How I Used Clarity Cycles to Make School Change Happen

0:02 Hey there, and welcome to another change Catalyst conversation where we talk about anything and everything that has to do with building. A cohesive Vision, driven teams that make sustainable change happen. Even when change seems impossible, I'm Casey W impact, coaching consultant and the host of this show. What I know from experience is that making change happen, can be overwhelming and downright hard. Sometimes, as an instructional leader, you survey your organization from a bird's-eye view and it can seem as though, you're witnessing an anthill. That's been knocked down and aunts or scattering everywhere. No one has a collective.

0:43 Understanding of why change should happen or what changed to begin first. You notice false starts again and again because a solid action plan hasn't been crafted or you're met with resistance because you don't know how to motivate such complex people. The thing about ants though is that they have one common goal and that is to collectively. Rebuild one solid anthill but this doesn't always happen for schools. You see we can say as much as we want that Tier 1 instruction needs to happen or that a curriculum needs to be implemented with Fidelity or that PLC is need to be collaborative and support student learning but these Broad and Big us goals, do nothing to help teachers and staff build capacity and actually make change happen and that leads to schools remaining in a cycle of stagnancy. Experiencing the same problems and ineffectively repeating the same initiatives again.

1:48 And again, this leads to low, morale burnout, High turnover. And it leaves our students to suffer most, but if instructional leaders can get really Clear on a narrow road, instructional focus and script. The critical moves for people, then we can make Collective efficacy. A United colony of Educators if you will possible. My goal is to make cohesive Vision driven school teams a possibility. I helped School leaders, zoom out to cast vision and then Zoom back into script. Critical moves that help teams collectively go farther faster and better even when When change seems impossible.

2:32 One way I do, this is by coaching leaders through the clarity cycle framework a cycle for building sustainable capacity through intentional Clarity. Processes. Are you ready to feel great about exactly where you and your campus or headed? And are you ready to know exactly how you're going to get there? If so you're going to want to stop right now and head to catching up with kc.com to learn more about the clarity cycle framework. Work and then come back to catch up on this episode. It'll still be here when you get back. Okay? Now that you are primed for thinking about cohesive Vision, driven teams that make change happen. Let's jump into this week.

3:14 Change Catalyst conversation, Hey everybody and welcome to another change. Cuddles conversation, I am pumped about tonight's change petals conversation because I get to share with you something really personal that I feel like has made all the difference in the world in the field of making change happen in schools. And I want to get to tell you all about it. At, if you are coming in with us live, I want you to be sure to Drop your name where you are, what brings you to this episode in the comments so that I can see that you're here and as we're going through this episode if you have questions or you have ideas or thoughts or you're feeling like you could say me to to some any of the things that I'm sharing, drop a hashtag me to in the comments because remember we are nothing. If we are not in this all together. So I want to be sure I'm not alone in hearing about your experiences.

4:17 Are similar to mine. Okay, so we're going to get started. And what I want to do tonight is share with you about how the clarity cycle came to be how I used it in schools to make school change happen. What my life was like before Clarity cycles and what it was like after. And more importantly, not just how what my life was like before and after, but what the lives of teachers and staff and students. It's was like before and after. So are you ready to hear about what can be different before Clarity cycles and after Clarity Cycles?

4:57 Because if so we're about to jump into the conversation. So I want to start by having you think about ants and I've been giving this idea about ants and anthills and ants working together quite a bit recently so much so that I had decided to include it in this graphic. So we have this visual in mind and like I said, as I'm going through this, I want to tell you what's happened before and what's happened after Clarity Cycles. So let me just tell you my experience before and remember these experiences probably sound extremely familiar to you and if that's the case, I want to know, I'm not alone. So drop a hashtag me to and the comments so Clarity cycle. Oils.

5:48 And guys listen, you are probably going to hear this noise in the background. We have a big. We have a baby raccoon that we are rehabilitating. And that's the baby raccoon. I think it feels like it's hungry and it is like, really hungry apparently, but I just fed it. So, I promise it's okay and it's not hurting. It's just wants me to know that it's here. Okay, so I'm just gonna move on like, like it's a technical glitch in the Ground. Okay, here we go. Clarity Cycles were born from this overwhelming. Feeling of not being able, okay, I just need to know. Can you guys hear that?

