work October is a perfect time to help people see that and so if you are not doing that if you're not creating that clarity What happens is people may still be committed? But the work feels all over the place people still may be committed, but they're working hard and it feels like they're spinning their wheels This is the time to come in and give them clarity. So you're not just continuing to reinforce the story But you're also giving them clarity about how the story impacts their day-to-day work And that's what makes that so powerful. They need both. They need the story, but they also need clarity as well Hey Builders real quick before we get on with the rest of the episode. I want to talk to you about the 100 Collective if you are interested in becoming a builder and developing that 100 Mindset then the 100 collective is for you.

Not only do we have monthly Masterclasses live masterclasses where I show you how to take some work that you are already doing But do it like a builder do it in a way that it's more effective More efficient in a way that takes the work and stops it from being drudgery and makes it actually something that feels meaningful That moves you forward. We also have done for you toolboxes with all the tools You need to be able to implement and we have step-by-step playbooks that lay out the entire process for you So you don't even think about it You just take the playbook and you can implement it right away in your schools and we have a supportive community So this is a safe place where you can bring your challenges and there are other people other builders Just like you who are encouraging you who are applauding you when you win and who are giving you their experiences as well So that you can learn from each other if you are tired of just kind of Going through and doing the work the way you've always been doing it and you're ready to stop being a leader and to start Building something amazing. The 100 collective is where you need to be join us at buildershipuniversity.com Community now back with the program All right, so pattern number number one, it's not random Drift happens.

It follows a predictable pattern and we need to put Intentional resets in those dips in order to keep us from drifting Two this is the time you need to be taking care of the story because if not the hidden narrative will overtake your your culture number three Clarity a road when clarity erodes commitment doesn't matter So it's not about people's commitment. It's not about people being motivated.

It's about giving them clarity.

Okay number four You're always working in two modes. You're either pursuing your vision Or you're going into default mode, right and what happens is that the rush of daily demands And the idea of like we just got to get through the day Takes over and you go into default mode and you lose sight of your vision Right, and so again, this is why the reset is so important. You gotta help people Snap out of that default mode and get back to doing the work that is intentionally moving us towards our vision Default you're always fighting default and default creates drift so if you allow people to just go in default mode and you are not Intentionally focusing that work on the vision.

They will drift and then finally When you allow drift it undermines your influence And so what happens is when you allow drift to start happening and you say i'll just get back to it later Then what happens is that you begin to repeat yourself and every time you repeat yourself and nothing changes people start Stop believing you your trust the trust that they have in you and then your vision begins to erode anytime You get distracted from your vision You teach people you don't mean what you really are saying You don't mean it and so people start stop trusting you and they start slow walking you And when they start slow walking you you get mad and you think oh, they're just not they don't care No, you taught them how to slow walk you because you weren't consistent. You started out in september Yeah, yeah, we're gonna really do this this year. You allowed yourself to get distracted And so by october, you're no longer talking about it.

You're just getting through the day You're no longer moving forward the stuff you said you were going to do this year You kind of let lapse a little bit and what people who are always watching you Learn from that is you don't mean what you say what you say in september is evaporated by october So next year, why am I even getting started? Because I already know you're going to get distracted by october and chase the next shiny object And so i'm not going to even invest That's why it's really important at this point in the school year to do a reset And get back to your vision to let people know the vision didn't get Eclipsed by all of the stuff that we went through Doing back to school in september and getting school started the vision is still here and it's still driving everything we do Otherwise, you're just teaching people not to trust you Here's the point that the drift Follows a very predictable pattern and we don't just see it in schools. We see it in our lives. I mean, you know, listen Earlier this year I was like i'm gonna get healthy i'm gonna eat healthy And I did I I shifted, you know How I ate and made sure that I was eating more healthy that I was getting my rest that I was getting to bed on time And then I had a huge amount of travel over the summer and so what started happening is My healthy habits that I worked so hard to establish and that I was feeling the benefits of began to drift right?

It started very simple.

Like I was at an airport and I was like, oh There's a candy that I used to like or you know when I was a kid I was like I haven't had that in a long time and I bought it as an impulse buy at the register Then I snacked on it and then I was like, that's kind of good And then next time I didn't see that particular candy But I was like I need a little something sweet for the long flight ahead And then I put another piece of candy and before long I have a handful of candy in my backpack At all times and i'm constantly snacking on that and then after a while it's like oh, this is so sweet I need something salty And so I started getting chips and candy for the long flights and I would tell myself Well, it's just for this flight. It's not like I eat like this every day, but when i'm traveling every day That's exactly how I eat plus I would get in late and i'd be hungry and then i'd you know grab something on the way into the hotel or I eat in the airport and you already know how bad for you airport food is or I get so busy that I wouldn't pack an Apple in my backpack for a snack. And so then when the in on the plane when they say here Here's some biscoff cookies. I mean listen I don't even like biscoff cookies that much but i'd eat one because of the boredom of just a long flight and just you know over time It wasn't one decision.

