Never Waste a Crisis!

As school leaders, almost every day we deal with a crisis. Many times they are minor. For example: a parent is upset about something. On other, more rare occasions they could be called major and then you have the once in a lifetime occasions where the crisis that needs dealing with is ginormous, for example a global pandemic. The ideal state for any school leader is one of proactiveness. In doing so, you stand a greater chance of ‘getting in front’ of the challenge/crisis, by cutting it off or turning it around. By that I mean altering its course and potentially turning it into a positive occurrence. The very best of us can see the challenge as an opportunity and then have the right mindset and skills to design innovative solutions moving the school forward. Again, that’s the ideal.

Due to the nature of the job, the unfortunate reality most of us leaders find ourselves in is being reactionary. We are reacting to the challenge and often “Putting Out Fires!”

In the face of the biggest crisis in recent memory I chose to continue my thinking from ‘the reality’ to ‘the ideal.’ Over these last 18 unprecedented months, I developed a mantra which I have enjoyed saying to people.

“Never waste a crisis!”

I get many puzzled looks and am often asked the question, “What are you talking about?”

My simple answer is that, regardless of how ‘bad’ the consequences attributed to the crisis might be, it also presents you with great opportunities. The challenge is being able to see those opportunities and take advantage of them. Seeing things we could not previously see requires a mindset shift or new world view, and that takes lots of hard work and practice. A new mindset can also be understood as a new way of thinking.

On day one of the Covid Crisis, I was already thinking about looking for new opportunities that might present themselves. Don’t get me wrong; I was still dealing with the day to day fall out, the minutiae of schooling that was changing day by day. This is thankless work that all school leaders have had to just grind through every day. It can be tiresome and thankless work, but it’s important work. The challenge I found was to not fall into the trap so many of us often find ourselves in. In the face of complex, large challenges we often turn on the tunnel vision mode. It’s a mode we know how to work within and we often do it just to survive.

The schools that have not only survived in these difficult times, but thrived are usually are lead by adaptive leaders. These leaders have tunnel vision when need and almost in the same moment raise their eyes searching for new horizons. They look for gaps and in those gaps they find opportunities to grow, change, or move on to something they always dreamed of doing. Perhaps an innovation, an idea, a possibility that presented itself for the very first time. Leaders who have this mindset, skill sets and knowledge of various processes designed to help them and their teams think this way “never waste a crisis.” School leaders in this mindset embrace an understanding of education as something that should continually be changing. They are comfortable in ambiguity and they trust the teams they have helped build that they can and will be also looking for change, opportunities, new ideas and new possibilities.

The reason I started in education way back when was because I wanted to make a change. I wanted to move schooling forward from the way I had experienced it. Isn’t that why we all do the job? That’s evolution and it’s wonderful. If I am true to that drive, the pandemic was the largest test of my thinking and also the greatest opportunity for me to sharpen my new way of thinking and seeing.

As leaders, how might we help each other to move beyond merely making it to tomorrow? Instead let’s learn to embrace the storm and embrace the change it will bring.

Another question to consider as leaders in this moment: Has every school leader had to deal with the same crisis at almost the exact same time, and with the same consequence as all others? Despite our human need to explain and quantify these moments with simple, easily understood ‘answers,’ I don’t think I am going too far out on a limb by claiming that no, that is not the case!

The global pandemic crisis has not only challenged all school leaders across the world, but it has challenged every single person and family. Wherever you are in your schools journey I want to say well done. March 2020 will be a time we won’t forget and it WAS a moment in global history where we had to all deal with the same thing.

Fast forward to now. The global pandemic is still here, it’s still causing devastation and creating havoc to our best laid plans. However, many schools have again opened their doors for face-to-face learning, moving from the virtual classes they were forced to grapple with last school year. Why is that? It is because we have learned so much through these challenging 18 months. We learned more about the pandemic, the virus, the science of it, but also learned more about ourselves; how to do things differently, how to achieve the levels we were already achieving prior and potentially even now achieving so much more. The trick is to learn how to not only adapt, but to change. A second thought is that many great school leaders have spotted the gaps and opportunities and seized them as exciting, not threatening. We have consciously tried to see what we couldn’t previously see and capitalize on the opportunities given to us. A strange gift if you will.

Here are a couple of questions I put together that I am hoping will be of use to the wonderful people who take on the job of school leadership. I am hoping they provoke you, your thinking and maybe present a new way of looking at a crisis.

• How do you feel you have handled the most disruptive crisis in education?
• As we continue on in this new world, what are the opportunities that are now presenting themselves to you that you can use as leverage to drive change and move the needle at your school?
• How do you currently initiate and drive change or new ideas throughout your school?
• What are your current processes for innovation? How might you make them even better?
• Who is responsible for leading that change? Is it you or is it everyone, or somewhere in the middle?
• Have you used the crisis as an opportunity to find and tell your own unique story? What is it about your school that is truly unique, that makes you stand out, makes you a school that others can look to for guidance and help?

This is challenging but meaningful work. It is also not something you need to do alone. Drawing on each other is what helps us all move forward. We are here to help guide you and strengthen your process to continue to look at crises as opportunities to find problems and make a meaningful and fulfilling change.

No school leader ever likes the idea of ‘wasting’ anything; budgets are always tight ;-) So..let’s not waste a good crisis like this one.