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Chapter 4

Experience Architect

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never

go back to its original dimensions.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Always one to get sucked into the latest fitness craze, Alyssa recently ventured into SoulCycle—an indoor cycling class that incorporates both dance moves and arm weights while on a bicycle. These classes are actually marketed as a dance party on a bike. She had heard incredible hype about SoulCycle and was now experiencing firsthand why. From the bright, welcoming lobby smelling of grapefruit to the dark cycling room with loud music, freshly cleaned bikes, and white towels draped across the handlebars, it was apparent that every detail is carefully crafted. The friendly instructors (all trained at “Soul University”) act as both fitness coaches and motivational speakers, offering positive reinforcement throughout the class. The walls are covered with

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 2021-09-13 03:53:58.

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Experience Architect • 63

quotes such as, “We aspire to inspire” and “We inhale intention and exhale expectations.” None of this is by accident; it is all carefully designed to create an experience that makes people feel good. People get hooked on SoulCycle’s unique combination of positive reinforcement and endorphins so much that they are willing to pay upwards of $40 per class. Alyssa wandered out of a particularly intense class, a little in awe of the previous 45 minutes, and thought a lot about the curation of such an expe- rience. She started thinking about all the opportunities we have in schools to create learning experiences as impressive and meaningful as what she had just had. She wondered what might happen in schools if we were able to create highly curated and beautifully designed experiences for students. For staff? How might that change the learning that takes place?

An Experience Architect is “a person relentlessly focused on creating remarkable experiences, a person who maps out how to turn something ordinary into something distinctive—even delightful—every chance they get” (Kelley, 2005). We believe that being an Experience Architect is one of the key qualities of any successful school leader. Think of all the experiences you design every day for your teams, for your faculty and staff, for parents, and for students. Each of these presents an opportu- nity to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary. If it suddenly sounds daunting and exhausting that every staff meeting or lesson needs to be a highly curated and beautifully designed experience, well, you are right. That might not be pos- sible—at least at first. But the more you see yourself in this role, the more you will realize that being an Experience Architect is, like many other elements of leadership, simply a set of behaviors and mindsets that you can learn and practice.

In business, experience design is all about measuring the value from the customers’ perspective and continually inves- tigating new areas of value for them. In education, we have to begin by more clearly defining our “customers,” or end users.

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64 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

We believe our primary end users are our students. They should always be first and foremost in our minds when designing expe- riences, with secondary users being parents and possibly even the broader community. As a principal, there is another group of end users that are equally, if not more, important for you to design for: your faculty and staff. They are the direct link to improving student outcomes. As we work through strategies that will increase your Experience Architect abilities, we are going to share specific suggestions for your work as it relates to both your teachers and students.

Building a Culture Through the Lens of an Experience Architect Reframing the school’s leadership roles can’t happen in isola- tion. Everything we explore together will happen in the context of your school with your staff, students, and community, so we would be remiss if we didn’t help you set the stage for building a culture for design-inspired leadership. Culture matters. It is not one of those small things to be dealt with after the “real work” is done. Creating the right culture is the real work. The first task of an Experience Architect is to prepare an environment where design-inspired leadership can flourish.

Let’s start with a quick assessment of your school culture. Everyone who interacts with your school will likely have their own unique set of words to describe it. Are you curious what the most common descriptions include? You can create a baseline for our later work with a few actions.

Ask the Question

What three words would you use to describe your school environment? Ask everyone. Listen and collect responses, resist- ing the urge to ask for clarification. There will be time to dive into the why later. As a new principal, Kami was curious how the staff

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Experience Architect • 65

would describe their school and found a way to casually work the question into every conversation she had, making note of the responses. At the same time, she was intrigued and perplexed by some of the most common responses that were surfacing: tradi- tion, events, expectations, and community. Were these the types of words she had hoped she would hear? What could she learn from these responses, and how could she use this information to design the best possible learning environment for students? You must be curious now, ready to discover how people describe your environment. There are many ways to capture responses, depending on the time you have to spend. Here are a few options to consider, listed in order from what takes the least amount of time to process to the most amount of time:

• Exit ticket at a staff meeting • All staff members share three words on Twitter using a

specified hashtag

• Online survey (Google Forms or SurveyMonkey both offer great free tools)

• One-on-one conversations

Kami chose a very informal approach since she was new and didn’t want to stifle creativity. Regardless of the approach you choose for adults, we encourage you to ask the same question of students in the hallways, in the lunchroom, or on the play- ground. While students are usually honest, they quickly learn the benefits of telling adults what we want to hear, so don’t be afraid to dig deeper.

