Requisites of a Leader: The Essential Capacities of School Leadership for Breakthrough Results represents an in-depth, systematic approach to the development and continuous support of present and future school leaders. Major components of the program’s content and process include:
	The Curriculum Framework... The content of Requisites of a Leader is a dynamic synthesis of the ever-evolving body of knowledge in personal and organizational leadership organized into a framework of five essential leadership capacities:
	1. The capacity to Develop Personal and Systemic Direction 2. The capacity to Ensure Accountability and Improvement in the System 3. The capacity to Leverage Human Resources 4. The capacity to Apply Profound Knowledge of Teaching and Learning 5. The capacity to Build Culture, Climate, and Community for Learning
	Each of the essential capacities is supported by a set of strategic tools “best practice” strategies, that, applied skillfully, enable breakthrough results. The essential capacities and strategic tools are principle based, rather than practice specific. They are, therefore, generalizable and applicable to a variety of leadership opportunities. The development and use of mental models... Best practice leadership requires quick access and retrieval, and real-time application of the leader’s body of knowledge to the immediate and continuous process of decision making. A mental model provides a cognitive architecture that supports this real-time thinking, decision making, and leading. The contrasting of typical vs. best of class applications... As leaders develop past the most basic levels of competency, most of the variance in leadership effectiveness can be attributed to the broad range in application quality of known leadership principles and strategies, rather than the identification and application of principles and strategies unknown to other leaders. The process of assessing one’s practical applications of these core leadership principles often reveals room for improvement. The search for Breakthrough Thinking... Today’s most successful school leaders pursue with equal vigor the goal of continuous improvement and the search for breakthrough strategies - bold innovations that hold the promise of tremendously improved results. Breakthrough innovations are not the next step on the continuum from typical to best of class applications of known leadership principles. Breakthrough strategies are often “break withs,” in that they are substantial departures from the current paradigm. This dual capacity to continuously improve self and organization, while anticipating breakthrough thinking is essential, can be learned, and is an integral part of the Requisites of a Leader program. The importance of on-going follow-up and support... The development of best of class leaders is best viewed as a continuous process rather than an event or series of workshops. The Requisites of a Leader program provides opportunities for networking, collaboration, reflective processing, benchmarking, on-site coaching and feedback, advanced learning, opportunities for leading and teaching others, action research, developing and examining case studies, facilitated problem solving, and other job-embedded learning opportunities. Distance learning and networking technologies are highly leveraged to provide this continuous support in convenient and cost-effective ways.
	Requisite Capacity #1 Developing Personal and Systemic Direction The capacity to develop personal and organizational direction is perhaps the leadership element most predictive of effectiveness and high-performance. The performance difference between schools and districts with clear and compelling purpose, direction, and core values and schools and districts with “fuzzy purpose” is staggering. “Best of Class” school organizations with clear, compelling direction are immediately identifiable by their high energy, their grace in difficult times, their ability to focus and persist, and their ability to work together. “Typical” school organizations that suffer from some degree of “fuzzy purpose” are likewise identifiable by their chronic low energy, their pettiness and interpersonal conflict, their propensity to give up just before success is realized, and their inability to work together. It is believed that 70% of workplace conflict can be traced to unclear, uninspiring direction, rather than employees’ poor interpersonal skills. To be a part of a larger group that seeks to do great good and to understand and internalize this purpose is perhaps one of our most important human needs. Effective school leaders recognize this truth and learn to skillfully apply the tools that produce clear, compelling personal and organizational direction.
	Program Titles: Building Personal and Organizational Mission Building Personal and Shared Vision Core Values as “Rules of Engagement” Designing and Developing “Best of Class” Goals Process Strategies for Building Mission, Vision, and Core Values Systemic Alignment of Mission, Vision, and Core Values Creating a Great Place to Work
Building Personal and Organizational Mission	Program Description: The cornerstone of the foundation of effectiveness, and perhaps the very essence of leadership itself, is our capacity to develop in ourselves and in our organizations an energizing sense of purpose and direction. While this insight might be termed common sense, unfortunately, the practice of building effective personal and organizational mission remains quite uncommon. This program reveals “best of class” strategies for the personal, organizational, and systemic work of direction setting using the powerful, foundational tool of mission