6:30 Can you drop in the comments? If you hear the sound of this raccoon? I'm hoping that it quiets down. I mean it has to maybe my husband can come, get it. Oh my gosh. All I think you can hear it. I'm just gonna say hey hubs. I don't you. Come get this raccoon. So I just said, it's totally fine. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for understanding, please. Come get the Coon the raccoon. Okay, and maybe it'll quiet down. I don't know. We're listen, let's just keep moving forward. Can I just tell you the story of the raccoon? Because I'm not going to be able to focus on what I'm talking about right now. But listen, here's what happened. Here's here's the thing we have rehabilitated squirrels before and so we recently had a big storm and one of my daughters friends called and said, hey, we've got this squirrel, can you come and get it, and rehabilitate it? And we were like, sure will come and pick it up. Well, they got to my daughter's friend's house and this girl pulled this thing out from under her shirt, squirrel. And my husband was like, Yeah, that's not a squirrel. That is definitely a raccoon and so we are now rehabilitating this raccoon.

7:54 That is like not even three weeks old. It still has its eyes closed. It doesn't have ear holes and he's getting it right now. So thank you just so, you know, you're alive, raccoons live, everybody's life. So we've been caring for it and it's like you have to feed it. You have to feed it every Two or three hours. Yeah, bring it here. This is going to be the best life ever. Okay, so here's the raccoon. Look, she's like super hungry and if you rub her back, she'll start rooting around for food. So he's going to maybe feed her. I don't know, a little bit to help her be happy.

8:34 So that's Roxy. Our raccoon. Anyway, have to feed her every 2 to 3 hours. So, we're up every two to three hours and she's like caring for an aging. Ben, it's the craziest thing, but she's precious and she's growing like a weed. Okay. Now, can we move on to Clarity Cycles? Please let me know in the comments. If you got to see all of that Madness, just take place and I appreciate your patience, you guys are awesome. Okay, so let me tell you Clarity. Cycles were born from this overwhelming, feeling of not being able to help or support staff because we were all scattered.

9:15 Everywhere. So I was new to a campus. I went in, as an instructional leader thinking. Okay, what is it that we can be working toward as a campus? But it was hard because we were scattered and before Clarity Cycles, when I was at a primary campus, I noticed that we all had these different ideas of like, what small group instruction was or what is guided reading, what does it look like in each classroom? What materials do? We use I remember the new hires feeling super frustrated because they didn't know exactly what was expected of them or they didn't know exactly what to be doing during their small group instruction. And then on the opposite end of that, there were veteran teachers who felt like everyone was doing exactly what they were doing in their classroom or everyone was doing what they were telling them to do, even if it was outdated and not effective anymore.

10:15 So, So, I knew that there was frustration for everyone, and I knew that our Focus truly needed to be small group instruction, but it just, it just felt like too much too overwhelming. How do in the world? Do I build capacity in all of our people and help all of them to feel empowered and fulfilled and confident in their work? Like we're in like instead of feeling like an anthill, that's been knocked down with Aunt scattered everywhere. And when I noticed that we were anthill scattered everywhere, it was like, everyone was focused on their own goal, with their mindset, on their own classroom, and they were each moving in their own directions.

11:03 No one working in the same direction, each working toward their own agenda or tour. What they felt like was the right agenda and the Heart thing is that I didn't have Clarity on exactly where we were headed or how we would get there. So, of course, everyone else did not have Clarity either, and so things just stayed the same, it stayed stagnant. And that included student learning student learning remains stagnant, and that included, teacher capacity, it remained stagnant, and that is even more frustrating than filling. Scattered is when you just remain stagnant, but after we implemented Clarity cycles and I finally figured out like how we can make forward movement faster better, it was this magical experience.

12:02 Now, I'm not going to say it was like immediate but it was a magical experience after several successes to feel like we were working toward the same things and our school finally felt like Saying that every kind of teacher new or veteran could be a part of and wanted to be a part of. So I know you guys want this to be your experience, you want to be in a school and you want to be the leader of a school that everyone wants to be a part of, right? So that's what the clarity cycle did for us. So I want to tell you before Clarity Cycles, when we started focusing on guided reading and small-group instruction, In.

12:46 It was like this Big Blob. Our instructional Focus was just a blob of Confusion And I remember thinking, why aren't people understanding what our focus is and how to get there? Well, it's because they're asking, okay? What is, what is guided reading even mean? Like, what if even if we said we want guided reading to be implemented with Fidelity. Okay, so so I'll do it with fidelity. But that can mean one thing to one person and something, totally different to another person. So what is the guided reading and small group instruction look like, what does it sound? Like who comes up with what it looks like?

