School Board Governance

How to embrace Change at the Board Level ? In today’s fast-paced business environment, embracing change is not just a necessity; it’s a strategic imperative. As leaders, it’s our duty to navigate our organizations through transformation, ensuring we remain agile, innovative, and competitive. Here are key strategies to effectively embrace change at the board level: 1. Cultivate a Change-Ready Mindset: Encourage a culture that views change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Foster open-mindedness and flexibility among board members. 2. Invest in Continuous Learning: Stay ahead by investing in ongoing education and development. Equip the board with the latest industry trends, technologies, and leadership practices. 3. Engage in Strategic Foresight: Regularly analyze market trends, emerging technologies, and potential disruptions. Use this insight to proactively plan for the future. 4. Promote Diversity and Inclusion: Embrace diverse perspectives to drive innovation and creativity. Diverse boards are better equipped to understand and adapt to change. 5. Enhance Communication and Collaboration: Ensure transparent and consistent communication. Foster collaboration among board members, management, and stakeholders to align on change initiatives. 6. Adopt Agile Governance: Implement agile principles in governance. Be ready to pivot strategies and decision-making processes as needed. Change is inevitable, but with the right approach, it can lead to unprecedented growth and success. #boards #ChangeManagement #BoardLeadership #percyvaid #AgileGovernance #independentdirector

When I told my board 'we need to unlearn what we taught', here's what happened… What if the problem isn't that our students aren't learning enough, but that we taught them the wrong things too well? Everyone's debating: "Kids today lack discipline." "They don't have the basics." "Technology ruined everything." Some are even blaming parents for not reinforcing what schools teach. I see it differently. Because every day, I watch #students excel at what we trained them for and struggle precisely because of it. Let me share what happened when I stood before our board and said something uncomfortable as an #educator leading change, not defending tradition. What I told them we got wrong… 1. We taught compliance, not thinking: For years, we rewarded the quiet hand-raiser, the one who memorized correctly, who followed instructions without question. Now we wonder why they can't think critically, can't challenge ideas, can't innovate. We built that. 2. We taught right answers, not good questions: Our assessments penalized curiosity that wandered off-script. We gave marks for correct responses, not for asking "what if?" or "why not?" Now they freeze when facing open-ended problems because we never honored risk over certainty. 3. We taught speed, not depth: Finish fast, move to the next chapter, cover the syllabus. We created a generation brilliant at surface-level processing and anxious about sitting with complexity. They learned pace matters more than understanding. 4. We taught individual success, not collective growth: Every test was solo. Every rank was competitive. Every achievement meant someone else didn't get it. Now we expect collaboration, empathy, team skills, but we spent years training them that others are obstacles, not allies. 5. We taught fear of failure as wisdom: Wrong answers meant red marks, lost grades, disappointed faces. So they learned safety over experimentation, perfection over iteration. The very caution we praised is now the barrier to their creativity. What happened when I said this out loud.. Silence. Long, uncomfortable silence. Then a board member spoke: "So you're saying we failed them?" "No," I said. "I'm saying we succeeded at the wrong curriculum. And now we need the courage to undo it." What we're doing instead: → Teaching productive struggle. We now celebrate the messy middle, not just polished endings. → Rewarding questions over answers. Class participation now includes "I don't understand, help me think through this." → Building reflection time. Slow isn't lazy, it's how depth happens. → Creating collaborative #assessments. Success means lifting others, not just yourself. → Normalizing iteration. First drafts are supposed to be rough. Mistakes are data, not judgment. The #unlearning is harder than the original learning. For us as educators, and for the students carrying years of old conditioning. What do you think, what's one thing schools taught you that you had to unlearn later in life? 