Ask More Questions

What are you curious about? What do you find yourself won- dering about with the new information you have gathered? Gen- erate additional questions and resist the urge to answer them. These may lead to further exploration. If you are unsure where to start, here are a few questions to get you going:

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66 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

• What aspect of your school could really use some creative thinking?

• What would delight students? Teachers? Parents? • What are the challenges in your context that don’t have

easy answers and might require the mindsets of a designer to help you get unstuck?

Asking questions and learning to be an observer is an essential part of Design Thinking. This baseline information will be helpful as we explore new roles and play with “wicked problems” in edu- cation throughout the book. Armed with new information about your school, let’s dive a bit further into the school culture to explore creativity and risk.

Creativity Versus Compliance

The culture of school is radically at odds with the culture of learning

necessary for innovation.

—Tony Wagner, professor, Harvard University

One of the most difficult challenges in education is our posture toward the possible, which is directly tied to the type of culture created. How would you assess the culture of your school or district? Is it a culture of creativity or a culture of compliance? Figure 4.1 highlights major differences between the two cultures. One culture can feel innovative and welcoming; the other can often stifle ideas and create a less agreeable work environment. The way we lead determines whether our culture is creative or merely compliant.

How does leadership at your school promote or discourage creativity? This mindset begins with the leader and then can permeate every level of an organization. An important job of school leadership is to encourage and reward creative thinking and collaboration, while also recognizing both formal and subtle ways those things are discouraged.

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Figure 4.1

Culture of Compliance Versus Culture of Creativity

Culture of Compliance Culture of Creativity

• Risk is not tolerated

• Mandates are valued above all

• Fear is commonplace

• Top-down leadership

• Language implies singular ownership (my class, my stu- dents)

• Constraints are roadblocks

• Initiatives are implemented with very little feedback

• Risk is encouraged as a natural part of the learning process

• Creative solutions are valued

• Trust is integral to work and learning

• Distributed leadership, where all are empowered to act

• Language implies group owner- ship (our school, our students)

• Constraints are seen as possi- bilities

• Initiatives are quickly imple- mented with small user groups, lots of feedback gathered, with iterations along the way

Peter Drucker, an author and business consultant, said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but we needn’t think of it as choosing one over the other. Using design-inspired leadership strategies can enhance the power of both culture and strategy, connecting the two pieces into a cohesive whole. The good news is that no matter where your school culture currently falls, it can be shifted. One of the greatest tools to use in shifting a culture is improvisation, or improv.

Improv helps build a creative culture and boosts everyone’s creative confidence. We were introduced to the concept while attending a workshop where our first icebreaker contained the word “improv.” We both had nightmare visions of standing in front of a room full of strangers and trying to be funny. It was a paralyzing thought. Fortunately, the facilitator quickly launched

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68 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

into an explanation of the activity, reducing the apparent anxiety level of everyone in the room. We started with a simple game of “Zip, Zap, Zop,” an infinite game that only required tuning in to the group and playing at the speed of fun. It turns out that improv practices have very little to do with being funny and more to do with attitude.

Improv is the ability to say, “Yes, and . . . .” It is a tool that allows for creativity beyond the normal. Think of it as a team sport that requires connections to those around you. You must be present and focused on the now to react to what is being said. It encourages careful listening and acceptance of what is being offered, without judgment. Embracing a designer mindset requires a healthy dose of improv. Practicing the following tenets of improv helps everyone on your team build skills for creative problem solving:

• Suspend judgment. When you wait to analyze, you stay present in the creative process, saving the evaluation phase for later.

• Let go of your agenda. There is nothing to be accomplished. Let yourself get caught up in the experience.

• Listen in order to receive. When you listen closely to others, you can find moments where you can agree and support, building on each other’s ideas, rather than evaluating and finding the “yes, but . . . ” answers.

• Get out of your head and concentrate on the group. Make

everyone on the team look brilliant. If you focus outward, you remove the focus from yourself, and the work is about what you are creating together.

