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Chapter 6

Producer

A producer takes on any work that needs to get done

to move the project to the next phase.

—Lisa Kay Solomon, thought leader in design innovation

If you have ever watched the Oscars and found yourself wonder- ing, “Why don’t the A-list celebrities accept the award for Best Picture?” you aren’t alone. It can be easy to think that the Holly- wood stars, the big names we know and love, should be front and center when collecting the awards. Yet the reality is that the film wouldn’t have been made, much less be up for an award, without a quality producer and director.

A Producer plays a critical role in many industries, including music and film. In fact, without a producer, the latest film you watched or album you listened to wouldn’t have been created. Producers are responsible for putting together a creative and talented cast and crew and all aspects of a film’s production, including coming up with solutions on the spot. Producers must

Gallagher, Alyssa, and Kami Thordarson. Design Thinking for School Leaders : Five Roles and Mindsets That Ignite Positive Change, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/amridge/detail.action?docID=5437456. Created from amridge on 2021-10-05 20:57:19.

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facilitate all the individual actions, then pull together the neces- sary components to deliver an outstanding performance. They are not only responsible for shipping a final product, they are responsible for all the iterations and pivots in the production cycle. Producers wear many hats. In the words of Hana Shimizu, executive producer, and Zack Kortright, head of business devel- opment for Hornet in New York: “Sometimes we are therapists, wranglers, negotiators, coaches, cheerleaders, translators, con- flict resolution, bean counters, bad cop, paper pushers, spin doc- tors, food runners, naysayers, and problem solvers. The truth is, we are all those things and sometimes all in the span of a day” (Motionographer, 2017). Producers are the connective thread that moves a project forward from start to finish. They must also protect the line, which means staying true to the vision, working within constraints, and taking care of their talent.

Most of us have seen the movie classic The Wizard of Oz. During the production of that film, the original Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, was hospitalized and had an iron lung put in after the powdered silver makeup coated his lungs. It took 12 weeks to get the dog, Toto, to follow actors down the yellow brick road, and the film changed directors five times. In the end, the producers were able to pull the production to completion and created a movie classic that debuted in 1939 and is still loved today. Pro- ducers must practice innovation and agile thinking at all times. In education, we need our leaders to embrace the talents of Pro- ducers, an idea shared by Lisa Kay Solomon (2015) in “The Rise of the Producer,” to push learning from the industrial era into the innovation era.

Hustling and Looking Around Corners Within one week, Alyssa had the opportunity to attend two very different education meetings. The first meeting she attended was at her local elementary school, as a parent representative on the curriculum committee. The group meets monthly with a

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set meeting time and vague directives. At this particular meet- ing, the committee gathered with a loose agenda focused on discussing whether or not Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop was the right direction for the school. Ideas were thrown around and discussions were had, but at the end of an hour there was no real clear plan for what would happen next. Two teachers even left prior to the meeting officially ending, as it had run over the allocated time. Thankfully, a teacher volunteered to arrange an informational learning session on Readers’ and Writers’ Work- shop for the staff to see if there was broad interest, but it was clear that there was no real rush to get the information or to make a decision. Two days later, Alyssa found herself at another education-related meeting. This time the topic was much more global, focused on building a national grassroots campaign to provide tools and information for parents that would support them in demanding better performance from their local schools. The team was assembled from a cross-section of industries and, apart from this one face-to-face meeting for a few hours, they weren’t geographically close to one another. All their future work together would happen remotely. This meeting felt very different from most education meetings. From the beginning, there was a clear bias toward action and a sense of urgency that underlined the importance of the work. Within the first hour, the group had clarified its purpose and created tangible action items with due dates and expected follow-ups. Alyssa left the meeting excited, inspired, and ready to take on big challenges. Having these two meetings so close together provided a clear comparison, and she couldn’t help but wonder, “Why is there less hustle in education?”