I was reviewing a strategic plan. Beautiful document. Impressive graphics. Detailed implementation timeline. One problem: it was just telling them to do more of what they were already doing. No rethinking. No refinement. No clarity on what would actually move the needle. Just a prettier way of saying, “Keep doing everything.” Strategic plans get built in all kinds of ways — sometimes by the executive director, sometimes by a consultant. But the mistake is when they simply reflect what staff and board already believe should be done. That’s how we end up with long to-do lists — disconnected from real community needs and the leverage points that drive real change. If you're a nonprofit leader, here’s the truth: Your strategic plan could be different. It could be grounded in the most important community needs. It could challenge you to stop doing things that don’t make sense. It could focus your team and resources on the few things that will change everything. When we don’t focus on leverage points, we waste resources, burn out staff, and fall short for the people we’re here to serve. Here’s the process we use: 1. Start with people, not just statistics. Don’t just gather data — gather voices. Sit with the people most affected. Hear what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing. 2. Define the key leverage points for change. Ask why this problem exists. What are the root causes? Where can pressure on the system actually shift the outcome? 3. Gather ideas from the community on how to address those leverage points. Don’t just diagnose — co-design solutions. The people closest to the problem often know what will actually work. 4. Examine your current programs. Which ones address the real leverage points? Which ones don’t? Be honest. It’s okay to let some things go. 5. Develop strategies that live in your zone of genius. You can’t solve everything. But you can do your part powerfully when strategy aligns with your strengths. 6. Break the 5-year vision into annual goals, quarterly rocks, and assigned actions. Don’t skimp on implementation. Getting this right takes a step-by-step plan with real resources and person-hours. And to do it well, the ED can’t carry it all alone. This is how we helped Santa Clara County redesign its jail reentry strategy — leading to an 11% reduction in recidivism among our target population during the first years of implementation. It’s also the process we used with Cradle Cincinnati, strengthening the work they’re doing to eliminate infant mortality by clarifying the key leverage points for change and further developing community-rooted strategies to address them. Because real transformation doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from doing what matters most, and doing it well. Is your plan a to-do list, or a roadmap to real transformation?

Strategic planning in schools fails when it becomes a paperwork exercise. Real strategy is not written in isolation. It is built through shared thinking, honest reflection, and disciplined focus. When staff are excluded, plans stay on paper. When teachers are included, strategy shows up in classrooms. Inclusion is not about consensus—it’s about ownership. Data should inform, not intimidate. Used well, it helps us ask better questions. Used poorly, it creates defensiveness instead of direction. A SWOT analysis only matters when leaders are willing to be truthful. Real strengths. Real weaknesses. Real priorities. The same is true for improvement plans and the SEF. They don’t drive change by existing. They matter only when they shape daily practice and decision-making. The most effective leadership teams don’t chase perfection, but review, reflect, adjust—and stay aligned. Strategy is not about having the right answers. It’s about creating clarity, consistency, and shared purpose. Reflection for leaders: Which part of your strategic planning genuinely drives action—and which part exists only to satisfy a requirement? #StrategicLeadership #SchoolLeadership #EducationalLeadership #InstructionalLeadership #TeacherVoice #SchoolImprovement #LeadershipCulture

There's something familiar about the way schools are responding to AI. Five years ago, schools faced a different disruption: COVID-19. Leaders made rapid decisions to keep learning going while edtech companies flooded the space with short-term solutions. There was real hope that this moment would spark a wave of innovation. New models. Major shifts. In reality, we saw rapid digital adoption, but limited innovation. Spurred on by advances in AI, schools are asking some of the same questions: What does it mean to learn? What skills will matter? What/how should we teach? This time, the horizon is ambiguous, wider. Schools are balancing the immediate side of change with considering the impact of AI on today's kindergarten students in 16 years. Our understanding of the implications of AI (not just generative) is murkier and more complex. Most school systems are trying to do two things at once: nurture thoughtful, grounded young people and prepare them for a fast-changing future. That tension creates a set of paradoxes worth naming. As part of my doctoral research, I interviewed school leaders about how culture shaped change amidst the COVID-19 disruption. The findings and paradoxes are relevant to schools today. Paradox 1: Disruption feels sudden, but plays out in phases. The most successful schools during COVID didn’t just react. They paused, refined, and pivoted. They moved from emergency response, to remote learning, to hybrid models 🤪, to a return to in-person learning and rebuilding community. Paradox 2: Innovation needs flexibility, but implementation needs structure. Creative solutions require room to breathe, but scaling them needs clear systems and lines of accountability. Paradox 3: Innovation is often driven by external pressure, but sustained by internal trust. Schools that listen to their community and broader trends move faster. But lasting change depends on strong culture, shared values, and professional trust. Here are five ways school and system leaders can take a thoughtful approach to AI: 🎯Get specific about the problem and opportunity What are you trying to solve or achieve? Make sure it connects to your school’s mission. Bring diverse voices into the conversation. 🪜Break it down AI isn’t one thing. Identify distinct tools, use cases, and implications. ✅Prioritize Decide what to act on now, what to explore, and what to watch. Not everything needs to be implemented immediately. 📊Use well-researched resources Our new AI policy chatbot draws from UNESCO, the OECD, and other well-vetted sources. Link in chat. 🌿Develop a living policy and plan Don't avoid change and thoughtful planning, but acknowledge that there are unknown elements and that plans and policies will be working documents. Create: 🛝Clear sandboxes aligned to strategic goals 🏆AI champions or knowledge-sharing networks ♻️Frequent review cycles with stakeholder input More to come - especially on why this moment calls for philosophy majors.