13:28 And sounds like this kind of broad ambiguous. Focus does nothing to help people take steps toward making change happen. But with a Clarity cycle, were able to cast this. Vision and script. The critical moves that make our people a part of this change story and were able to get super clear about where we're headed and how we're going to get there, okay? So just want to zoom in a little bit so you can see what happens to this Big Blob of an instructional goal after you start working through a Clarity cycle because I want you to see how critical moves can be scripted.

14:15 So know. Otis before. And instructional Focus might be guided reading or small group, instruction. We want guided reading to be implemented with Fidelity. OK? After a Clarity cycle, though, we narrow down to the question. What does the journey look like, for streamlined, small group instruction. And I want you to notice the top. There are five scripted critical moves, and this was shown to our teachers. So they could see Where we're headed, how we're getting there. And you'll notice that the bottom, it's not five anymore, it's ten steps. 10 critical moves that they were a part of creating and crafting. So we could all know where we are going and how we are going to get there.

15:05 That's just one small piece of a Clarity cycle. Okay. So, let's talk about that term Clarity how and why does clarity Help us move farther, faster and better. And to really take a look at this, we're going to jump into the work of John Hattie, and I want to focus on his research on teacher Clary. And you'll notice that teacher Clarity has a significant potential to considerably accelerate student learning an effect size of .84, that's massive. And what I want to also, Look at is the Webster dictionary definition of clarity. So from Webster Clarity means the quality of being clear. Such as the quality of being easily understood the state of having a full detailed and orderly mental grasp of something, the quality of being easily seen or heard the quality of being easily seen through right now. Let me bring you to this book Clarity for learning. So this was written by John Elmer Road and carob and us and when we look at Clarity for learning for students, I mean that's what it's focused on, it is focused on student learning, but I think what's important for us to start to understand is how Hattie's research can be as

16:35 applicable to people in the workplace as it can for student learning, right? So we've looked at teacher, Claire In the effect size, we looked at Webster's Dictionary definition. Now, I want to read to you. The definition from John Hattie in the book Clarity for Learning. And here is what John Hattie says about Clarity. For learning Hattie, 2009 describes clarity, as communicating the learning intentions, and success, criteria for, and success criteria, for the learning intentions, so that students can identify where they are going. Ang in their learning how they are progressing and where they will go next.

17:21 Thus, and listen to this part, providing students enough Clarity to own their own learning. Okay? Now let me read to you a little bit of what Alma Road and bandhas say about teacher Clarity Clarity and teaching and learning is the one thing that makes a significant impact on the growth and learning for Students in any classroom and also serves as a foundation for which the other significant influences are possible. Learning is most successful when teachers, see learning Through The Eyes of their students and the students see themselves as their own teachers. Okay.

18:02 Listen, if this is true for student learning then, wouldn't it be true that a community of Educators is most, Awful when they can identify where they're going in their work, how they will get there and where they will go next and see how they're progressing along the way. Right? But why is this true? What is it about Clarity? That makes growth movement and Improvement actually happened. And here's what I believe, I believe that when a campus leader provides clarity They increase the possibility for teachers to see how they belong as a significant contributor to the greater purpose. I'm going to read that once more when a campus leader and I'm thinking guys about campus administrators, I'm thinking about instructional coaches and thinking about instructional specialist directors superintendence, when these leaders provide Clarity they increase the possibility for teachers to see See how they belong as a significant contributor to the greater purpose. Okay?

19:22 With that in mind, here's what I want to look at next. A Clarity cycle is so much more powerful than just bringing Clarity to something. It is. What keeps your staff? Highly engaged. So let's think about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you know the hierarchy of Needs for all human beings. And there are multiple models that have been adjusted to help us. Think about how that fits into the workplace. We might notice that at the lowest level of survival of basic survival in the workplace, people are disengaged and there's low capacity, it's great. If they feel secure, it's even better if they feel a sense of belonging, it's even Better.

20:16 If they feel like they have an important role where they are and it is a best if they have self-actualization meaning, they know that they are significant troop, contributor. They know that they are vital and they know their own potential to grow and make an impact. These people of people can reach the highest engagement of this tiered model. Then we know that we are Are going to experience high capacity because they fill a sense of fulfillment and belonging. This is what people seek most. And if you do a Clarity cycle for no other reason, except to empower your people and build capacity so that you are not experiencing great turnover.

21:05 But instead you have a place where people want to come and work and people want to be a part of it because they know that they're part of something bigger than themselves. Oh, My gosh, I mean, wow, that's that's all there is to it, right? Like we could just end the school year be done. We've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. This is what a leader of a campus or a district or a group of people, does they bring Clarity and they bring transparency. So that people can be highly engaged. They can build capacity and we are meeting their basic needs so that they can reach their fullest potential.

