EPISODE #295

What is Staff Alignment?

You're listening to the school leadership reimagined podcast episode 295. 

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 Robynjackson. I am on Twitter Robyn Mindsteps. I'm on LinkedIn. Robyn Jackson.

Let's connect and let's keep the conversation going. Now onto the show. You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast, episode 295. 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 got a lot going on, so I want to give you a couple of updates for what's happening inside of Mindsteps and bu, and we're going to talk about a topic that is seems to be on a lot of people's minds right now. So let's go ahead and dive in. Let's start with the updates. So the first thing is that we just did a State of BU address for the people inside of Buildership University, and I wanted to let you know of a couple of things that we talked about in that address that may impact you if you're not a member of bu. So the first thing is we announced that we're going to be doing two free events this year.

So if you've ever been in charge of any of our accelerators or challenges in the past, then you'll be excited to know that we have two planned for this year. We're going to do one at the beginning of February, and that's going to be the staff Alignment Challenge. I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second. And then we're going to do another one in July. Both are absolutely free. Five days of really intense training, a workbook each day. You know the drill. We're going to do two of those this year.

So we're really excited about that. 

The second thing that we announced is that we've been seeing a need for a lot of more in depth workshops. And so inside of Buildership University, from time to time we do these in depth workshops where then the workshops are different than training. It's not just like, you know, you get on and you listen and you sit and get. The workshops are about implementation. So some of the, some of the, really the detailed work that you must do as a builder and in the past we've had workshops on how to motivate anybody. And really it's about understanding the will drivers of the people on your team. And we've had workshops about, you know, how to set up certain systems in your school.

We just finished a really incredible workshop on how to conduct walkthroughs. And there were just so many AHAs during that time. And it's really about how do you set up a walkthrough system that actually serves you? And one of the biggest AHAs was that there's a big difference between a walkthrough and an informal observation. But over the years they've been conflated and how do you separate them out and use walkthroughs for what they're really designed to do? And we gave people an amazing walkthrough playbook that showed them step by step how to set up walkthroughs. And we helped people work through issues where the district is requiring one thing and how do you turn that thing that the district is requiring into something that is useful? Anyway, we have a series of workshops we do inside of Buildership University, but people have been asking for a long time if they could get access to those workshops.

And so what we're going to be doing this year is we're going to be selling some tickets to the workshops. Now, we keep the workshops intimate because it is a workshop, right? So we want to make sure there's time for people to ask questions and make sure there's time for everybody to kind of get their needs met. So it's not going to be like a thousand person workshop ever. But we do have a. We'll always release a limited number of tickets to the workshops.

Now, if you're a Buildership University member, you know that's a part of your membership. 

You get the workshops as a part of your membership. But if you're not a Buildership University member and you want to be a part of these workshops, then you want to check out, you want to be a part of our email list and so you just need to go to buildershipuniversity.com and sign up for the email list. Or you can go to schoolleadershipreimagined.com and sign up for the email list. That's where we'll be letting you know what the upcoming workshops are. And we'll always release tickets to people who are on the email list first. And then if we have any tickets left, then we'll just kind of put it out there and announce it to everybody in general. But we'll have a few tickets available to some upcoming workshops. And you can also look once you get on the list. Well, there's a.

There's a page that we have with a list of all the workshops that we're doing, upcoming workshops that we're doing. So you can look at it. We have some really cool ones. You know, we're getting into master scheduling season, so we're going to be doing one on just really Nitty gritty. To help you think through your master schedule and get the most from your master schedule, we're going to be doing a workshop on. In the spring, we'll do some workshops on how to recruit and hire the best people for your school, especially if you're, you know, fighting for teachers right now and setting up a system so that you attract the right people to your school and more importantly, you repel the wrong people from your. From applying for positions in your school. So we'll be showing you how to set that up and getting that set up.

So these workshops are very, very practical workshops, and we're gonna experiment with trying to make some available for those of you who may not be able to join bu, but you wanna get some of the live training that we do inside of bu making some tickets available to do that. So look for that. And if you are not signed up for our email list, that's where the tickets get released first. Before we make them public. We always release into the email list. So sometimes you may not even hear me talk about a workshop because all the tickets are gone, because the email list, you know, got them before we even had a chance to release them. So that's the best thing to do. And again, go to schoolleadershipreimagined.com and you can sign up for the emails, or you can always go to buildershipuniversity.com and sign up there.

