EPISODE #340

Hey, builders, before we start today's episode, I want to make sure that you are looking at your email. We're going to do something really, really cool that we've never done for Black Friday before that we're going to make some things that have never been available for people outside of BU and the Collective available to you. So you want to look for an email. I'm going to. I sent you an email today, so check your junk folder. Look for the email that I sent you today. Lays everything, everything out. And then I'm going to be sending you an email tomorrow.

I'm going to eat first, and then I'm going to send you an email tomorrow evening to let you know that it's live. And it's only going to be live through the weekend. Everything shuts down Monday at midnight. So pay attention to your email. Look out for it. You. You're going to love it. It's so good.

All right, now, on with the show. You're listening to the School Leadership Reimagined podcast, episode 340. 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, Robin Jackson, and if you are listening to this in real time in the United States, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And you know how a lot of families have a tradition where before they start the meal, they go around the table and everybody says something for which they are grateful? Of course, there are also families that just have a tradition of the dinner's ready and everybody jumps in. I'm not judging, but I was thinking about that tradition because this month inside of the 100% collective, we're going to be talking about meetings. And I'll tell you more about a really a cool training opportunity we have coming up for those of you who are not inside the collective, where I'm going to walk you through how to get your ILT meetings right and productive. But you know, I'll stay tuned.

I'll tell you more about that. But we're talking about meetings this month inside the collective. And one of the things that builders do in their meetings is that they start every meeting by going around the room and everybody shares one win from the week. And this is. It seems like it's so simple. It seems like a just, you know, kind of a throwaway thing. Oh, we can do it or we don't have to. But I want to talk to you today about why that one simple thing makes all the difference in how your meetings run, in the quality of the decisions that are being made in meetings, in keeping everybody focused on your 100% vision.

It seems like it's a stupid, silly thing, but it's critical. So I first started doing this myself in mindstepps when we would have our team meetings every week. I'd read it somewhere, and I don't even remember where I read it before. And I said, let's try it. And so we wanted to start every meeting with a win. And the first time I did it, it was so hard. We went around the room and everybody came to the meeting and they were already focused. They were, you know, okay, what do we gotta do?

We got this agenda. And I said, we're gonna stop before we begin, and we're gonna go around the room and start. Some people looked at me like, why are you wasting our time? I hate meetings to begin with. And now you're adding another agenda item. Other people looked at it like a touchy feely thing. Like, other people looked at it like a joke, like, okay, my win is that I didn't choke anybody this week, you know, like, that kind of thing. But I kept insisting that we do it. And it took a long time for my team to get into the rhythm. And we're there now. 

We've been doing it for over 10 years now. 

So we've gotten into the rhythm now. But it struck me, I was so surprised at how hard it was for us to come up with a win for the week. And I think I understand why. You see, like, when we go to meetings, we have been trained to think that meetings are about problems or they're about stupidity, right? So we go into a meeting and we're either in a mindset of, okay, let me just get through it, I hate meetings, or we're in the mindset of, all right, let's go deal with all the problems that have been building up since the last time we've met.

And when we walk into meetings with that mindset, we forget about all the things that are actually working in our building. We walk in and we think, oh, well, you know, meetings are for problems. Meetings are for, you know, we're trained to look at what's broken. And so what that does is that leaves us in perpetual triage where only thinking about and focusing on the things that are not working. Well, here's what happens. Psychologically, you tend your. Your. Your culture, your outlook, your.

Your. The way you think is shaped by what you focus on. Oh, I hate ending sentences and prepositions. Forgive me, all. All of the grammar guard gods out there. Okay, what you focus on. I did it again. The things on which you focus are the things that shape your outlook.

So if you are only focused on what's broken. Late buses, new mandates, instruction. That's not working. Tier one, that's not working. A parent email, student behavior. If you're only focused on that, then that begins to shape how you see the work. It begins to shape the. It begins to shape the culture.

So a lot of us talk about nagging and complaining cultures. Like all we do is sit around and complain. Everybody talks about how burned out we are. Well, if you're only focused on the things that are broken, you're going to be feeling burned out right now. You're going to be feeling hopeless. It's going to be hard to move your culture in the right direction. It's going to be hard for people to believe in 100% if all you ever focused on is how you're not there yet and all the things that are getting in the way of your being there.