21:45 Shal, okay, and that if you do nothing else. For the clarity cycle. This is the reason you should do it, okay? So here's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the different steps of the clarity cycle, and I'm going to go through these briefly and try to tie in what it looked like when I focused on small group instruction. So, remember earlier, you looked at like this map, where we thought about the question of like our Focus for small-group instruction, but then there will All of the steps. How are we going to get there? So we started that process by thinking about identifying the needs.

22:26 Remember how I said okay, we know that there is a need for small group of focus on small group instruction. We know that there's a need for guided reading to be implemented with Fidelity but those were what we believed were needs and we could have listed many many more. So, once we identified needs as an instructional leadership team, we knew that we had to gain insight and perspective, because this is where, by in comes from, we want people to be a part of this story of change. If they are not a part of the story of change, then we are not going to bring Clarity to their bigger purpose, right? So we gain perspective by having listening tours and feedback meetings to see what is it that you're thinking about? These certain things we've identified could be a possible Focus for our campus.

23:21 Once we gained insight and perspective, because remember, as instructional leaders, you have your bird's eye view, and your own perspective, but other stakeholders have a different perspective and we must consider those perspectives, okay? So once you gain perspective, you can adjust and shift what the focus needs to be. And you can determine a Very clear focus with all perspectives in mind from all stakeholders and I'm not just thinking about the perspectives of Campus leaders and thinking also about the perspectives of teachers students community members businesses.

24:05 You are thinking about the perspective of all stakeholders so that you can determine a focus that everyone can become part of and buy into Once you've determined that focused it is then time to start casting a vision and this is the harder part because sometimes we believe that once we share it people should know and people should understand once we share it once we feel like okay. Well we told them what the focus was. They even had a part in building this Focus not true. We have to cast vision and such an intentional way that It is caught on and multiplied over time. Okay, casting vision is an art form. And unless you do it.

24:56 Well, it will fizzle and die out and you're going to be left kind of in that same stagnant place then after you have cast Vision so so far in the steps like we identified the needs. Remember I said, okay guided reading needs to be a focus. We wrote down some different ideas of What specifically needed to be focused on with small group instruction and then we did our listening tours. And it turns out a lot of people had similar ideas to what we as instructional leaders had. But we had to shift what we believed, the focus could be. So when we determine the focus we realized, okay? Right now our focus is just to streamline it so that we have instructional non-negotiables so that when someone comes into our campus, they can go to a To any one of our campus teachers, our campus leaders and say, tell me about what guided reading looks like in classrooms and every one of us will share the same explicit definition and understanding of guided reading.

26:00 So that was our goal. That was our instructional focus. When we cast The Vision, we were telling this to people in every conversation, when we met together for planning meetings, this is what we were talking about. When we have professional development, guess what? The only thing that we were learning about was small group, instruction, and guided reading, when we implemented learning walks, the only thing we were focused on is what are people doing? What is their process for their small group instruction? And that was all a part of scripting the critical moves. When we said our instructional Focus was small group instruction. And we said, here's what we want to be able to see by the end of this time.

26:49 Period, we had to lay out and script. All of the moves that people needed to go through in order to work toward that. Because without scripting, the critical moves, they're going back into their own little worlds and they're continuing and their same processes. When you script the critical moves though, you give them something to look forward to a next step and then a next step and then a Next Step, okay? After you've scripted, the critical moves and you're working through them. The last thing that you're going to do is celebrate systematically, and that means that you have a system for celebrating the small successes over time.

27:34 Okay. Clarity Cycles, go through this process and I want to bring your attention to this quote, from the book, switch by chip. And Dan Heath fantastic read. Of course, it's one of my favorites and you can tell by all of the sticky notes, but really, when we're thinking about leadership, campus leaders and instructional Focus, we are in the business of change management, and that's all there is to it. If you are an instructional leader of any kind, You're in the business of change management. Here's what chip and Dan Heath say about change though, there won't be a moment when your community starts to and I inserted engage with high-capacity there will be a process to lead a process requires persistence so they give this example of you're not going to see a baby just walking, there's not a moment where they they just boom walk. There is a process to that and there's a persistence behind that process, right?

28:43 And it's the same thing. When you're going through a Clarity cycle, there is a process and you have to be persistent about it, and you have to be patient and you have to believe in it going through a Clarity cycle is time-consuming. It can be challenging work but it is so worth it. I can tell you from experience, there have been times that I've not gone through the clarity cycle and it was that before pictures of the ant scattered everywhere. And then I've been through the experience after the clarity cycle where we all knew where we were going, how we were going to get there and what it was going to look like, when we did get there, and I want you to go through a Clarity cycle.

