EPISODE #272

You're listening to School Leadership Reimagined, episode number 272.

Hey, builders. Real quick before we start today's episode, I want to let you know that the doors to buildership University are now opening. We are opening up for our fall cohort. And if you'd like to be part of our fall cohort, you need to go to buildership university.com that's buildershipuniversity.com. But hurry, because doors are going to be closing soon. Now on to the show you're listening to the school leadership reimagine podcast episode 272, 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's 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 Robyn Jackson, your host. And today is the final episode of the summer of success, secrets 2024 and today we're going to talk about another concept that I shared during the buildership summer boot camp, and that's this concept of chores versus work. Okay, let's dive in. So recently, I was sitting in church and I heard a preacher tell a story, and I thought it's a clever story in time, but I've been thinking about ever since this happened a couple of months ago. And so he started me talking about his grandmother, who grew up on a farm, and she tells the story of how, when you know, when you grow up on a farm, you get up in the morning, you you know, have to to make the beds, and you have to start the wood fire stove, and you have to go and get water to bathe, and tilt the water in from the creek or from the Pump. You have to get the wood to start the stove. You have to make biscuits from scratch, and, you know, eggs and bacon and everything else you're doing. Then you have to make the beds and sweep up and get everything clean. And every morning, they go through all of this stuff. They, you know, go gather the eggs from the hen house, everything. And then their father would say, after breakfast, all right, let's get to work. One day, she said to her father, listen, we've been up for two hours. I have toted water in from the pump and the creek. I have bought in firewood. I have made biscuits from scratch. I made the beds, I washed the dishes. I've already worked. And the father, her father looks at her, and he says, Honey, those were chores.

The work is in the field. 

Now, when I heard that story, you know, everybody and on church goes, goes nuts, because he's talking about, you know, the the anyway, he tells the story, and it makes a good point. But I was thinking about that story recently, when we were having office hours in BU, and people were talking about getting ready for the school year, and they were talking about all the stuff they were doing, and I was listening, they sounded very busy, but it occurred to me that those are the chores of the job, but that's not the work. And so last week, during the boot camp, in one of our sessions, we started talking about, what are the chores of feedback versus the work of feedback? What are the chores of supporting teachers versus the real work? And it was so interesting the dichotomy, because we realized that we spend a lot of our time on chores. Don't spend a lot of time on the work, and that's why we're not getting the results we really want. So let me give you an example. The chores of feedback are things like getting into enough classrooms, putting the feedback calendar together to make sure that you get into the, you know, the classroom according to the collective bargaining agreement. So if it says we got to do two informals before formal then making sure you schedule the two informals. Chores of feedback include making sure you have your evaluation instrument, doing the walk through that the district is asking you to do, creating the feedback, write ups, writing the post observation reports, getting that information entered into the system, creating the final evaluation report at the end of the year, putting people on performance plans who are doing well, those are the chores, but none of those things, in and of themselves, will actually change practice. So if you really. Get down to what is the purpose of feedback. 

The purpose of feedback is to show people where they are in relationship to where your vision, mission and core value says they need to be. And if you show that to them in the right way, they will see it. And then that's and seeing that will help them get focused on doing the right work to close that gap so that they can be in alignment with your vision mission and core values. That's the purpose of feedback. And while those things are important and they are required by your job, those are the chores. But if you just did that, and you didn't do the work of really helping people see and take ownership of the fact that they there's a gap between where they are and where they need to be, and then take ownership about adjusting their practice so that they can close that gap. All of those chores have amounted to nothing. And the same way that on the farm, all those chores important, they maintain the home. But none of those things put puts food on the table. None of those things goes towards the livelihood of the family. It's just about maintaining what already exists. A lot of what we do for feedback is about maintaining what already exists. 

Remember, I always say leadership is an artifact of the institution. It's a creation of the institution, designed to maintain the institution. So the leadership chores and tasks that you are doing every day great for maintenance, but they don't necessarily change practice. So you can do all of that and still not see change every year, because those are the chores they're maintaining. The work is in one thing, feedback, really spending time when you go into a classroom and looking for the one thing that a teacher needs to adjust that will take that lesson from ineffective to effective, and having a teacher focus solely on that, that's what you know, those of you inside of BU, that's why we do that. Interrogated rubric, because we're trying to figure out how, what's the language around the one thing? It's so it's a way to, it's a way for us to quickly figure out that one thing and get people focused on just that one thing. That's why you hear all those success stories inside of bu around, you know, people saying, I work with this teacher and at this teacher made dramatic turnaround in one year this, you know, like with someone, like someone's telling me the other day that a teacher who was a mess. I mean, their classroom was a mess. They weren't sure that teacher was ever going to make it. They considered that teacher the worst teacher in their building, and they focused on one thing, feedback. They got the teacher the right kind of support. That teacher not only turned it around, that teacher thrived. That teacher had the greatest growth in her students in the entire building, and now that teacher is now the lead teacher for her team. She went from being the worst teacher in the building to now the teacher who's over every other teacher in her team, and that came from giving that teacher the right kind of feedback and support. That's the work, right? Right. 

