Influence Change By Communicating With Purpose - school administration - Brief Article

School Administrator, Jan, 1994 by Harry E. Eastridge

Your pass-fail for this decade is, "Can you communicate change?"

Most of us don't like change. It's messy, uncomfortable, unpredictable. But we are either into change or looking for a new calling.

Our only real option is to try to influence the direction and scope of change by communicating it effectively. Flow?

A passing grade begins with two F's--focus and frequency.

Stay on Track

First, we focus on what we are trying to do. We can use Holy Grail words like vision or charter or mission, but all boil down to this What kind of butterfly should our caterpillar be?

The answer sounds easy. Our school district embraces the theme, "Every child can learn." Our board of education adopted as our mission to "nurture, educate, and graduate" well-prepared, self-motivated, responsible young people. These are admirable sentiments, but

What's hard is making certain that every child can learn--no exceptions. It means every staff person must focus on helping each child learn enough to progress to the next level. Nor can we permit any level to fail.

Focus must include staff development. The average school of education graduate has much to unlearn. But I am persuaded we have an enormous and largely unrecognized asset in this respect: most teachers genuinely want to help their students learn. They just need to know, from us, that that's what schools are for!

The greatest challenge is to remember that what's not in focus is out of it. We cannot do it all. So we must forever ask each other, "How does what we are doing, or proposing, help change this caterpillar into our butterfly?" If you can't come up with a specific answer, shelve that activity or proposal.

I vigorously support an instructional audit as a focusing tool. Each school builds its action plan for the coming year from a consensus by the leadership team of what they want that school to be.

The annual audit measures what is against the team's concept of what should be, and invites the leadership team to explain discrepancies. By the second audit, building leaders have a precise focus on what's doable versus what's desirable.

Repetition Required

The companion to focus is frequency. Habit patterns won't change overnight. Effective schools don't just happen.

Communicating change requires variety as well as repetition. Today's capsulized journalism requires the basic message to be presented in many ways--no single medium nor spokesperson will do.

Our efforts include a twice-monthly staff newsletter that may include a message from the superintendent. It always recognizes staff members whose ideas or energy contribute to change. A bi-weekly report on the cable TV education channel and daily commentaries via a systemwide computer network reinforce the change theme. I also respond personally to all signed comments from "Dear Dr. E" suggestion forms distributed to all employees.

This same approach applies to seeking favorable public opinion. We focus on what we want to accomplish and report it often. Area opinion leaders receive a twice-monthly newsletter containing most of the material in our staff letter. We tell parents where we are with our Blueprint for Progress, inviting and responding to their comments.

We talk regularly with local business leaders, including real estate agents, who thirst for good news about local public schools. We issue an annual progress report card. We celebrate each new school-business partnership and invite business participation in instructional audits (23 signed up last year).

Many of our schools survey their parents each year on topics ranging from their comfort level when visiting school to how well they think their children are learning.

Two Last Words

Through focus and frequency, plus high expectations, change not only becomes acceptable, but desirable. But as you master the two F's, also consider a "D" for dialogue and a "C" for consistency.

Seeking and sharing the good opinion of parents and community does more than encourage staff efforts. It also will be of enormous help when the time comes to ask these constituencies at the polls for more revenue.

The successful administrator must walk the walk of constructive change as well as talk the talk if the result is to be effective schools. Nothing douses enthusiasm or trust more than saying one thing and doing another.