29:31 I want you to know all of the little pieces and components that go into a Clarity cycle. Because what I've shared tonight is just a smidgen of what is included in a full-on Clarity cycle. So here's what I am pitching to you. What I'm pitching is that you join me for the first-ever clarity cycle? Mastermind, that is happening in June. I've got a June cohort that's going to be going on the full month of June. It says only seven spots available. But I am down to only two spots. Now, I am considering increasing that number, so I might open it up for more people, to be able to join this cohort, for the month of June. But what we are doing in this Mastermind is we are truly coming together as instructional leaders. I've got principals assistant, principals and instructional coaches, who are coming together and we are thinking about what it could look like to go through a charity cycle next year, with your staff.

30:38 And this is the perfect time because I know that right now you are starting to think about what your instructional focus is for next year. And if you were going to have an instructional focus, it is imperative that you go through a Clarity cycle so that you can bring transparency and Clarity to your people so that they can go farther faster and better while doing it collectively. This is how you build. Cassidy. And this is how you reach Collective efficacy. Okay. So all you have to do to get to the clarity cycle, Mastermind cohort, and learn more about it is.

31:18 Go to bit.ly slash Clarity cycle. It's right here at the bottom of the screen. You can go to it and check it out. Let me tell you what you're getting. When you join this cohort, you're getting three live virtual sessions with me and with other cohort members to Mastermind. Around these six components of the clarity cycle. I've got this great workbook that scripts, the critical moves for each step. And we're going to go through all of that together. So you can start the year super strong and ready to lead your people. You also get access to this ongoing discussion with me and other cohort members through, Marco Polo and app that I use on The Daily.

32:00 So we can have casual conversation where you come as you are? You come as you, please. And you share about everything that's on your mind. And then, finally, here's what you get, you get the lowest launch price of the first-ever clarity cycle. Mastermind, this is the lowest price that as we'll ever be, it will only go up and increase from here. So here's what I want to know from you. I want to know what you felt like from this conversation tonight. Hey, Michelle Belen is going to be a part of the clarity cycle. Mastermind, she's coming with her principal and it's going to be Awesome. I cannot wait. We're going to have so much fun and learn so much together and be ready to start next to your strong. I just so excited about it.

32:45 So tell me in the comments. What you feel like was most useful for you here tonight. Maybe you're thinking about some of the stories that I shared and how similar it is to what you have experienced. I can tell you, I told you a little bit about going through the clarity cycle with small group instruction guys. I have gone through Clarity cycle with plc's, we have gone through the clarity cycle when implementing a new curriculum framework, this is the way to bring Clarity to what you are doing with your campus or your District. Okay, it is the way to go.

33:25 I love it so much. I don't know. I don't think I could move forward and implementing any kind of change or implementing. Any new instructional focus without going through a Clarity cycle. And someone said, it's like, you read my mind. I have a huge need to get my own Clarity cycle, going for my goals next year. Yes do it. And guys if you will message me, send me a like a Facebook message or email me at catching up with Casey at gmail.com and I will get you just like a shorter version of this Clarity cycle workbook so you can see those steps and be able to print them out the workbook itself. Like I said, has All of them, like the critical moves for each component.

34:10 Okay? And let's see. So Hunter said, we must understand what is driving our system if we don't, how can we do anything to significantly contribute? You make a great Point, yes, absolutely Hunter. If we don't do anything or if we don't, how can we do anything to significantly contribute and that's what people want. People want to be able to contribute. Okay guys, I so Enjoyed this evening with you last, I'm so happy that so many of you were understanding about our raccoon and the fact that I had to reschedule for tonight instead of doing it last night, because life happens. Okay?

34:51 Until next time, I want you to drop me some comments, let me know what you're thinking about the clarity cycle. Mastermind, if you want more information, you want to blown on one conversation with me, go to my website, or just send me. A message, I will be happy to follow up with you, okay? See you guys later. Hey guys, I want to give a huge shout-out to you for tuning into today's change, Catalyst conversation. I would love for you to do me to solid favors. Number one, if you enjoyed this or any other change, Catalyst conversation, do me a favor and hit, subscribe. I've got a lot of great content and guess coming up, and I don't want you to miss any of it.

35:32 Number two, if you are thinking of a and or colleague, who could benefit from this show, share it with them. The only way to make change happen is through a multiplier effect and you can be a multiplier by sharing this show. Until next time, I want you to go off and do the great things that change catalysts do.