Traditional education conditions students and teachers to wait. In a classroom, we ask students to wait to be called on, to wait for all the directions, and to wait for everyone to catch up to them. We train teachers to wait for the right curriculum, to wait for a district decision, and to wait for permission to try something new. While we encourage and instill wait time, hustle

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requires movement. Hustle has impact when it comes from the top. Creating a sense of urgency can be difficult in education, and the leader must show that change is needed and not just wanted. Oftentimes, educators and the general public use standardized test scores to make a success judgment. In schools that score well, with students measuring at or above average, complacency reigns. Why make changes when things are working? In his book The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Same-

ness, Todd Rose writes: “Most of us know intuitively that a score on a personality test, a rank on a standardized assessment, a grade-point average, or a rating on a performance review doesn’t reflect you, or your child’s, or your students’, or your employees’ abilities. Yet the concept of average as a yardstick for measuring individuals has been so thoroughly ingrained in our minds that we rarely question it seriously” (Goodreads, n.d.). This view of average, and the assumption that we are meeting the needs of the “average” student, leads to a total lack of urgency to correct any problems or make any significant changes. This lack of urgency may ultimately undermine public education as we know it.

Most of us remember the days of developing film, when Kodak was the go-to brand name for the film and paper you would trust with your memories. Even with the strong emotional connection Kodak had with its customers, they filed for bankruptcy in 2012, shifting from the world’s largest film company to a has-been company beaten by the digital revolution. After 128 years of suc- cess, you would think they would have been positioned to “look around corners” and predict the innovations on the horizon. What you may not realize is that Kodak actually developed the world’s first consumer digital camera in the early 1990s, but they couldn’t get the approval to launch or sell it because of the orga- nization’s fear of the effects on the film market and their inability to hustle. They were worried that digital cameras would kill their film business, and they would have to hustle to promote the new digital way forward. So essentially, their true enemy came

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from within. Like Kodak, many schools are so inwardly focused that teachers are not aware of the changes happening in their own industry. While change in education is painfully slow, there are big shifts happening in the K–12 school space. Consider Alt School, “a partnership between educators, entrepreneurs, and engineers who are driven to deliver whole-child, personalized learning so that every child can reach their potential” or Big Pic- ture Learning, an organization with the sole mission of putting students directly at the center of their own learning. Without the hustle and ability to look around the corners, are public schools in danger of going the way of Kodak?

School leaders who see the importance of hustle and looking around corners actively engage in behaviors that support these actions at their school site. They are aware that, at the end of the day, you need to get stuff done and deliver. All the talking and planning in the world doesn’t matter if you don’t ship something, which means there are times when you need to pull the lever and act. Eric Chagala, principal of Vista Innovation and Design Academy, experienced the lack of hustle in education firsthand when his entire district had been talking about implementing makerspaces at every school for months, with no action. Not one to wait around, Eric led his staff to learn about makerspaces and they grounded the experience in their why, planned training, and went for it—building the first makerspace in the district. Eric also hustled to get the staff to switch from rule-based to rubric-based grading. Eric admits it wasn’t perfect, but he is able to help his staff see how their “bias to action” is helping them learn while doing. The school is in its third year of existence and its third iteration of grading. Eric’s ability to hustle has led the teachers to act, learn, and iterate, a cycle that producers implement and replicate. Following are a few ways to provide hustle at your site.

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Schedule a Wake-Up Call

Provide your teachers with a healthy dose of reality. Bring the outside in by showing them how fast the world is changing and what we need to prepare our students for. Once you truly under- stand the changes coming, you can’t help but be intrigued by schools or districts that are making giant leaps ahead. Learn from these schools. Are you providing the same type of experiences at your school? If not, why not? Excuses aside, find a school to use as a benchmark, cross-pollinate, and start moving in that direc- tion. Don’t just limit yourself to schools; find ways to visit or bring experts from innovative businesses, design studios, architecture firms, and museums into your work. After each experience or interaction, ask the question, “What can we bring back from that visit or exchange that can inspire us to push further with our stu- dents or within our school?” One school we worked with reached out to alumni for their wake-up call. Through community con- nections, they were able to reach out to former students, many of whom had graduated college and were working in innovative companies, and invite them to reflect back on their learning expe- riences in school. What were the most powerful learning experi- ences? What did students wish they had more of in school? Every student who responded remembered learning experiences over textbook lessons, and all wished there had been more focus on how to work together to to solve problems and think outside the box, and increased opportunities to collaborate. Unsurprisingly, not one student cited lectures or content knowledge sharing as being instrumental in their current success.

