Quality in Education

The recent weather in Iowa is worthy of the record books. Late starts, early dismissals, and all out closings have been occurring weekly – making it difficult to maintain consistency and focus (just one of my excuses for not making an entry lately). We as adults often find it difficult to deal with situations that are outside our normal routine. Students, too, are beginning to feel the stress of change and unpredictability. What better opportunity to write about the power of setting direction and maintaining focus?
As the result of one of our late starts this week, the lunch shifts needed to be adjusted. Typically, our 250 8^th graders eat lunch in two shifts. On this day, they all ate together. I volunteered to supervise the lunch shift to help maintain some order in the face of an uncommon situation. By this time in middle school, 8^th graders have eaten hundreds of lunches in our cafeteria and are well aware of the expectations and procedures. It was assumed that they would rise to the occasion and conduct themselves in a “business as usual” manner, so no direction was given about how to proceed. While I wouldn’t describe the 30 minutes that followed as chaotic, some students were confused and others took advantage of the latitude the new circumstances provided.
As leaders of Continuous Improvement, it’s easy for us to assume that the direction we set at the start of an endeavor will be consistently followed. After all, we are working with professionals who have been doing this for a long time and who are focused on improving the state of education. However, just as 8^th graders are thrown by the introduction of a new scenario, in the absence of direction, we as adults are going to create our own route. Some will head straight down the road while others will veer off on a side road or pull over to the side. As leaders, we must routinely remind people of the destination in an attempt to reduce confusion and maintain focus on the goals for reaching it, particularly in the face of change and unpredictability.
I intend to share the lunch story above with the staff in our building at our next in service meeting as a prelude to revisiting where we are on the Continuous Improvement highway. What’s your plan for keeping CI in the sights of your staff?

Paul