The things on which you focus on are the things that shape your culture.

The second thing is that a lot of times we think that there's not enough time to talk about what's working. We don't have time to. If it's working, it's great. You know, we need to focus on what's not working. And it's kind of like when you're in a class and the kids who are achieving and doing everything you want them to do, they're sitting in silence while you're giving all of your time, energy, and attention to. To the kids who are acting up. I remember I observed a classroom once, and I mean, it was. It was.

There's a lot going on. The behavior was all over the place. The teacher was really struggling. And the teacher spent all of her time focused on the kids who were acting up. And there were two or three kids in the class who were trying to learn. They, you know, she would ask a question and they'd raise their hands, and she would ignore their hands because she's like, oh, they have it already. And she'd focus on the kids who weren't paying attention and call on them, knowing good and well that those kids did not know the answer. Meanwhile, the kid who does know the answer is sitting there with her hand raised, wanting to participate in class, wanting to be engaged in learning.

And finally she just slowly lowers her hand, shakes her head and just. Is like, why bother? And then she just starts staring out the window. Well, I think that a lot of times we are so focused on the things that are not working. And we think that that's the. That's the gig. We gotta. We gotta.

We gotta all the time. That there are things that are working that are just quietly suffering in silence. There are teachers whose classrooms we never visit because we're like, oh, they're okay. And we never focus on them. We never. You know, I always talk about Dan Heath. One of the things that really struck me from his work was he talked about how we need to spend more time finding the bright spots. There's so much learning in the bright spots, but instead we're only focused on what's broken.

And we think that's what we're supposed to be doing. And so as a result, when you're inside of the work all day long, it's hard to see progress. And so we don't even think about it. It doesn't even occur to us. You know, it's like, it's, you know, we're. We're focused on the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, trying to get stuff done that we. Once it's done and it's working, we're think we're like, okay, good, thanks. I can take that off my plate.

And we move on to something else. And so we're constantly focusing on what's broken. We're constantly, you know, focused on the next thing. And that's, in my opinion, one of the reasons why we're so burned out. We're so overwhelmed, because that's all we focus on. Keep doing it. So here's what builders do by just doing something as simple as. As starting every meeting, by going around the room and asking people, what's a win you have this week?

You do three things. 

Okay? So the first thing is that starting with wins calibrates the focus of the team. If you come into the meeting and you are in a mindset of, okay, how we're going to fix this or what problem is going to show up today. It changes how, how you make decisions. It creates a deficit mindset. And so whatever challenges you face feel a lot greater, they feel larger. Because all we do is focus on challenge is they start to mount up over time and build and build and build.

It just gets. Feels more and more and more negative. When you take a moment at the beginning of the meeting and just recalibrate everybody and say, let's start out by talking about something that is working, what's a win that you've had this week? How big or small? What's a when what you're doing is you are training your team to start by naming progress. And when they name progress, the rest of the meeting, they're thinking from a growth mindset about what things there. There are things that are actually working and it changes how they approach problems. It changes how they make decisions.

There's a lot you can learn from things that are not working, but there is a whole lot of stuff that we're leaving on the table that we can learn from things that are working. And we don't spend enough time talking about what is working and mining what is working for the lessons that can help us solve the other problems. By just stopping at the beginning of the meeting and saying, okay, what's a win? You remind each other what is working. You keep that in your brain. And so when you're solving problems, you're not just solving problems by just saying, oh, how do we fix this? You're also thinking about, there are things we've already fixed. What did we do in those situations?

How can I learn from that and bring that to this problem? It's subtle, but it's powerful and it's really important. The second thing that happens is that when you start with wins, you. I don't even, almost don't even want to say this. I was going to say you built collective confidence, but that feels like I'm just, you know, oh, you can do it. Yay. And that's not what I'm saying. The wins remind us that the work is working somewhere, and that helps us believe it.

You know, if, if, if once we can get to the habit of articulating wins regularly, it, it's, it starts changing. The subtle belief that happens in a lot of our cultures that success is out of reach. How can I believe that we're never going to get there when every single week we're, we're talking about all of the progress that we're Making and how we're getting there. 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 is 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 have to even think about it. You just take the playbook and you can implement it from 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@brewership university.com community now. Back with the program.

