This weekend I was listening to a podcast about parenting (I have six children ages 1 – 11, so parenting is always on my mind).  The conversation turned to what parents should do who feel overwhelmed or are struggling to be successful.  One of the suggestions of the parenting expert caught my attention – “don’t get caught up in the perfect or ideal, just start where you are and move forward from there.”  

That advice resonated with me as good advice for school leaders who are feeling overwhelmed about providing meaningful learning for our kids during the pandemic.  There are so many challenging variables, and so many unknown points, you simply have to ground yourself in what you know and can do, and then commit yourself to build on that as best as possible.  Parents, teachers, and administrators around the world are all facing the uncertainty as best they can.  

I recently participated in a conference call with school heads from all over Central and South America.  It was fascinating to hear the unique challenges each leader was facing, as well as note the common themes that emerged across schools, cities, and countries.  What I appreciated most about the conversation amongst these seasoned leaders was their ability to calmly but purposefully make decisions while simultaneously acknowledging the limitations of those decisions in the face of constantly shifting circumstances.  They weren’t frantic to solve problems over which they had little control. Instead, they were making thoughtful, rational decisions based on the data and circumstances at hand.  You can’t do more than that.  

I find little value in hand-wringing over things outside our control.  Just this weekend, on the eve of finally making the physical transition from the United States to Costa Rica – something we’ve been looking forward to for what seems like an eternity (in reality just under 8 months), we had to forfeit our plane tickets because a couple of our kids were showing some sickness symptoms.  Making the decision to call the board president early Sunday morning to inform that we’d have to postpone travel was really tough.  Yes, I was more than a little disappointed.  We’ve worked so hard to get our family of 8 all packed up and ready to go.  We had already sold our house, and just sold our mini-van.  As I usually do in the face of disappointment or setback, I was quiet and worked internally through my emotions and frustration, knowing I would bounce back soon.  That bouncing back always comes from a sense that I have the power and choice to move forward from where I find myself.  

Instead of choosing frustration, you have to find space for gratitude.  I’m incredibly grateful to be employed by an amazing school community at the Lincoln School.  It’s rather remarkable that I could be working for a school in Central America when I’m not physically able to be there.  I’m blessed to work with a school board that has been nothing but supportive of my transition – despite the hiccups.  I’ve had the chance to build new relationships and this week we welcome all of our staff back to launch the upcoming school year.  

And so, we start from where we are.  In my case, that means cloistered at my in-laws house, in a borrowed car, each member of our family living out of a single carry-on bag.  Certainly an adventure to be remembered.  

This morning, I welcomed new staff members to the Lincoln School community.  Of course some of them were spread all around the world – Austria, Malta, Costa Rica, the United States.  Personally, I was calling in from a hotel lobby in Boise, Idaho.  I don’t think any of us on the call would have anticipated an initial gathering like that.  Even those who are in Costa Rica are calling in from home.

Starting a new job under any circumstances can be both exciting and stressful.  Doing so this year, in the midst of a global pandemic, brings its own unique challenges.  I could sense that from those on the call – enthusiasm tempered by uncertainty and lots of questions – more than would be typical in starting a new job.  Honestly, we don’t have all of the answers.  We don’t know when some of them will be able to get to Costa Rica.  We don’t know when students will begin coming back to campus.

Of course I acknowledged the challenge of the moment, but then quickly pivoted to an invitation to embrace the opportunity of this moment to learn.  Each new teacher will have to forge meaningful relationships in a virtual context.  Each new teacher will have to design a powerful distance learning environment.  My invitation is embrace the opportunity to master new software, test out new instructional strategies, and design new strategies for virtual engagement.  Everyone will make mistakes and won’t get it right 100% of the time.  That entrepreneurial spirit to brainstorm solutions, test them out quickly, and then adapt and revise forward is exactly the type of approach to the world that we want our students and graduates to embrace.  We want students with flexible mindsets, creative problem solving, and a willingness to fail forward towards solutions with staying power.