"Can you do it in 2 months?" Yes, I can 100% create your strategic plan in two months. For that matter, I can do it two days. But you don’t want me to (and I won’t do it). Your organization’s strategic plan is your own, which means a good strategic planning consultant isn’t creating it. They are facilitating a process to create it (and memorializing that process). Why does that process take so long? Because a good plan addresses the needs of the community and taps into collective wisdom, a good plan engages a lot of people (people you serve & seek to serve, board members, staff, partners, volunteers, etc.), and each of those individuals has a calendar full of lots of other things they are doing. Engaging with each participant -- never mind aligning participation among multiple parties – takes time. (Case in point, if I asked you to convene an additional board meeting, how much lead time would you require if you wanted any chance of getting quorum?) What if you don’t have five or more months? There are some frameworks I like to use that can get you some immediate organizational alignment and transparency in decision making. Super helpful – but not a strategic plan. A full assessment of what is working and not within your organization? Clarity on not only who you are today, but who you could be, in response to what your organization is uniquely qualified to provide and current needs of your community? A roadmap that takes you from vision to implementation? That’s going to take a minute.

I’m with a Board of Directors today, working through the development of a new strategic framework. We’ve reached the point in the process where the conversation turns to which strategies will move the organization toward its success statements. As that discussion unfolds, capacity and priority come into focus right alongside it. That’s where strategy shifts from aspiration to decision. This is also where one of my core idea continues to guide the work: Strategic abandonment creates the capacity for innovation. Organizations are filled with good ideas, active initiatives, and ongoing commitments. What elevates strategy is the discipline to regularly assess the impact of that work and make clear decisions about what continues to earn investment. An intentional cycle of evaluation creates clarity across four critical choices: what to sunset, what to pause, what to maintain, and where to invest. That clarity builds the space needed for meaningful progress. I came across a recent article in Harvard Business Review that offers a strong tool to support this kind of conversation within staff teams and at the Board table: Your Company Needs to Focus on Fewer Projects. Here’s How. by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez https://lnkd.in/gqN_jEbk A few insights that stand out: Many organizations carry far more active projects than their capacity can support Only a small percentage conduct regular portfolio reviews Work often continues simply because it has not been intentionally reconsidered What resonates most is the shift toward making continuation a conscious, active choice. That single shift strengthens alignment, sharpens focus, and reinforces strategic intent. If your organization is navigating strategy, or even feeling the weight of competing priorities, this article offers a helpful starting point for dialogue. Take a read and consider what conversation it might open within your team or Board. #Strategy #Governance #Leadership #Nonprofits #BoardLeadership #StrategicPlanning

40 people walked into a room with 40 different versions of the future in their heads. By the end of the day, they were building one. This month I facilitated a Vision and Growth Planning Summit for Westside Waldorf School. The morning opened with 40 voices. By afternoon, a working group of 20 got into the specifics. The day closed with a two-hour board session where decisions got made. The group got smaller as the work got sharper. By design. What made it work? Here's what I've learned, and what you can steal for your next strategy and planning session. 1. Listen before you enter the room. Stakeholder conversations are where the real agenda gets built. Depending on the project, that might mean a few weeks of conversations or several months. Talk to the decision-makers and the people closest to the work. 2. Co-design the session with the key leaders. Collaborate on the structure, the flow, the goals. It takes more time and iteration, it's almost always more effective. When leaders help shape the day, they show up as champions, not just participants. 3. Invite people to state their intention. There's science behind this. Set the context first: the vision, the stakes, what this day is for. Invite each person to share their intention. It shifts the room from a group of individuals into a community with shared purpose. Every time. 4. Name the common ground before you explore the differences. Surface the shared goals first. Name them. Let the group refine them. When people know what they agree on, they can disagree productively on everything else. 5. Create a home for every idea, issue, offer, and ask. Designate space on the wall for the key themes. Direct people to write and post. The quiet thinkers and the big talkers contribute in roughly equal measure. Nothing gets lost. The room stays on track. 6. Don't leave without next steps. A beautiful conversation that ends without clarity is a missed opportunity. Use dot voting, round-robins, or ranked choices. Build the action plan together, in the room, before anyone leaves. 7. Communicate out, or the good ideas die. Two things need to happen. First, a warm message back to all participants capturing the highlights. This isn't just documentation. It's fuel. It keeps momentum alive. Second, a full report to key leaders: the specific ideas generated, the priorities surfaced, the action steps, the 90-day plan. Together, they help turn a great day into a lasting shift. I'm so fortunate to get to work with committed, intentional, inspired leaders like Evan Horowitz and Anjum Mir. Strategy and planning sessions are one of the highest-leverage investments a leader can make. Done well, they don't just create a roadmap. They create belief in the vision, in each other, in what's possible. If you're preparing for a planning retreat, a leadership summit, or an organizational pivot and want to think through your approach, let's connect. #StrategicPlanning #Leadership #OrganizationalTransformation

