K12LEADERS

Author: Greg Runyan

  • 🚀Unlocking Innovative Change in Schools: It Starts with THIS. 🚀

    🚀Unlocking Innovative Change in Schools: It Starts with THIS. 🚀

    School leaders: Are you facing resistance, apathy, or conflicting opinions when trying to implement new initiatives?

    Imagine a school where:
    âś… Teachers are energized and invested in change.
    âś… Every voice is heard and valued.
    âś… Difficult conversations lead to creative solutions.

    These resources helped me develop a proven framework for facilitating change that empowers school leaders to:
    ➡️ Build consensus and get buy-in from ALL stakeholders.
    ➡️ Transform meetings from complaints sessions into collaborative problem-solving.
    ➡️ Create a school culture where everyone feels ownership and a sense of purpose.

    Game Storming – by Gray, Brown, and Macanufo
    Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision Making – Kaner
    The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures – Lipmanowicz, McCandless
    Iterate – Reich
    Sprint – Knapp

    There’s lots of great ideas for building stronger school communities in these books.  Almost too much.

    I’ve created my own free guide, “7 Best Meeting Exercises for School Leaders.”  I’ve collected what I think are 7 essential meeting exercises and framed them specifically for school leaders.  You may find yourself coming back to the exercises time and again.  Download it here:

    https://meetingmastery.pioneeredstrategies.com/7-best-meeting-exercises-lm

  • School Principals as Scrum Masters: Leading Agile Change in Education

    School Principals as Scrum Masters: Leading Agile Change in Education

     In the fast-paced world of software development, the Scrum Master is a key figure who helps teams navigate complex projects and deliver results efficiently. 

    The Scrum Master acts as a facilitator, coach, and problem-solver, ensuring that everyone is aligned, motivated, and working towards a common goal. 

    A Principal reading this description might think, “that’s exactly what I do everyday.”  The role of a school Principal shares many similarities with that of a Scrum Master. 

    The term “Scrum Master” comes from the sport of rugby. In rugby, a scrum is a formation where players huddle together and push forward as a team.  It looks like organized chaos.  Just like in a rugby scrum, a Scrum Master helps their team work together effectively to achieve their goals.   

    The idea of the orderly mayhem of a rugby scrum, pushing the pile forward resonated with my time as a school leader.  The Principal role is more complex than ever before. They’re not only tasked with managing day-to-day operations but also with driving innovation and change to ensure students are prepared for the future. This requires a shift in leadership style, one that embraces agility and adaptability.

    Agile project management, a methodology born in the software development world, offers a framework for navigating this complexity. And at the heart of agile is the Scrum Master, a servant leader who facilitates collaboration, empowers teams, and removes roadblocks to progress.

    It’s no surprise then that school Principals share a number of similarities with Scrum Masters.

    1. Facilitating Collaboration
      • Scrum Master: Fosters a collaborative environment where team members feel safe to share ideas and contribute to solutions.
      • School Principal: Encourages and facilitates communication and collaboration among diverse stakeholders (teachers, staff, students, parents, unions, school boards, community members).
    1. Empowering Teams
      • Scrum Master: Empowers the team to self-organize and make decisions.
      • School Principal: Empowers teachers to take ownership of their classrooms and create innovative learning experiences.
    1. Removing Roadblocks
      • Scrum Master: Identifies and removes obstacles that prevent the team from making progress.
      • School Principal: Addresses challenges that hinder teaching and learning, such as resource constraints, behavioral issues, or bureaucratic hurdles.
    1. Promoting Continuous Improvement
      • Scrum Master: Facilitates regular retrospectives to reflect on what’s working and what can be improved.
      • School Principal: Encourages ongoing professional development and data-driven decision making to continuously improve teaching and learning.
    1. Servant Leadership
      • Scrum Master: Serves the team by providing support, guidance, and resources.
      • School Principal: Serves the school community by prioritizing the needs of students and creating a positive learning environment.

