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Chapter 5

Rule Breaker

Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.

—The Dalai Lama

MTV, among the most-watched cable channels in the 80s and 90s, didn’t invent video or records, but it pulled them together in an entirely new format. CBS, in contrast, owned both a record com- pany and a television network, but followed conventional wis- dom and kept its companies separate, never experimenting with the video/music combination. When Fast Company first debuted as a business magazine in 1995, it represented a dramatic shift from typical business publications. Everything about how the magazine was designed—the font, the artwork, and the layout— was different. Within six months, other business magazines were copying Fast Company’s format, and it became a leader in the industry. Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb, intentionally set out

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 04:01:45.

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Rule Breaker • 89

to challenge the status quo in a constructive way. Airbnb is now the largest accommodation provider, and yet they own no hotels and are slowing down the growth of hotel revenues.

Innovation requires disobedience. Unfortunately, you can’t follow someone else’s blueprint to innovate. As you look at the history of school reform, it is easy to see how many efforts have actually been copied from those creating change elsewhere, yet the results don’t scale and have only led to small adjustments. It seems schools have mastered the art of incremental change, but these incremental changes have not gotten us to where we need to be. In fact, these incremental changes are likely to be obso- lete over time. For years, we have been improving and changing educational systems and yet, in many ways, they remain largely the same.

Think back to your own educational experience as a student. Let’s imagine it’s the first day of 6th grade. You walk into your classroom wearing your new back-to-school outfit and carrying your backpack full of supplies. Sadly, you can pretty much pre- dict how the day will go. Why? Because it will be like every other first day of school you have experienced. There will be some sort of get-to-know-you activity, the sorting of supplies, and the label- ing and sectioning of binders. Then there’s the passing out of textbooks and workbooks. In between, there are the rules: class- room rules, homework rules, hallway rules, playground rules. You quickly learn that school is a series of rules and events, all driven by the teacher, and you are just along for the ride.

When you were a teacher, you likely planned the first day of activities based largely on what you experienced as a student and acted in accordance with what you believed was expected of you. Now, as the educational leader, whether principal or super- intendent, your first-day activities are likely dictated by past practices and perceived school and community expectations. In education, we take many things for granted and just assume “that’s the way it has to be,” because that is the way things have always been done.

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As creatures of habit, we rely on our assumptions and past practices to guide most of what we do in a given day. We can reduce the amount of conscious thought required by relying on developed habits that help us accomplish all sorts of things. Put more simply, it is just plain easier to keep doing things the way we have always done them. This is true in both our professional and our personal lives.

Have you ever asked your child, “How was your day at school?” only to have them say, “Fine”? Alyssa became inspired by an article she read on Huffington Post, “Twenty-Five Ways to Ask Your Kid, ‘So, How Was School Today?’ Without Asking Them, ‘So, How Was School Today?’” She was determined to change the daily conversation she had with her two school-age boys. So she armed herself with 25 new questions to ask them. The first day of her new mission went great. She asked both boys, “What word did your teacher use the most today?” and “Where were you the happiest today?” Surprisingly, both boys had stories to share, and she earned a new glimpse into their little worlds. You would think that this success would motivate her to continue with new questions, and yet the next day she found herself sitting in the carpool lane at school, both boys loaded into their booster seats, asking, “So, how was your day at school?” Habits can seem nearly impossible to break.

For most of us, the rituals and routines of schools have become well-established habits. We don’t question them or expect school to be any different than it is—especially when we are talking about making changes to a system that so many of us are products of. Too often we hear, “I survived school . . . . It worked for me, what’s wrong with it?” Yes, that system worked for us, too. Everything we needed for research could be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica and we relied heavily on our ability to memorize content. In this traditional system, we “learned” at school, and then we left to “do” at home. This approach no longer works. Learning and doing have become inseparable. If

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-evans/25-ways-to-ask-your-kids-so-how-was-school-today-without-asking-them-so-how-was-school-today_b_5738338.html

Rule Breaker • 91

we continue with the same habits, are we preparing students for a world that no longer exists? Thankfully, habits can be broken. Old habits can be discarded and new habits created. As Charles Duhigg, the author of The Power of Habit, points out, “Once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to make them. Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the power becomes easier to grasp and the only option left is to get to work” (Duhigg, 2014, iBook Location p. 531).