Building Personal and Shared Vision	Program Description : In its essence, vision is the answer to the question: What do I (we) want to create here, at this time? It is more focused than mission. Rather than a purpose or a direction, it is a mental image of a desired future state. Vision is specific, it is tangible. It is an important project on the journey to mission fulfillment, not another expression of the mission itself. In contrast to mission, we hold many visions simultaneously. We finish some, begin on others, all the while holding mission constant. Vision can be small or large, short term or long term, simple or sophisticated. A functioning vision provides energy, focus, and a sense of urgency. A vision enables us to prioritize our resources towards mission fulfillment – what should be done first, second, what should not be done, or left to do later? Best of class thinking on the tool of vision reveals that, for vision to produce maximum focus, energy, and performance, it is best viewed as not one image...but three. A personal or shared vision of the future creates little action until it is considered against the image of current reality. It is the gap, or difference between these two images that creates energy. This program will provide strategies and insights for building strong personal vision and translating that vision into a strong shared vision at the school/district level.
Core Values as Rules of Engagement	Program Description : “Best of Class” school and/or district direction is a result of the skillful application of three interdependent direction building tools: mission, vision, and core values. It is this third tool, core values, that is often underutilized or left to chance. This program will address specific strategies for assessing a building’s/district’s core values and building a “best of class” set of core values that are explicit and pervasive in the organization, built intentionally, rather than allowed to develop randomly (often, based on a school’s most influential personalities), and aligned to the organization’s mission and vision. Via satellite technology, we will visit with a school/district that is intentionally applying the strategies examined in this program.
Designing and Developing “Best of Class” Goals	Program Description: Well crafted school improvement goals can be powerful tools for achieving mission success. All to often, however, goals are ill-designed or hastily chosen without regard to their considerable impact on school/district performance. This program will offer insights into the goal design/selection process and the effects of various goal development processes. Participants will… •learn when it is appropriate to set a “continuous improvement” goal, representing incremental gains and when it is advisable to set a “breakthrough goal,” seeking quantum improvements • learn how to spot “fuzzy goals” that sound educationally appropriate but lack the teeth to enable real, measurable gains • learn how to predict and prevent “resource drain,” a common, unintended consequence of goal selection. Designing and Developing “Best of Class” Goals will examine these and other intended and unintended effects of goal selection and offer strategies for improving the goal development process.
Creating a Great Place to Work	Program Description: It’s no secret– the very best teachers are not evenly distributed across all America’s schools. Some schools have the edge in attracting, employing, and retaining more than their fair share of the cream of the crop. What do these schools realize that others, perhaps, do not? They know that great teachers seek out great work environments… they want, and need, a Great Place to Work. What then, are the ingredients of a great place to work- a work culture that attracts and keeps the very best staffs? What elements are most important? What elements are, surprisingly unimportant to peak performers? This program will detail the strong cause-effect relationship between work environments for adults and high achievement for students.
	Requisite Capacity #2 Ensuring Accountability and Improvement in the System Unusually successful school leaders view accountability and improvements positive and energizing, rather than “a necessary evil.” These leaders know that true accountability - the knowledge of how we’re doing relative to our goals and the personal ownership of the responsibility that comes from that knowledge meets several important human needs: the need to be autonomous and self-determining, the need for efficacy, and perhaps most importantly, the need to be invested in an enterprise as an owner, rather than just a hired hand. Likewise, effective school leaders view personal and school improvement as enjoyable, fulfilling, and a natural part of professional practice, rather than as the process of identifying and correcting deficits in our practice. “Best of Class” leaders have the capacity to ensure positive accountability and improvement in the systems, programs, and people within the school, focusing their energy and talent on achieving the results described in the school’s vision and mission.
	Program Titles: Designing and Leading Change Leading and Trailing Indicators of School Improvement Program Accountability and Effect Size Data Driven Decision Making Time Management for Instructional Leaders Organized Abandonment...Finding the Fuel for School Improvement Technology Tools for School Improvement Managing Material Resources for School Improvement
