First Things First

Wisdom from the Field #1

In his seminal business book Good to Great, Jim Collin and his team of researchers found common threads among organizations that made a leap to excellence. One key characteristic is focusing first on who is in your organization - the right people - and if they are in the right positions. Then leaders can work on the vision, goals, and plan.

The right people have a sense of purpose for their work; they find it meaningful and rewarding because they are in the right positions. They are also able to problem solve with little direction. Subsequently, the right people don’t need a lot of supervision; tangible support and clearing away obstacles helps ensure they are effective in a variety of situations. As Collins notes,

“When facing chaos and uncertainty, and you cannot possibly predict what's coming around the corner, your best ‘strategy’ is to have a busload of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what comes next. Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”¹

Prioritizing People

There are two ways for schools to make this leap to excellence:

1. Hire the right teachers.

2. Support the faculty members currently in your school.

Hiring for excellence is a whole different topic and deserves its own focus.² For the latter, it means making this support a priority in our daily schedule. One way to ensure this is through a daily log.

Using the Ivy Lee Method³, list the six things you want to accomplish within one day. This can happen either the day before or the morning of (I suggest the day before so you don’t have to worry about it at night). Make sure “classroom visits” is the first thing listed. Here is my example:

Then note which three teachers you will spend time with during instruction. You can visit all classrooms for a brief time, but devote at least fifteen minutes to three classrooms to informally observe as an instructional walk⁴. Next is what my day looks like tomorrow:

I am planning to visit the 4th grade team, an approach suggested by leadership consultant Justin Baeder.⁵ It gives me more context about the team’s collective instruction. After the visits, I plan to write a six word summary of what I noticed.

You can download this template (below) and use it for your own visits.

Reflective Questions

1. What characteristics would you use to describe the “right people” in your school? Are all your teachers in the right positions?

2. How does your school’s mission, vision, and goals help create a deep purpose for others in their practice?

3. How might the Ivy Lee Method help you feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day and ensure people are the priority?

4. Which team or department will your first visit for your instructional walks?

1. Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don't. New York City: HarperCollins.

2. To learn more about my process for hiring excellent literacy teachers, see my article Hiring Teachers for Today and Tomorrow (subscription to Choice Literacy required).

3. Clear, J. (n.d.). The Ivy Lee Method: The Daily Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity. Website, James Clear. Available: https://jamesclear.com/ivy-lee

4. For more information about instructional walks, check out this article.

5. I interviewed Justin Baeder about his book Now We’re Talking! and posted the podcast episode here.