What Do the Words on Your Wall Say?
Today I want to talk about culture. Of course, I do. It is something I am passionate about and something I love to observe and study. But what is culture? Roland Barth in his book, Improving Schools from Within, defines culture as a complex pattern of norms, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, values, ceremonies, traditions, and myths that are deeply ingrained in the very core of the organization. Countless times, throughout the course of my career, I found myself entrenched in disputes among staff, addressing disgruntled parents, and dealing with behaviors that would leave me frustrated and exhausted and quite frankly, often disappointed. The more I dealt with these situations, the more I began to identify culture as one thing – behavior.
I learned that I simply had to look around and watch how people were behaving and that defined our true culture. The words that adorned the walls of my school, the marquee, our literature, our vision, mission, and belief statements, none of that mattered. All I had to do was look around and watch how the adults in the building behaved and that said all I needed to know; we had a lot of work to do.
In my work with schools today, I often hear complaints from the administration about staff members who frustrate them for a variety of reasons. If I had to narrow it down to a couple of reasons, I would say, 1. those who are negative and influence others in a negative way and 2. those who are ineffective, unable to perform at the level we need them to perform and because they can’t it hurts us and by us, I mean mostly students.
Let’s face it. Most of us have that one staff member in our school, you know, the one that should have retired five years ago that we love to complain about. Sure, these individuals can frustrate us to the point that we don’t know what to do with them, except slap a label on them. I believe this to be true because I am speaking from personal experience. I am actually talking about me right now. Yes, frustrated with adults because I couldn’t understand why they chose to work in schools and yet, didn’t love kids. And that got me sideways. Sideways to the point that I could only see what I wanted to see and failed to see what I should have seen – that when it comes to school leadership, people will behave however we allow them to behave.
And that is how I eventually landed on the definition that culture is behavior. It doesn’t matter what the words on the walls say unless our behavior reflects those words. Kindness matters? Well, then I want to see kindness everywhere when I walk around a campus. Most of us have experienced at one time or another adults not being so kind, but yet that banner continues to hang on the walls, and over time we lose credibility as leaders which eventually impacts the morale of our school in a negative way.
Examine the core values of your organization and now ask yourself, “Are the adults living out those values on a day-to-day basis, or are we still pretending?” What I learned the hard way is when we did not, it hurt my credibility as a leader. Imagine standing in an auditorium before a group of parents at the start of the school year and telling them we value them, need their help, and want to partner with them. But then we experience a few parents that we quite don’t get along with and tag them with a label, call them difficult or crazy based on our interactions with them, and then do our best to avoid them like the plague. I have never seen a mission statement that says we commit to partnering with parents or we value family engagement unless you are a nut job! Doesn’t happen. But then look at some of our behaviors by listening to the words of staff who refuse to call parents or give them an eye roll when they walk into the main office.
Let’s go back to the Interview Chair for a moment. In that chair, we told the hiring committee that we needed the support of our parents, that we saw it as a partnership, and that we needed their help. We said things like parents send us their best children. Parents do the best they know how. We shared how we learned over time to establish a connection with parents prior to an incident happening in our classrooms or school so that their first interaction with us wasn’t us calling them to tell them their child was in trouble or failing a class. I think this is how we envisioned it, but then over time, we lose our way.
After losing my way and experiencing years of frustration and disappointment, I decided to take a hard look at myself. With the help of a leadership coach and a few wonderful wise mentors, I began to reflect on my own behavior and how I was contributing to these experiences. The truth was I was allowing these behaviors to continue, which eventually turned into bigger issues that would eventually land on my desk. Not all issues dealt with conflict, but our culture was still impacted by our behaviors and we needed to understand that impact with greater clarity. Here are three areas that school and district leaders can examine today.
1. Assess Your Current Reality:
a. How do you welcome new staff into your school? How do the adults manage student discipline? How do you partner with parents? How does staff work collaboratively to support one another?
2. Process for Change:
a. Have you clearly defined your vision? Are your expectations clear? Have you worked with staff to identify and define your core values as a school? How do you respond when adults violate these core agreements? What process do you have in place to give all staff a voice in decisions that impact the organization? How do you respond to those who refuse to change?
3. Model Expectations:
a. Is the administration behaving in the way we expect students and staff to behave? When you see behaviors that frustrate you, do you start from a point of curiosity? Are you teaching rather than evaluating? Does the way you interact with others reflect kindness, respect, and compassion at all times?
What I eventually learned is that I could not control others, but I could manage my own behavior, and in doing so, I began to see improved results. Not perfect results, but better results. We are all susceptible to falling short of expectations and I believe that people should be able to have an opportunity to rebound from those missteps. I continue to be reminded of the words from Ted Lasso – “I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the action of our weakest moments, but rather by the strength we show when and if we’re ever given a second chance.”
I am all for second chances when it comes to adult behavior, but I also believe that we must all be held to a high standard when it comes to our behavior when the commodity that we are working with is students. We simply cannot risk the negative impact on our culture by allowing adults to behave in ways that do not align with the words on the wall. If we elect to do so, then I think we should take the signs down before we lose all credibility.
My friends, it is time to recalibrate.
Are you curious about the state of your current culture? Let J Casas and Associates assist you by doing a complete assessment of your building or campus culture. Here is a small sample of what you will receive when you partner with us to help you lift up the morale of your building and impact your overall culture in a positive way. Contact us today at info@jcasasandassociates. com for a FREE session to behave your way to excellence!