Create a Ripple Effect

Remember that small steps lead to big changes. Challenge yourself to take one daily action that will get you and your school moving in the right direction. Share an article on student- centered learning with your school community. Try a Twitter chat (#dtk12chat, #edchat, and #leadupchat are worth checking

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out). Pose a provocative question to your staff. Challenge your teachers to do the same. Consider providing your teachers with a daily action that will slowly move your school or organization to a more student-centered learning experience.

Inspired to create more connected educators, Amy Romem, an elementary principal in Northern California, created a 20-day Twitter challenge, with one action every day for the staff. The daily asks weren’t huge; they included actions such as sharing a book that inspires you, sharing a photo of the favorite part of your classroom, and introducing your colleagues to three new people on your personal learning network. All Tweets were shared using the #LASDpower hashtag. By the end of the challenge, not only had teachers built a more robust personal learning network, they had found new ideas and were inspired to continue the practice. The simple act of challenging her teachers to Tweet one thing daily led to much bigger results for their school—the biggest two being a dramatic increase in the amount of learning exam- ples being shared publicly and the number of new possibilities teachers were now being exposed to. While Amy’s intent was to challenge and inspire her staff, she reflects that the simple act of hosting the challenge pushed her beyond her comfort zone. During the challenge, she hosted her first Twitter chat, got skep- tical teachers to join Twitter, and got a lot of positive feedback for validating teachers’ work using social media. Amy said the experience was tiring, nerve-wracking, and totally invigorating, so much so that she can’t wait to dream up the next challenge that will push both her and her staff. What daily action will you challenge your staff to take?

Look Around Corners

Become a student of the future and use this information to prepare you and your staff to be nimbler with the changes that are coming. There are publications and organizations that spe- cialize in the future of learning. A few to check out include the

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NMC Horizon Report, Institute for the Future, and Singularity Hub, but don’t limit yourself to educational publications. Try reading Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Inc., Wired, and Fast Company. Could it really be that in just a decade, intelligent machines will have surpassed biological humans in almost every capacity? Read about the future you are preparing kids for. Find things that excite you about the future and bring back those things that give you energy. A positive future outlook is important, as the future is unlikely to be changed by people who aren’t positive about it.

Once urgency has been established, Producers act. They ensure that everything they do and their team does moves them one step closer to the end goal. They jump in and go with the current, not allowing anxiety to paralyze them and prevent them from getting ready for the future. This isn’t easy, but incorpo- rating play helps. Play is one of the greatest cures for anxiety. One of the reasons design thinkers have embraced the tenets of improv, mentioned in Chapter 2, is that it allows your team to interact and be silly within a prescribed and safe space. We incorporate short improv games and activities throughout every workshop or professional development event that we lead and, although there may be a bit of eye rolling at the beginning, by the end you’ll hear comments like, “I usually hate that stuff, but this was fun and I totally get why we do it.” It’s hard to worry when you are laughing and playing. Don’t forget to play.

The Ultimate Power Switch

Little by little, a little becomes a lot.

—Tanzanian proverb

Producers are the ultimate power switches; they are constantly toggling between the big picture and the practicality of getting it all done. They work to make the impossible seem not only

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https://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/

http://www.iftf.org/home/

https://singularityhub.com/

122 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

possible, but within reach. Donna Teuber, Innovation Program Designer in Richland School District Two, is constantly toggling between the big picture of scaling innovation across a large school district and the practicality of starting and supporting new learning at the teacher level, one team at a time. While tog- gling between the two can be challenging, Donna sees how each of the individual practical pieces start painting a picture when they are put together. It’s not easy, but Donna believes that embracing the paradox between the big picture and the daily details contributes to long-term success.

Producers have the ability to zoom in and out, much like the wordless picture book of the same name, Zoom, by Istan Banyai. Zoom recreates the effect of a camera lens zooming out. The book begins with an illustration of a boy on a cruise ship, only to learn with a few zooms out that the ship the boy is standing on is actually an advertisement on the side of a bus. The perspective continues to recede, until the final picture shows a view of Earth from space. Zoom also highlights some of the challenges leaders face as they toggle between the up-close and big-picture views. When leaders zoom in, they get a close look at the details, but they may then be too close to make sense of them. When leaders zoom out, they are able to see the big picture, but they may miss some subtleties and nuances. Problems arise when leaders get stuck in either perspective. To be most effective, leaders need to zoom in and zoom out.

