Managing the Dissonance…and Disconnect…of Change
Mandates thunder ominously in the background, while expectations and required processes pour down in unrelenting torrents, creating the “perfect storm” that is the frequent characterization of today’s educational race to improvement.
Whether a marathon or a sprint, an essential attribute of engaging in a race is the anticipation, aspiration – and reality - of one winner, and many…non-winners. Is this image truly an illustration of the intention of the work educators are engaging in? Who will win this race? Who will not?
A consequence, albeit unintended, of multiple changes, delivered rapid fire, accompanied by the expectation of immediate, successful implementation is a perceived lack of congruence and sense of disconnect. When not enough time or explicit attention is provided for connecting and anchoring multiple facets of a large initiative to each other, as well as to improvements that may already exist or be in development, each facet can become a world unto itself, separate from and layered atop all of the others, leaving those charged with their implementation feeling buried under the magnitude and quantity of what they are being expected to achieve.
Without some framework to help contextualize change, whether changes that we ourselves initiate or change that is initiated for us, we can all fall prey to the isolation and layering of disconnection. Please, accept this invitation to take a cleansing breath, press pause for the next ten minutes, and experience ARCS, a framework that can inspire you to make deep and meaningful connections.
The ARCS framework for sustainable school improvement1 helps school leaders and their schools to successfully inspire, manage and sustain positive change. Its four components of Alignment, Representation, Culture and Sustainability are grounded in both educational learning theory and systems dynamics. ARCS supports leaders at all levels of the organization (including administrators, teachers, students and parents) in enabling the schools that they lead to become proactive and responsible learning organizations, and ensures that change is purposeful and occurs in the service of improved learning.
Alignment
The antithesis of disconnect, Alignment focuses individual and organizational energies on the attainment of a clear, shared vision of the school at its very best. Promoting coherence, Alignment purposefully connects multiple innovations and actions to bridge the gap between the school’s current and desired state, building positive momentum that propels the school toward its vision.
A key process in Alignment revolves around a visioning experience whose intended result is not a neat and tidy paragraph or statement, but instead an opportunity to juxtapose the words, phrases and images that capture aspirations for excellence with a description of the current state of affairs. This provides the basis for an interactive and ongoing examination of the distance between desired and current states inside which decisions, initiatives and proposals are vetted, and improvement goals are contextualized and attained.
Ted Husted, principal of PS 85 in the Bronx, NY, has created the simple image that follows. Into each of the outside circles, Ted writes a key word or phrase from the vision, leaving the center circle blank. Into that center circle goes any idea, goal, suggestion, mandate or product.
You are invited to use this image as you think through each of the actions, structures and processes that you are enacting or contemplating.
- Fill each of the circles around the outside with key, compelling attributes of your vision for your school or district at the very best that it can be.
- In the center circle, place something that you are considering enacting or are required to enact.
Whatever you place in the center circle must support and promote each of the key components of the vision. The question to ask is, “How will what is in the center move us closer to attaining the vision?” If in its initial framing, what is in the center does not pass the vision test, the challenge then becomes to massage and reframe it until it does. In this way, each separate piece is tied to the same goal – attainment of the vision – and whatever is in the center is co-opted into becoming a vehicle for achieving what is already important: moving your school or district to the very best that it can possibly be.
Representation
Representation, the second component of the ARCS framework, taps the perspectives of multiple stakeholders in the school. Just as in the story about the three blind men and the elephant, though each man was convinced that he knew what he was holding (a brush, a tree trunk, a hose), in reality each man’s certainty was limited by the individual part of the elephant that he had access to. So, too, do we only see our school from the perspective provided by where we are in the school. To “see” the elephant for what it was, the men needed to combine their three perspectives (and perhaps a few others). To truly “see” our school, we need access to perspectives and harness the energies of those whose roles provide views of the school that are different from our own, allowing us to expand our understanding by “seeing” the school through their eyes and experiences.