Try introducing an improv activity as an opener at your next staff meeting. You may get some startled looks or interesting comments, but with repetition, you’ll find that infusing that quick and creative element of fun can create a culture that is ready for change. Don’t let any first reactions deter you. Trust the process

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Experience Architect • 69

and encourage your staff to take risks! Here are some great first steps:

• At your next meeting, try a simple icebreaker that focuses on “playing at the speed of fun.” An infinite game with no winners works best. “Zip, Zap, Zop” is very easy; below are directions on how to play from the DBI Network (http:// dbp.theatredance.utexas.edu/node/29), where you may find even more infinite games to play. “Everyone stands in a circle. Tell them you have a bolt of energy in your hands. To start the game, send the bolt out of your hands with a strong forward motion straight to someone else in the circle (using your hands, body, eyes, and voice), saying, “Zip.” Be sure you make eye contact with the person you pass it to. They should receive it and pass it immediately to someone else, saying, “Zap.” That person passes it on with a “Zop.” The game continues, “Zip, Zap, Zop,” with the goal being speed and fun. If there is a mistake, encourage everyone to simply continue playing.

• Or try an activity that encourages people to open up to more possibilities with a quick game of “yeah, but . . .” ver- sus “yes, and . . . .” Partner people up and tell them they will have two minutes to plan a party for their boss. Quickly have them designate who will be Partner A and who will be Partner B. Partner A will start by throwing out a party idea, to which Partner B will respond, “Yeah, but . . . ” and give a reason why this is a terrible idea. Have them continue this for the full two minutes. Can you imagine any parties being planned that way? I always ask if anyone has planned an incredible party and the answer is a resounding and frus- trating “no.” Have them try it again, but this time Partner B is responsible for throwing out party ideas, and Partner A will always respond with, “Yes, and . . . ,” building onto the idea. It is amazing how creative and fun the parties get

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70 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

when we build on each other’s ideas. This is a great way to start building a “Yes, and . . . ” culture of possibility.

Improv allows your team to build something that is truly shared. It requires multiple intelligences and allows for multiple points of view. It improves dialogue and builds communication skills. It is one of the best tools in the designer toolbox for build- ing creative muscle and innovative solutions. A little improv can go a long way to improving the culture of your school. Find more improv resources and games at the Improv Encyclopedia online (http://improvencyclopedia.org/games/).

Designing to the Edges

Fit creates opportunity.

—Todd Rose, author, The End of Average

In The End of Average, author Todd Rose tells a story about fighter pilots and the need for a custom-designed cockpit for fighter jets in the 1950s. The standard dimensions of the 1926-designed cockpit were no longer working due to an airplane design change, and researchers at Wright Air Force Base in Ohio began gathering data to see how the average measurements of a pilot’s height, weight, and body length may have changed. After calculating the averages of the 10 physical dimensions that were most relevant, they wondered how many pilots would actually fit this “average” profile. What they discovered? Zero. Not a single one fit within the average range of all 10 dimensions. Todd Rose goes on to explain how the Air Force made a bold statement: “Ban the average, design to the edges.”

What might it look like to “ban the average, design to the edges” in education? Almost everything we use in education has been designed for the average student, and many of our workplace procedures have been standardized with the average

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Experience Architect • 71

teacher in mind. Staff meetings have similar agendas. We roll out initiatives through standard professional development practices accompanied by the required binder, and we talk about our aver- age data numbers. The problem is that there is no such thing as an average student or average teacher. Everyone has a unique, or jagged, learning profile. What if, instead of starting with the average profile, we started with these jagged learning profiles? What might happen if we looked at our staff and our school and saw individuality? Without a doubt, there is untapped potential walking around your campus and sitting in your staff room. But how do you tap into it? We believe the solution lies not in design- ing solutions for the average, but in designing to the edges. Let’s explore in a bit more depth what that means.

Find Your (Extreme) Users

As we have already explored together, the first step to any design exercise must start with a greater understanding of those we are designing for. We can usually identify the middle of the bell curve fairly easily. These are our “average” users and the users we spend most of the time designing around. Yet it’s the extreme users on either end that we need to focus on if we want to have a greater impact. Extreme users typically have needs that are magnified in some way—which means they have probably also created workaround solutions that are more noteworthy. By meeting the needs of an extreme user, you create solutions that address a much wider population, solving problems that may not have been visible while the spotlight was focused on the “average” user.

