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Leveraging Leadership

The power of distribution

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DAN SCHILLER BIO

  • Education: BS: Psych, Master’s: Clinical Social-Work, Certificates in Design Thinking, Strategic Planning, Project Mgmt, SEL
  • Career: Bringing out the best in kids and incredible people who support, encourage, and educate them. 12+ years developing programs, and building organizations and teams that create opportunities for leadership through experiential education (play, outdoor, & project based learning).
  • Current Professional: Startup Executive Director for “I Have A Dream” Foundation - Milwaukee. Founder & Lead Consultant for Future Found LLC. Regional Director for the School Culture & Climate Initiative.
  • Personal: Husband, Dad, Coach, Puppy wrangler.

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SESSION OBJECTIVES

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  • Participants will have the opportunity to consider their definition of leadership.
  • Participants will explore the benefits of distributed leadership.
  • Participants will leave with examples and ideas of how to better distribute and leverage leadership for positive change.

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SESSION AGENDA

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  • Defining Leadership
  • Understanding the desire for control
  • The Components of Distributed Leadership
  • Student Leadership
  • Debrief & Close

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GROUP AGREEMENTS

  • Check your mood and your energy.
  • Presence.
  • Engagement.
  • Take space, make space.
  • Consent to continue (≠ Consensus in all cases).
  • Call in, don’t call out.
  • Take care of yourself.
  • Leave it better.

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DEFINING “LEADERSHIP”

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So what is “LEADERSHIP”?

…define it (use the chat)

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How would you best describe the leadership structure of your school community?

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CASE EXAMPLE

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Leaders are___________.

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Leaders (do)__________.

FINISH THE SENTENCES…

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Develop a Common Language & Understanding

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LEADERSHIP IS FOR EVERYONE

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  • Leadership is shared responsibility.
  • Leadership is not confined to those in formal “leadership” roles.
  • Everyone CAN lead.
  • How have you seen…
    • Teachers lead?
    • Support staff lead?
    • Students lead?
    • Parents lead?

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THE NEED FOR CONTROL

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How do you feel when you are boxed in and don’t feel like you have a say or any control over a situation?

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“I feel like with the rigid standards and all the surveying and measurement I don’t have control over my teaching anymore…there’s no room for creativity”

-Veteran Middle School Educator

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“There’s a lot of push from our Chief Academic Officer and district leadership for academic rigor and I don’t feel like I have any authority in making sure we’re doing what’s really good for kids holistically.”

-K-5 Principal

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“We have to figure out a way to make sure everyone is using restorative practices and this team is just not on board…but we have to do it. The resistance in the building and the mandate from above is crushing.”

-Assistant Principal

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“They don’t let us do anything we want to do. They banned gaga ball at recess because someone got hurt. We can’t sit with our friends at lunch. They don’t let us talk even a little in class, and if we do we lose points”

-4th Grade Student

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What do you do when you feel like you don’t have control? How do you react?

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Psychological

Reactance Theory

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When individuals perceive a threat to their freedom of choice, they experience an aversive motivational state aimed at restoring that freedom.

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Psychological Reactance Theory is characterized by behaviors or attitudes that counter the imposed restrictions.

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-Brehm 1966; Rosenberg 2021

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You’re Not the Boss of Me Hidden Brain - Podcast: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/youre-not-the-boss-of-me/

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Meaningful contribution…

  • Builds a sense of ownership.
  • Allows us to feel in control.
  • Connects us to the team.
  • Encourages innovation & creativity.

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What is one thing that you believe you can influence and/or control in your school community?

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DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP

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Distributed Leadership Involves…

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The 3 C’s

  • Collaboration: Meaningful opportunities for peers and cross departmental teams to connect to problem solve.
  • Capacity Building: Upskilling school community members to lead effectively. Leveraging expertise. Shining a bright light on the exceptional and giving it space to grow.
  • Collective Responsibility: Shared accountability and responsibility for the health and success of the school community.

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Resource: James P. Spillane's Distributed Leadership (2006)

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Distributed Leadership Involves…

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Collaboration: Meaningful opportunities for peers and cross departmental teams to connect to problem solve.

