By David Brake
Let me be clear at the outset: I have not physically dissected any school superintendents in the process of writing this blog post. (Sorry if this disappoints anyone.)
But it is a dissection, metaphorically. There’s also a “modest proposal” woven in, one that considers the evident anatomy of school superintendents.
Accepted Beliefs are the Bones of the Beast
Part of my job at Grandview and VisdomK12 involves creating representative “personas” that help clients understand their consumers and stakeholders better. Creating a set of personas involves asking a lot of specific questions, observing the demonstrated behaviors of individuals in the target group (including their social media activities and public statements), and then formulating what some people in the market research industry call Accepted Beliefs. It’s these accepted beliefs and attitudes that ultimately help determine the individual personas.
For most assignments we try and create a set of five or six personas that constitute reasonable representations of that subgroup. Before creating each persona, however, we like to determine the Accepted Beliefs that all (or a significant majority) in the group have in common. Think of it as the common anatomical structure of everyone in the larger group.
Superintendents Have Strong Bones
We’ve been doing this with superintendents, principals, and other high-ranking school administrators since August of 2015. We’ve learned some interesting things so far about their bones.
Some Observations:
The bottom line is that the typical school superintendent is a highly political being. This is not news to anyone in the education business. Superintendents have extremely difficult jobs. Seldom can they say what they really think about an issue, unless it is completely safe to do so. Advocating or introducing real innovation requires some degree of risk, and so a lot of great ideas are never expressed, discussed, or acted upon.
A Modest Proposal
What if we could give every superintendent in the U.S. a set of reasonable and measurable performance objectives and an eight-year employment guarantee. Then, encourage them to act like entrepreneurs. Keep in mind that successful entrepreneurs do not typically dictate and demand. Rather, they develop and validate their ideas with their employees and their consumers. They go to great lengths to capture and understand the “voice of the customer.” They carefully monitor the products and offerings they introduce into their markets, and they iterate, introducing improvements based upon real customer feedback.
And now, let’s get really crazy. At the end of the eight years, reward demonstrated success with a payoff that promises the superintendent a degree of financial freedom for life. Some of the winners will choose to retire and enjoy life. Some will choose to move on to another school district and try to do the same thing there. Nobody, however, gets a second eight-year guarantee. Eight years and then it’s time to move on.
No doubt you can think of several reasons not to give a school superintendent this kind of offer. I’ll also admit that my perspective is probably a little naive, indicative of someone who is a risk-taking entrepreneur rather than a seasoned professional educator.
A Call for Real Climate Change
Does doing the same thing over and over again again, expecting different results, really make sense? Innovators do not accept the status quo. They challenge convention. Innovation requires risk. School superintendents can be innovative. But there needs to be a climate for innovation. We don’t appear to have the right climate right now, and we won’t if the stakeholders in a school district fail to acknowledge that climate change is their responsibility too. Make no bones about that.
Comments are welcome. Dissection is a two-way street.
David Brake is CEO of The Grandview Group, a technology company that helps organizations leverage the wisdom and insights of customers, prospects, and stakeholders using a life cycle review platform. His special area of practice is On-Demand Learning and qualitative Audience/Consumer research. He co-authored the first edition of an international best-selling book, The Social Media Bible (Wiley, 2009). When he’s not working he enjoys ultra-distance cycling.
Let me be clear at the outset: I have not physically dissected any school superintendents in the process of writing this blog post. (Sorry if this disappoints anyone.)
But it is a dissection, metaphorically. There’s also a “modest proposal” woven in, one that considers the evident anatomy of school superintendents.
Accepted Beliefs are the Bones of the Beast
Part of my job at Grandview and VisdomK12 involves creating representative “personas” that help clients understand their consumers and stakeholders better. Creating a set of personas involves asking a lot of specific questions, observing the demonstrated behaviors of individuals in the target group (including their social media activities and public statements), and then formulating what some people in the market research industry call Accepted Beliefs. It’s these accepted beliefs and attitudes that ultimately help determine the individual personas.
For most assignments we try and create a set of five or six personas that constitute reasonable representations of that subgroup. Before creating each persona, however, we like to determine the Accepted Beliefs that all (or a significant majority) in the group have in common. Think of it as the common anatomical structure of everyone in the larger group.
