By Jeff Simmons, IDLA Superintendent
Change can be hard. Even thinking about change can be overwhelming when we have so much on our plates. But we can’t let workload and stress prevent us from making positive changes. So what’s the solution?
Ron Clark, former Disney Teacher of the Year, addressed this in his keynote at this year’s Idaho Association of School Administrators Conference. He was learning that his school’s hard-working, dedicated staff were becoming overwhelmed by thinking about change. Sometimes, change can seem like “one more thing.” In this case, the staff was working so hard that the thought of one more thing was unbearable.
Ron knows that it is important that everyone in the building has a growth goal. If we’re not growing, we’re dying. So how did he approach this with a staff that felt like they were on the verge of breakdown?
He asked them if they could do 1%. He asked his staff to “shrink the change” (to borrow a phrase from Switch, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath). 1% is a pretty small number. It’s about the smallest thing we can think about changing. And for Ron’s overwhelmed staff, 1% was still something they felt they could handle.
So, each of his staff members set a 1% goal for the school year. Some of them set multiple 1% goals! The genius behind this approach is that many of the 1% goals set by staff likely improved their performance by much more than 1%. But thinking about one little thing made it possible for people to do what they had previously considered impossible.
I love this approach! We do the same thing for students. When students feel overwhelmed by a large project or a long semester, we use a ” chunking ” teaching strategy. We help the student focus on the next small piece before them and then celebrate when it is completed! That celebration provides the motivation to complete the next piece, and then… voila! Our students are able to do much more than they initially thought they would be able to do.
So, what’s your 1% goal as we start the school year? You may be feeling overwhelmed or underwater. The thought of change may fill you with anxiety. But what’s one small thing you can do? That small thing, added to other small things, will lead you to significant change over time. If thinking about your goals for the year is overwhelming, try thinking about a 1% goal. You will be surprised with what you might come up with.