Designing and Leading Change… Patterns of High Performance in School Leadership	Program Description: One of the insightful principles from systems theory is: “Every system (school) is perfectly designed to deliver exactly the results it is now delivering.” To obtain different results, a re-design of the system is necessary. Albert Einstein is credited with the quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same things you’ve always done...and expecting different results.” Improvement requires change. Perhaps one of the most succinct definitions of “leader” is simply “one who designs and leads change.” Since most schools report they are seeking to improve current results, change is a non-option. Why then, since the case for change is so explicit, is the actual change process so difficult for us all? Some answers can be found in the study of human psychology. While human beings are very adept in adapting to the environment, as measured in evolutionary time, we are less adept at fast-paced, organizational change. In fact, our instincts and human nature may actually hinder our performance in these settings. Fast paced organizational change causes us to make quick decisions based on our instincts. Our instincts are shaped by our experiences. The faster the pace of change, the less time we have to actually process our experiences. Having many experiences on which to base our understandings is only a benefit if we actually employ structures to process these experiences… so we may learn from them, so we may base good decisions on them, so we may use them as a foundation on which to change and improve. In most school life, it is probably fair to say that, as educators… “ we don’t learn from experience… we only learn from processing our experience.” This program, “Designing and Leading Change,” examines several useful tools and structures for processing human experience. The skillful application of these process tools supports a school’s or districts efforts to successfully change and improve.
Leading and Trailing Indicators of School Improvement	Program Description: Unusually successful school leaders view accountability as positive and energizing, rather than “a necessary evil.” These leaders know that the knowledge of how we’re doing relative to our goals and the personal ownership of the responsibility that comes from that knowledge meets several important human needs: the need to be autonomous and self-determining, the need for efficacy, and perhaps most importantly, the need to be invested in an enterprise as an owner, rather than just a hired hand. These leaders have the capacity to create this positive accountability in the systems, programs, and people within the school, focusing their energy and talent on achieving the results described in the school’s vision and mission. As important as test scores are in today’s results-focused climate, it is important to realize that test scores are trailing indicators of student achievement. The most successful leaders are also looking at leading indicators...what must happen before student achievement increases. We can understand much about identifying and using “leading indicators” from their use in the discipline of economics. “Leading economic indicators” are those measurements that predict either a more robust or a slowing economy in the near future. Such measurements as low unemployment, high consumer confidence, or low warehouse inventories of durable goods would suggest an improving economy in the quarter or year following the measurements. Last quarter’s or last year’s gross domestic product, or rate of inflation, or international trade deficit would be examples of trailing economic indicators. “Leading economic indicators ,” then, are economic data that are predictive in nature, not reflective. Leading economic indicators are built on profound knowledge of how the complex processes of our economy interact to produce systemic results. Economists, therefore, keep close watch on both leading and trailing economic indicators as they seek to understand and, when appropriate, modify the complex processes that form our economic system. Educational leaders also must keep a close watch on both trailing and leading indicators of our system’s performance. As in economics, leading indicators spring from deep, insightful knowledge of cause-effect in the system...from our profound knowledge of the system and the processes of the system.
Program Accountability and Effect Size	Program Description : One way of understanding and improving our accountability of school programs is to learn to view programs like a football coach views a playbook. The mission of the team is to win games. The playbook contains many different deployment structures of the team’s resources (plays). The coach chooses the plays that have the largest effect size on the team’s mission (that gain the most yards). What kind of foolish coach would continue to choose plays, again and again, that lost yards – or gained only a few yards! In the school business, programs are our plays – deployments of our human and material resources that we hope will have a large, positive effect size on our mission. Typically, however, schools/districts continue programs year after year without regard to the program‘s effect size – sometimes without even knowing the program’s effect size. “Best of Class” schools/districts regularly measure each program’s effect size, investing more in those that produce large, positive results and redeploying human and material resources from programs with a negative (or even a small positive) effect size. This program provides strategies for school leaders to measure program effect size, to re-deploy human and material resources from low effect size programs, and to create cultures that support rapid “fast to market” program innovations and changes that keep effect sizes large and positive.