The OXO peeler is a perfect example of what can happen when you design for an extreme user. In 1989, Sam Farber had an aha moment when watching his wife, Betsey, struggle with a common vegetable peeler due to arthritis. He set out to solve the problem for Betsey by creating a vegetable peeler with a fatter handle that was more comfortable to use, inadvertently creating kitchen tools

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that were easier for everyone to use (Smart Design, n.d.). Looking at education, our extreme users may be families that choose to homeschool, families that need before- and after-school care, or families that need flexibility due to special circumstances, such as young elite athletes or students needing home hospital support. Who are your extreme users, and what are their unique needs?

Engage Your Extreme Users

Once you have identified your extreme users, try finding ways to engage with them around the problem you are attempt- ing to solve. Let’s pretend you have taken on the task of redesign- ing student lunch procedures. As a part of this design challenge, you might consider the following:

• How long do students wait in line to purchase their lunch? • How quickly is food served? • How many students order school lunch? • What days are busiest?

Your first inclination might be to only talk to the students who order the hot lunch program, when in fact you may learn more from students who have never ordered hot lunch (why not?) or from those who order hot lunch every single day and are first in line (why?). Then, observe and talk to your extreme users, looking for workarounds or behaviors that uncover insights or inspire thinking. Sometimes these extreme users can inspire wild ideas that help you understand what might resonate not just with them, but with your average users as well.

Narrow Your Focus

Often, when we look at our challenges, we engage with a very long list of reasons something may not be working. Start by creating a list of all the different pieces needed to solve the problem. Going back to our lunch example, create a list of all the lunch procedures.

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• How is the food organized for students to pick up? • How many steps do students go through in the process? • Where is the line physically situated in the room? • How many points of contact are there between staff

and students?

• Where is the greatest pain point? • Which solution is most important to start with?

Once you have identified your starting point, you can gather information around that specific need from all your users. You have a focus. Your solution may also end up addressing some of the other needs that you’ve identified. Regardless, you’ve started a path toward creating a new experience.

Truly understanding and knowing the needs of all your users will help you create and design unique experiences that fit your school and community. Remember the empathy map and needs statement from Chapter 2? Why not create an empathy map for each of your extreme users? What if we could redesign parts of our schools or jobs to fit the individual? Not only might we utilize undiscovered talents, but we would also encourage and value individual excellence.

Eric Juli, principal of Design Lab Early College High School, an inner-city public school in Cleveland, Ohio, has had to create experiences for a group of extreme users, namely students who attend high school but have never once experienced success at school. Recognizing that students needed to experience success- ful learning, Eric designed X-Block, a weekly three-hour block with no regular classes, worksheets, tests, or contrived school assignments. Students are engaged every week with community partners of their choice, doing real work. They are learning by doing. They are using found objects to create art to cover the walls of a fairly drab school building. They are programming drones, cooking healthy food options, and discovering a love of yoga. Students are repairing bicycles and working to improve the neighborhood, but mostly, through these experiences, they are

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discovering their voices and learning how to be successful. Some students who hated school and never spoke are completely engaged in their X-Block. Other students, who expect school to be about worksheets and tests, are telling their principal that he is “doing school wrong.” It is beautiful and scary all at the same time. School has been set up to be about power and control, textbooks, and rote memorization. When teachers experience how much more powerful it is to work side-by-side with students on real work that matters, it’s terrifying for everyone involved. According to Eric, X-Block is the best new piece of their school, even if it isn’t perfect. They will continue to refine this new expe- rience based on the needs of their most extreme users.

Let’s Design (or Redesign) Experiences Now that you have a better understanding of how to develop empathy for your end users and have even engaged in thinking about your extreme users, let’s start exploring what it might look like to design an experience, or, as in the case of many of the examples we will share, redesign an experience that cur- rently exists. In fact, we have found that a great place to start is with your school calendar. What types of events do you have scheduled? Who is the intended audience? What is the purpose of each of the events? Does the event in its current form meet the needs of the users? How do you know? These may seem like really basic questions to begin with, but it isn’t always apparent why we continue to do some of the things we do. Creating quality experiences involves making good assumptions and then testing and iterating based on those assumptions.

