WEBVTT 00:00:09.076 --> 00:00:13.496 I am Bryan Hassel, Co-Director of Public Impact. 00:00:14.106 --> 00:00:17.476 One of the most important components of turnarounds across all kinds 00:00:17.476 --> 00:00:19.476 of organizations is strong leadership. 00:00:19.616 --> 00:00:24.646 You almost always have a new leader who comes in, or the existing leader really steps up 00:00:24.736 --> 00:00:26.946 and exerts a new kind of leadership. 00:00:27.556 --> 00:00:29.756 You almost never see a turnaround where there isn't 00:00:29.756 --> 00:00:32.956 that strong leader driving the process forward. 00:00:33.166 --> 00:00:36.426 Now that doesn't mean you don't see a lot of other people involved in the turnaround. 00:00:36.426 --> 00:00:37.656 It's always a team effort. 00:00:37.656 --> 00:00:41.756 There is always a lot of involvement by-in the case of schools-teachers, parents, 00:00:41.756 --> 00:00:44.036 community members, partners of all types, 00:00:44.436 --> 00:00:47.566 but there is always that leader who is driving the process forward, 00:00:47.566 --> 00:00:51.136 and that's almost always present in every kind of turnaround that we've looked at. 00:00:51.476 --> 00:00:56.986 One way that leaders can signal the need to change is to make clear that change is mandatory. 00:00:57.536 --> 00:01:04.025 Again, a lot of times we see schools work like this: There is a program that's announced, 00:01:04.126 --> 00:01:06.316 and everyone goes through professional development. 00:01:06.716 --> 00:01:11.976 But then when it comes down to it, when teachers go into their classrooms they can do, 00:01:11.976 --> 00:01:13.526 more or less, what they want to do. 00:01:14.146 --> 00:01:19.026 In a turnaround situation, if the principal is serious about driving change, 00:01:19.486 --> 00:01:22.206 the principal has to signal that change is mandatory. 00:01:22.636 --> 00:01:23.476 It's not optional. 00:01:23.476 --> 00:01:27.686 It's not something that people can do if they want to, but it's something that has to be done. 00:01:27.686 --> 00:01:29.416 And what does that mean in practice? 00:01:29.416 --> 00:01:34.396 Well, it means walking the halls, visiting classrooms, observing teachers in action. 00:01:34.396 --> 00:01:37.376 It means teachers observing each other in action and giving feedback, 00:01:37.856 --> 00:01:42.246 and it means getting teachers together to talk about what's going well and what's going badly 00:01:42.566 --> 00:01:46.886 so that everyone can participate in this process of implementing the change. 00:01:47.546 --> 00:01:50.226 Another common action that we see in leadership 00:01:50.226 --> 00:01:53.786 of turnarounds is breaking norms and rules, even. 00:01:54.106 --> 00:01:57.046 A lot of the times in a failing organization, 00:01:57.166 --> 00:02:00.876 the way things have been done over the years is part 00:02:00.876 --> 00:02:02.496 of the problem, and they need to be changed. 00:02:02.496 --> 00:02:06.306 So, in a school, this could be the way time is used, the way schedules are set up, 00:02:06.736 --> 00:02:09.316 the way colleagues interact with each other. 00:02:09.316 --> 00:02:14.936 It could be the way transportation is used to get kids to and from the school on the schedule. 00:02:15.096 --> 00:02:19.036 And that's a way to signal to the school community this is different; this is serious. 00:02:19.456 --> 00:02:20.886 We're not business as usual. 00:02:20.886 --> 00:02:26.366 We're willing to set aside long-standing traditions in order to move things to the next level. 00:02:26.926 --> 00:02:30.886 One of the things we see in almost every turnaround is the leaders rolling up their sleeves 00:02:31.196 --> 00:02:33.736 and analyzing data because when they look 00:02:33.736 --> 00:02:37.196 at data they can see what are the big problems that this organization has. 00:02:37.196 --> 00:02:40.196 In the case of the school: What groups aren't performing well? 00:02:40.196 --> 00:02:43.356 What kinds of subjects and grades are really at the bottom of the heap 00:02:43.356 --> 00:02:45.396 that we need to focus on to get results? 00:02:45.846 --> 00:02:49.486 And by personally analyzing the data, they are able to signal change, 00:02:49.526 --> 00:02:51.846 the need for change, to the school community. 00:02:52.926 --> 00:02:57.066 Turnaround leaders engage in a lot of actions that we see again 00:02:57.066 --> 00:02:58.846 and again in successful turnarounds. 00:02:59.326 --> 00:03:05.116 One of the most important is achieving quick wins that convince the organization 00:03:05.116 --> 00:03:08.716 that it can get better, and the quick wins are so important 00:03:08.716 --> 00:03:10.576 because they build momentum for change. 00:03:10.576 --> 00:03:13.196 They encourage people who have hope that they can do better, 00:03:13.706 --> 00:03:18.146 and so the leader needs to identify what are some ways-whether a specific subgroup of students, 00:03:18.146 --> 00:03:24.666 whether a specific grade level, a specific subject, whether it's a specific topic that we want 00:03:24.666 --> 00:03:29.716 to take on-that we can win, where we can show everyone that all the kids in the school can learn 00:03:29.716 --> 00:03:31.876 to high levels, and get that job done. 00:03:31.876 --> 00:03:35.516 Not in three years, not in two years, not even in one year but very quickly, 00:03:35.516 --> 00:03:37.486 within the first few months of the turnaround. 00:03:37.916 --> 00:03:41.366 That doesn't mean they have to solve every problem the school has in the first few months, 00:03:41.366 --> 00:03:43.406 but they have to get those wins because without 00:03:43.476 --> 00:03:46.056 that they're not going to get the support they need. 00:03:46.336 --> 00:03:50.766 But with that, they can have support, and that builds momentum to do the next bit of hard work.