Data Driven Decision Making	Program Description : “Show me the data!” is the educational version of the famous quote from the popular movie Jerry McGuire. The movie quote spoke to the elevated role of money in the life of one of Jerry’s professional athlete clients. The educational version speaks to the nearly “holy grail” status of data in today’s school accountability and decision making systems. Typically, schools/districts use too few data, rely on those few data to make decisions for which the data are ill-matched, and leap to conclusions based on assumptions and inferences that are unsupported by the data. This program serves as an “advanced primer” for the effective and appropriate use of data in school/district decision making. We will highlight “Best of Class” data treatment strategies including: How to identify key misuses of data, how too use the right data for the right decisions at the right time, how to collect local school data that supports the local school mission, how to reduce misconceptions and misapplications of data, how to increase the school’s/district’s “data IQ,” how to reduce inappropriate political uses of data, and how to make decisions using both data and intuition.
Time Management for Instructional Leaders	Program Description : Almost unanimously, school leaders agree…“I need to spend more time leading the school’s core mission of teaching and learning – but my day just doesn’t allow it.” The daily life of a school leader is, in fact, frantic, fractured, and often crises-oriented. It’s no wonder that important, high-leverage, instructional leadership activities often get pushed to the bottom of the “to-do” list. Would it be surprising to discover that some school leaders spend up to 70% of each day engaged in “instructional leadership” activities. What’s their secret? How do they get away with this? Who’s tending the store and dealing with the 1,001 diversions that occur daily? This program will detail strategies of how to manage time during the school day to double or even triple the amount of time spent on high-leverage, instructional leadership activities such as observing classrooms, providing feedback to teachers, planning and visioning the instructional program, and/or participating in collaborative instructional planning activities. It’s a fact – leaders can devote great amounts of time and effort to their school’s core mission and still effectively manage the operational concerns of the school. Participate in this program and learn how...before its too late!
Organized Abandonment: Finding the Fuel for School Improvement	Program Description: In the words of renowned management consultant Peter Drucker “All living organisms must have a functioning system of elimination...or they will soon perish.” Such it is with school organizations as well. “Typically,” school leaders, their schools, and districts continue to add on new expectations, new tasks, and new priorities without first determining what will be eliminated to free up the resources for these new tasks. “Best of class” school leaders, schools and districts have an organized process for proactively determining what they will stop doing- to free up the necessary resources for future growth and improvement. This program will detail the principles and specific strategies needed to implement the “organized abandonment” process at the individual, school, and district level
Technology Tools for School Improvement	Program Description: Technological advances in information management, telecommunications, personal computing, and internet connectivity have broadened the options available to school leaders for school improvement. This program will examine a number of high-tech tools that hold considerable promise for saving time, increasing personal effectiveness, managing school operations, supporting the school’s learning mission, managing curriculum, and broadening the school’s reach into the community. See how many techno-savvy school leaders are getting their current work done better and faster and, more importantly, doing new types of work that were heretofore impossible.
Managing Material Resources for School Improvement	Program Description : Material resources are always finite. Even in the best of times, there are never enough dollars, hours, square feet, computers, reams of paper, or soccer balls to meet every need. In times of budgetary contraction, decisions concerning material resources are more technically complex and more politically explosive as well. This program will examine key effectiveness principles for material resources leadership. Participants will discover guidelines to inform decisions in times of expansion and contraction, understand which resources are central to student achievement, and learn how to better align resources to school improvement goals.
	Requisite Capacity #3 Leveraging Human Resources  Realizing that, by far, the greatest portion of any school’s or school district’s resources is invested in people, best of class school leaders continually seek ways to maximize their return on this vast investment. This essential capacity examines strategies and tools in the areas of recruitment, selection, and retention of staff, professional development of staff, and work design strategies that seek to maximize individual and group contribution to the school’s / district’s mission and vision. Typically, school leaders see staff selection, development, and work design as tasks to be completed before the opening of school. Best of Class leaders recognize that every human resources decision, since the investment is this area is so large, is a potential lever in the system...where relatively small efforts , produce large results.
	Program Titles: “Best of Class” Human Resource Leadership Creating and Sustaining High-Performance Teams Proactive Interviewing Skills Creating a Quality Pool for Selection Designing and Leading “Best of Class” Staff Development Work Designs that Work Engaging and Leading School Volunteers