Ever seen a school set big priorities in the summer and then just forget about them by October? It happens all the time. Here's the 7-step process we coach leaders to use so their priorities don't die in a Google Drive: 1. Look back. Priorities should come from this year's data analysis. What data should I look at? Qualitative and quantitative data in these categories: staff culture, student culture, family engagement, student achievement. Make a list of the top 3-4 bright spots and top 3-4 challenges grounded in the data. 2. Propose a list of priorities that will address the challenges. Now that you've done your analysis, gather your leadership team and do 2 things: 1) Determine the root causes behind those challenges. 2) Based on the root causes, draft your 3-4 priorities that would address those root causes. Here's an example from a network of 5 schools we supported in this process: Challenge --> low math achievement Root cause --> challenging to teach new curriculum, not enough high-quality coaching for math teachers Priority --> Improve math achievement through more consistent coaching on planning and curriculum implementation Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be. Complicated priorities processes have been messing schools up for years and confusing people. 3. Get staff involved. Lead a meeting with staff and ask them if 3-4 priorities will address the challenges. Listen to their feedback. Have staff break into groups and determine a list of tactics that leaders and teachers could take to win on each priority. Refine the list of tactics as a leadership team afterwards. 4. Determine your big end-of-year goal. If you won on each priority, what goal would you hit at the end of the year? This is an actual number. Not a feeling. Not some confusing jargon. An actual number. 5. Determine the mini-goals. Pick at least three times throughout the year to measure progress. Set mini-goals that will tell you if you're on track to meet your big end-of-year goal at these checkpoints. 6. Plan your launch. Now that you have your list, plan your priorities launch for the summer when staff comes back. And make a plan for how you'll communicate how you're doing on the priorities to the board, to staff, to anyone who needs to know them. 7. Avoid these No-Nos Big No No 1 - You don't get 5, or 7, or 12 priorities. You get 3. Max 4. Prioritization should be painful. Big No No 2 - Priorities are not the time to add some new fun buzzword everyone's talking about but no one really knows what it means. AI is not a priority. Project-based learning is not a priority. Those are tactics that should contribute to improving an existing challenge at the school. Whew. That's a lot. But there's nothing worse than kicking off a new school year while staff mutters, "So what's the new thing this year?" The schools we work with don't have this problem. And I want that to be true for your school, too.

Why do some change initiatives succeed while most fizzle out? We’ve all been there. Fired up about a big change. The vision is clear, the energy is high… and then? Reality hits. Some people are on board, a few push back, but most are just too busy. So how do we keep the momentum going? Here’s what I've learned. 1. Start with ‘why’ and a learning stance If people don’t see the purpose, they won’t invest. - Paint a vivid picture of success—what will it look, sound, and feel like? - Encourage small, low-risk experiments—like rearranging the room. - Ask them to reflect on times when thinking has shifted. - Get teachers in each other’s classrooms, observing and reflecting. 2. Use micro-learning with real implementation. Short learning bursts + immediate action = real change. - Keep inputs short—people are busy. - Always tie learning to a concrete next step. - Reflection + action builds momentum. 3. Tailor learning to their reality Generic PD is easy to ignore. Make it relevant. - Offer examples directly tied to their grade level or subject. - Create resources they can use immediately. 4. Involve the whole system Change doesn’t happen in isolation. - Bring in librarians, paraprofessionals, parents, leaders, and board members. - Align the entire school community to a shared vision. 5. Ensure early success Small wins fuel motivation. - Help teachers see quick results, even if they’re small. - Success breeds confidence and buy-in. 6. Make learning ongoing One-and-done workshops won’t cut it. - Spread learning out over time—think months or years. - Micro-learning and coaching sustain growth. 7. Build capacity and co-create The goal isn’t "do it for them"—it’s "grow together." - Celebrate teachers’ creativity. - Let them take the lead in sessions. Change is tough, but momentum makes it easier. What’s one small shift you can make this week?