All right, that's the second announcement. So the first announcement, we're going to be doing two big free events. The first one's coming up in February. Let me go Ahead and talk about that one, since I'm on the topic of it right now. So, you know, we were asking people, you know, like, what, what you. What would you like training on? And, you know, we had some ideas about some things that we wanted to train on. They'll probably end up being workshops.

But the big thing that came out over and over and over again is people are still struggling to get their staffs aligned. And so the next big free event that we're going to be doing is called the Staff Alignment Challenge, and it's going to be over the course of five days. We're starting Sunday, February 2nd, and we're going all the way through to that Thursday, February 6th. We'll take a break and let you get caught up over the weekend. And then we'll culminate on Monday, February 10, with a big masterclass for to help you put everything together. We're going to show you how to get your staff aligned.

It is not too late. In fact, you still have a lot of time this year to get your staff aligned.

And I'll be talking about that a little bit more when we talk about what we're going to be talking about for the podcast today. But, but look for that. And we'll be opening up seats for that absolutely free. If you are a principal or an assistant principal, you want to come to this, because we're going to be breaking down what it really takes, and this time we're going to be focusing on what builders do differently. So it's not about doing something new. It's about taking the work that you're already doing it. But there are things that builders do different, differently with that work that make a big difference. And so this, this, this, this, this challenge is really about showing you the nuances that can make the big difference for you this year.

There's some reasons, some very important reasons why your staff is not aligned, and we're going to talk about what those nuances are, how to avoid some of the pitfalls that come with our leadership training that keep us from having a truly aligned staff. And then the most important thing, and this is the part I'm really excited about, are those builders do differently. So we'll be kind of contrasting. Here's how you were trained and here's why it's failing you, and here's what you can do differently. Here's the nuance that makes all the difference in terms of being able to get your staff aligned this school year. So just look for that and you can go to buildershipuniversity.comchallenge to sign up for the challenge. Buildershipuniversity.com/challenge. Okay, let's see the third big announcement, and this one's really important.

For years people have been asking us, because right now you can only get into Buildership University if you are a current principal. But there are people who are aspiring principals and assistant principals who really wanted to be a part of Buildership University. And you. There wasn't a pathway for you to be able to do it. Well, I want you to stay tuned. I can't say much more about it yet, but we have something that we are going to be piloting for Assistant principals and that'll be happening in. We'll be releasing that in February. So if you are an assistant principal or an aspiring principal and you've always wanted to be a part of Buildership University, we may have something for you.

And that's all I can say right now. 

But look for that coming up. So I think those are the big announcements right now that we're doing two free events. The first one is going to be on February 2nd, and it's the Staff Alignment Challenge. And you can go to buildershipuniversity.comchallenge to sign up for that. The second big announcement is that we are going to be making some tickets available to the Buildership University live masterclasses and workshops that we do for our Buildership University community. We're doing a limited number of tickets available. If you are not a part of our email list, you need to get on the list because we'll release tickets there first.

Then if there are any tickets left, then we'll release it to the public. So make sure you're on our email list. And third, assistant principals, remember I've been telling you, I got you, I got you. And so let's look for something mid February. Those are the big announcements. Right now, let's dive into today's show. So we're talking a lot about staff alignment this month and next month, and we're going to culminate with the Staff Alignment Live Challenge. And so remember, sign up for that.

But before we do, I need to talk about staff alignment, because I've been using this phrase for a while, but people think it means different things. Some people think staff alignment means that I get everybody on my staff to do exactly what I want, when I want, how I want. That's not staff alignment. That is. That is something else. That's a Stepford staff. That is staff control. That is staff manipulation.

That's not staff alignment. And to be honest, even though we think it would just be better if everybody did exactly what we wanted them to do, it's a lie. I understand what's appealing about that lie, but it is a lie. If everybody did everything you wanted them to do, exactly how you wanted them to do, your school wouldn't grow because it's just a whole bunch of little mini me's running around doing your bidding. It's not going to make less work for you. In fact, it's going to make more work for you because you're the only one doing the thinking. You're the only one making the decision.

You're the only one who is is driving the work forward.

And everybody else is just sitting there waiting for their next order. So you might think that it's going to make your life easier, and it's not. It just creates more work and more pressure for you. You're responsible for everything, you're accountable for everything. And nobody else is accountable. Nobody else is responsible because all we're doing is what you told us to do. So I know it might, at this point in the year seem like it's going to be easier, but it's not. It actually creates more work for you.