To improve your ability to operate as a Producer, analyze your ability to zoom. Where do you find yourself getting stuck— in the details or in the big picture? Figure 6.1 includes questions that may help you get unstuck and change your perspective.

Embrace the Paradox: Big Picture and Details The most effective leaders are able to quickly toggle back and forth between the big picture and details, so how do you improve your own ability to do so? If you are constantly working in the

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day-to-day details, you may find yourself wondering how to

Figure 6.1

Perspective-Changing Questions

Too close; need to zoom out Too far out; need to zoom in

• What is the context?

• What matters most?

• What is our purpose?

• Where do we want to be in five years?

• Does this fit the end goal?

• What details matter most?

• What are the most critical small steps to take to make progress on our vision?

• What steps can I take to support someone (a teacher or leader) in moving forward?

make sure you aren’t losing sight of the big picture. If big-picture thinking comes more easily to you, you may need to spend some time zeroing in on the practicality of getting the work done. As you work through the “zooming” questions, consider allocating meaningful time to think through them. Too often, we expect ourselves to do the hard work on the fly and don’t carve out time to think and reflect. Try setting aside some time to work through the perspective that doesn’t come as naturally to you.

Build a Team

Another strength of Producers is their ability to put together a creative and talented cast and crew. They are able to do this by leveraging their network and the relationships they have built over time. Producers are relentless about putting together the best team and will work across all silos, even reaching outside the team to secure resources if necessary. When Alyssa was getting ready to launch a blended learning prototype in math using Khan Academy, she knew getting the right team together

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was critical for the success of the project. This wasn’t a situation where she would be hiring a new team, but instead was looking to tap into the existing expertise within the school district. With blended learning being such a new strategy in education, she wasn’t looking for teachers who had experience in these areas, but rather teachers who had the right mindsets, math teachers who were already questioning and experimenting with the best ways to meet the individual needs of their students. Alyssa was intentional in her choices, selecting three math teachers from three different schools, which would allow them to learn across sites and grade levels. All three of the teachers jumped at the opportunity to learn. The team met bi-monthly after school, but soon the three of them were meeting far more frequently, excited to share, compare notes, and learn from each other. The success of the initial blended learning pilot using Khan Academy was directly linked to the team that was identified for the proj- ect. We’ll take a closer look at how to build your dream team in Chapter 8.

Create Rapid Learning Cycles

Producers are masters of creating rapid learning cycles for their teams. Because there is constant hustle and urgency, producers help their teams learn through quick and dirty proto - typing of potential solutions. They are constantly cycling through the stages of prototyping, testing, and iterating. This runs counter to the culture in many schools, where the use of com- mittees is prevalent. In committee culture, small groups are given a task and tend to work on it for an extended amount of time. Often, committees are created with a Noah’s ark approach, making sure that there are two of each type of constituent rep- resented (e.g., two teachers, two parents, two administrators), and in some cases committees are formed by including everyone who has a vested interest in protecting the status quo. Then, at the end of the designated time, typically a semester or a year,

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the committee unveils their solution to the problem they were solving. Unfortunately, at this point, each of the committee mem- bers is emotionally invested in the work they have done. While they may take feedback and tweak their solution slightly, it is unlikely that they will scrap their work based on feedback they receive. The way in which a Producer works is completely differ- ent. Once an idea is formed, a Producer may gather together a small group of people to quickly create a low-fidelity prototype that they could use to share their best thinking with others. They would then share the prototype with teams and users, asking for feedback. Because the prototype was thrown together quickly with their best thinking at the moment, they are not emotionally invested in the product. It is simply “Here is our best thinking; what might be improved?” At this stage, creators of an idea are more receptive to the feedback they may receive and will likely make changes based on that feedback. A Producer may take their team through this process several times until they get a solution that has received multiple rounds of feedback and is ready for implementation. Producers understand that part of prototyping is building to learn. If you are inspired to create rapid learning cycles for your team, school, or organization, following are two things to try.

