Stop Leading, Start Building! by Robyn R. Jackson

Author:Robyn R. Jackson [Jackson, Robyn R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781416629863
Publisher: ASCD
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Stories

Just like every organization has a collection of habits, every organization has its collection of stories that convey how it collectively views itself, the people who comprise it, and the work they do. These stories coalesce into a reigning narrative that influences how people approach their work and how they treat each other. It's also the lens through which people make decisions, develop strategies, and exercise their commitment to school purpose. Put simply, your school's reigning narrative drives your school culture.

What's really interesting about reigning narratives is that whether or not they are true is largely irrelevant. Your collective stories—true or false, biased or blinkered—become your collective reality. That means that whoever controls your school's narrative controls your culture.

Low will/high skill teachers intuitively understand this; if you're not careful, they can use rumors and innuendo to position their version of your school story as the reigning narrative. Nature abhors a vacuum, so in the absence of a clear and compelling narrative from you, it is easy for someone else to provide a counter-narrative that can quickly become the dominant one.

This is why you need to get your school success story straight. Tell a compelling story of your school purpose and what achieving it will mean for students. Make your story so clear for teachers that there is no ambiguity. And make sure your story sticks. Fill the vacuum with your school story before someone else fills it with theirs.

Unfortunately, so many leaders miss this. They allow others to hijack their school story and reshape the reigning narrative to serve another agenda. These leaders tend to dismiss storytelling as "fluffy" and superfluous; they're here to "focus on the real work." The result is they spend a lot of time cleaning up the inevitable havoc that a rogue narrative can wreak on school culture.

Builders know better. They deliberately shape their school narrative and take steps to make it the reigning narrative. The way they do this is by inviting teachers into their school story. You see, if you make your school story about you, as so many leaders do, your story will get ignored. If you make your school story about your teachers, they will embrace it and make it their narrative, too.

Builders understand that it's not about them—what they want to do for students or how they want to transform the school. To put it directly, you're not the hero of the story; your people are. Your teachers and staff are the ones who are going to earn the success you're building together. Make sure your story shows them what they are working for, why it's so important, and what role each of them will need to play to achieve the goal. The more you help your people see themselves as the drivers of your school purpose, the more engaged with and committed to it they will become.

I've helped many schools craft a compelling story that has become the reigning narrative of their schools. Often, the work involves rewriting and refocusing a narrative that's been in place for a long time.

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