What if by breaking rules with intention and rebuilding new habits, we were able to change the first-day experience for stu- dents? What if the first day was about the learner? What if teach- ers didn’t explain the rules, but encouraged students to create them? What if, instead of handing out textbooks, students were handed an idea to explore or a problem to solve? What if students were encouraged to pursue topics that interested them? Or even better, what if teachers were encouraged to pursue “interesting”?

Breaking rules with intention is really a mindset of thought- fully challenging the way we always do things. Some of these might be written rules, but more than likely, many may just be common practices that have existed at our school sites forever. Why do we require students to walk in straight lines? Why do we give spelling tests every Friday? Why do we use bells to signal time at schools? Why do we attend school for 180 days a year? Is that really the magic number of learning hours needed to master the content? Unfortunately, many of our accepted practices were created over the years for the convenience of the adults and have very little to do with what is best for students and learning. Some of these rules or practices may have been created for a good reason, but many have outgrown their usefulness. This is especially true when we consider how learning has changed over time. New skills are required of students; former constraints no longer apply or serve. The World Economic Forum released a report in January 2016 on the future of jobs that has indicated how important these new skills will be in the Fourth Industrial

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Revolution: “Most existing education systems at all levels pro- vide highly siloed training and continue a number of 20th century practices that are hindering progress on today’s talent and labor market issues” (World Economic Forum, 2016c, p. 32).

The world clearly has changed drastically, and yet many of our educational institutions are embracing practices of the past that have become so much a part of us, we no longer question why we do them. This is further exasperated by the fact that most of our teachers and parents are also a product of the educational system and, as a result, are accustomed to the rou- tines, rules, and rituals of school. We are all fish swimming in the ocean, having a hard time describing what the water is like around us. And yet, in order to change practices, we must first become uncomfortable with the status quo.

The 10 Skills You Need to Thrive in the 4th Industrial Revolution, Alex Gray, World Economic Forum Report, 2016

In 2020 1. Complex Problem

Solving 2. Critical Thinking 3. Creativity 4. People Management 5. Coordinating with

Others 6. Emotional Intelligence 7. Judgment and Decision

Making 8. Service Orientation 9. Negotiation

10. Cognitive Flexibility

In 2015 1. Complex Problem

Solving 2. Coordinating with

Others 3. People Management 4. Critical Thinking 5. Negotiation 6. Quality Control 7. Service Orientation 8. Judgment and Decision

Making 9. Active Listening

10. Creativity

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Rule Breaker • 93

Refuse to Accept the Status Quo Rule Breakers dare to look beyond the status quo with a posi- tive mindset, confident that they have other options available to them. Rule Breakers give you thoughtful headaches, as they don’t accept the default options in life. For example, Adam Grant, author of Originals, uncovered some new insights about what your web browser says about you. When you purchase a computer, it comes with a default browser installed: Internet Explorer if you own a PC, Safari if you own a Mac. The actual browser you use doesn’t matter; what does matter is how you acquired it. Sixty-seven percent of computer users stick with the default browser without ever questioning whether or not there is a better option. Those who select and download Chrome or Firefox display some initiative and take steps to personalize their browsing experience. Choosing the default system is certainly easier. It is a stance that says, “The world is supposed to be this way; therefore, I don’t need to be dissatisfied with it.” This default stance also keeps us from considering alternative and, in many cases, better solutions. What are the default settings at your school? Below are a few ways to move beyond the “default settings” of education.

Dare to Imagine

If you don’t know what you could do if you could do whatever you

wanted, then how on earth can you know what you would do under

constraints?

—Russell Ackoff, pioneer of systems thinking

What is the biggest difference you could make? What would learning look like if you had no constraints? It is healthy to spend some time in the world of possibility. If we don’t know what we would create without any constraints, then how can we create once we have the constraints? Spend a few minutes dreaming big

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and imagine what your school could be without any constraints or rules. Alyssa recently worked with an elementary school staff in Los Angeles helping them dream big, and it was important for us to play with possibilities. It is interesting to see how difficult this is for people. It took the team quite a while to suspend judg- ment and play, but eventually we played with ideas like “What if we created a makerspace in the middle of campus? What if every student had the luxury of spending time every day learning about something they loved? What if teachers had the ability to learn during their workday?” Once the team got rolling, they realized the possibilities were endless.