Let's talk about support. 

The chores of support are planning PD days, finding the right PD create, finding resources, getting resources into teachers hands. People always come to me. I'm like, Oh, we're looking for, you know, the right PD. Or, you know, do you have any ideas about PD, or what kind of PD can I get from? How do I get my teachers to do X, Y and Z. Those are chores. The work of support is making sure that you are giving teachers the right support for where they are in their practice, so that they grow one level, at least in one domain, at least every single year. If your chores are just maintaining the status quo, but they are not changing practice. Those are chores. Work changes practice. Okay, let's talk about accountability. There's so many chores with accountability. Oh, we gotta write people up. We gotta look at data. We gotta do those are chores. True accountability. It's about helping people get their practice in alignment with your vision mission and core values and stay in alignment with the vision mission and core values. Well, if all the things that you're doing depend on you, those chores that you do, chasing, checking and correcting people, and you know, the moment you stop doing those things, people stop doing what they're supposed to be doing, those are chores. That's not the work. The work is, how do you set people up to do the right thing, even when you're not looking let's take the work of culture. A lot of times, people think that culture is about making people feel happy, but if people are happy and happily failing kids, your culture is broken, even if your culture, you know, has everybody happy. So people think culture is about finding the right Swags, you know, I would say food, fun and favors, right? Do you know culture? I want a positive culture. 

So I bought everybody breakfast, or I gave everybody a jeans pass. Or, you. We did a team building exercise that was really fun. I took everybody I don't know rock climbing, or we did trust falls, or all of that stuff. Those things are fun, and people will do that and engage in that for a day. But rarely do those things address underlying toxicity that's lurking in your culture, right? So those, I don't think not to do those things. I'm just saying those are the chores of building culture. But the purpose of culture is to get everybody meaningfully engaged in the right work. And so if those things happen and everybody's happy, but they it doesn't get people more meaningfully engaged in the right work. What's the point? Those are chores. That's not the work. The real work of culture is creating new norms in your building. The real work of culture is getting everybody to embrace those new norms. The real work of culture is creating new habits and new stories, about about about who you are as a school and how you do work as a school, that's the real work. And so one of the things I challenge people to do in the boot camp was to take a look at how they spend their time every single day. Are you spending the majority of your time on chores? Are you doing the work?

And that's one of the things that, one of the reasons why we built buildership University, and it's also, you know, one of the things I struggle with, with buildership University. So I'll be vulnerable first, because this is something that I'm constantly thinking about, right? You know, the My goal is to help people be builders, because I know that when you are a builder, and when you pursue 100% success, you will do the work that it takes to get there. And I believe every kid deserves to be successful in school, not should be or could be. They deserve to be. And so, because I believe that, I want to make sure that I'm setting people up this what I do when I support teachers, how everything that I'm teaching teachers is about, how do you make sure 100% of your kids can be successful? And everything that I provide for for for school administrators, is the same thing. So that's my passion. That's why I you know, this is, this is, this is why I've been put here on this earth. Is to this is my mission in life. Okay, so I this is where I spent. I spent. I obsess about this. Okay, so you have to understand this, that I this is something I'm obsessed with, and so I'm telling you that as a precursor to what's happening. So because, because we have been taught to do the chores, but we haven't been taught how to do the real work. I built builders from university to focus on the real work, showing people the real work. So inside of builders from university, we don't spend time on chores. We find ways to make your chores easier. Those of you that's a lot of the quick win stuff in the vault that's in a quick win section, you know, because I feel like for your chores, find ways to automate those right? So, you know, with feedback, you have feedback chores you got to get. So the feedback Fast Track formula MBU shows you how to do the chores of feedback, but the feedback architecture shows you how to do the work, right. The support course shows you how to do the chores of support, but the support architecture helps you do the work, right? So we, what we what I've been trying to do is give people a place and time and space to do the work. Now here's my frustration.

A lot of times, people get so caught up in the chores. 