I'm not talking about being delusional, right? 

Like, I remember. I remember years ago, on one of the early seasons of. Y' all are going to kill me for this. But one of the early seasons of America's Next Top Model, there was a model on there. They were doing a challenge. And America's Next Top Model is, like, hazing for. For pretty people.

I always felt like. And so they were doing this challenge where the models had to go out to different agencies, but the agencies were deliberately looking at their portfolio and just trashing the models. And the models were coming home defeated. And there was this one model and. And she was. I don't care what they said. They were like, I mean, your nose is kind of big. She goes, I know.

It kind of. It's out there, right? It's memorable. Your eyes are too wide apart. She goes, I know. And it gives me so much more range in terms of the emotions that I can convey. I don't care what they said. She turned it into a positive.

She was, you know, I mean, borderline delusional. I'm not talking about that. I'm not saying that when you sit around, you're just making up wins to make yourselves feel good. But there's is something working in your school and taking the time to talk, not just about all the things that still need to work, taking time to talk about some of the things that are already working reminds people that we are capable of doing something that will work. And I can't tell you how important that is, because the challenges you face are vast and great. And especially at the beginning of your 100% journey, it feels. 100% feels so out of reach. But when you take time to stop and say, hey, we've already done some things, therefore we know we can do more things, it just reminds your team that they're capable and that builds their confidence.

And when people go into a situation with confidence, again, it changes their decision making. So when you start with wins and you remind ourselves that we're capable of doing hard things and those hard things work out, then people are less afraid to make hard decisions in the meeting. They're more willing to innovate. They're more willing to take responsibility. They're more willing to move past old stories. You see, there's a narrative of failure that's running underneath a lot of what you're. What's happening in your culture. And just stopping at the beginning of the meeting to talk about wins begins to change that narrative of failure.

And remember, culture, in order to do culture, you need two things. Change habits, change stories. If we develop a habit of talking about not just our challenges, but our wins and being intentional about that, it begins to change the story because we are introducing new elements of that story into this narrative that's happening in our school. It's not just we're all failing. It's not that everything's broken. It's not that everything's not working. Because this week, this happened in my classroom. This week I saw this happening in a hallway.

This week I had this conversation with a teacher. 

And so that begins to change the narrative, and that begins to change your culture. And finally, when you start collecting wins and you're intentional about sharing them every single week, those wins compound. You create a narrative of momentum. You're. You're. Instead of measuring progress, you know, by looking at all of the problems, you're also measuring progress by creating a pattern. And that's what happens.

The more wins you share, the more you see a pattern of wins in the work that you're doing. The more your wins become a pattern, the more people start to see the work differently. And what happens is win over, win over, win over, win over, win over. Time helps your team realize that 100% is not a fantasy, that 100% is the direction in which you are moving. And so people stop being defeatist and start coming up with new ideas. People stop saying, it will never get there. And they say, hey, what are we talking about? We are already there.

And so one of the simplest but most powerful things that you can do to start shifting your culture, to start changing how you make decisions, and ultimately to start shifting and rewriting the narrative of your school is to simply take two minutes at the beginning of the meeting, go around the room, and require everybody to share a win from the week. I know, dumb, silly, but once you start doing it, you see how powerful it is. So that's my challenge to you this week. Take some time. I hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving break. For those of you who celebrate, look out for an email from me. We've got something really cool. Those of you on our list have already sent you something.

We're going to do something really cool for Black Friday, something we've never done before. So look out for an email from me about that. And then when you go back to work next week and you have a meeting, just try it. Start the meeting by saying what I want everybody to share when they've had for the week. Those of you who are in BU and the Collective or we have a wins thread for a reason, you all need to start posting in there. You need to start reading the other wins. I was going through the wins thread the other day. So inspiring.

Y' all need to start reading those wins. 

You need to start posting on those wins. It's not superfluous. It is a simple but powerful strategy to help you stay focused on your goal, to cultivate confidence and belief that you'll achieve your goal, and to help you make better decisions for your goal by just starting each meeting, sharing a win. 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 and get started writing your school success story today. Hey, it's Robin 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.