1.6 Step-up-to-excellence:a change navigation protocol for transforming  (Page 14/20)

Creating strategic alignment accomplishes three things (Duffy, 2004c). First, it assures that everyone isworking toward the same broad strategic goals and vision for the district. Second, it weaves a web of accountabilities that makeseveryone who touches the educational experience of a child accountable for his or her part in shaping that experience. Andthird, it has the potential to form a social infrastructure that is free of bureaucratic hassles, dysfunctional policies, andobstructionist procedures that limit individual and team effectiveness. It is these dysfunctional hassles, policies, andprocedures that cause at least 80% of the performance problems that we usually blame on individuals and teams (Deming, 1986).

Step 3: Evaluate Whole-District Performance

Finally, in Step 3, the performance of the entire transformed district is evaluated using principles ofsummative evaluation (e.g., Stufflebeam, 2002, 2003). The purpose of this level of evaluation is to measure the success of everyone’s efforts to educate children within the framework of the newlytransformed school system. Evaluation data are also reported to external stakeholders to demonstrate the district’s overall success in achieving its transformation goals.

After change leaders and their colleagues work through all three steps of Step-Up-To-Excellence they then focus onsustaining school district improvement by practicing continuous improvement at the district, cluster, school, team, and individuallevels of performance. Then, after a predetermined period of stability and incremental improvements, they“step-up”again by cycling back to the Pre-launch Preparation Phase. Achievinghigh-performance is a lifelong journey for a school district.

In Anticipation of“Yes, Buts”

Whenever Step-Up-To-Excellence is presented to an audience predictably three key objections are voiced. Thesecommon objections and responses to them are presented below. It is very important for change leaders and school public relationsspecialists to anticipate objections to whole-system change and then prepare well-crafted messages that preempt the objections. Byanticipating and preempting the objections, initial resistance to change can be significantly reduced. Further, the best time toanticipate and preempt objections is during the Pre-Launch Preparation phase of SUTE.

Objection #1:“Yes, This Is An Interesting Idea. But Where Is This Being Used”?

One of the greatest“innovation killers”in the history of mankind is captured in the question,“Where is this being used? Or, its corollary,“Who else is doing this?”Can you imagine Peter Senge (1990) being asked this question when he firstproposed his 5th Discipline ideas; or perhaps Morris Cogan (1973) when he first described the principles of ClinicalSupervision?

New ideas, by definition, are not being used anywhere, but they want to be used. However, being the first atdoing anything, especially doing something that requires deep and broad change demands a high degree of leadership courage, passion,and vision. Many change leaders in education do indeed have the requisite courage, passion, and vision to be the first to tryinnovative ideas for creating and sustaining whole-system improvement, but they do not know how to lead whole-system change.These heroic leaders need a protocol especially designed to create and sustain whole-system change.