Confronting Brutal Facts

There is a charter school dear to my heart that is losing at least half its staff every year. Until this school faces the "brutal facts" of the common denominator(s) as to why staff are leaving it will never move from a good to great school as Jim Collins explains in his book Good to Great.

Collins explains that leadership must create a climate where truth is heard and the brutal facts are confronted. He suggests that the following things will help:

• Lead with questions to gain understanding rather than answers.

"So, what's on your mind?"

"Can you tell me about that?"

"Can you help me understand?"

"What should we be worried about?"

• Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion, to search for the best answers.


• Search for understanding and learning, rather than blame.


• Build "red flag" mechanisms to gather information that can't be ignored.

Brutal facts addressed appropriately can make the organization stronger and encourage everyone in it to prevail in their commitment. If brutal facts are not addressed people will be demotivated and choose to leave.

National Teacher Day Ponderings

Jim Collins reminds us in his book Good to Great that we must have the right people on the bus and in the right places. Because today is National Teacher Day I am pondering on what needs to be done so we have these right people on our "bus"--Esperanza Elementary.

First, we need to create a quality, excellent school built upon correct principles--a school that will attract high calibre educators. Second, we need to remember that qualities and predispositions to work with our student population are more important than skills. It is a whole lot easier to teach skills than it is to teach qualities and predispositions. Third, we need to invite high calibre educators/people to join us. Fourth, we need to hire high calibre people even if we don't have a specific position for them, yet.

If we do these things our students will be the beneficiaries which is why we do all that we do.