Building Trust in Change - Strategies for Superintendent Success - Engaging Leadership

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Building Trust in Change - Strategies for Superintendent Success

Episode 291 • 9th October 2024 • Engaging Leadership • CT Leong, Dr. Jim Kanichirayil

So what can you do to prevent falling into the trap of taking a cookie cutter approach to your transformation initiative? That's one of the questions that we're going to tackle in today's episode. They say that failure is the best teacher and this transformation story is built on some previous missteps and lessons learned.

We'll look at what we need to do from a talent strategy perspective to best facilitate a successful transformation initiative. How should we look at talent attraction and development when we are custom building a solution for the environment that we're in that gives you a taste for what you're in for during this chat.

district [: 00:01:00

Prior to his time in this district, Mike served for seven years as superintendent of Keeneyville elementary school district in DuPage County, Illinois. And prior to becoming superintendent, Mike served as a high school director of curriculum, middle school principal, assistant principal, and began his career teaching as an eighth grade social studies teacher.

national Lewis university in: 2008

[00:01:50] Mike Connolly: Thanks for having me.

But before we dive into that. Part of the conversation. I think it's going to be important for you to get the listeners up to speed on some of your backstory, as well as some of the things that you've noticed about your current district. That's going to inform the rest of the conversation that we're going to have.

And one of the things that, that, that really has provided me is another outlet for. What I've tried to do throughout my career, which is to really be of service to [00:03:00] the communities and really try and bring people together to make sure that we've got the the kind of resources available to our kids so that they can be prepared for their next step in the journey and ultimately come out of our system ready for high school and then being able to and come out of high school, ready for college or career. And so really, I think that my background really is has been just that it's been trying to be of service of help in organizations to, to try and make those opportunities come alive for kids.

And Wheeling has definitely been a place that has embraced me. I've embraced them. It's really been a great road over the last six years. Particularly in a time that we've we've dealt with a lot, right? Global pandemic and what that, that did to schools. And it's just really been a great experience and learning opportunity for for me personally and professionally.

And I think we've had some success and we've got a long road to go. We've got a lot of things that we can do to continue to get better. But it's really a great place to be.

The broad diversity of socioeconomic status that exists within your district. And part of what we're going to be talking about in this conversation is a transformation story. So I think one of the things that would be useful would be getting line of sight into some of the ways that you built consensus for particular initiatives when you're dealing with.

A broadly economic diverse set of communities. How did you pull people together?

To up to code security air conditioning our buildings which we have old buildings. And so some of them were not air conditioned. And that has become more and more of a [00:05:00] thing. When students are sitting in 90 degree classrooms at the end of September. So that was a really great opportunity to connect with our community with, and really begin to understand what some of their desires and concerns were that then translated into really the listening that we began to do.

Inside of the organization. And so I we teamed up with a an education consulting group to come in and conduct a systems assessment. And that systems assessment really touched again every surface of the district. And, included focus groups of students of parents of staff.

We had a team of about 50 individuals that, that came in external from the district. They're made up of educators from other districts that had gone through a similar process to really be the the detective, so to speak to come in and to gather all of this information. And it really basically came together as a SWOT analysis what are, what were our strengths?

and what were our threats as [: 00:06:00

And so then that springboarded into the second year of my superintendency, which is when we really brought together that formal strategic planning process. And we utilized all of that information, that valuable data that we had gathered through the prior year's systems assessment to begin to design.

You know what our specific priorities were plans and start to build those action plans.

And then that informed your year two strategic plan building. I think one of the things that's going to be helpful from a line of sight perspective is understanding your philosophy on what you prioritize. So when you look at all of this data that's coming into you from this listening exercise that you did with the consultancy that you brought in.

Were you prioritizing more community oriented feedback, or were you prioritizing more staff driven feedback as part of where your focus would be when you're building out your strategic plan, or was there some other process that you used to prioritize which actions do you take first?

What kind of supports need to be in place what is the organizational framework that we need to be considering to best deliver those those services and those improvements to those services. So really it came down to kids. what's best for kids and utilizing the data we gathered to, to suss that out.