Take a Break from Committees

In schools, committees tend to protect the status quo. Instead, think about creating Action Learning Teams that meet for a specific purpose, do their best thinking, and quickly get feedback from others. Not ready to go all the way and move away from committees? Then change their structure. Don’t have committees meet for the entire semester or year; instead, have them meet as few times as possible to accomplish the task at hand. Encourage a bias toward action. The principal of a local elementary school was interested in creating a new vision for the school. With less than two months to go before the end of

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the year, the principal knew there wasn’t enough time for the entire visioning process, but instead pulled together an “Action Learning Team” to do six weeks of need identification for the school. The group met weekly, had an intense learning cycle, and reported to the school’s Governing Council with a list of priori- tized needs and possible solutions. No, this didn’t complete the visioning process, but it did establish a change in practice for the school: less talk, more action. The team was so energized by a quick learning cycle that produced results that many of the team members are asking to join the next group.

Increase Transparency

During times of change, organizations that have built a cul- ture of openness fare better. It’s easier for people to practice creativity and stay connected to the big picture when there is transparency. We have found, when working with teams in orga- nizations that value open communication, people are less fearful of the unknown and more open to being transparent with their own work. It’s really that simple. In the past, it was more chal- lenging to be transparent with processes requiring lots of copies or additional work, but now, tools like Google Docs that facilitate sharing work invite people into the process. While working with the local elementary school’s Action Learning Team mentioned above, we provided access to our work not only to the teachers but also to the entire community, by creating a shared doc that clearly outlined questions we were asking and linked current articles the group was reading. As a result, Alyssa found herself having conversations with other parents in the community while at T-ball practice or waiting in line at the grocery store. Parents were excited to learn alongside the school team and could more fully engage in school conversations as a result. What level of transparency are you comfortable with? How can you invite oth- ers to participate in your process?

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Prototyping: Building to Learn

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a

thousand meetings.

—Saying at IDEO

Put very simply, a prototype is a model that depicts a proposed idea or a solution. It is an opportunity to make the thinking behind an idea visible. Prototypes can take many forms— sketches, storyboards, pamphlets, digital mock-ups, and even role-plays can all serve as prototypes. Regardless of the form, prototypes make your thinking tangible. We will confess, the first time we encountered Design Thinking in the education space, we struggled with the notion of creating our solutions with pipe cleaners. It seemed way too simplistic for us, and it wasn’t until we were outside of a workshop space with a contrived design challenge that we were able to experience the power and impor- tance of prototyping. We aren’t talking just pipe cleaners here; we are talking about the ways in which we test and iterate our ideas in real time. Several years ago, after attending Big Ideas Fest, we were inspired to create a three-day design-thinking experience for students. Having a hard time trying to explain the idea to colleagues who didn’t share in our recent experience of attending Big Ideas Fest, we created a flyer for students detailing the “who, what, why, and where” of the experience. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but the simple act of committing the ideas to paper in a format that was readily accessible by the user, in this case the students, allowed us to get very quick feedback. We quickly learned that students were very interested in the idea of the experience, but actually wanted more detail about the types

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of activities they would be involved in over the three days. We were able to incorporate this feedback into our second proto- type, which we were now ready to share not only with students, but also with our administrative team at the district. After a few rounds of prototyping, we created the final flyer and launched Student EdCon—a three-day design-thinking experience where students learned the process while identifying and solving chal- lenges within their community. Reflecting back, I am not sure Student EdCon would ever have been launched if we relied on discussions in meetings to propel the project forward.

Prototypes can be quick and rough. In fact, the level of fidel- ity of a prototype should match the level of thinking that has gone into the work. Think about that for a minute. Are you more likely to provide honest feedback to someone who presents you with a draft or to someone who presents you with a very slick digital solution? When prototypes are too polished, you run the risk that you aren’t actually looking for feedback, you are looking for agreement. So don’t worry about making prototypes beauti- ful; spend your time and energy making prototypes to communi- cate and learn.