    Applying Agile Principles in Education

    By adopting an agile mindset and embracing the role of a Scrum Master, school Principals can lead their schools towards greater agility and innovation. This involves:

    • Breaking down large initiatives into smaller, manageable projects.
    • Establishing a system for tracking and monitoring key processes.
    • Empowering teachers to collaborate and experiment.
    • Using data to track progress and make adjustments.
    • Celebrating successes and learning from failures.
    • Setting clear goals and prioritizing tasks.

    Agile project management offers a powerful tool for school leaders to navigate the complexities of modern education.  

    Just like a Scrum Master, a Principal’s ultimate goal is to create an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute their best and achieve their full potential. By embracing agile principles, school leaders can foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, preparing students for success in an ever-changing world.

    Posted by: Greg Runyan

    Greg is an innovative professional with broad-based expertise in teaching and educational administration. Throughout his 20 years in the classroom and as a school and district administrator he has sought to foster new approaches to improving student engagement and learning.

    Greg founded Pioneer Ed Strategies to bring best practices for solving problems from the tech and design industries to address the challenges facing schools today. His mission is to help school leaders implement creative solutions that enhance teaching and learning.

  • Spark School Transformation: The Power and Potential of a School-Improvement Sprint

    Spark School Transformation: The Power and Potential of a School-Improvement Sprint

    As school leaders we want to invite new, innovative strategies to elevate teaching and learning.  How we balance this without overwhelming an already taxed staff is a true leadership challenge. Initiative fatigue is real.  

    If we look outside education, we find an approach, the Design Sprint, that offers promise and potential.  Reframed for addressing educational challenges, the School-Improvement Sprint offers a structured path to drive meaningful change within the context of ever-present demands and limited resources.

    What is a School-Improvement Sprint?

    A School-Improvement Sprint is an 8-week intensive process, inspired by Design Sprints, a methodology pioneered at Google Ventures to foster rapid innovation and problem-solving. Design Sprints have been successfully applied in various industries to accelerate product development, streamline processes, and tackle complex challenges.

    In schools, the “sprint” framework allows educators to test innovative ideas quickly.  The sprint brings together a diverse team of educators, administrators, students, and other stakeholders to address a specific challenge. The focus is short-term, and narrowly confined, thus addressing concerns of initiative overreach that frustrate educators.  The goal is to try new solutions to vexing challenges and quickly learn what works and doesn’t work. 

    The School-Improvement Sprint fosters innovation through:

    • Focused Problem-Solving: By zeroing in on a specific challenge and setting clear goals, School-Improvement Sprints eliminate distractions and create a sense of urgency, fueling creativity and productivity.  
    • Collaboration and Diversity: Bringing together diverse perspectives ensures that solutions are considered from all angles, leading to more innovative and robust outcomes.  
    • Rapid Prototyping and Testing: By quickly creating and testing tangible ideas, School-Improvement Sprints allow teams to gather valuable feedback early in the process, mitigating risks and accelerating learning.  
    • User-Centric Approach: School-Improvement Sprints prioritize the needs and experiences of teachers and students, ensuring that solutions are relevant, practical, and impactful.  

    The 8-Week School-Improvement Sprint Journey

      • Week 1: Align & Identify
        Once the “Sprint Team” of diverse stakeholders is identified, the sprint is kicked off with a dynamic full-day workshop.  The team will:

        • Identify the Challenge: Clearly articulate the problem or opportunity you wish to address.
        • Brainstorm Innovative Solutions: The short-term, focused nature of sprints allows testing of unique, out-of-the box ideas.
        • Focus and Prioritize: Evaluate and select the most promising solution to implement that has the greatest potential impact on teaching and learning.
        • Develop Implementation Plan: Determine the process and steps necessary to implement chosen solution.
        • Establish Key Metrics: Determine the data that will be collected during the implementation phase of the sprint.
      • Weeks 2 – 7: Implement & Track
        Test, iterate, and learn.

        • Pilot: Implement your solution in a controlled environment with a small group.
        • Gather Valuable Insights: Collect feedback and data from the pilot to assess effectiveness.
        • Analyze and Adapt: Scrutinize results and make necessary adjustments to your solution.
        • Check-in: Hold weekly sprint team meetings to support each other, evaluate progress, and address potential roadblocks.
      • Week 8: Review & Reflect
        At the end of the sprint, the team comes back together to do a deep dive into the results.