Take “back-to-school night,” for example. It is an event that happens every year at almost every school across the country. It is generally an evening event that is held within the first few weeks of the school year. While there are variations of this event, the most common one has parents attending the school in the evening to spend time getting to know their children’s teacher

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Experience Architect • 75

and learn about the specific curriculums. Almost every teacher I know dreads back-to-school night because they feel pressured to share with the parents all the details of the coming year, and almost every parent I know dreads back-to-school night for almost the exact same reason—they have to try to take in all the details for the entire year in a small amount of time, which gets even more complicated if they have more than one child at the school. So, if back-to-school night in its current form isn’t meeting the needs of the parents or the teachers, why do we continue the practice? And what if we spent some time asking our end users, in this case the parents, about their expectations and hopes for the evening?

Mary Beth Miller, a 2nd grade teacher at Oak Avenue Elemen- tary in Los Altos, California, did just that. Before planning what would have been her 15th back-to-school night, she spent time talking to parents and uncovered some interesting needs and wants. She discovered parents wanted to

• Get to know more about the teacher on a personal level. As one parent stated: “My child spends six hours a day with you. I want to know about you as a person and how my child will benefit from having you as their teacher.”

• Get to know their children’s classmates. Parents want to have a sense of the students in class with their children.

• Get a glimpse of a day in the life of their child. No surprise, but parents don’t always get a lot of information from their children about school and want to get a better sense of the types of experiences students will have in this particular grade.

Much to her surprise, Mary Beth discovered that parents were less interested in hearing about the Common Core Standards, textbooks, or assessments—all topics that are typically covered at back-to-school night. With this new information, Mary Beth set out to design a back-to-school night experience that actually met the needs of the parents. The first thing she did was craft and

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send a letter home, explaining to the parents that this would not be their typical back-to-school night, along with all the detailed information for the year, including class calendar, curriculum, field trips, and more. She asked parents to read all the informa- tion ahead of time and come prepared to engage with her and the class of parents. That evening, Mary Beth began back-to-school night with a slide show of the students in class. When their stu- dent’s picture was projected, the parents were to get up and introduce themselves and their child to the class. The teacher then engaged the parents in learning activities that gave them a better sense of who she was as a teacher, exposed them to the types of learning strategies their children were exposed to, and built a learning community of which they were now a part. The buzz was incredible! Parents left back-to-school night engaged and excited about the year of learning ahead for their children.

What events might need redesigning at your school? Here are a few common school events to get you thinking: schedule day or posting of class lists, first day of school, parent-teacher confer- ences, open house, and promotion or graduation. While we don’t recommend you tackle redesigning all these experiences at the same time, each of them presents a unique opportunity to turn something ordinary into a new experience.

Once you have identified the event you want to redesign, here are a few questions to ask about the experience:

• Who is involved in this experience? The more specific you can be, the better. In fact, if you can identify some needs and how the users think, you can start to empathize with their needs.

• Why is this experience taking place? Why are people taking part in this experience? What are their end goals, and what do they hope to achieve?

• What are all the options available? Challenge your own assumptions about the experience you are planning and play with lots of ideas before settling on the ideas you will execute.

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Experience Architect • 77

• Where is this experience taking place (or where would it

be best for this experience to take place)? Is it happening at school, in the teachers’ lounge, or in a setting outside of school?

Redesigning with Teachers in Mind Opportunities for redesigning experiences aren’t just found on the school calendar; they can be found almost anywhere. Spend a few minutes in the staff room during lunch, and you will likely walk away with lots of new ideas. The two most common themes we hear from teachers that present fantastic opportunities for redesign are staff meetings and professional development. Sadly, many teachers are not happy with either. What if you were able to transform your staff meetings and truly engage your teachers? What if you were able to redesign professional learning opportu- nities so that teachers sought out these experiences? Following are four quick guidelines that will help you transform any meet- ing or event you are planning.

Set the Stage

This may seem trivial or an afterthought, but looking at your meeting space and taking the time to “set the stage” can change the experience. Research suggests you only have seven seconds to make a first impression. While this research is focused on introductions to new people, I believe it holds true to meetings, as well. Think about it. Within seconds of walking into a room, you not only get a feeling about the time you’ll be spending there, you also know what type of role you will play. Does the room invite you to engage with others, or compel you to sit in the back row with your eyes glued to your smartphone? Take a quick inventory of your meeting space. What does it communicate? Are you happy with the message being sent? If not, what can you do to change the message? Consider playing music to build energy

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or calm the room. Think about your seating arrangements. How will participants engage with each other? Does the room physically support those activities? Do you need an improv or team-building activity to help transition people into the meeting? What materials are needed for the meeting? Details matter.