Prototyping can also help alleviate analysis paralysis. Have you ever been in a meeting where a decision among several options can’t be made? Prototyping just might be the answer for that. Instead of debating options to death, create quick proto- types of each option and take them out to your users. Get feedback on the prototypes. My guess is that you’ll not only see which idea rises to the top, you’ll also get suggestions to improve on all the ideas. As Tim Brown, founder of IDEO, says, “Prototypes slow us down to speed us up. By taking the time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes, such as becoming too complex too early and sticking with a weak idea for too long” (Brown & Katz, 2011, p.105).

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Pop-Ups as Prototypes

Pop-ups have become very popular recently, with more and more industries experimenting with this model to test or refine ideas. Pop-up shops, pop-up restaurants, and even pop-up muse- ums are no longer uncommon in large cities. Pop-up experiences are growing in popularity because they allow retailers or chefs to connect directly with customers, build awareness, and test out new products or experiences. Over the summer, the Museum of Ice Cream, a pop-up museum experience, has become all the rage in Los Angeles. The Museum of Ice Cream describes itself as a “place where ideas are transformed into real experiences, a place where flavors are mysteries, toppings are toys, and sprinkles make the world a better place” (https://www.museumoficecream .com/about/). Originally only opening for two months, the Museum of Ice Cream had such high demand for their experience that they extended their timeline for an additional two months. What would it look like if you created a pop-up experience at your school? What would the demand for the experience be? How might you test out ideas in a pop-up model?

Identify a change that teachers or parents have been talking about at your school. Not ready to go all the way with the change? Try creating a pop-up prototype. Pop-up prototypes are wonderful because you can say, “We are interested in learning about this topic and are going to test out our solution for the next month. Let’s see how much we can learn together.” Setting it up as a temporary experience reduces the risk and may even encourage some naysayers to change their minds. Looking to create a makerspace, but not sure how the community will react? Try creating a pop-up Tinkering Club with community donations for a six-week period. Curious about a 3D printer or laser cutter? See if your school can demo one in a pop-up experience. Pop-up

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https://www.museumoficecream.com/about/

130 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

prototypes create an amazing way to make the learning process visible, increase transparency, and draw people in.

With a little imagination and very little cost, you can easily create a prototyping station—this might be a storage bin full of supplies or a corner in your faculty room. When staff members have ideas to solve problems, encourage them to make their ideas tangible and get feedback from others. Learn by building. For example, if a teacher has a new idea for a student summer learning experience, they could either create a brochure that might be sent home to parents explaining the experience or they might build a physical representation of that learning experience to show others. They might even encourage students to help prototype ideas. A list of tips and suggested starting supplies is included in the Appendix. Warning: once people become accus- tomed to prototyping ideas, the desire for prototyping corners across campus may increase.

Test and Iterate

The purpose of prototyping is to give you a physical model or experience that allows you to test and gather feedback. Testing out an idea can be as simple as sharing a rapidly made prototype with a small group or trying out a new schedule or strategy for an extended period of time. The most important piece of testing is the feedback process. In order to make changes to your idea, you need to know which parts of your prototype are meeting the needs of your people and which parts are not. Your feedback process needs to be transparent to those participating in the test process and easily and quickly gathered. Timeliness is key. A rapid iteration cycle can only happen if you are continually gathering information and data around your idea.

Practice giving and receiving feedback. Surprisingly, most of us are not great with either. When giving feedback, try this very simple yet effective prompt: “I like . . . I wish . . . what if . . . ?” “I like . . .” offers an opportunity to share something positive about

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the work you are providing feedback on. “I wish . . .” provides an opportunity to share an idea or suggestion for a future improve- ment, and “what if . . .?” offers an opportunity to share out-of- the-box thinking. This simple prompt can be used in a variety of situations: when presented with student work, at the end of a fac- ulty meeting, or when providing feedback on a prototype. Try it! We think you will be amazed at the quality of feedback you receive with this simple structure. When receiving feedback, most of us naturally go into a defensive mode. Someone provides a sugges- tion, and we quickly want to defend why we didn’t do that, why we were going to but ran out of time, or how that is actually included but they missed the feature. The true art of receiving feedback is just to take it all in and respond with a simple, “Thank you.” Asking multiple people for feedback also helps you establish trends. Over time, people will see that you are receptive to their feedback and will be much more likely to share their true thoughts on any given topic or prototype.

