Top 3 Insights from Goalbook’s Instructional Leadership Design Institute
Goalbook’s annual Leadership Design Institute (LDI) brings together district- and state-level instructional leaders to help them effect lasting instructional change in their communities.
In June 2017, attendees from Hawaii to NYC came to the San Francisco Bay Area and brought challenges ranging from statewide reading initiatives to the implementation of district-wide social and emotional learning programs. Every leader in attendance had unique challenges but one thing was clear — everyone was united in the question of “how do we design and implement instructional change to ensure that ALL students succeed?”
District leadership teams spent two days engaging in learning about how to use elements of design thinking and implementation science to work on complex challenges. Leaders returned to their organizations with prototype solutions for challenges they brought with them and, perhaps more importantly, they left equipped with two powerful frameworks to address any challenge facing them in their respective contexts — design thinking and implementation science.
Leaders drew on the power of empathy to see from the teacher’s point of view.
“I realized that if I was going to be successful, I had to keep the user at the center of the design process.”
Valerie Valentine, Administrator of Special Education
Leaders were introduced to the design thinking framework, which has its origins in human-centered product design. Design thinking is an iterative process for addressing user challenges.
A school- or district-level leader’s primary “user” is the teacher who is engaging in instructional practices with students every day. The challenges teachers faced varied from district to district, but leaders were consistently trying to figure out how to set a common, rigorous standard of instruction that all students can access. They wanted to equip their teachers with a common language around instructional practices and cultivate a shared philosophy about what rigorous and equitable instruction actually looks like in practice.
The biggest step leaders at LDI took was actually a step backward from their roles and a step forward into the minds of the teachers for whom they were designing solutions. Leaders quickly understood that they couldn’t approach problem solving apart from the teacher experience.
The best solution can only come from understanding the needs of the users.
The Goalbook team didn’t have leaders focus on all teachers in the abstract, nor did they try and think about the ‘typical teacher’ from within their district. Instead, they had to focus on ONE teacher with specific challenges. They then represented this teacher in a narrative style user story. Understanding the challenge from the perspective of that specific teacher was the most important aspect of designing the right solution.
Getting down to business was not optional; teams tapped into the power of collaboration.
“I’ve never worked so hard at a conference before! This was the first time I remember going to sleep before 9 pm.”
Aida Kraskian, Special Education Coordinator, Glendale Unified School District
A unique aspect of Goalbook’s Leadership Design Institutes is the fact that leaders come to the conference to engage in “creative conflict” with their own teams and with peers from all over the country. LDI does not promise a silver bullet solution for the challenges leadership teams are experiencing; instead, Goalbook’s Design Facilitators help teams deconstruct and analyze their challenges so they can approach it themselves.
The biggest step leaders at LDI took was actually a step backward from their roles and a step forward into the minds of the teachers for whom they were designing solutions.
This process required teams to engage in productive struggle; as they grappled with their challenges, they quickly realized that each team member had their own interpretations of what the challenge was. Each team had to peel back the layers of the challenge if they were going to successfully build a prototype solution that addressed the most critical aspect of the challenge. For one team, that meant understanding that low reading scores had more to do with engagement than the curriculum they were using.
For another team, getting to the point of prototyping meant engaging in continuous discussion and iteration. For others it meant scrapping hours of work and starting the design process over again so that they could come up with the right solution and not just a “good one.”
Leaders learned how to fail strategically in order to create lasting instructional change.
“We realized we needed to go slow to go fast… We need to hear the voice of the teacher before we move forward.”
Ross Mack — Special Education Coordinator, San Bernardino USD
A huge part of the design thinking framework assumes that failing is a necessary part of the process. Designing and testing a small solution and using its failure as feedback for future success is the name of the game with design thinking. So it was crucial for leadership teams to experience the small failures of their prototypes by testing them with real teacher focus groups. The feedback they got from classroom teachers was invaluable to the goal of designing an effective user-centered solution.
Implementation science provides a framework to “scale up” a solution.
Once their designs were tested and validated, the next challenge for instructional leaders was implementing it across their organizations. Getting a working understanding of implementation science helped leadership teams identify and assess the competency drivers, organization drivers, and leadership drivers at play within their challenges. Having a pulse on how all of those facets of implementation were working in concert not only gave them a valuable perspective on the challenge but it also showed them how important it is to be flexible with their solutions.
LDI does not promise a silver bullet solution for the challenges leadership teams are experiencing; instead, Goalbook’s Design Facilitators help teams deconstruct and analyze their challenges so they can approach it themselves.
Goalbook’s mission has always been to empower educators to transform instruction so that ALL students succeed. By equipping leaders at every level within the education system, that goal can be reached. Goalbook will continue to host Leadership Design Institutes so leadership teams across the country can design solutions to their biggest challenges. If you are interested in bringing your team to Goalbook’s upcoming Leadership Design Institute, follow the links below to request an invitation.
Goalbook’s biannual Leadership Design Institute (LDI) is a conference for district and state-level instructional leadership teams. We host LDI to help these leaders achieve lasting instructional change in their communities.
Registration for Goalbook’s 2018 Leadership Design Institutes are now open! If you are interested in bringing your instructional leadership team to Goalbook LDI, follow the link below to submit a registration request.
Winter LDI: January 22–24, 2018 — San Francisco Bay Area
Summer LDI: July 23–25, 2018 — New York City
*Note that a district or state-level leader must register as part of the team.