  • How do you encourage collaboration?
  • What’s one great thing that came from collaboration?
  • What is one thing that you might do to boost collaboration?

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Distributed Leadership Involves…

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Capacity Building: Upskilling school community members to lead effectively. Leveraging expertise. Shining a bright light on the exceptional and giving it space to grow.

  • How is your school community building leadership muscle?
  • How does your school community create space for peer learning & best practice sharing?
  • What’s one thing that you could practically do to build capacity and what’s a first step in making that happen?

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Distributed Leadership Involves…

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Collective Responsibility: Shared accountability and responsibility for the health and success of the school community.

  • What is a current shared goal for your school community?
  • Do you have a personal SMART goal that contributes to this success?
  • How do you celebrate incremental wins?...how do you know/does your community know it’s on the right track?

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Why distributed leadership works in schools…

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Schools are Dynamic & Complex Environments.

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Team of Teams

General Stanley McChrystal (2015)

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Humans are complex and changing. Top-down hierarchy can’t navigate nimbly AND efficiently to address the complexity of a school ecosystem…it's too disconnected…too slow!

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Team of Teams

General Stanley McChrystal (2015)

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Key Points on Why Distributed Leadership Matters…

  • A traditional hierarchy is not adequately responsive to unpredictability.
  • Modern problems are complex and require us to be nimble and adaptable not just efficient.
  • To act quickly organizations need to move toward decentralized decision-making to empower teams to act quickly.
  • Transparency across the organization helps every team understand the bigger picture.
  • Strong leaders facilitate trust, transparency, and alignment across the organization.

Key Takeaway: To succeed in a complex, ever-changing world, organizations must replace rigid hierarchies with adaptable, interconnected teams guided by shared goals, empowered decision-making, and strong collaboration.

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Your Teams & Leaders

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  1. List the teams that exist in your school community. Examples:
    1. ILTs (Instructional Leadership Teams: Principal, AP, Counselor, Grade level reps)
    2. CCTs (culture and climate teams)
    3. Grade Level Teams
  2. Who are your official leaders on these teams?
  3. Who else is an “unofficial” leader in your school community?

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Schools with distributed leadership structures see higher student achievement and better organizational outcomes due to collective ownership and accountability (Harris, 2014)

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Teacher leadership is linked to lower turnover rates and improved school climate (Leithwood et al, 2017)

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IMPACT

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The 4th C. CLARITY

How do we ensure alignment in what matters?

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Think-Pair-Share Exercise (consider the below)

  • What are your school’s core values? What do these values look like, sound like, and feel like in action?
  • Does your school have a mission statement? Do you know it?
  • What is your school’s vision for your students and school community?
  • What are your goals/is your top priority this quarter? Semester? Year? Next 3 Years?
  • Who is involved in defining these?
  • How are these communicated? How often? How do you review these to make sure everyone’s on the same page and/or to make sure they’re still relevant?

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STUDENT LEADERSHIP

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IN THE CLASSROOM

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How can/do your students lead in the classroom?

  • Setting group agreements
  • Daily/weekly jobs
  • Supporting peers & mentoring
  • Project leads
  • Providing feedback and reflection
  • Examples & Others?

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IN LESS STRUCTURED SPACES

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Where else might students lead outside of the classroom?

  • Hallways & transitions
  • Lunch
  • Recess
  • Setup & cleanup
  • Afterschool interest clubs
  • Examples & others?

IN LESS STRUCTURED SPACES

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BEAUTIFICATION PROJECTS

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BEAUTIFICATION PROJECTS

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What is one action you can take in the next week to help promote distributed leadership?

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“The time to be awesome is NOW!”

- Kid President (Term 2012 - 2016)

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Debrief/Close

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Questions?

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SESSION OBJECTIVES…did we hit em?

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  • Participants will have the opportunity to consider their definition of leadership.
  • Participants will explore the benefits of distributed leadership.
  • Participants will leave with examples and ideas of how to better distribute and leverage leadership for positive change.

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Thank you!

Dan Schiller

dan@schoolcultureandclimate.org

(414)502-8482