Without knowing how to lead effective school change, you won’t be able to create a resilient educational community, improve student outcomes, or support staff through transitions. Instead, you will continue to face resistance, experience high levels of stress, and see little progress in school initiatives.
You’re in the right place! This proven, 5-step process can help you lead effective school change, and it is based on my research and experience over the past 15 years.
We’ll cover everything from assessing your current situation to sustaining change over time. I’ll also give you some things to look out for along the way, mistakes I made before I worked out this system, and ones I still see other school leaders making.
Just follow the steps, and by the time you finish Step 5, you’ll feel like a pro and enjoy a more cohesive school environment and greater success in your change initiatives.
Ready? Let’s go!
Step #1: Assess Your Current Situation
Before you can plan and implement changes, you’ll want to take your time with this critical first step.
So, the first thing you need to do is assess your current situation and clearly understand the reality you have now. You need to have this baseline information so you know where you’re starting from.
Then you can use the needs assessment process to guide your path of continuous improvement by prioritizing change initiatives.
- Conduct a needs assessment. Gather data on various aspects of your school’s performance, including academic outcomes, staff satisfaction, and student well-being.
- Engage stakeholders. Talk to teachers, students, parents, and staff to get their perspectives on what is working well and what needs improvement.
- Identify strengths and weaknesses. Analyze the data and feedback to pinpoint areas that require change and those that can serve as a foundation for future improvements.
For example:
Suppose you find that student engagement is low and absenteeism is high. You might also discover that teachers feel unsupported with their current workload. These insights will help you identify specific areas to focus on during the change process.
What to look out for:
Many people skip this foundational step and then wonder why they’re not seeing the desired results. Don’t let that be you!
This is a crucial foundational step that will set you up for success later on. And each step is a building block for the next, so don’t even try to jump ahead! 🙂
You’ll also want to consider the “change readiness” of your school. If you have high resistance, or have been doing a lot of changes, or are not seeing sustained results from past change, these can all be red flags that you have some work to do to prepare the school community to successfully engage in more change.
Don’t ignore these warning signs, because they can derail your change plans. As you work on Step 2, you can incorporate strategies to help everyone feel more ready for and capable of making the changes.
All done? Great job! Let’s move on to Step 2.
Step #2: Develop a Clear Vision and Plan
At this point, you’re probably thinking that developing a comprehensive change plan is too hard or too confusing..
You may even be wondering, “Where do I start with creating a plan for change?”
If you hang in there, it will get easier, promise. What we’re doing is pulling this all together into a cohesive change management strategy.
One thing that may help is to write down your vision and objectives.
Now it’s time to develop a clear vision and plan.
- Define your vision. Clearly articulate what you want to achieve with the school change. This vision should be specific, achievable, and aligned with your school’s overall mission. And it should incorporate the feedback you received from stakeholders in step 1, so people feel like their needs were heard and incorporated.
- Set SMART goals. Break down your vision into Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound objectives. These are the outcomes you want to achieve as a result of your change initiative.
- Create an action plan. Outline the steps needed to achieve each of the goals. Break these down into manageable chunks, with specific activities assigned to responsible parties and with clear timelines for accomplishment.
Example:
If your vision is to improve student engagement, a SMART goal might be to increase student participation in after-school programs by 20% within the next academic year. Your action plan could include steps like surveying students for their interests, introducing new clubs, and promoting these programs through various channels.
The reason this step is important is that it will help you achieve clear milestones and make it easier to organize all your efforts. .
Plus, you’ll have a systematic process for implementing school change that will ensure you stay on track and achieve your goals.
Here are some tips to help you move through this step quickly:
- Collaborate with stakeholders. Involve teachers, parents, and students in the planning process to gain their buy-in and insights. This is critical! Successful change is the result of many people all working together toward a shared vision for the future.
- Use data to drive decisions. Base your goals and action plan on the data collected during the needs assessment. If you are not addressing some of the needs that arose from the needs assessment, clearly communicate back to stakeholders why, and why the final goals are helping to meet the stated needs.
- Communicate clearly and often. Ensure everyone understands the vision, goals, and their roles in the change process. Communication is the most cited issue during school change. Leaders often think they are communicating a lot, but stakeholders often feel left in the dark. Communicate WAY more than you think you need to, and in multiple formats.
What to look out for:
When I first started trying to lead school change, I didn’t develop a clear vision and plan.
I’ve also had the opportunity to peek under the hood at other school leaders’ change efforts. And in the process, I’ve seen common mistakes people make that hold them back from leading effective school change.
Many of them relate to this step:
- Lack of specific goals. Instead of setting vague objectives, you should define clear, actionable goals.
- Poor communication. You’ll get better results if you communicate your vision and plan effectively (a lot and in multiple modalities) to all stakeholders.
- Overlooking stakeholder input. If you find it hard to involve everyone, try forming focus groups or committees to gather diverse perspectives.
Just keep focusing on what works best for your school and you’ll be on the right track.