Make It Meaningful

Time is precious, and time together with the entire staff should be protected. To create meetings that are the most mean- ingful, try running through a few of the questions below for each topic, with teachers clearly in mind, before you place it on the meeting agenda.

• Can any of this information be front-loaded via e-mail or another source?

• Is this information relevant for the entire staff? If not, how might you differentiate sections of the meeting based on participant needs?

• Why is this a priority? • How will this improve learning for students at our school? • What is the intended outcome?

If indeed the topic or item earns a spot on the meeting agenda, it’s time to think about the best way to facilitate interaction about the topic to get to the desired outcome. We’ve all sat in too many meetings where the principal or superintendent just casually threw out a topic, hoping for a meaningful discussion. Unfortunately, most times you either hear crickets—because no one wants to contribute—or you only hear the loudest voices in the room, with everyone else silenced. To avoid either of these traps, try the ideas shared in Gamestorming, a book by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo (2010), which includes more than 80 games. These activities can help you improve communication, break down barriers, and inspire creativity, leading to new insights and strategies. The tools are organized by

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purpose and will add a facilitative boost to meetings and profes- sional learning sessions. Meetings are like any other part of life; you will only get better if you commit to aiming high. Think about ways to get feedback on the meaningfulness of the meetings.

Allow for Choice

Choice matters, in the classroom and in the meeting room. As a school leader focused on the big picture, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking everyone needs information on every topic. But do they? Perhaps you need everyone in the room, but are there places where you can give attendees choices? It may be time to check your assumptions around information sharing. Narrowing the number of your end users may help you design to those edges. Picture your most senior staff and conversely picture your newest teacher; my guess is their needs are vastly different, in what they need both from a staff meeting and from professional learning. One school district fully embraced this notion of choice and voice for its leadership team and moved away from the notion that everyone was required to attend every meeting. Two days before any administrative team meeting, an agenda is sent out ahead of time with information on all the topics being covered. It is made clear whether the topics will be informational or require a quick discussion. There is always an optional time toward the beginning of the agenda for those who would like more discussion, and an opportunity for “new learn- ing” at the end of the agenda. Planning for flexibility and choice goes a long way!

Fun Factor

We believe there should be joy in our work at schools, even at meetings. When designing an experience, consider the ele- ment of fun. Yes, we know some work is serious business, but even serious businesses, like banking, are looking to incorporate fun into their experiences. We don’t know about you, but we

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don’t always think “fun” when we think of banking. Metro Bank in the United Kingdom is challenging that thinking. Their new tag- line is “Banking, but Better.” They have completely reimagined the banking experience and are now open seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. All their branches have a Magic Money Machine that counts coins in the lobby. These machines were intended for kids, but no surprise, you’ll find adults using them just as much, if not more, than the younger users. How can you add a fun or interesting twist to the work you are doing?

Los Altos School District iLearn With these guidelines in mind, we overhauled professional devel- opment for teachers in the Los Altos School District (LASD) by primarily focusing on creating meaningful experiences and allow- ing for choice. Traditionally, professional development is driven by new curriculum or new processes and strategies that are being implemented at the district level. It is usually offered to all staff and delivered to everyone in the same way, similar to how teachers teach a standard curriculum lesson from a textbook. We recognized that teachers were all in different places, with vary- ing levels of expertise and needed areas of growth, and yet our approach for professional learning had been one size fits all. As we set out to redesign professional learning, our goal was simple: engage and inspire our teachers as learners. To accomplish this, we knew we would have to work within the constraints of our teacher contract and think outside the traditional box. Given the limited time we could require teachers to attend meetings, we focused on creating a variety of learning experiences that were so engaging, we hoped teachers would opt-in on nonmandatory meeting days.

Needing a space for these sessions, we turned the old district copy room into the “iLearn Studio” for teachers. It was nothing fancy at first, just a room with tables and chairs where teachers from across the district with a common interest or need could

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come together to learn. We polled teachers about what they wanted to learn and used this information to create different series of classes. The classes were diverse and included topics such as “Gaming in the Classroom,” “How to Use Social Media as a Learning Tool,” “Project-Based Learning,” and “Design Think- ing.” Teachers flooded to iLearn. They were excited that we had asked, that we had listened, and that we had created it with them in mind. We even had teachers calling from a nearby district, asking if they could attend our optional teacher trainings. While the classes generally ran from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., it was not uncommon for teachers to continue learning and collaborating well past 5:00. It became clear that teachers were hungry for well-designed learning experiences that met their specific needs.

