At the very time that technology allows a single user to broadcast synchronous and asynchronous learning options at a countless number of students simultaneously, I find it interesting how small group instruction is becoming increasingly important.  Our preschool teachers, for example, have broken their teaching blocks into smaller groups.  Instead of having 20 students in a classroom setting simultaneously, they spend 20 minutes with smaller groups of 6-7.  It’s the equivalent of digital centers.  

Two of my own children, a set of twins in prepa (in Costa Rica it’s the grade level just prior to 1^st grade), have been the benficiaries of this approach.  Having the smaller groups allows the teacher to more directly and individually engage with students in a synchromous learning setting.  My kids are talking and conversing back with the teacher and other students with much greater frequency.  Plus, by dividing screen time into shorter 20 minute segments, my little people are only on-screen for 1 hr – 1.5 hrs each day, which makes me feel much better as a parent who is concerned about the heightened screen time all of our kids are experiencing during distance learning.  

Of course small groups get exponentially more challenging at the secondary level, where groups of students cycle through classrooms period after period.  For schools on a straight set of six or seven daily classes, 25 students in a classroom quickly equates to well over 100 students on a daily basis.  Even for schools on a block schedule where daily loads are cut by a third or more, finding structures to accommodate small groups can be a challenge.  A lot of our teachers are finding success with office hours and flex schedules one day a week to allow for small group instruction to focus on students who may be struggling with the material.  These more flexible blocks of time allow students the opportunity to sign up for additional support and instruction.  The benefit of distance learning is that teacher help is no further away than a text message or phone call during specified time blocks.  

I’m curious to see how other teachers are leveraging the digital environment to incorporate more small group instruction into their day to day teaching.  While some platforms allow for breakout groups and small groups within the same class, I have not seen that being used as much on a class to class basis.  Part of that reason I believe has to do with limitations of software.  While Zoom, for example, has always allowed for breakout groups on their platform, some of the other platforms like Google Meet and Teams have been slower to adopt the feature.  In some cases, it felt like teachers had to choose between enhanced software features and the safety concerns that were inherent in using Zoom – especially during the first weeks and months of physical school closures.  Hopefully with time as safety features and small group breakout options both become stronger on the software side, teachers will become increasingly familiar and comfortable using them.  

2020 represents a stunning shift in educational practices and expectations around the world.  We will have to wait to see what the long term impact of COVID-19 will be on our education systems at a large scale, and whether those shifts are wholly positive or negative.  While only time will reveal the collective impact on the education of our kids, we all have plenty of evidence at the personal and local level that the disruption has been significant.  

Within just my family – a family of teachers – the impacts have been felt in interesting ways.  My younger sister, who lives in rural New England and who left regular employment as a classroom-based Waldorf teacher a couple of years ago in order to take care of a newborn, decided to launch a distance learning Waldorf classroom.  She teaches over a dozen students virtually from all around the United States and the world.  Suddenly, geographic distance is no longer a barrier.  While the demands of balancing family and professional life have not gone away, the fact that my sister can stay at home and work as a “classroom teacher” has been a game-changer allowing her back into the profession in a truly unexpected manner.  

My older sister too has “returned to the classroom” this year.  Her last foray as a public school teacher was literally 20 years ago, when she too left as a young mother.  When she returned to full-time work several years ago, it was in the private sector, developing music curriculum and organizing private music education for small groups of students as an after-school enrichment activity.  The pandemic and consequent restructuring of her work led her back into the public sector, where she is loving her new role as an elementary music and art teacher, albeit at a distance.  Suddenly, her days are filled by preparing standards-aligned instruction and popping from classroom to classroom, all from her living room.  

My mom, who went back to school about 10 years ago to receive her bachelor’s in education and continue her own journey as a licensed Waldorf kindergarten teacher, has been making the transition from in-person classes to distance learning.  Those with young children (or who teach young children) know that the pandemic has been especially hard for our youngest learners, for whom distance learning simply is not the ideal.  Yet, despite the challenges, my mom has been eagerly and tirelessly finding ways to connect to her young students.  Distance learning has forced my mom, and millions of other regular classroom teachers, to rethink how they structure their classroom, connect with students, and create opportunities for meaningful and powerful learning.      