 

Requisite Capacity #4:

Applying Profound Knowledge of Teaching and Learning

One of the enduring characteristics of any successful enterprise is the ability of the organization to identify its core business and build and apply profound knowledge in its core business. Profound knowledge is the in-depth understanding of something. It is the ability to grasp the fundamental forces and principles that make something work the way it does. “Best of Class” school leaders understand that the teaching-learning process is our core business. While recognizing the impossibility of learning all there is to know about every curriculum area and every pedagogical strategy, successful school leaders are dedicated, even passionate learners in this area. They realize that profound knowledge of the teaching – learning process is the most valuable, and perhaps the most scarce, capacity of school leadership.

The value and impact of “instructional leadership” has been long documented in the school improvement research. The title “principal,” as used in early schooling, referred to the “principal teacher.” Perhaps more so than in other leadership occupations, the success of school leaders is, and has always been, rooted in the profound knowledge of teaching and learning.

 

Program Titles:
Leading the Core Business of Schools…Teaching and Learning
Learning: Three Levels of Quality
Six Big Ideas: Essential Attributes of Excellent Teaching
Coaching and Conferencing Incompetent and Marginal Performers
Coaching and Mentoring Peak Performers
Results Based Lesson Design and Planning
Designing Successful On Line Learning Experiences

Leading the Core Business of Schools… Teaching and Learning	Program Description: Teacher efficacy, the knowledge and skill base of teachers, is the best and strongest predictor of student achievement. This session will build leaders’ capacity to recognize, understand, support and promote excellent teaching. Leader’s will learn to recognize and support the six standards of pedagogy… key teacher behaviors that consistently produce higher levels of student achievement. This session also includes an introduction to the award winning teacher development series Creating the Learning Centered School. Leaders will gain insights into the latest developments in cognitive science and their implications for effective teaching and learning.
Learning … Three Levels of Quality	Program Description : One useful, profound insight into our core processes (teaching and learning) is the recognition that learning has great variance as to its rate and degree – its quality. Sometimes learning occurs briskly, almost effortlessly and can be recalled and applied broadly and creatively. Other times learning is more laborious, slow, almost painful. And, sometimes, probably more often than we care to acknowledge, learning doesn’t happen at all, even when teachers deeply care and give great effort to their teaching. This insight, that the quality, the rate and degree, of learning is not a constant, but rather a variable, gives us a valuable lever to apply to these core processes of teaching and learning. A useful way of understanding this insight is to consider that learning occurs at one of three levels of quality. These “three levels of learning,” although somewhat arbitrary and not intended to be precise psychometric measurements, are useful in understanding the cause-effect relationships that so greatly impact the variance in learning quality in our classrooms and schools. As school leaders seek to improve their instructional skills, it is important to be able to recognize the levels of quality in learning and support teachers’ efforts to increase the quality of learning in their classrooms.