I didn't go from eating healthy to give me a big mac two fries and an apple pie I didn't do that. It was just a slow drift and before I knew it my eating habits were garbage And I felt awful and then I looked up at the scale. I'm like, when did I get this weight? And it wasn't like it came overnight But it was just a drift and because I wasn't paying attention because I wasn't being intentional because I went to default mode Because I started making tiny little choices that began to began to add up by the end of the summer I was in a completely different state The same thing happens to your school And now is when it starts Drift is not something that we should be surprised about it follows a predictable pattern It starts because we know there are highs and lows in the school year and october is our first dip.

And so if we're not intentional about resetting in october Then that drift starts to take us further and further off course and we look up in january We're like, how did we get here? Well, I can tell you how you got here october, right? The second thing that happens is during those dips The narrative of your story suddenly of the school story subtly starts to shift And if you are not intentional about taking over control of the narrative right now You will start to see you will see the drift and other people's stories begin to take over your culture Then once the narrative starts to drift the next thing that happens is clarity Begins to slip and when clarity begins to slip People only have their commitment to rely on and their commitment begins to wear out So while it looks like people are working really hard right now in october and they are If you don't provide that clarity for people, they're working hard, but they're spinning their wheels And that is going to get exhausting very quickly and it's going to show up in january People are going to be exhausted in january and we're going to think well, it's just natural.

It's that part of school year. 

It's not natural It's not natural That exhaustion started now because people had to run on their own commitment Because you weren't giving them the clarity they needed to do the work and see results Okay And the next thing that happens is that when people start getting tired they start slipping into default mode and default mode starts to take over and People start stop working towards your vision and just get through the day and the last thing that happens is that you Also start to slip into default mode. 

So you're not talking about your vision You're not working towards your vision and as a result you begin to undermine your own influence You've taught people that you don't mean what you say And when people pick that up for their own survival, they stop listening to you And so if you feel like you are starting to repeat yourself now wait till january Because if you are not resetting and getting things on track and continuing to come back To where you said you were heading this year if you're not aligning that work Then you are teaching people not to believe what you say and they stop listening and in january When you say hey, we're going to get back on track You can't get anybody moving and you don't understand why i'm going to tell you why right now It's because of what's happening here in october so Drift follows a pattern But the good news is you can break that pattern and that's what we're going to do in the october reset Now we're getting started on sunday. So if you're listening to some real time, we are starting Sunday at 7 p.m. We're going to go sunday monday tuesday Um, and we're going to meet together for one hour each day And we're going to take this drift pattern and i'm going to show you how to break the pattern And so each day we're going to be doing something very very intentional to reset We're going to reset you on day one.

We're going to reset your staff on day two We're going to reset your plan on day three. That's it. So three days every day first day We're going to get you back into game mode get you refocused you re-energize day two We're going to talk about how do you get your staff re-energized give you some very specific things you can do And then on day three We're going to show you how if you've gotten away from your plan your plan hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet The way you want to do it.

How do you reignite your plan? 

How do you get your plan reset so that you can still get something done before you go home for a break? You and so you start january just with momentum instead of you know, trying to Pick up the pieces in january. So the october reset. It's absolutely free It's something we're doing inside of buildership university and the collective for our folks But I do have some free tickets for those of you who are not in bu in the collective And you need to go to buildership university.com slash reset buildershipuniversity.com slash reset grab one of those free tickets.

We only have a limited amount because we are You know, this was designed for people in bu and the collective But if you want to grab one of those free tickets go to the that link If we still have tickets available, you'll see them if we don't if you don't see any tickets available It means that they've all been given away And um, and if not, then you'll be able to join, you know, hopefully you'll join us for the next one But if it's still open and there's still tickets available grab one. Let's get together. It's absolutely free and let's do a reset Whether you join me or not for the reset.

Here's the thing that I want you to keep in mind The drift happens every october But it's not inevitable There's something you can do to stop it But you have to be intentional You can't just assume that it's going to you know, well it happens. It's just a part of the school. You're unaccepted You have to be intentional about stopping the drift And you can do it when you understand the pattern And you are very intentional and deliberate about breaking that pattern like a builder i'll talk to you next time.