I would never want to dismiss the very real feelings of anxiety and fear that can often accompany new jobs and overwhelming uncertainty.  I have had some of those feelings myself.  Yet, our students and communities need us to move forward with courage and determination, in spite of the obstacles.  We have a professional obligation to do the very best work of our lives, and chart a course forward on behalf of the young lives and minds in our care.    

When you read anything about organizational leadership and culture, the phrase “that’s how we have always done it” typically refers to resistance you face when trying to promote change and improvement.  It’s usually framed as a negative energy that keeps the organization from embracing much needed shifts in processes and practices.   We’re all experiencing the exact opposite of that organizational reality right now during COVID-19, which is that virtually none of “the way we have always done it” is going to work.  For a transformative leader, this is an extraordinarily exciting moment, when entire systems and workforces are primed for significant disruption.

There is certainly excitement to have a team primed to embrace change.  However, that same leader now faces two significant challenges.  First, you have to lead a design process for a context that is constantly shifting – literally the details change on a daily basis.  Second, you have to address the anxiety of constituents, clients, and stakeholders who have more questions than you possibly have answers. The dream scenario of redesigning the work is also the nightmare scenario of redesigning the work.  While there are no definitive answers in such a scenario, there are a few important considerations to keep in mind.

Design for multiple scenarios

Most organizations already know this, since those who rolled out definitive plans too quickly or too self-assuredly have had to go back to the drawing board when conditions changed.  Will we come back to campus?  What will it look like when we do?  What if we have to continue with distance learning for the foreseeable future?  Your plan needs to address each of these scenarios, and needs to entertain the possibility that things will continue to shift as time goes by.   

Your plan needs to be broad enough to outline what full distance-learning looks like, what a partial return would look like with social distancing measures in full force, and how you will transition between the two.  That’s actually 3 different scenarios.  In Santa Ana, for example, the #SAUSDForward team has been aligning their scenarios to the different status levels outlined by the state of California.  While the debate rages about what school return should look like, if at all, the team has a plan that speaks to multiple possible scenarios.

There is no single plan, only a process

Your plan cannot hope to address the infinite sets of contextual characteristics that you will encounter a week or a month from now.  Even if you could predict the nature of the pandemic and infection rates, you would be even more hard-pressed to predict peoples’ reaction and the political pressures that you will face.  There are too many variables to predict it exactly right.  Yet, many schools have put their faith in a “plan” that outlines what it will look like to return.  In some cases, schools put forward a plan too quickly, and have had to walk back from commitments and promises that were made previously.  On the other hand, some systems have failed to provide any written direction at all, and are losing faith with their communities.

Instead of putting hopes in a plan, school leaders would do well to commit their communities to a process for navigating our current reality.  Yes, you do actually need written plans, and those plans should be as inclusive as possible, addressing multiple possible scenarios.  But even more important than the plan should be the development of an ongoing process that has the ability to continually gather stakeholder input, consider expert recommendations and best practices, communicate decision points, and acknowledge gaps and areas for further research and communication.

Lots of honest communication

Even with an incredible plan that addresses multiple scenarios, and an inclusive, ongoing process to navigate the situation as it continues to unfold and develop, your leadership will be at stake if you don’t have a strong strategy for information management and communication – both internally with your team and more globally with all stakeholders.   It is very difficult to over-communicate in this type of environment, and it is critical for organizational leaders to remain visible and keep communicating.  That ongoing communication must include acknowledgments that there are and will be gaps as the situation unfolds.  You must embrace what Jim Collins referred to as the Stockdale Paradox (named after former VP candidate and Vietnam POW James Stockdale), that you must never confuse the need for faith that you will prevail in the end with the need to confront the brutal facts of your current reality.

If you hadn’t already, now is definitely the time to embrace multiple modes of communication.  E-mail campaigns, phone blasts, social media posts, video feeds, formal letters and planning documents all play a role.  The communication campaign provides an excellent venue for leaders to engage and stay close to those they have the responsibility to serve.