Now, other people mean staff alignment means that everybody believes what you believe. But that is also a myth and a lie as well. Because if you have everybody who believes what you believe, then what happens is you begin to create this vacuum of ideas. And so if everybody's thinking exactly like you're thinking and believing exactly what you're believing, you never, ever grow. You. What seems like a good idea to you seems like a good idea to everybody else. But it may not be a good idea or maybe a decent idea, but it could be refined. We need a diversity of voices.

We never ever want to erase our staff's voices and opinions and ideas. And we shouldn't be afraid of their ideas. Do you know why we're afraid of their opinions right now? Because in most cases, when people disagree with us, we don't have a culture set up that can accommodate disagreement. And so disagreement feels threatening. Disagreement feels like, oh my goodness, it means that the work is going to stop and they're going to take us in a different direction. When you have a misaligned staff, disagreement can be really scary. But when your staff is aligned, there's space for agreement because we have all agreed on the important things, so there's space for people to disagree on how we get there.

I always say that, you know, the first step whenever you are trying to move your staff forward is you be stubborn on the vision, flexible in the details. When you have an aligned staff, you can create great alignment around the vision and create space for people to come and work out the details. And you've heard me say this time and time again, when you create that space to be flexible around the details, people can build. That's what it means to be a builder, right? You are building a space that invites other people to come and build it with you. And people don't tear down what they helped build. So you don't have to worry that someone who disagrees with you is going to tear everything down.

They're not going to tear down what they helped build.

When they're disagreeing with you, they're disagreeing with you about how to make things better. But because you're stubborn on the vision, the vision becomes the arbiter, the vision arbitrator. The vision becomes the deciding line. If you have agreement up here in the vision, if you disagree down here about the details, ultimately you're going to come to the right decision because the vision drives everything. And so you don't want everybody doing exactly what you say. You don't want everybody agreeing and believing exactly what you believe. That's not true alignment. So let me tell you what alignment is.

When you have alignment, it means that first of all, everybody believes in and has committed to the larger vision, mission and core values of your organization. Now, for some of you, especially those of you who are unfamiliar with buildership, that feels almost impossible, right? You've been in schools for years. You probably have a vision statement and you can't find three people who can tell you what it is. You may not know it yourself, you may have to look it up yourself to understand what it is. And it's not really driving the work. So that's not really a vision. That's just.

I don't know what it is. Ornamentation, decoration, not a vision. But when you have a vision, a 100% vision, and everybody on your staff is committed to that vision, you all agree, this is where we are going. You all agree on why that is so important for your kids or your mission, you all agree about what is non negotiable and how you handle that work, core values, then that's alignment. Because if everybody's committed to the vision, the mission and the core values, then alignment is really about how do you ensure that everybody stays committed, that everybody adjusts their behavior and their approach to the work so that their work supports the vision, mission and core Values. That's the work of staff alignment. If we spent our time and invested first in creating that vision, mission and core values, the work gets a lot easier. And then once you have the vision, mission and core values in place, then the work about helping everybody adjust their behavior to make sure that it supports the vision, mission and core values.

That's the day to day work of what it means to be a school administrator. 

And frankly, there are four things. There are only four things you can do. Feedback, support, accountability, and culture. You're already doing those things. But why aren't those things creating alignment? Well, first of all, a lot of times they're not creating alignment because you're giving people feedback based on the instrument, not based on your vision. You're giving people support based on the issue du jour or the research based practices.

Instead of what your school needs in order to achieve its vision and what each teacher needs individually in order to achieve the vision, you are running around chasing, checking and correcting people. Instead of building true accountability. Not you, not to the contract, not even to the kids, but to the bigger vision, mission and core values. And you're creating a culture built on food and fun and freebies, rather than building a culture based on a shared and collective commitment to a bigger vision. So even though you're doing these things and you're probably doing them the way that you were trained to do them, they're not working for you because they're not anchored in something bigger. They're not working for you because the tactics are surface tactics, short term win tactics, tactics that are really about coercion or getting compliance rather than about building true commitment. And when you do that, you don't have alignment. The best that you can hope for is that you just have people who are compliant.