[00:08:35] Mike Connolly: Yeah, I think that in my first superintendency, when I went into, to Keeneyville first time in the job, you come in and are consumed with a lot of adult issues a lot of adult problems. And it can sometimes get in the way of what is actually important, right? Which is ultimately how things are being delivered in the classroom, how we're removing barriers for kids to their learning.

And [: 00:09:00

And we, again, a lot of the adult issues that kind of got in the way. Really said, all right, we really need to come back and be thinking first about what the kids need. And from there, that's really building up the ability to have a different type of conversation. It's hard to argue about adult issues when you're focusing on the needs of kids.

And so I think that was probably the biggest thing. take away that I had. I also think that I jumped in on some things in Keeneyville very quickly when I should have listened more. And so the process of going in and conducting that systems assessment was really a way of vehicle for me to be listening as much as possible before we started acting.

[00:10:10] Mike Connolly: Really slow down really make sure we all come in. We all have instincts. If we're getting into a leadership role, like superintendent, we're getting there because we have shown we have some instincts that are of value to that role. But really coming in and being able to take that time to validate.

What your instincts are telling you, and you do that by, taking the time to form those relationships to have conversations with staff and students and parents. And really just knowing that in the long run, there aren't. that many critical fires that have to be put out in a district in five seconds, right?

g the time to, to form those [: 00:11:00

[00:11:09] Dr. Jim: I want to tie this together with what I opened the conversation with, which was, we're having a transformation conversation. When you look at that problem of most transformation initiatives failing, how did you set yourself up for success when you took over in the wheeling district?

We were not. Providing the kind of special education programming of mental health resources that we needed to quickly get into place to be able to support student learning. And so that, as we heard [00:12:00] that those messages, and as I observed that in my own right that really became very clear to me that was our first step.

That needed to happen. And so even as concurrently, we were doing the systems assessment, we started to design what a a different look to the student services department could be really broke it off from the. The structure that I inherited where I created a new assistant superintendent role specifically for that because it was too big of a job for one cabinet level person to do.

And that really then broke the mold that had existed in the district for a long time. That role had never been at an assistant superintendent level before. It was perhaps a director role under or a coordinator under another assistant superintendent. So that really sent a message throughout the organization that this was an extremely important and also critical.

d to make. That's really how [: 00:13:00

[00:13:12] Dr. Jim: So I want to dig into this piece a little bit more and obviously this is the execution of answering the question, what do kids need to be successful? So it's a student centered approach, but I'm curious when you're looking at restructuring this division or actually building it out into a formalized division, what were the questions that you were asking?

Yourself and your leadership team that really built the case that this was the necessary step that we needed to take.

And then how many. Other people were within that department that could support that work. And when you actually start to list all of those things out, and we were literally in a room going down on chart paper, writing out all of the different things that that areas of responsibility we were able to very quickly see.

That it was not reasonable. It was not something that anybody could be successful with. It was too big and too complex. And so that really drove home the point that we needed to create a new division and bring in a team that was going to be led by an assistant superintendent that was going to be able to, Take those responsibilities on, and also, as a result, created the kind of professional space that needed to occur to then identify what's the best way to meet those unmet needs.

bout building a continuum of [: 00:15:00

It's just a feeling something's changing. And there's, this must be because I'm doing a bad job. It really was a good. Exercise to be able to give voice to the fact that there was this organizational need. And then from a governance perspective, when I went to my board of education because I was asking them to make a big investment in a whole new system it was very apparent to them that.

Yep, we needed to do this. And so it was something that they didn't even blink an eye at and said, Yep, let's go. And that was really helpful.

Run too quickly to a technology solution. And if you haven't defined your people strategy or your process strategy first, your transformation is going to fail. So I think what I like about what you described is if I'm breaking this down into a framework. You described what is the thing that we're trying to accomplish?