Stop Worrying About Being Right

As hard as it sounds, don’t be afraid to let others be closer to the solution and final outcome. Position yourself within your community as a learner. With all the shifts happening, leaders no longer have to be the only experts. Embrace this. Be confident in what you do know and open yourself up to new possibilities by admitting you don’t have all the answers. Shakespeare famously wrote: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” It’s human nature to want to be right. It feels good. It is validating, but at the end of the day, being a leader who is a learner and is able to suspend certainty feels even better than always being right. Try starting from the assump- tion that you don’t know all the answers. The next time you are asked something you don’t immediately know the answer to, try starting with, “I don’t know . . . .” While working with one dis- trict on the exploration of competency models, not surprisingly, the question of age and grade levels surfaced. Do all students need to be grouped by age for their school day? As educational consultants, we certainly have our opinions; however, it was more powerful to respond, “I’m not sure, let’s investigate.” This simple shift—of not having the answers—allowed us to facilitate an exercise imagining “a day in the life of a student,” exploring

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Rule Breaker • 95

all the possible options and configurations of student groupings together. Had we offered an expert opinion, the conversation would have likely been much narrower in scope.

Take Inventory

When problem solving or designing, you have likely heard the phrase “think outside the box.” Before you can effectively do that, you need to take careful inventory of what’s in the box. There is a reason why the box exists, and understanding the current constraints that make the box function is key to knowing how to bend, break, or stretch those existing lines. Try setting some time aside each day to simply take notice of the rules, ritu- als, and routines that guide everything about your organization. Are they serving students well? Why do they exist? Who created them? What was the rationale for the genesis of the rule or prac- tice? By starting to take inventory of these rules, you will gain greater understanding of how many daily practices and behav- iors are ingrained. Armed with an inventory of rules, routines, and rituals, you are now ready to consider why these rules are in place and whether or not they should continue.

Don’t Allow “Yeah, But . . . ” In this next phase of exploration, you will likely come face-to-face with many “yeah, buts.” People don’t necessarily like to question the rules they have come to embrace and may respond with “yeah, but . . .” if they feel pushed outside their comfort zones, want to justify their behavior, or want to avoid having to make any changes. It is a deceiving response, as the “yeah” makes it sound like there is agreement, but then the “but” negates any movement forward. How many times have you found yourself having a conversation that requires an openness to new ideas and new ways to do things, only to have the first response be “yeah, but . . .”? To help avoid this natural response, you may

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want to declare your staff meeting area as a “yeah, but . . .”–free zone. The simple act of calling out “yeah, but . . .” will help draw awareness to our reluctance to change and may help you instead create a culture where risk taking begins to feel more natural. Try to extinguish “yeah, but . . .” in conversations by offering replace- ment language instead. Challenge yourself and others to replace any “yeah, buts” with a simple, “yes, and . . .” (which allows you to build on the idea being offered) or a “what if?” (which allows you to question the idea that is being presented in a positive light).

Habits, constraints, lack of time, and fear of the unknown are all “yeah, buts,” or common excuses that contribute to complacency in the way we do business in schools. “There just isn’t enough time.” “We don’t have the budget for that.” “It’s too hard.” “I don’t know where to start.” These reactions are not unique to education; they are common responses to change in general. They aren’t just lame excuses, but powerful forces that we must understand if we are going to help our staffs turn “yeah, but . . .” into “yes, and . . . .” Our world is full of increasing constraints, driven by an overabundance of choices and connec- tions, as well as a scarcity of time and resources. What if we were able to embrace constraints and allow these limitations to guide us to creative solutions? Constraints can actually be advantages in disguise. For more tips see “Turn a ‘Yeah, But . . .’ into a ‘Yes, And . . .’” in the Appendix.

Adam Morgan and Mark Barden (2015) write in A Beautiful Constraint: “Ten years from now, we would like to search Google for a definition of constraint and see it include this: ‘a limitation or defining parameter, often the stimulus to finding a better way of doing something’” (p. 10). Constraint-driven problem solving can lead to innovative solutions.

It is exciting to discover educational leaders who are actively turning “yeah, but . . .” into “yes, and . . . .” On our journey, we met leaders who aren’t just challenging the status quo, they are

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Rule Breaker • 97

intentionally breaking the rules and bringing along an army of teachers who feel empowered to do the same for their students.