Pivoting Even with rapid learning cycles and prototypes, there may be times that you need to change direction, or pivot. In one of our all- time favorite Friends episodes, Ross asks Rachel and Chandler to help him move his new couch up several flights of stairs into his New York City apartment. As you can imagine, the moving doesn’t go well, and every time they try to round a corner, Ross yells, “Pivot!,” which indicates that it is time for them to change direc- tion. You may find that there are times your team needs to pivot.

Pivoting can be tricky, but it isn’t impossible. Often, the hard- est part is having the mental fortitude to change. Pivoting doesn’t mean failure; in fact, pivoting can be a great choice. It is unlikely that you have ever heard of Oden, a company that started out focused on podcasting but then chose to pivot when they saw iTunes cornering the podcasting market. Oden decided to pivot and focus instead on creating a microblogging platform that only

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132 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

allowed users 140 characters per update. You likely recognize this company. After their pivot, Oden became Twitter. It’s not always clear; just because something isn’t working now does not mean it won’t work in the future. So how do you know if it’s time to stay the course or pivot?

Consider the experience of a medium-sized school district we once worked with that was in the process of identifying and selecting a learning management system (LMS). The district put together a team to study options and select the best possible LMS to complement both their current student information system and the district’s goals of personalizing learning for all students. After months of researching, the team made their selec- tion, spent time onboarding with the LMS, and even invested in professional development with their teachers. There were some early warning signs that perhaps this wasn’t the right option, but they chose to stay the course. The next fall, the warning signals became more visible when it was time to use the system for feedback and reporting to parents. Frustrations began mounting, and it became clear that this wasn’t the right LMS for their dis- trict. It wasn’t easy for district leadership to pivot away from the LMS after so much investment, but once the decision was made, the entire district rallied around the change in direction. Any progress lost was quickly regained as people felt thankful for the change in course. So what can propel the need to pivot?

You Learn More

It is entirely possible that a pivot is required simply because you have learned more, data tell you something different, or the conditions have changed, like a trip using GPS and Google Maps. Maps suggest a few routes, from which we typically select the fastest one available. Along the way, dependent on the driving conditions and data available, Maps will suggest better routes and reconfigure the directions. Sometimes new information helps us see an alternative route and recognize that a pivot is required.

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Frustrations Are High

Listen to those closest to the work. We all know those people who constantly grumble; tune them out and listen to the others. Check in with your most engaged and open-minded teachers. Ask them about the initiative at hand and try to tease out the real concerns, apart from the more typical generic feedback, like “change is hard.” After talking to enough people, see if you can establish enough of a trend that you can predict where you might be six months from now. Are you going to be able to alleviate frustrations, or will they mount over time?

Your Gut Is Telling You Something

In talking with leaders who have made a major pivot, they all expressed a sense of just “knowing it was the right thing to do.” Trust your intuition. Sometimes we want to quiet our inner voice because it will require us to do things that are uncomfortable, but trust yourself. As long as you have your ear to the ground and are open to learning more, you’ll know the right thing to do when the time comes.

Once the decision has been made to pivot and change course, don’t look back. Pivoting can make you feel uneasy; it is natural to question yourself, but remember, the new path needs your full attention and support. Your team—whether that is school, district, or community—will likely have questions. Be patient with them; provide clear and transparent communication every step of the way. The district that pivoted mid–LMS implemen- tation created extra opportunities for their teachers to express concerns and learn together to move forward. Fast-forward six months, and no one regrets the pivot.

Deliver Finally, and most importantly, Producers deliver! They are deadline driven and understand that their reputation and resume

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134 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

are only as good as their last project. So while they are switching between those many hats, they continually have their eye on the finish line. Good Producers work to keep their values aligned with their vision and help everyone stay focused and collabo- rating toward an endgame. In education, we spend a lot of time on the process of change. Sometimes the changes that we have spent so long planning and implementing are outdated by the time we get them in place. Our current rate of change does not allow for this slow movement. We must become more agile in our processes and more focused on results.

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