Six big Ideas… Essential Attributes of Excellent Teaching	Program Description : Over the past 75 years of educational research, data analysis, and professional development, a specific set of teacher behaviors have been identified as closely linked to improved student achievement. These behaviors, or essential attributes: 1. Clear learning goals 2. Congruency of action 3. Task Analysis 4. Diagnosis 5. Overt Responses, and 6. Mid-course corrections, represent the core of teaching competence. While great teachers apply strategies above and beyond these basic six, the link to student achievement for these six core skills has become more and more apparent, especially in reading and math instruction, where whole group, direct instruction is practiced, and particularly for students at or below grade level. Instructional leaders may find no better place to begin their study of successful teaching/learning than with these six big ideas.
Coaching/Conferencing Incompetent and Marginal Performers	Program Description : Even though the percentage of truly incompetent and marginal (barely competent) teachers in a school/district is probably very small, the impact of our leadership interventions (or lack thereof) with this group is extremely large, in a cultural sense. Sadly, there is little evidence that suggests that incompetent/marginal teachers can be “coached or conferenced” into peak performers, no matter how skilled the administrator. So, technically, there is little return on investment here. Symbolically, however, the effect on school culture is huge. Whether or not, and how leaders deal with these cases sends an unmistakable message to everyone concerning our beliefs about the importance of teacher efficacy and performance. Typically, schools/districts employ a “one size fits all” strategy to teacher observations, evaluations, and performance feedback. This program will detail the very different “best of class” tactics and strategies for differentiating conferences and interventions for this small, but troublesome group of teachers.
Coaching and Mentoring Peak Performers	Program Description : One of the key indicators of a true “performance culture” is the way we interact and support our ablest teachers. Interestingly, our very best teachers often have the most room for improvement. That sounds counterintuitive, but its true. Mediocre teachers may, sadly, be 70%-80% as effective as they will ever be. Peak performers, even though they are already the best we have, may only be functioning at 50% of their potential. This program focuses on strategies for coaching, supporting, and enabling these “thoroughbreds” to be the best they can be. The Pareto Principle (also called the 80-20 rule) asserts that in a typical organization 80% of the productivity comes from 20% of the people. In typical school organizations we leave these peak performers alone, so we can concentrate our efforts on the “problems.” This is a particularly ineffective strategy. This program details strategies for investing in this important, but often untapped, resource...peak performers.
Results Based Lesson Design and Planning	Program Description: Teacher planning has been identified as a key leading indicator of student achievement. When and where teachers plan more and plan better, students’ learning tends to increase proportionally. This planning-achievement link is not solely a function of planning time, however. In many schools, each teacher is provided roughly the same time for planning. Yet, some teachers are able to design and plan lessons that produce dramatic increases in the quality and quantity of student learning. How do they do it? This program will detail these “best of class” lesson design and planning tools and strategies used by the most effective teachers and schools – tools that can be learned and applied by all.
Designing Successful On-Line Learning Experiences	Program Description : The internet will change everything… remember that promise? Meaningful advances in internet-based learning have been slow to materialize and many first attempts have been questionable in their quality and effectiveness. Still, much has been learned about how technology, especially internet technology, can be a powerful and useful tool in the hands of skilled teachers. This program will examine several “best of class” applications of online learning for both students and staff and define key principles to guide future use and further development.