Use visuals

You have too much information to communicate.  Your comprehensive plan is too dense and your planning process too rigorous to easily communicate in narrative format.  You need some good visuals.  A good graphic designer has the ability to take complicated ideas and transform them into intuitive visuals that are easy to understand and digest.  In addition to communicating complex ideas, quality visuals have the added bonus of suggesting that there are competent people guiding the ship.  It reinforces the idea that you team is not being overly reactive but is able to be pro-active and deliberate, even in the midst of a crisis.  In education, graphic design is unfortunately often seen as a luxury.  Yet education is perhaps one of the industries where clarity of thought and communication are of most importance.  In other words, don’t cut the graphic design budget.

This weekend, I listened to a short podcast with Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Deborah Jewell-Sherman about leading schools in a crisis.  I thought she did a beautiful job summing up the current experience of school leaders: “this is the adaptive challenge of a lifetime.”  Her words and reflection were incredibly supportive of school leaders, both acknowledging the incredible challenge of the moment, and recognizing that decisions and solutions change on a daily basis as state and local health guidance is constantly changing.

I especially liked two things that Dr. Jewell-Sherman emphasized in her podcast.  First, was that despite the very real difficulties, leaders must step up to the challenge.  Yes, the levels of uncertainty are unprecedented.  Yes, the planning and logistics and communications are constant and potentially overwhelming.  Yet these are precisely the moments when leadership is most needed.  The fact that it is hard or tiring is no excuse for the leader.  There is no space to feel sorry for yourself and give in to your own personal feelings of doubt or uncertainty.  Of course it is okay to acknowledge you don’t have all of the answers and that plans are constantly evolving.  In fact, you absolutely should be communicating those things.  But as the leader, you don’t get to throw your hands up in frustration.  You are the leader to reassure, encourage, and remind your team that you will weather the storm together, no matter the challenges.

The other part of Dr. Jewell-Sherman’s interview that felt right on point to me was her use the 4-Frame model of leadership from Bolman and Deal’s book Reframing Organizations to make sense of the current crisis.  Bolman’s & Deal’s work is now several decades old, but my own experience nagivating the COVID crisis as a school leader has reinforced their perspective.  Basically, they argue that the work of school leadership falls within 4 large categories, or “frames” as they refer to them: structural, political, human resources, and symbolic.  The structural frame refers to all of the logistical decisions that define the work – daily class schedules, delivery timelines, food distribution protocols, etc.  The political frame refers to the pressures and decisions that come from the different perspectives, sources of influence and formal authority of stakeholders, including policymakers and elected officials.  The human resource frame addresses all of the systems and decisions related to the people who work in the system; how to build their capacity to carry out the work, coordinate their activities and work assignments, and address problems and conflicts as they arise.  Finally the symbolic frame refers to the work of leaders to provide stability and and a shared sense of purpose, encouraging staff and students to continue to move forward in pursuit of a shared vision.

The essential nature of each of the frames has been evident to me in my own work as a education leader during the time of the pandemic.  Each complex issues has implications across the  different frames.  When we are designing school schedules for August re-opening, for example, all of the frames come into play.  What should the structural schedules, safety protocols, room arrangements, etc.  look like?  What are the prevailing political pressures and expectations for what school should look like coming from our parents, families, and school board?  How will we ensure our staff is trained and has the capacity to provide high quality learning – regardless of the different structural scenarios.  Finally, how do I, as the leader of the organization, ensure that my team feels inspired to provide a meaningful learning experience to students, while also communicating that we are mindful of their welfare and safety as employees?

I think Dr. Jewell-Sherman’s advice was a good reminder that in a crisis, leaders have to step up their game, and make sure that they attend to all of the needs of the organization.  While it certainly won’t be and hasn’t been easy, that is the work we must move forward.  It will be interesting to look back at sometime in the future to determine whether she was right that COVID-19 was the defining leadership challenge of our professional lives.