What does that look like? And then from there you defined out, okay, in order for us to get there, what actually needs to be done at a functional level and at the task level. And then you took it further and to find out, okay, what are the resources that we need? What are the people that we need to have in place to get this done?

to the board. And by. Taking [: 00:17:00

So obviously when you've defined out the duties, the functions, the resources that you need and the tasks that need to be accomplished, some of that is. Going to be solved from solved by hiring from outside the organization and bringing them in. But you still have a population of people internally that could meet some of those needs.

you're building out this new [: 00:18:00

[00:18:00] Mike Connolly: Yeah, I think that really, it does come back to listening to going in and really getting to know who is working within your organization. And the staff that, that, yeah. was internal, particularly on the student services side. There was a director and an assistant director really getting to have some conversations with them to really begin to understand what their frustrations were what their talents were, what their background was.

One was quite veteran to the district had been a school psychologist and it come up through the ranks. The other one had not been here for too long. in the system for too long. So she had still a maybe a little bit of an outsider's viewpoint which can be very valuable, right.

to student services started [: 00:19:00

But then also really what kind of qualities would need to be in those candidates, both internal and external to be, Effectively working with the constituents with the internal stakeholders. One of the things about teachers, particularly that are tenured is that there's longevity there, right?

They're there. They've been there for some have been there for 30 years. And it's really important to be able to have leadership that comes in and be able to marry their experiences with new potential new ways of doing things in such a way that. The program isn't getting sabotaged or that, those new roots are allowed to take take form.

So it, it really was from a [: 00:20:00

[00:20:12] Dr. Jim: I like your comment about building out a profile So tell us a little bit about the details of what that profile looked like specific to this transformation initiative that you're trying to pull off And how that showed up In your interviewing process as you're looking to bring talent in to help execute on this transformation.

Because we were going to be asking people to take leaps of faith. And you really need to feel like you've got somebody in a leadership position that understands what you're going through, that understands your work and has taken the time. To build a working relationship with you so that there's that feeling of safety as we go into some uncharted waters.

The other thing I think was that came very clear is that we needed to have people that had a good understanding and vision of the fact that there were different types of programs that needed to be put in place. to meet the needs of students. Before we had a one size fits all thing where particularly within our special education programming, it was what we call cross categorical, which is basically we had kids in a classroom that had a whole bunch of different needs.

eded these different kind of [: 00:22:00

And it was really a new going to be a new skill set for a lot of people within the organization. And when we get to the interview portion and really identifying those candidates, that really then structured our conversations within the interview. It, we knew what kind of skill sets we needed to dig in on to really establish that these individuals were going to be able to bring those qualities to the table.

And it really then also allowed through the interview process to go really deep into particularly philosophy of leadership how they would go and establish strong working relationships. And then also as we got down into the advanced portions of the interview process to bring those stakeholders together to be part of it.

our candidates weren't just [: 00:23:00

[00:23:20] Dr. Jim: There was an element of your answer that caught my attention, and that was your comment that, in, in broad terms, because we're doing things differently than what people are used to. A lot of times we as leaders were asking our teams to take leaps of faith. So when you look at that leap of faith concept, what were the things that you did to coach your broader leadership community To set themselves up for success for having those leaps of faith conversations.

thing that they're typically [: 00:24:00

[00:24:00] Mike Connolly: Yeah. Particularly in the world of education taking leaps of faith can really be a very hard thing to do because, you're taking a chance with a child's life, right? To, To some extent. So I think that one of the things that was really important is particularly in my work with school based leaders with principals was to be able to model a bit of a conversation about.

About the, acknowledging the difficulty of the work that we're asking them to do to really reinforce the fact that there are going to be areas that, that. Don't go well that we're going to need to, throw it in reverse and go back and take a look and retool things.

sure that People didn't feel [: 00:25:00

That, that the accountability was not you're in trouble and I'm going to write you up and you're going to be out of the organization, but okay, no, the accountability is. All right, so for me, it was stepping back. How could we have structured this better? And it really, we not you, We, and so really trying to build that kind of sensibility with the district leadership team with the school based leadership to then begin to matriculate that out throughout the faculty to say, Hey, listen, No one is losing their job because a test score didn't go up this year.