 

 

Requisite Capacity #5

Building Culture, Climate, and Community for Learning

 Each and every school comes equipped with a strong, existing culture. This invisible but powerful force can either fuel or freeze a school’s improvement efforts. “Best of Class” school leaders have strategies for recognizing, understanding, and shaping the cultures and subcultures inside schools that so powerfully determine individual and group behavior.

It is increasingly clear that classroom and school climate have tremendous influences on the quality of student and adult interaction and learning. Being an important part of an interdependent community of learners – a group of students and adults that exhibit high levels of trust, loyalty, respect, and teamwork meets an important human need for each of us. This essential capacity examines successful strategies for creating and sustaining these “high-performance” environments for working and learning.

Program Titles: Reading and Shaping School Culture Developing Emotional Intelligence in School Leaders Building School – Family – Community Partnerships Reaching, Teaching, and Motivating Adults Building a Culture of Trust Strategies for Building Shared Understanding Becoming a Media Savvy School Leader

 

Reading and Shaping School Culture	Program Description: Each and every school comes equipped with a strong, existing culture. This invisible, but powerful, force is perhaps the primary determiner of success for a school’s improvement efforts. It is cruelly ironic that most school leaders were selected for their positions based on their abilities to produce real, tangible results; designing a school schedule, supervising employees, enforcing school discipline, or balancing a budget. However, beginning on day one of the job as school leader, the primary factor for success is no longer tangible. It is the leader’s ability to understand, assess, and positively shape the intangible, but all- powerful, force that either fuels or freezes a school’s improvement efforts...school culture. Today’s program will enable leaders to 1. Gain a clearer understanding of the nature and power of school culture by identifying, describing, and analyzing unusually powerful non-school organizational cultures. 2. Demonstrate the ability to understand, read, and assess current school or district culture by applying specific culture assessment criteria. 3. Understand the “elements” which have, over time, shaped the current school culture and design culture re-shaping strategies using these “elements of culture.”
Developing Emotional Intelligence in School Leaders	Program Description : Communication skills, conflict management, self knowledge, sensitivity to diversity, trust building, persuasiveness, charisma, balance, versatility, optimism… these are the elements of emotional intelligence that are predictive, perhaps more than any other traits, of leadership success. Fortunately, these skills can be learned and enhanced. This session provides leaders at all levels of current development the knowledge and strategies to become more powerful, more influential, more trusted, and more effective in their professional and personal lives.
Building School-Family-Community Partnerships	Program Description : “Parent involvement,” “school-community partnerships,” “connecting school and home;” these are phrases that show up on virtually every school improvement plan and grant application today. But, how often are these common goals actually attained? Unfortunately, the answer is that few educational visions have been more elusive than true, effective, sustained school-family-community partnerships. As with most leadership strategies, the difference between success and mediocrity lies not in uncovering a “secret plan” or a new “research breakthrough,” but in the thoughtful, skillful application of well known principles and strategies. Such is the case with school-family-community partnerships. This program will provide strategies, based on the work of Joyce L. Epstein and others, for two essential aspects of partnership: 1. Capacity building – true partnership requires the development of several personal and organizational skill sets that are typically underdeveloped. And 2. Planning – applying a well established planning model can help schools not to reinvent the mistakes of previous schools. The program will also feature in-depth interviews with school/district leaders who are realizing the vision of effective partnerships.
Reaching, Teaching, and Motivating Adults	Program Description: If a school leader is going to have a widespread and profound impact on the success and achievement of students, he/she must produce this impact through the adults in the school – the faculty and staff. This behooves school leaders to be knowledgeable and skilled at reaching, teaching, and motivating adults. Much has been written about successfully working with students, but what about the adults in the school? Adults are different, to say the least. “Designed for students” strategies just don’t work the same with adults. This program applies the key elements of adult learning and motivation to the goal of faculty improvement. Applied skillfully and creatively, the strategies in this program can create a “best of class” faculty/staff – or rejuvenate a “burned-out” faculty/staff… one capable of realizing the goal of success and achievement for all students.
Building a Culture of Trust	Program Description : Here’s a riddle: What’s hard to build, easy to lose, desired by all, but understood by few? The answer... Trust. In today’s collaborative workplace, where an emphasis is placed on site-based planning, school-community partnerships, and consensus decision making, trust among faculty/staff/administration/parents/community is more important than ever. Trust is one of those phenomena that is easy to recognize but hard to analyze. This program will seek to reveal the inner blueprint of trust– how it is built, how it is lost, how it grows over time, how it can be increased, and how to recover when it has been broken. We will examine specific strategies for building high levels of interpersonal trust with faculty members, with small and large groups, with other leaders, and with parents and community members.
Strategies for Building Shared Understanding	Program Description : Many of the most important aspects of our school and district missions require the work and wisdom of high-performance teams– teams comprised of diverse individuals with varied skill sets and bases of experience. This type of work design holds at once great promise for high-performance and great probability for misunderstanding, misconception, and unneeded conflict. This program examines several strategies for building shared understanding and high-performance communication within a diverse team. Strategies such as the ladder of inference, balancing advocacy and inquiry, protocols for breaking an impasse, constructive confrontation skills, gaining multiple perspectives, scenario planning, and others require advanced understanding and skillful use, but can open the door to breakthrough results.
Becoming a Media-Savvy School Leader	Program Description : This afternoon, district test scores were released to the media. A reporter is on line 1 wanting comments for tomorrow morning’s paper. Would you know what to say? An incident of violence was reported at your school this morning. By lunch, the local television station’s satellite news truck is on campus interviewing students and videotaping their comments. Would you know how to step in? Your district has just unveiled a new “parental choice plan” that allows families to choose from many possible schools. Do you know how to market, brand, and position your school in this new, competitive environment? These scenarios represent just a few of the dilemmas facing school leaders as they engage the media. This program examines effectiveness principles for engaging the media, both proactively and reactively in ways that enhance your school’s mission and position in the community.