One of the strangest professional experiences for me has been transitioning to a new leaderhip role in the depths of the pandemic.  For 7 weeks, I found myself leading an international school in Costa Rica while on the road all across the Western United States, doing my best to balance the logistics of traveling with a family of 8, and focusing on building new relationships with my new school community.  We thankfully received special permission to make the trip to Costa Rica, thanks in large part to the herculean effort of our school board and staff.  Yet even so, we remain in quarantine until the end of this week, and nearly a month into the school year, I still have yet to physically step foot on our campus.  

7 months ago, things looked very different for the educators of the Allen family.  What a strange, challenging, and sometimes even exciting world we seem to be living in.  

Educators have always known how critical it is to deeply involve parents and families in the education of children.  Whether it was our board president in Santa Ana reminding us all that “parents are our secret sauce,” or the common refrain amongst educators that “parents are students’ first teachers,” there is a common understanding that parent involvement is critical to the educational process of our students.  Yet in the context of a busy school year, parent engagement can creep down the list of priorities.    

The pandemic has brought parents back into the equation in a powerful way.  Of course many parents, myself included, have felt overwhelmed at times with the amount of attention and time required to support the learning of our own kids – especially for our youngest learners, for whom distance learning can pose a real challenge.  Yet despite the challenges, parents around the world have been invited to be involved in new and powerful ways. 

For example, at the Lincoln School, our preschool and elementary teachers have held individualized meetings with every student and family during the week leading up to the first day of school.  This personalized attention gave students the opportunity to introduce family members (and pets) to the teacher, show them their personal work spaces, and strengthen the teacher/student relationship.  While new students at the school have always enjoyed a personal evaluation and intake interview, this year was the first year that every student and parent had the chance to connect individually with their teacher. 

Similarly, Lincoln has offered a number of virtual parent orientation meetings and welcome back to school events during the weeks leading up to school starting.  While these types of meetings had been offered in past years at the school, staff unanimously reported that attendance at the virtual meetings was much higher than it had been for in-person events in past years.  One of our directors commented that even when physical classes resume, she plans to continue with virtual parent meeting options to make it easier for some parents to participate.

Most importantly, when students are learning at home, teachers become increasingly dependent on parents to provide structure and support for the learning.  In this sense, schools have finally come to see parents as full partners in the successful learning of our students.  We increasingly rely on parents for feedback about the effectiveness of our distance learning efforts.  At Lincoln, for example, our preschool and kindergarten parents shared a number of concerns about how school was structured during the previous semester, and offered suggestions for how it could be more successful.  We listened, and the dialogue has led to improvements. 

Undoubtedly, as we navigate another semester of distance learning together, the two-way dialogue will be critical for ensuring that we are reaching every student.  Of course, we will make mistakes.  Both parenting and teaching are deeply human endeavors that require constant reflection and renewed efforts to try again.   While the challenges are very real – for both parents and educators – there perhaps has never been a stronger shared commitment to work together to make the best of it for the benefit of our kids. 

Our leadership theme at Lincoln School for the 2020-21 school year is #LeadingForward.  The idea came from members of the team who were trying to capture the idea that we cannot wait around for life to normalize.  As we have all experienced, life goes on, even in the midst of a pandemic.  Instead of focusing intently and solely on “coming back” and “returning to normal,” we are encouraging one another and our students to consider ways that we can move forward in the current context with purpose.  

Even before the pandemic hit, Lincoln was in the midst of a transformation.  The school has been busy integrating concepts of entreprenuerial thinking and social innovation across the curriculum, from preschool to seniors.  These concepts draw on Babson College’s principles of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action, which equip students to identify problems around them, deepen their understanding of these problems, and then engage in a design process to develop creative solutions to address the challenges.  #LeadingForward means continuing to encourage students to test out these emerging skills.  

A perfect example of that is in students’ Creativity, Advocacy, & Service (CAS) projects.  CAS is a well-known element of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, and requires each student during their junior and senior year to provide evidence of their efforts to make meaningful contributions to the society around them.  Many, if not most, of students’ CAS projects have come in the way of volunteering time and service hours.  Many of the traditional modes of service and volunteering are not currently available.  This will require students to ask themselves some new questions – how can I make a contribution given the current situation?  What skills do I already have or will I need to develop in order to make a contribution?  How can I create value for organizations and initiatives that are struggling themselves to carry out their services during a pandemic?  None of these questions have easy answers, just as our current life situation does not have easy solutions.  #LeadingForward means applying the best of our creative and generative minds to create value in the lives of people around us.  