Step #3: Build a Supportive Team
Are you starting to get excited? I hope so. We’re just about there.
You may be feeling a bit overwhelmed, and that’s perfectly normal. Any time you’re trying something new, it takes a minute to process it. Just be patient and stay with it.
Next, build your supportive team.
- Identify change champions. Select individuals who are influential, enthusiastic about the change, and have the skills to drive the initiative forward.
- Assign roles and responsibilities. Clearly define what each team member is responsible for and how they will contribute to the change process.
- Provide training and support. Ensure your team has the necessary training and resources to implement the change effectively.
While you’re doing this, make a note of the skills and expertise each team member brings to the table.
This is important because leveraging these strengths will make the change process smoother and more effective. Also note who may not be represented yet at the table, and then recruit additional team members to ensure all stakeholder groups are well-represented.
Make any adjustments you need to make before you move on.
For example:
When assembling your team, you might include teachers who have successfully implemented new teaching methods, administrators with strong organizational skills, and students who can provide peer perspectives.
If you want, you can download my PLC Starter Toolkit. I created it to help teachers create effective PLCs but it has a lot of important principles and templates that apply to school change as well!
Click the image to download the PLC Starter Toolkit so you can get started.
What to look out for:
It may be hard to zero in on the specific skills needed for your school change team.
What you can do is prioritize individuals who are not only skilled but also passionate about the change and committed to seeing it through. Bonus points if these are people who challenge your thinking, as this helps make the change plan even stronger!
Step #4: Implement and Monitor the School Change
We’re just about done. There are just two more steps.
Here’s what to do next:
Launch the change initiative. Begin implementing the changes according to your action plan.
Be sure to keep up regular communication. Are you seeing this theme throughout all the steps? That is because communication makes or breaks a change effort. When people don’t understand the change vision or action plan, or they don’t see how the change benefits them or what they are supposed to do during the change, it derails your best-laid plans. So communicate, communicate, communicate!
Monitor the progress of the school change with data and feedback from stakeholders. This will help you track the implementation process and measure success.
Here are some success tips:
- Flexibility: Be prepared to make adjustments based on what’s working and what’s not.
- Documentation: Keep detailed records of the implementation process to evaluate and refine your strategies. This can also help you with future change initiatives, as you can replicate what worked well.
- Feedback Loops: Create channels for ongoing feedback from teachers, students, and parents to continuously refine and improve the change initiative.
What to look out for:
No matter what you do, don’t rush through the implementation phase.
If you do, you’ll only risk missing critical details that could jeopardize the success of your change initiative. So just take your time and focus on getting it right. As the saying goes, “Measure twice, cut once”.
Keep going! You’re nearly there.
Step #5: Sustain the Change
This is the last step. Get ready to celebrate!
Ensure the new practices become part of the school’s culture by incorporating them into policies, procedures, and daily routines.
Continue to provide support and resources to staff to maintain the changes. And maintain your own excitement and dedication to the school change. Leader support and advocacy are one of the biggest indicators for sustained, successful change.
Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the changes (has it had the intended impact?) and make adjustments as needed to maintain the momentum and ensure long-term success.
Here’s how to get the best results with this:
- Celebrate successes! Recognize and celebrate milestones and successes along the way to maintain momentum and morale.
- Focus on continuous improvement. Create a culture of continuous improvement where feedback is used to make ongoing enhancements.
- Plan for the long-term. Develop long-term plans to ensure that the changes are sustainable and continue to benefit the school community.
What to look out for:
The first time I tried to sustain a change initiative, I completely left out community input. Fortunately, the parent advisory council called me on it early in the process. We quickly ramped up a feedback process through parent focus groups, and added a parent to the implementation team.
And you know what? It actually worked out.
I realized the importance of having diverse representation at the table from the beginning. The biggest lesson for me in all that was to set up those feedback loops and check in regularly with my various stakeholder groups.
It just shows you the importance of engagement in the process of leading effective school change. So more than anything else, take the time to find out what works for your school community.
Bonus! Foster a Resilient School Community
And finally, here’s a Bonus Tip just for you!
This is something I started doing after years of trial and error, and it has really helped me implement successful school change.
Encourage open communication and collaboration across all stakeholders. Sometimes we get into an “us vs. them” mentality, which actually harms our school culture and our students. Creating a supportive environment where everyone feels heard, especially students and families, helps build a shared vision toward change.
And when changes are necessary, everyone is more resilient in the face of having to adapt to school change because they trust each other and know they will be an integral part of the process.
Key Takeaways
Congratulations! You just learned how to lead effective school change. Follow the steps above to create a cohesive school environment and greater success in your change initiatives, instead of facing resistance and seeing little progress.
I’ve given you all my best tips, tools, and techniques to help ensure your success. Just knowing them isn’t enough, though. It’s time to act and get the results you’ve been dreaming about!
Click the image to download the PLC Starter Toolkit now so you can get started >>
Now, over to you. Have you tried any of these steps? Let me know how it worked out in the comments.