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.

—Pablo Picasso

Design 39: Poway Unified School District When you arrive at Design 39, you can’t help but be impressed by the building itself—a magnificent new multistory building in Poway, California—but the real wow happens inside. Sonya Wrisley, now retired, was the principal of Design 39, a K–8 public school of 860 students that opened in September 2014. While Sonya was always accessible, you would never find her in her office, as she didn’t have one. The traditional principal’s office was abandoned and replaced with collaborative meeting spaces to be used by any of the employees of Design 39. Use of space at Design 39 is one area where many “rules” are intentionally being broken. Learning spaces around campus are designed with what is best for students in mind first and, as a result, teachers don’t have their own classrooms. Teachers may teach in a variety of classrooms within their pod, depending on the groupings of stu- dents within a multi-age span. Multiple teachers share a “Design Studio”—think collaborative office space—where they store their personal belongings and collaborate with their colleagues during planning time every morning from 7:45–8:45 a.m. Learning spaces are large, relatively uncluttered, and varied depending on the learning activity: large group spaces, interactive screens to display student work, makerspaces, and more. This redesign of space, combined with a new approach to scheduling, creates the opportunity for students at Design 39 to be truly immersed in what they are learning. The day is structured with fairly large chunks of uninterrupted instructional time. In the morning, stu- dents work on integrated learning of major content areas, such as language arts, math, and science, which they term “Awesome

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98 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

Learning Time.” After lunch, depending on the day, students work on an investigation, often math- or science-focused, fol- lowed by an hour of “Minds in Motion,” a new take on PE. Picture kids doing Crossfit, dance, and basketball; it doesn’t matter what class students choose, what matters is that they engage, get sweaty, and have fun! On opposite days, students are engaged in “Deep Dives.” These are student-chosen areas of interest where students develop their learning plan and goals, which they then pitch to their teacher for approval. As one student said, “If it isn’t deep enough, we’re just asked to revise it and try again.” Bells never disrupt learning; even body breaks, formally known as recess, are taken when it makes sense for that particular group of students. This type of schedule requires much more collabo- ration on the part of the adults at school; however, it results in a much better day-to-day learning experience for students.

Both space and schedules are big changes that can make a positive impact on students, but don’t underestimate the impact of breaking other rules that may seem smaller. Believing that lan- guage matters, Sonya led the charge to rename various aspects of school, including commonly known locations and roles. “The School Office” was renamed “The Welcome Center,” “Teachers” are referred to as “Learning Experience Designers,” and “Noon Duty Aides” are called “Motion Managers.” These may seem like small shifts, but they are intentional ones that communicate the beliefs of Design 39 and highlight how the language we choose contributes to the overall culture of the school.

Having the opportunity to challenge all the rules at once can be overwhelming, so don’t underestimate the importance of challenging and questioning even the most basic of rules. Dr. Eric Chagala, founder and principal of Vista Innovation and Design Academy in Southern California, is actively building a school cul- ture that encourages all learners, students, and teachers to push the boundaries, not for the sake of being a maverick, but for the sake of opening new doors and opportunities for learning. Eric

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Rule Breaker • 99

understands the importance of creating a culture that supports this type of risk taking and models the behavior for others. There is an unspoken “rule” in education that educational leaders dress professionally, which for many male leaders means wearing a suit and tie Monday through Thursday. Most can get away with a more casual look on Fridays, especially if the school embraces school spirit days at the end of the week. No matter what day it is, you will never find Eric at school in a suit and tie. He has cho- sen to break this rule, as it signified a hierarchical organization and did little to foster the spirit of collaboration. Eric’s attire most days is a polo shirt or school T-shirt, and reflects his belief in a flattened hierarchy. He feels more effective at getting into the real learning with the kids, alongside teachers. A colleague recently asked Eric, “How do the teachers and parents respect you in a serious situation if you are wearing jeans and a school T-shirt?” Eric’s response to questioning the “unspoken rule” of dress is: “If it takes what I wear to garner respect in my commu- nity, then I have failed as a leader.” This may not sound like a big rule to break, but it has helped Eric shape the type of learning community he hopes to foster.