I think #LeadingForward also means enthusiastically learning new skills.  The entire education profession is currently experiencing a quantum leap forward in terms of equipping teachers and staff with new pedagogical tools and skills.  Of course, this is not to say that virtual learning and its related strategies are always the best learning option under any circumstances or conditions.  Ask anyone with a preschool student and they will quickly remind you otherwise.  Yet even with the limitations of the virtual environment, professional educators are learning in powerful new ways, borne out of the necessity of a pandemic.  Here again, we see the application of entrepreneurial thinking and mindsets, as teachers identify challenges in how the connect with students, deliver instruction, and encourage new learning.  Learning new software platforms is a good start, but perhaps falls short of rethinking pedagogy and designing creative solutions.  I’ve seen teacher teams develop new norms for small group instruction, student collaboration, curriculum development, and blending of synchronous and asynchronous learning.  Feedback from our parents, for example, inspired our preschool teachers to develop new schedules, with shorter teleconference chunks for checking-in and providing workshop lessons, followed by more frequent gaps for students to play and explore.  

#LeadingForward also means insisting on new ways to balance work, life, and study.  I imagine we have all felt the encroachment of the digital environment on our day to day lives and work calendars.  As leaders, we have to take ownership of those calendars and be deliberate in our daily practices, reminding ourselves daily to unplug and turn off the noise.  We need to find opportunities to get outside, medidate, & pray.  We need to encourage those around us to do the same.  I always greatly appreciated when our superintendent in Santa Ana, Jerry Almendarez, would remind the leadership team to take care of themselves.  Of course we all know we need to take care of ourselves, but when an organizational leader or a teacher reminds us to do it, it’s easier to give ourselves permission to actually do it.  

Above all, #LeadingForward is about adopting a curious and optimistic mindset, one that chooses to find solutions and new opportunities in the midst of life’s very real challenges.  All of us have choices to make, psychological choices, about how we will react and move through the uncertainty.  Of course, we don’t make light of the very real challenges and loss so many people around the world are facing – especially the most economically and socially vulnerable.  Yet, with privilege comes responsibility, and it is perhaps especially during a crisis when we must act on what is within our control to make life better for others.  

First thing this morning, at 6:50 am Pacific time, I joined with nearly 500 high school students for the opening session of the 2020-21 school year.  For the first time in my professional life, I spent the first day of school at home.  Okay, to be honest, it’s not even technically home.  I’m at my in-laws house waiting to make the physical move to Costa Rica later this month.  Regardless, I wasn’t at school, and for an educator, that’s an unheard of way to start the year.  I’m sure our students felt similarly out of place, dressed in their school uniform shirts, planted in front of a computer screen in their living rooms.  Not exactly the way they envisioned beginning this year of high school.  

Yet despite the physical distance, I could sense an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm to be back together.  There is something about the start of a school year that transcends the current pandemic.  It is one of those human experiences, shared across the globe, that simply has to go on.  While the mechanism for bringing our students and teachers together has changed, there was still excitement and anticipation to reconnect.  

At my house, my own kids are gearing up for a new school year with anticipation.  Last night, I sat with my 11 year old daughter, who will be starting middle school.  I was helping her get the apps downloaded and tech set-up to access her orientation sessions and classes. She was excited to preview her schedule and see how she would access all of her courses.  Then, she noticed a classmate had sent her a message – a simple introduction and invitation to connect.  She was elated.  Her first comment to her younger brother was that school hadn’t even started and she had made a new friend.  Her excitement for a new school year with new possibilities was palpable.  

I’ve similarly watched behind the scenes as our staff at Lincoln has been working hard to prepare for the launch of school.  They have participated in countless teleconference calls, distance learning & software Q&A sessions, and asyncronous workshop sessions, all in the spirit of improving their ability to engage students virtually.  Great teachers thrive off of the energy of students, and our staff has been seeking out ways to better connect with our students, recognizing that the foundation of powerful and personalized learning is always quality relationships.  

I guess setting out from the shore into turbulent waters has always been an exciting but nervous endeavor for us human beings.  You could see that mix of emotions this morning in our students’ and staff’s faces.  The prevailing sentiment of the meeting was an acknowledgement that yes, this is a strange way to start a school year, but also a commitment to give it our best.  I appreciated the comment made by Scott Garren, our high school principal, that we will all have to be a little more forgiving of one another as we navigate the highly uncertain but certainly memorable waters of 2020-21.  