        • Review data: What story do the key metrics and data captured tell.
        • Determine next steps:  Assess the best path forward.  Options could include adjusting the solution and running another sprint; rolling out the solution to the broader school community; going back to the drawing board.
        • Communicate: Share what was learned with the broader community of stakeholders, both successes and failures.  

    The Essential Role of a Skilled Facilitator

    A skilled facilitator is important to the success of a School-Improvement Sprint.  The staff are the experts, implementing the sprint.  The facilitator acts as the guide, steering the process, ensuring the team remains focused, productive, and aligned. Their expertise encompasses:

    • Process Management: Navigating the team through the Sprint stages, overcoming obstacles, and maintaining momentum.
    • Creative Facilitation: Fostering an environment where collaboration and innovation flourish.
    • Equitable Participation: Managing diverse perspectives and making sure the process is inclusive and everyone feels heard and valued.
    • Decision-Making: Guiding the team towards consensus and actionable outcomes.
    • Time Management: Optimizing productivity within the workshops and meetings throughout the 8-week timeframe.

    Share Your Thoughts!

    The School-Improvement Sprint, built upon the proven foundation of Design Sprints, holds immense potential to transform teaching and learning. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this approach. Have you experimented with similar methods in your school? What challenges and successes have you encountered?

    Share your feedback and comments – let’s spark a conversation about how we can collectively innovate and create thriving learning environments for all students.

    Posted by: Greg Runyan

  • Why the Principal Shouldn’t Always Run the Meeting

    Why the Principal Shouldn’t Always Run the Meeting

    When there is a meeting during which significant decisions need to be made, having the Principal run the meeting isn’t always the best idea.

    Yes, a final decision maker needs to be present, but in terms of getting the best out of those in the meeting (teachers), a facilitator will be much more effective.

    Teachers tackle complex issues in meetings, often with no clear-cut solutions:

    – Reduce tardiness to class
    – Effectiveness of the new literacy program
    – Approach to AI
    – School improvement plans

    The list goes on.

    These are important decisions that impact all stakeholders in a school.

    Improve the opportunity for inclusive meetings with greater buy-in by having a non-decision-making facilitator guide the discussion.

    This ensures:

    • The meeting stays on track
    • Off-topic discussions are quickly quelled
    • All voices are heard without playing favorites
    • Participants are engaged

    “A facilitator is the secret to getting things done.”

  • Meetings Suck and Teachers Hate Them

    Meetings Suck and Teachers Hate Them

    Every teacher has been in a meeting and left with the thought, “well, that’s an hour of my life I will never get back.” It’s frustrating for time-strapped teachers to attend meetings that are circular conversations, dominated by a few strong voices, and result in no decisive action steps.

    Running or attending meetings is often how educational leaders spend a disproportionate part of their day. While most would rather spend time in the classroom, the reality is that meetings are where much of the work of the job is done, especially district-level administrators.

    There are multiple stakeholders (teachers, parents, administration, unions, school boards, community members, etc.), each with an agenda and ideas of the best way to educate students. It can be challenging to bring them together to hear all voices equally and make definitive decisions. Yet, this is critical when tackling significant problems or setting strategic goals.

    Ideas borrowed from Design Sprints and Workshopping models used in the tech and design industries can help. Consultancy AJ&Smart provides a valuable framework that results in productive meetings that are fun to facilitate and attend:

    • Spend time gathering data, ideas, and inspiration to dig into and identify root challenges before even considering solutions.
    • Provide time and space for participants to think individually before opening up for discussion.
    • Use multi-layered voting, such as voting dots, to empower all voices equally and minimize ‘groupthink’ when making decisions.
    • Commit to a limited number of solutions to execute. Discard or de-prioritize all others.

    Educational leaders who can adopt and adapt workshopping and design sprints to identify problems facing schools and test new solutions will have much greater success at leading change and getting stakeholder buy-in.

    I’m exploring this work in my evolution as a leader in education. Reach out if you’re interested in building a dialog. Let me know what you’ve tried, what’s worked, and what has failed miserably.