Superintendents Have Strong Bones
We’ve been doing this with superintendents, principals, and other high-ranking school administrators since August of 2015. We’ve learned some interesting things so far about their bones.
Some Observations:
- The average school superintendent is in their job for three years. It’s hard to have a real impact on a district in that amount of time. We tend to give football coaches more time to build a winning team. Are school districts and boards of education eager to throw them out after three years? Of course not. Replacing a superintendent is disruptive. In many cases superintendents leave for bigger or different opportunities. Like most professionals, they are building their resumes. But still, three years is not a lot of time to execute real change.
- Superintendents avoid taking risks. As one high ranking official with a national superintendents association told me: “For a superintendent, risk equals losing your job.” Since hearing that statement nine months ago, I’ve had over 100 school administrators and school board association executives privately confirm this observation to be “absolutely true.”
- Superintendents are quick to support statements and programs that are both safe and low risk. We presented this quote from former Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to hundreds of superintendents and asked for a reaction: “Simply put, no school can be a great school — and ultimately prepare all students for success — if it is not first a safe school.” Complete agreement, 100 percent. We did the same thing with this simple statement from a leading presidential candidate: “Common Core is a very bad thing.” Not surprisingly, responses were mixed. And in personal interviews most of the people we talked to were careful about being “on the record” with their real beliefs about Common Core.
- In building their resumes, the prevailing belief among superintendents is that a “tangible gain” rather than “mitigation of loss” is a better strategy. This means that increasing student test scores, bringing tablet computers to the 4th grade, or building a new aquatics center are better resume builders than saying that there were no major school safety incidents during their tenure.
- Superintendents exude confidence and optimism on the outside but reflect obvious insecurities on the inside. And who can blame them. They have to navigate some pretty tough waters on a daily basis. The stakeholders in every school district, a group that includes school board members, administrators, teachers, staff, and parents, represent diverse and often conflicting agendas. As one superintendent told me, “there’s no easy way to measure the real sentiments among these groups, to know how they really feel.” Consequently, many superintendents live in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” world.
The bottom line is that the typical school superintendent is a highly political being. This is not news to anyone in the education business. Superintendents have extremely difficult jobs. Seldom can they say what they really think about an issue, unless it is completely safe to do so. Advocating or introducing real innovation requires some degree of risk, and so a lot of great ideas are never expressed, discussed, or acted upon.
A Modest Proposal
What if we could give every superintendent in the U.S. a set of reasonable and measurable performance objectives and an eight-year employment guarantee. Then, encourage them to act like entrepreneurs. Keep in mind that successful entrepreneurs do not typically dictate and demand. Rather, they develop and validate their ideas with their employees and their consumers. They go to great lengths to capture and understand the “voice of the customer.” They carefully monitor the products and offerings they introduce into their markets, and they iterate, introducing improvements based upon real customer feedback.
And now, let’s get really crazy. At the end of the eight years, reward demonstrated success with a payoff that promises the superintendent a degree of financial freedom for life. Some of the winners will choose to retire and enjoy life. Some will choose to move on to another school district and try to do the same thing there. Nobody, however, gets a second eight-year guarantee. Eight years and then it’s time to move on.
No doubt you can think of several reasons not to give a school superintendent this kind of offer. I’ll also admit that my perspective is probably a little naive, indicative of someone who is a risk-taking entrepreneur rather than a seasoned professional educator.
A Call for Real Climate Change
Does doing the same thing over and over again again, expecting different results, really make sense? Innovators do not accept the status quo. They challenge convention. Innovation requires risk. School superintendents can be innovative. But there needs to be a climate for innovation. We don’t appear to have the right climate right now, and we won’t if the stakeholders in a school district fail to acknowledge that climate change is their responsibility too. Make no bones about that.
Comments are welcome. Dissection is a two-way street.
David Brake is CEO of The Grandview Group, a technology company that helps organizations leverage the wisdom and insights of customers, prospects, and stakeholders using a life cycle review platform. His special area of practice is On-Demand Learning and qualitative Audience/Consumer research. He co-authored the first edition of an international best-selling book, The Social Media Bible (Wiley, 2009). When he’s not working he enjoys ultra-distance cycling.
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