The end of term three can bring a familiar sense of fatigue and exhaustion. At times, days in the classroom can be tough for teachers trying to break the cycle of Groundhog Day, where the same behaviours pop up day in, day out. As for our leaders, navigating the endless to-do list is a real challenge, and finding the balance between finishing the year well and setting everything up for a successful year ahead can be difficult.
I was chatting with a leadership team about this problem last week. They were struggling to find the time to do important work on strategy and culture, when operations kept getting in the way.
I pointed them in the direction of Ronald Heifetz’s book, Adaptive Leadership. Heifetz uses the metaphor of ‘getting off the balcony’ and ‘onto the dance floor’. He calls the dancefloor the daily operations and the balcony the strategic view. For this purpose, I like to include culture in the balcony view as well. It’s not about just doing one or the other, it’s about knowing which one needs to be prioritised and how and when to switch between the two. The best way forward requires you to find some time on the balcony, but not give up the dancefloor altogether.
As we unpacked it, they realised they were spending far too much time on the dancefloor, and although they wanted to get up on the balcony, the time just didn’t present itself. They couldn’t make it happen.
So, together, we grabbed some sticky notes and butcher’s paper, and looked at who was doing what. Green sticky notes were for strategy, blue for operations, and yellow for culture. The task was simple – one job/task on each sticky note. We then went through every member of the team to ensure every sticky note was placed in one of the four categories below.
What I need to…
- Do… that’s what we need to keep doing
- Ditch… it’s no longer required, so do away with it
- Distribute… can someone else pick this up?
- Discuss… for whatever reason, this needs a conversation
The conversation in itself was powerful, and it was a healthy exercise for several reasons. Most importantly, it was clear that the number of blue sticky notes for operations far outweighed the important work on strategy and culture. We’re now chasing more green and yellow.
Without choreographing too much of the future, we agreed that doesn’t mean we put away the dance shoes, as the staff need their leaders dancing alongside them, but a regular visit to the balcony will allow us to catch our breath before the next song starts.