You just have people who it's just easier to do what you tell me to do than to fight you. They're not really truly committed to it, but you. And the reason they're not committed to it is not because they don't believe in helping every kid. The reason they're not committed to it is because the strategies that you are using are not designed to create commitment. Let's think about this. Think about the way that you were trained to give feedback, right? The way that you were probably trained to give feedback is you have a feedback instrument. You know, you go into, you have a pre conference that's highly scripted.

The teacher tells you what their goals are, you write it down, you go into the classroom. Even if the teacher has goals, those goals aren't really considered because what really drives your observation is I gotta conform to my instrument. Then you come back, you have a post observation conference that is really more of a feedback dance than true feedback where you're saying what you're scripted to say. And the teacher, if they're really savvy, they're saying what they know they should so they can look like they are being reflective. And then you do a write up that's pretty formulaic. And then you may not see that teacher for two or three months. And the teacher just looks at the write up to say, did I pass? And if you're in a place where compensation is tied to that, did I get a score high enough to get the compensation?

And that's all they look at. They're not looking at your feedback. Your feedback isn't really impacting and changing their practice. And if the teacher's really struggling, they're looking at your feedback and you're identifying all the things that they didn't do. And they're either overwhelmed or resentful or both.

How is that creating commitment? 

Look at the way we provide support. We try to kind of focus on what our emphasis is for the year. We give people a whole bunch of pd. The second they leave pd, we expect them to do it. Whatever we train them to do with fidelity. Then we run around. Here's the accountability piece with our checklist, our walkthrough checklist. And we check off behaviors and we give people glows and grows. None of that's gonna create commitment. Everybody's just trying to do things that you tell them to do, exactly how you tell them to do when you show up with your checklist.

Who knows what they're doing when you're not there? Who knows what they're doing when or what they'd wanna do if they could choose how to do their own practice. All they're doing is jumping through hoops. And we wonder why people are so burned out and tired and cynical. We built that, we contributed to that. In fact, you may be feeling burned out and tired and cynical too, because you know what's happening. You're doing a lot of this stuff because your district is requiring it. You may be doing using a checklist your district required.

You may be focusing your training on something your district required. So you're being compliant too. All that compliance is killing our true commitment to kids. And then we tried to bolster everybody's commitment by saying, hey, it's gonna be Teacher Appreciation week soon. I need to order some swag for Teachers, let me get them a tote bag that says you're great. And then hopefully that tote bag will help them know how much I really appreciate them. And, oh, but I only have a $500 budget, so maybe I'll just get a Cricut Cricket. What is it called?

You know, the thing. And I'll just make the tote bags myself. So you kill yourself trying to do something special for te to compensate for the environment that all these leadership strategies have created. And I'm telling you right now, even if you personally hand write your grade on every single tote bag and get them a mug and put it in the tote bag, that's not going to compensate for the environment that our leadership practices have created in our school, that have created the kind of burnout that we're seeing happening with teachers now. You see, if I am spending all of my time trying to get people to be compliant, then they don't feel appreciated. My strategies have not shown them that I appreciate what they bring to the table. My strategies have not shown them that I see them as a professional. All my strategies have done is said, if you don't comply, you may lose your job.

If you don't comply, you may lose compensation. 

If you don't comply, then you're not good enough. And then I think that, oh, breakfast or a tote bag or a mug or a T shirt is going to somehow make them feel appreciated. All of a sudden. It's going to overcome months of pushing them into compliance. Not going to happen. And so we wonder why we don't have staff alignment when the truth is the strategies that we are using were, A, not designed to create alignment, they were designed to create compliance. And B, we wonder why we don't have alignment and why our cultures are sinking and why people are getting tired and burned out and cynical when we have built the very culture that promotes that kind of stuff in the name of leadership.

Hey, Robyn here, and I just want to break in real quick to ask you a huge favor. You see, I want to get the word out to everybody about buildership, and I could use your help. If you're really enjoying this episode, would you mind just going to your podcast platform and leaving a quick review? You see the reviews, get the word out. They tell other people this is a great show. Other people who have never heard of school leadership reimagined before can hear about it. And you'd be sharing the word about buildership. So would you mind just leaving a quick review?

It would mean the world to Me. Okay, now back to the show. So that's why I think people are so excited when we do these staff alignment events. Because when you. Because the way that we were trained is all we know. Right. We don't know any better. People are looking for other ways to do it. But our training isn't providing it. It's not offering that. It's just straight up leadership practices and we feel compliant. And then we, in order to comply with what the district is doing, we do a lot of compliance stuff ourselves. And so. Yeah, I get it. Right.

