The Jewish Education Project recently hosted a class by Jennifer Gonzalez (host of Cult of Pedagogy) called “The Aerodynamics of Exceptional Schools.” In that class, Gonzalez likens the dynamics of culture change at a school to the dynamics of flight. Through this metaphor, Gonzalez explains nine tips for creating culture change and sustaining its transformative effect.
Gonzalez begins the analogy by describing the difficulty of changing schools compared to flying an airplane.
Lift moves the plane up by reducing pressure on the wings’ upper surface and increasing the pressure on the lower surface pushing the plane skyward. In this analogy, lift represents the new instruction, technology, or systems, essentially educational methods and procedures.
Weight pulls the plane down. Weight embodies the raw materials schools work with: poverty and other social issues, budget constraints, and student readiness.
Drag describes the resistance and friction impeding forward movement. Drag, in this analogy, embodies staff and parent pushback, flaws and missteps, self-doubt, and fatigue.
Thrust moves a plane forward. Thrust reflects the efforts of the change agent, the educator who is working to improve the school. In order to fly, or to change culture in the case of a school, lift and thrust need to overcome weight and drag.
Fully consider this analogy applied to a school context. Staff members at schools tend to overestimate the value of what they have and are willing to tolerate. They also underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving up the safe yet less functional idea that they hold dear. Since there is no right time to do a difficult thing, Gonzalez suggests that first:
(Tip #1 Take a Breath) Ask yourself a few guiding questions before starting, such as “What problem will this new idea (Lift) solve?”, “What are the obstacles?”, and “Do I have any proof this will work?” After considering the efficacy and responsibilities of the decision to move forward,
(Tip #2 Build a Team) Find allies.
(Tips #3-4 Make an Accountable Plan and Expect Problems) Build in buffer time for bumps in the road, and set SMART goals (Thrust and Drag).
(Tip #5 Ask, Don’t Tell) Instead of giving directives, ask your stakeholders what causes the dysfunction, how to solve it, and open a discussion with them (Weight and Drag). “Ask, don’t tell” is a superior strategy to top down implementation.
(Tips #6 Validate) Consider voluntary piloting, where motivated teachers volunteer to pilot a new initiative (Thrust and Drag). Validating, while not agreeing, with conflicting opinions makes those opposed turn into potential late adopters of the idea (Drag).
(Tips #7-9 Be Transparent, Praise, and Dig Deep) Be transparent for accountability, giving earned praise to encourage others, and digging deep at tough times when feeling spent (Thrust).
Gonzalez’s plan needs a few tweaks to be applicable to a Jewish day school. The plan Gonzalez describes lacks a plan for synchronizing the four elements of the day school ecosystem: educators, funders, consumers (parents and students), and influencers. The Lift equates between a public school and a Jewish day school, but Weight, Drag, and Thrust require an expanded definition. In a JDS ecosystem, these analogies include the hashkafa (philosophical stance) of the school (Drag and Weight), the financial stability (Weight), poor implementation (Drag), and the potential imbalance of these elements (Drag or Thrust). The imbalance describes how the board/funders, parents/students (consumers), educators in the school, and influencers outside of the school share power. The hashkafa as a Weight issue depends on the interaction with the Lift, that is, on whether the new ideas mesh or “fight” with the philosophical stance of the school. The imbalance issue comes into play if one component of the ecosystem opposes the implementation. This spans the gamut of board members trying to subvert the Head of School’s plan to teachers not feeling comfortable with yet another initiative (change exhaustion). At that point, validating is not sufficient.
However, strategically, the imbalance can work as Thrust. For instance, the change agent can use influencers, such as DEEP members, to embed expertise and inspire the staff, which changes the equation. This can serve to win over skeptical parents and board members. Alternatively, one can get the board/funders and parents to collaborate with volunteering educators to create Thrust which underlines the critical component of parent education and involvement. This may serve to win over a “difficult to convince” educational staff.
Peter Senge said, “Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist — someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations.” Gonzalez’s model takes into account the twists and turns of reality, describing change less as a straight line and more as a winding path through a wind-whipped minefield. The key epiphany she shares concerns the need to understand people as part of the system of change. If we reimagine our Drag as potential Thrust and plan in advance while thinking about the systems of Jewish day schools, positive initiatives will have a greater probability to lift the school.