We're looking at a bigger picture here. We've got a lot of hard work that we need to do. And it is okay for us to get tripped up here or there, as long as we keep our, nose to the grindstone and look for ways to always be doing better. We're going to be fine like that.

t I didn't have to make some [: 00:26:00

That was really important to be able to do too. But even then it was in that supportive framework. It wasn't a, it was about, let's make sure the right people are on the right seats on the bus to be able to move this work forward. And it takes a lot of time. I've been here for six years.

I can still say that we're still working through some of those things where we're trying to embed that culture. It's a culture takes a long time to change. And but I think each year. We get better and better at understanding how best to, support each other and our kids.

Always that risk of that sentiment taking hold within the [00:27:00] organization. Walk me through what you did from a leadership perspective and particularly your principles and assistant principles. How did you coach them up to make sure that people weren't feeling that way?

And when we got to those points where we were implementing organizational change to the ability to have conversations with people to say that, listen, this is what we have all identified as something that, that we need to work through, you were part of that process. We have, we can really point to those areas where we did not feel as an [00:28:00] organization effective because we didn't have the right systems in place.

And so it, this is not about needing to do something different because you're not doing a good job. This is about, we have all collectively identified these areas. And so it gives us a road map forward as leaders, as stakeholders within the organization to implement the types of change that are going to get us there.

And I think that was powerful for most people. I think the reality is that there are some that can't get around that. And, and that's okay. But then you start to have a bit of a different type of conversation to say, okay, is this where we need or want to be at this point?

the table to support, that's [: 00:29:00

How can I support you in either getting to that place or to getting you into a position or into another environment where. You are going to be able to be successful.

But I think what's going to be really helpful for the folks that are listening and watching this is when you think about What you've been able to execute specific to this transformation and other ones that you've been involved in, what are the core principles that other leaders need to keep in mind when they're trying to successfully execute a transformation?

Establishing those strong relationships and then really making sure that you are listening. And you can listen in a lot of different ways. Again, having that systems assessment was a listening exercise. And it was something that drew out a lot of great information to then, Be able to have that kind of analysis to be able to further the conversation, to really start to look at, okay, so we've got this information.

to really begin to dig into [: 00:31:00

And then I think from there the, another core principle is to. Just to continue to be that cheerleader, that supporter coach that can go in and really build that, that of comfort level with leaning in on some really hard work that's going to take time. When you're, I think when you hit those kind of major marks it's not easy work and there, there are setbacks but you begin to build.

for lack of a better term, some resiliency within the organization to be able to get, those priorities moving forward and that change to take root.

[00:32:02] Mike Connolly: So I think the best way is probably through my ex handle, which is at S U P T Connelly. So that's at superintendent Connelly, S U P T C O N N. O L Y. That's probably the best way. And also people can find me on our district's website which is CCSD21. org. That's maybe more of the traditional path.

And yeah, it's great work. We've got a great network of people that, that are just doing really good work and happy to share it.

I think one of the first things that any organization or leader needs to do is define the most important impact you want to drive in the transformation [00:33:00] initiative. And you have to build consensus around that. Once you've done that, you also have to lay out that it's okay to take an appropriate amount of time to see the momentum take shape.

I think oftentimes transformations fail because people are expecting results tomorrow, and if you're going from. One operating rhythm to a completely new operating rhythm. That's an unrealistic expectation. So need to level set on the time requirement. That's going to be necessary to start seeing some shifts take place.

The third thing that stood out in the conversation is the emphasis on early wins. You need to define out what those early wins look like, and then you need to celebrate them when they happen, because that's going to help you build momentum towards the goal. The fourth thing that stood out when we were chatting is that you need to build safety across your organization.

ed team, you're not going to [: 00:34:00

The structure internally to support the development of people that are on your existing team So that they can meet the needs of that vision that you've laid out on the front end If you're not building in that support structure in that development structure You're setting yourself up for a lot of churn internally and that will also lead to loss of momentum and probably failure Of your transformation initiative.

So really good stuff, Mike. I appreciate you hanging out and sharing that with us. For those of you who've been listening to the conversation, we appreciate you listening, make sure you leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. If you haven't already done so make sure you join our community and then tune in next time where we'll have another leader sharing with us the game changing insights that help them build a high performing team.