Considering Representation can be key in identifying and reconciling desired improvements, determining approaches for achieving them and engaging in the work of implementing the plan. Involving those who will be most affected by the changes we are trying to implement and those whose assistance we most need to enable success can access insights, strategies and enable actions that, left to our own devices, we could never have imagined. Representation is the key to shared perspective, shared responsibility, shared effort and shared success.
Key questions to inform Representation are, “Who will be most affected by the changes that we are considering?” and “Who will be most necessary to successfully achieving them?” and “How can we engage the perspectives and energies of diverse stakeholders in the work ahead?” Using these three questions can help to guide you in whom to bring in and when. A focus on Representation can eliminate the need for “buy-in,” since those whose buy in would be a concern will already be engaged.
Culture
Creating and deepening a Culture of continuous improvement is at the heart of the “C” in the ARCS framework. Attending to the ways in which the Culture of your school or district both affects and is affected by change is an important part of enabling that change to result in improvements for all learners. Asking questions like, “What values and beliefs are promoted by these initiatives?” or “How do these initiatives challenge or support the values and beliefs of the school or district?” can help leaders to anticipate and manage potential positive and negative consequences of change.
Six dispositions of practice support a learning Culture. They are: Commitment to Understanding, Intellectual Perseverance, Commitment to Reflection, Courage and Initiative, Collegiality, Commitment to Expertise. These dispositions are present and measurable in individuals and in the school organization itself. A focus on Culture includes developing and using these six dispositions to help ensure that improvements are considered carefully and thoughtfully, grounded in research, monitored using relevant data, and integrated into the fabric of the school. Informed by questions like “Which dispositions should we attend to as we consider and respond to current mandates?” or “Are we focused on attitudes and behaviors that promote continuous improvement” or “Do our words, actions and work portray us as a community of learners?” the six dispositions of practice provide a foundation for continuous improvement.
Culture is more than dispositions. It is also comprised of relationships and communication. ARCS enables a school to analyze its operating networks through tools and processes that provide data that identifies key communicators and “hub connectors.” This enables strategic planning to maximize on the existing pathways and leaders, while minimizing and/or remediating issues that may surface. Improvements can be far more efficiently enacted in light of such awareness.
Sustainability
The final component of the ARCS framework, Sustainability, supports longevity and ensures that worthy improvements and innovations last beyond the tenure of any individual or group. Including Sustainability as a focus during the planning stages of any initiative involves articulating a clear rationale for supporting policies and processes or engaging in suggested programs or practices and attending to long-term usefulness as well as short- terms gains. It incorporates key aspects of systems thinking, and supports a concept of continuous improvement that builds upon and maximizes on the strengths of what exists, rather than improvements that interrupt, discard or disregard what is.
Attention to Sustainability can help with prioritization, and can provide a “sanity break” by broadening the context of rapid-fire changes from the immediacy of the moment to a continuum that encompasses past, present and future. Sustainability does not mean stoicism – in nature, the trees that last are those that bend and twist in the wind, while those that are rigid and inflexible often end up as firewood. Considering the long and short- term implications of actions that we contemplate can uncover intended and unintended consequences, enabling us to plan for and work with them, rather than being surprised by them.
Sustainability helps us to become the pebbles in our own shoes, thinking carefully and being strategic about where and how we step as we move ourselves and our schoolsforward. Engaging with questions like “Will our decisions today support improvements tomorrow?” “How do we know we are spending time on things that really matter?” “Are our investments making a difference, or are we getting more of the same?” and “How can we continue to improve our ability to continue to improve?” support a focus on Sustainability.
Those of us who are immersed in the serious and intense changes in education today, do not need to be reminded of the accompanying stress or sometimes overwhelming sense of high stakes and risk. We do, however, need to repeatedly and resoundingly remind ourselves, and one another, about what is really important and where our attention must remain. A framework like ARCS can help us to stay grounded and focused on the ultimate question, “Why are we doing this?” the answer to which, if it is not a resounding, “To improve student learning,” will render us all non-winners.