They know the work exists. They know they should be doing the work, but they get so caught up in the chores that they let the chores chew out all of their time that they could be doing the work. And then they get frustrated when they don't see the results that they want to see. Well, you didn't do the work. It's like the farmer saying, I'm gonna spend all day making beds. And, oh, you know what? I need to sweep under the bed. And, oh, you know I probably should get the ashes out of the fireplace. And you know what? The curtains need to be washed. And they do all the chores that that make their home better, yeah, but they don't do anything in the fields. They don't plant seed in the field, they don't pull weeds in the field, they don't harvest the harvest in the field, and then they wonder why, in the fall they have no food and no money. 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 her, 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 gonna think you're a hero, especially if they're struggling with what we're talking about right now, they're. Gonna love you. Secondly, you're gonna feel good, because you're gonna 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. We do the same thing. As ridiculous as that sounds, we do the exact same thing. We focus on the chores, and we don't do the work. And as a result, we're not seeing the we're not seeing the results. So my challenge to you, this is a short episode. This is the last success secret, but it's an important one. Are you doing the chores, or are you spending your time doing the work. Here's the thing, if you continue to just focus on the chores, you might get accolades from your district. You might be seen as a busy principal. You might get all your stuff done in on time, but you're not going to be fulfilled. 

You are going to spend all of your time running and and being very busy without seeing the results. For Kids, you're the job will start to feel like a drag. You're working nights and weekends, and then you're like, what's it all for? You get burned out, you get tired, you get frustrated because you're doing the chores, but when you do the work, when you are intentional about sitting, put it, setting aside time to do the work, things are different. I guess that's why this is you know what I was talking about, my frustration earlier. My frustration is that there's so many principals who could be 100% principals. They could be builders. They could be making a huge difference. But they've been taught that the chores are the work, and so they can't let go of the chores and do the work. So the work. You know, this is, you know, as the person who's created buildership university, we designed it so that it gets you focused on the work. But if you never go because you say, I'm so busy, I'm doing all these chores, and I'm like, yeah, those are chores, but the work is here. And if you did the work, the chores get a lot easier, a lot simpler. Focus on the work. And my big frustration is people don't believe me. They say, but my district says, I have to do this, this and this. And I'm like, Yeah, I get that. Let's find ways to automate as much of that as possible, to streamline as much of that as possible, because you do have chores everybody does, but this is the work, and the more you do the work, the less your district is going to be bugging you about the chores, because the district thinks those chores get you results. But you and I both know the work is what gets the results. Let's get the result. Let's do the work and get the results, and that'll get your district off your back. Let's do the work and get the results, and that will simplify the chores that you have to do. So I don't know that's where, that's the thing that I'm obsessing about right now. 

So this, this episode, is kind of all over the place, because this is, this is stream of consciousness, but I don't know. I just want to share with you that this idea of work versus chores and challenge you to really take a look at how you're spending your time. It's the success, the results you want. They're not into chores. If you really want the success and the results for your kids, for your school, for you, it's in the work. And if I could just figure out a way to convince people of that and help because that's that's the hardest part of my job. Showing you how to get to 100% has been pretty easy. There's just proven things out there to do. You just have to do the work. I can't I struggle not with how to get you to 100% but how to prove, how to convince you to do the work that it will take to get you to 100% because if you just did that, you'd get there the tools, the resources we know, we give them away for free, right? The hard part of my job is getting you to believe that the that the results are in the work and not in its yours. And I know, I mean, your district has told you something different, your training told you something different. Right now, there are a lot of people who are cosplaying effective principles because they're busy, because they're doing all the chores, because they're really good at doing the chores, but the work isn't getting done. Okay, and ultimately, it's not about ticking things off your to do list or being the first one in the district to have your all of your evaluations in or following the form exactly the way it's supposed to be the true victory. 

What the work is really about is how many of your kids are successful. 

How many more of your kids are succeeding every single year. How are your teachers growing? How many more of your teachers are growing and growing consistently? Are you a place where people come as ordinary teachers and leave as master teachers? Is your school a place where kids other people checked out and said, There's nothing could be done with them, those kids are succeeding and thriving. Are you a place where people love working because they can see the results of their work? If that's not where you are, why are you raising time on chores when the work is waiting to be done? And here's the good news, if you just did the work. Oh, my goodness, you would see the results. It's it really, is it really is that simple, if you just did the work, you see the results. But so many people are so afraid, so so so tied to the chores. They never take time to do the work. They prioritize chores. They say, I really want to get to the work, but and I talk about all these chores, you are making a priority decision with that. If you said I'm gonna do the work first, and then with the time that I've left, I'll do the chores, if you just made that shift, you would see so many results, but so many of us, it's been year after year, burned out, tired, frustrated, because we have been spending time doing the chores. Do the work. Do the work. If you just did it, you'd see the results. So again, thanks for putting up with my you know, this one is not as polished a podcast episode as normal. I'm just getting on here, just begging with you. Last success secret, but the most important one, just do the work. If you did that, if you if you understood the difference between work and chores, and you spent your time prioritizing the work over the chores, you would see results because you're doing the work that matters, and you're doing it 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 buildership university.com and get started writing your school success story today. 

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 they're 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 they'll talk to you next time you.