A friend recently shared this article from Jake Trotter writing about the University of Texas football program.
The story focuses on Head Coach Tom Herman – a highly regarded coach who had great success at the University of Houston but then struggled in his first season at the University of Texas. After an embarrassing opening loss to Maryland to start the season the coaching staff “lasered in even more on implementing their culture, while easing their attention on the X’s and O’s. Getting the team to play hard trumped expanding the playbook.”
So what does an article about college football have to do with schools?
Well, actually a lot. This approach by Herman is just what we are often talking about in our schools. We want classes to be about getting to know and understand children, not just about delivering curriculum. We need schools to be human enterprises that have guidelines and expectations and focused not on results in the traditional sense of tests scores, but more broadly on human capital. And we want school districts that focus on building culture so great things can happen, not just trying to make great things happen immediately – potentially with long-term consequences.
I really liked Herman’s notation that “there’s a big difference between being compliant and committed.” This is so true in our system. Whether it is my work with our school principals, our school principals work with our teachers or our teachers work with our students, we want people to buy-in to being part of something bigger, and not just do the minimum to feel they have completed a task. Of these three challenges, the greatest is in the classroom. I get to hire our principals, and we also get to hire our teachers – so we can select ones with a mindset aligned to our culture. In our classrooms, we work with all our students – there is no selecting ones who might “fit” better than others. The challenge of commitment over compliance is one I see teachers take on everyday.
So as we allow students greater choice in what they learn and how they show their learning, as we give teachers the autonomy to make the curriculum come alive in a variety of ways, and as we allow schools to each have their own signature – and not just be school franchises – we look for the culture that allows commitment to flourish.
Like the state of the University of Texas Football Program, this quest is imperfect in our schools. I look back over the last week at some decisions that I know people are complying with, and not necessarily committed to. But this is the goal – a culture of commitment at all levels in our school system.
Great post Chris. Tom Herman is a great example of a culture first leader. His record of success at every stop is an example of the power of culture and attitude. One of the famous examples at the University of Texas is his Longhorns Football Hydration Chart (I will let you Google this one). It was one of the first things he did when he started at Texas and the point was that the details matter.
Focusing on culture is important in every organization. More importantly, leaders need to focus on the details and live it everyday. Thank you for highlighting the college football example. There are some more great examples in college sports right now.
PJ Fleck – “Row The Boat”
Mike Leach – “Swing Your Sword”
As educators our lives can be busy from start to finish in our day. A clear vision, simply stated but complex in message, can be a powerful way to move compliance to commitment. This is an important and challenging topic in all organizations, especially schools. I look forward to following the conversation.
Chris:
Kudos for your focus on what I believe to be core to a strong learning system – ‘a culture of learning’ – with a mindset of educators who are committed to the bigger picture of what we are about – scaffolding the learning of all, students and educators alike.
The BC Case Study, embedded within the Study on the State of Educators Professional Learning in Canada (Learning Forward) provides examples of our BC Collaborative of Education partners, wherein a mindset of professional learning to support student learning is eminent. Love the analogy to coaching, where we all have our eye on the end in mind, supporting each student, ideally working together to enrich the culture within we which we work, all learning.
Thanks Sue – I agree we have a great culture of learning in our province.