You may not be able to change the professional development offerings for your district, but are there opportunities at your school? Inspired by the success of iLearn, we started to see other incredible learning opportunities popping up around the dis- trict. One school started an “appy hour”: teachers get together once a month to discuss new applications and technology in the classroom. Another school created a “genius bar” during lunch, where teachers take turns sharing new ideas, student work, and strategies in their classrooms. What are the learning needs of your teachers? How might you plan with those needs in mind? And if you aren’t yet ready to take on professional development, how can you apply these strategies to your next staff meeting?

With a little more intentional thought and planning, we can easily design professional development as experiences for both learning and emotional engagement. All great experiences engage both the heart and the mind.

Where Best Intentions Can Go Wrong Remember to mix it up. Once we discover a process that works really well, it becomes our “go-to” strategy, and we can overuse the strategy. Ours happened to involve sticky notes. We were

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gathering great feedback through the use of chart paper and sticky notes in our professional development and staff meetings. We were hearing from more people, and the loudest person in the room no longer dominated conversations. But we knew we had fallen into the overuse trap when we overheard a teacher walk into the room saying, “Great. Here come the sticky notes again.” It was a sign to shelve the sticky notes for a bit and try some other data-gathering tools. We didn’t abandon the sticky notes; we simply mixed them up with some new methods, such as online polls and exit tickets, and then thoughtfully brought that process back when and where it made sense.

A second caution would be in offering too many choices for professional development. This is a lesson Kami learned in the classroom. Currently, offering students choice and voice in their work has become a focus and common practice for many teach- ers. In the era when curriculum ruled, this was a fairly new prac- tice and seemed very cutting-edge. As technology entered the classroom, the world opened up and students had many more options for how they demonstrated their learning. It was exciting to give them many choices and cool tools. What happened? Stu- dents had too many options, and those who were still learning basic skills and needed more direction became lost. The same holds true today with adult learning. We need focus, and while our professional development needs differentiation and options, it is important to think through what those choices look like and evaluate them based on the desired outcomes. All the learning needs to be connected to your bigger picture, and those connec- tions should be easily seen. Carefully crafting your professional development while still allowing choice and voice will create a powerful learning experience.

Aligning Your Experience With Your “Why” One of the most powerful ways to design an experience is to con- sistently wrap it around your why. In Simon Sinek’s (2013) book

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Start with Why, he discusses how great leaders inspire others to take action, and how important it is to have clarity around your purpose. People are more likely to move forward when they have a clear picture of where they are headed, as well as a clear understanding of why they are being asked to do something new.

Reflecting on her teaching career, Kami realized that she sat in too many staff meetings where a new edict was handed out that not only created more work for her as a teacher, but also felt disconnected from what she thought was the direction in which they were headed. Kami left these meetings feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, and, judging by the comments she heard from other teachers, she knew she wasn’t alone. In contrast, Kami recently observed a staff meeting where the principal began by highlighting some of the great work that was happening to move their vision forward, reminded everyone of how it fit in with their vision, and then introduced a new requirement of teachers. The new protocol required teachers to record and keep track of all students’ physical education minutes during each week to meet a state mandate. Instead of starting with the cold, hard facts of the matter, he began with a discussion, asking teachers how physi- cal education fit in with their why. Why did they believe it was important, how did making time for physical education fit in with their vision, and finally, how might they best record and report physical education minutes each week to meet the state require- ment? Staff responded positively and quickly came up with a procedure that felt doable for them. They walked out embracing and understanding the need for the new mandate, rather than frustrated and overwhelmed. The experience was positive and inclusive, rather than negative and disruptive.

The difference in teachers who understand the why is that they are inspired by the work because of their clarity and con- nection to the why. How might you make your why transparent for all and impact your experience?

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Signage: Name It and Claim It

Think about small messages that you can add to your meet- ing spaces and classrooms to remind people of your goals and purpose. While working with LASD, we co-created LASD Learning Principles (see Figure 4.2) that helped teachers understand the elements of modern learning, and then we made the Learning Principles available to everyone in many different formats. We created posters, bookmarks, and e-mail signatures for people to use. If the message is important, take the extra steps to really brand it and create tools.