Yes, school is about academic training and the development of skills and abilities.  But it is also about our very human need to connect to others, build friendships, and experience life together.  Our back to school meeting this morning was a powerful reminder, especially during a pandemic, that we need school.  

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.

Towards the end of March, I sent Jerry Almendarez, the recently appointed superintendent of Santa Ana Unified and my most recent boss, a text.  Basically, in less than three months on the job, he had already had to address a nearly 50 million dollar projected budget deficit, inherited some contentious charter litigation, and now was facing the COVID-19 pandemic and historic physical closure of schools (as close a scenario to a zombie apocalypse as I could imagine).   My text was basically a thank you for stepping up to what might be the leadership challenge of a lifetime.

While my time with Jerry was short, just under 6 months, his impact on my leadership development has been formative.  I try to live life with as few regrets as possible, but I have to admit that I am genuinely sad that I didn’t have a little more time to work with and learn from Jerry.  Here is my attempt to capture just a few of the most important lessons Jerry has taught me during our time working together.

Personal & Authentic

Yes, it’s the title of a book by author Tom Murray that Jerry invited us all recently to read together.  It also reflects Jerry’s desire for all of the employees in SAUSD to invest time and energy into developing caring relationships with the students and families we serve.  It’s a reminder that education is much more than just academic skills – it is about supporting our children across all aspects of their development.  It is a reminder that each student has a story, and that it is incumbent upon us as educators to learn those stories, validate them, and build on them in meaningful, personalized ways.

Jerry’s invitation to be more personal and authentic in our work as educators resonates even more deeply as he is a superintendent who strives to model personal connection in his own leadership practices.   Whether he is making time to attend senior exit interviews, joining school site staff meetings to say hello, sending an unexpected text of encouragement, or personally hosting a book club with teachers & classified staff, Jerry prioritizes time to connect and build relationships.

Lead Learner

Jerry is a leader who is open about what he doesn’t know and his need to keep learning.  Education administrators are notorious for their desire to always have the right answers and perfect solutions.  “Expertise” is the sometimes damaging currency of education leadership.  Admitting you don’t yet have the immediate answer or that you will have to rely on others to help develop a strong solution is often the first step in drawing more out of your team.  Instead of taking it all on your shoulders as the leader, you distribute responsibility and ownership of the problem by being honest about where you will need help.  Indeed, at the heart of the learning organization is a recognition that you are being asked to do things that you don’t yet have the capacity or skill to do.

As the “lead learner” Jerry is fearless in calling on members of the organization to step up their efforts to learn and grow.   He models what it means to collaborate with and rely on one another to address complex challenges.  I have been in many management team meetings where Jerry or other team members have identified a gap in our current operations or knowledge set, only to be immediately followed by a collective invitation to build capacity in that area.  Jerry embraces his need to learn and address gaps in his own leadership practice, just as he expects everyone in the organization to do the same.  Even before COVID-19 hit, virtually every conversation or cabinet meeting with Jerry included a reminder that what matters most is investing in the development and improvement of each member of the SAUSD team.

Centeredness

Back when I worked for Envision Education, we did some work with the McKinsey consulting group on leadership development.  They introduced the idea of “centeredness” as the most foundational of leadership skills.  Essentially, “centered leadership” was the term they used to describe a leader who is secure in his or her abilities, focused on the things that matter most, unruffled by the inevitable but temporary ups and downs of daily leadership and crisis management, and aware that life is more than just our professional work and identity.

Jerry strikes me as falling in this category.  His years of experience in demanding leadership positions have tempered and weathered him well to address challenges without taking setbacks or disagreements personally.  His isn’t reactionary, and he finds opportunities for personal connection and humor in the midst of crisis.  He knows when he needs to engage more intensely, but is willing to let us know when a personal matter requires his more immediate attention.

Centeredness is about realizing that in any situation, we have choices to make as the leader.  As opposed to being a victim, the centered leader chooses to chart a deliberate path forward.  When a centered leader makes mistakes, they don’t try to hide it.  For example, when someone pointed out to Jerry in a meeting that his demeanor in a recent board meeting had seemed flat, instead of being defensive or dismissive about the observation, Jerry acknowledged and then laughed about it.  Turns out it really had been a long day and he and the Board had worked through a lot of challenging issues together.  That’s what leaders do.  Jerry was secure enough in his leadership not to get stuck because he had a down moment.