And so when you have something like the staff alignment challenge, which is coming up, it helps people see that there is another way. You see, builders are doing things differently. When we offer feedback, the feedback is empowering because we're not overloading people with our checklist. We're really paying attention to people's practice and we're giving them feedback that they can use right away and see tangible results right away. And our feedback is customized to each teacher. The lens we go into the classroom with is different when you're a builder and people pick up on that. And so those feedback conversations, instead of being that feedback dance and this inauthentic conversation, those feedback conversations are real and people see our belief in them. And then people are motivated, based on our feedback, to make changes in their practice because it makes sense. And when they make those changes, they're excited to see how much of a difference our feedback has made.

So instead of dreading you're coming into the classroom, now people are welcoming. 

You're coming into the classroom because you're actually contributing to their practice. When builders do provide support, it's not just to fulfill a district mandate or to, you know, populate a staff development day. The one day we get a year when builders provide support, that support is ongoing. Teachers get the support they need at the moment they need it and in the way they need it. And for you, when you're, because you have a support system set up, you're able to give people support when they need it in the way they need it at the moment they need it it without wearing yourself out in the process. You're able to keep tabs on what's happening with all of your teachers and to give them that real time support that they need. But you don't have it. Doesn't mean you're running around all day providing customized learning plans for every single teacher. You put a system in place that delivers that so that your teachers keep growing. Okay. When builders get create accountability, it's not about holding other people accountable. It's about putting systems in place to help people be accountable. Even when you're not checking so you can trust your team, because your team, you know that they're doing the right work the right way and for the right reasons. And you don't have to go running around checking to do that because you know you have these systems in place that give you the piece to be able to do that.

So that frees you up to be able to do all the things that you need to do in order to move your school forward. And instead of just, you know, creating culture based on food, fun and freebies, what builders are doing is they're building a solid culture that is self sustaining. They're inviting people to stay engaged in the work. They're building a culture where everybody has a feels like they have a role to play and everybody feels a sense of responsibility for what happens in the culture. And builders are building a culture where it's not just about, oh, it's everybody happy, happy, joy, joy and getting along. They're building a culture where there's a healthy, when there's a healthy way of dealing with conflict, where people can come and show up as themselves and find a place in that culture where toxicity, there's no room for toxicity because we're focused and engaged consistently and moving towards a bigger vision. That's how you create staff alignment. I wish I could make it more complicated because then I could sound all smart and everything, but it really is so simple and it's so obvious and yet so many of us miss it because we're blinded by all these leadership theories and practices.

If you want to create true staff alignment where everybody is focused, everybody is committed to, and everybody is working consistently forward towards your vision, feedback, support, accountability and culture, the way to do it. But you got to do it differently than you were trained. And so it's one of the reasons why we're doing the Staff Alignment challenge happening on February 2nd. And if you want to see how builders do staff alignment differently, then go to buildershipuniversity.com challenge. Sign up for the Staff Alignment Challenge.

It's absolutely free. 

Every single day, we're going to spend an hour taking each piece of that puzzle and showing you how you can adjust what you're doing. I mean, you already have to give feedback, you already have to give support. You already are doing accountability, you're already doing culture. But how do you do it in a way that's like a builder so that you can get bigger results from Your effort. That's what I'm going to be showing you at the challenge. But in the meantime, here's my challenge for you this week. I want you to look at your school and I want you to get to be honest with yourself. How aligned are you? I don't want to. I don't want you to look at and be fooled by compliance, all right?

I know a lot of people like, oh, my staff is very aligned. No, your staff is very compliant. Truly aligned staff means that each person on your staff understands your vision, is committed to your vision, and is working consistently towards your vision. That's how you get alignment. 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, real quick, before you go, if you enjoyed today's episode and you know someone who would really benefit from what you heard here today, maybe they're struggling with the thing that we talked about in today's episode, would you take a moment and share this episode with them? Them? You see, not only will it help us get the word about Buildership out to more people, but you're going to look like a rock star because you're going to give people something they can really use to help them get unstuck and be better at building their schools. Plus, it would mean the world to me.

Thanks so much and I'll see you next time.

Thank you for listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast for show notes and free downloads visit https://schoolleadershipreimagined.com/

School Leadership Reimagined is brought to you by Mindsteps Inc, where we build master teachers.