Figure 4.2

LASD Learning Principles

Connect experiences. Discover links between learning at school and outside the classroom.

Personalize learning. Use each student’s abilities and interests to maximize learning.

Nurture a growth mindset. Create opportunities to reflect and grow.

Process an outcome. Value the approach as much as the result.

Empower students. Help students understand their voice has impact.

Leverage technology. Utilize technology as a tool for learning.

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Reference and Remind

Clearly communicate your why in multiple ways. We think we express it enough for everyone to remember and understand, but the more simply you state your why and frame what you do within your why, the clearer it becomes. Challenge yourself to weave all work back to the stated why. Weaving in the why can be as simple as starting every e-mail with the why clearly printed at the top, including it on meeting agendas, providing all staff with a clever e-mail signature to use, or hanging large posters in the staff room. The more we surround ourselves with the why, seeing and hearing it in our work, the more likely we are to internalize it.

Model

Designing an experience around your why is great, but walk the talk. Leaders build trust by continually modeling the change they want to see. Don’t simply create the experience; be the experience. If you have ever sat in a professional development session where the facilitator essentially tells you all the ways to engage learners without letting you practicing any of the strate- gies yourself, you know how frustrating talk without action can be. Don’t tell teachers how to do something; show them. You absolutely have to model by example. If you want teachers to use improv in the classrooms, show them how it’s done in your staff meetings by playing some improv games. If you want teachers to craft a story for their learners, you need to craft one for the teachers. Challenge yourself to do anything you say is important.

Experiences with a Purpose— Step Outside the Building Another way to approach experience design is to create an event with a very specific purpose in mind. Perhaps you want to get your teachers to think more creatively. You can create an expe- rience with that goal in mind.

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When we work with teachers on a new instructional strategy, the most common request is to see it in action. As educators, we know that the best way to engage students in learning is to make it authentic and relevant, and the same thing holds true for adults. We learn by doing. Most of us remember our school field trips. They stick. Why? Because we were outside our normal learning environment and experiencing things that were not part of our normal routines. Familiar environments cause the brain to tune out, to be less alert and less receptive to new input. When we “get out,” we have a new context. So we decided to create authentic out-of-the-box learning experiences for our teachers. Think of them as field trips for adults.

We intentionally planned visits and trips that would allow our teachers to see work in action. When teachers were immersed in project-based learning, we arranged a visit to a school known for project-based learning that would allow our teachers to see both their teachers and their students engaged in the process. Through observation, questions, and conversations, teachers returned with a deeper understanding of project-based learning and had a new vision of the possibilities. When teachers became interested in STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math—and were struggling to incorporate these ideas into their lesson design, we arranged a field trip to an art museum. Once there, we worked with a topic expert who led our teachers through hands-on activities showcasing an array of different strategies for adding STEAM to their lessons. Teachers with a growing interest in makerspaces visited a local fabrication lab. They learned how to handle laser cutters and 3D printers, gain- ing a new appreciation for a truly “hands-on” experience. Getting your staff outside your building can give you a very targeted design experience. It is well worth investigating the resources your community has to offer. Do some investigation, load the bus, and take a field trip!

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No Recipe Needed While experience design is not an exact checklist or recipe to be followed, a template is included in the Appendix that may be helpful the first few times you are designing experiences. Like cooking, the more you engage in the practice, the less reliant you are on an exact recipe. Experience design is a way of think- ing that, when practiced, will become more natural over time. Just remember, it all begins with empathy. If you can develop a strong sense of your end users and their needs, you will be more likely to design experiences that meet those needs and delight your users. Think about your own experiences. When was the last time you had a truly great learning experience? What was it and why? Which ones do you remember? What made them mem- orable? How might you tap into those feelings and create those memorable experiences for others?

Most of the experiences you will design or redesign will in some way be a learning experience. We believe there are a few key elements necessary to constitute a great learning experience. Great learning experiences add value to the learner, are effec- tive first (before any bells or whistles are added), and promote further learning. (Learning for the sake of passing a test is a sad outcome, but that is a conversation for another time.) Designing experiences is such a critical part of any learning process; it is not surprising that some schools are starting to think of teachers as “Learning Experience Designers.”

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