Create a Culture of Inquiry and Innovation to Foster Rule Breaking To move beyond the traditional practices at school, focus on creating a culture of inquiry. Following are a few strategies to expand your curiosity, start questioning, and create a culture of inquiry at your school.

Seek Surprise

Try something new in your personal life: discover a new type of food, read a book out of your normal genre, or take a new fit- ness class. Intentionally seeking out something new will not only help you break your routine, but also help you become more curious about the world around you. Knowing that people seek

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100 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

out surprises, Pack & Go, a travel experience planning company, offers surprise itineraries for brave travelers. It’s pretty simple: you select your budget, answer a few questions so they can book the best experience for you, and then go somewhere. They do all the planning. All you need to do is show up and enjoy your vaca- tion! What type of surprise learning itinerary could you create for your teachers? What if you queried teachers on topics of desired learning and then surprised different groups of teachers with a well-planned excursion that supported their learning? A middle school principal secured additional funding, asked teachers what topics they were interested in learning about, and then provided registrations to conferences that supported their learning goals.

Simple Change/Profound Impact

What is the simplest thing you can reimagine that will have the most profound impact? Is there something small, a practice or rule that has bothered you at your school? If so, investigate it using a simple one-two-three approach: (1) identify one sim- ple rule or practice getting in your way, (2) ask why the rule or practice exists, and (3) modify the rule or practice to make a big impact. Ashley Auspelmyer, the lead teacher of Studio D, a school within a school at Westwood High School, ran into a challenge with the established hall pass rule. Not uncommonly, Westwood has a rule that states any student out of class must be in possession of a hall pass. As an interdisciplinary school, the expectation is that students are not limited to a classroom setting; they are out and about talking to people as a part of their learning. How could Studio D support this type of learning with only one hall pass for 116 students? After identifying the rule that was getting in the way of learning, Ashley printed 116 hall passes, one for every student in Studio D. In the future, Ashley hopes that this modification of the “hall pass rule” will lead to a culture change across the entire school, one that says we can trust our students to do the right thing.

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Rule Breaker • 101

Question Publicly

Create a public list of things you are curious about. What questions might make your top-10 list? Here are a few of the questions swirling in our minds as we begin to explore the future of learning for children:

• Why do we determine what a child learns and is exposed to based on how old they are?

• How can we design a system that embraces the fact that not everyone learns in the same way or at the same pace?

• What role does learning outside of traditional school “hours” and “walls” look like, and how can we partner to make sure we are expanding opportunities to learn, not limiting them?

• How can we reorganize our current resources (time, money, people, space) to shift our system now, rather than waiting for a full-scale, start-from-scratch redesign?

Once you have your list, share it with your staff via a whiteboard in the staff lounge or, if you’re feeling even bolder, share your questions with your community in the school newsletter. Then get comfortable saying, “I don’t know the answer; let’s investigate.”

Support Other Rule Breakers Design 39 has been able to accomplish many changes by creating a climate that supports rule breaking, encouraging teachers to question everything and then supporting them in the process. With the daily encouragement from their principal, teachers are engaging in a very different way of planning and teaching. Most of the teaching staff had previous teaching experience at other schools, which is typically seen as an advantage, but experience can also be a challenge. Experienced teachers can unconsciously fall into comfortable traditions or patterns more easily.

It is clear that the entire staff is working with a lot of ambi- guity; they are out on the leading edge, doing work that hasn’t

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102 • Design Thinking for School Leaders

necessarily been done before in public education. It is uncom- fortable but necessary for the staff, as they learn a different way to work. Leading author and business leader Liz Wiseman (Wiseman, Allen, & Foster, 2013) suggests, “We have to get com- fortable asking people to be uncomfortable. Don’t ask people to do more work, ask them to do harder work” (p. 72). It is clear that we, as educational leaders, are going to have to start asking our staff and faculty to do harder work as we intentionally challenge the way we have always done things. Following are a few ways to support Rule Breakers.

Give Permission to Experiment with Something New

Give explicit permission for others at your school to question and rattle the collective mindset. Teachers may experiment, but they are unlikely to challenge the status quo without the support of a school leader. Over time, many schools have actually bred a culture of powerlessness among the very people we need to change. To overcome this, permission must be given from the top. The Ministry of Education in Ontario, Canada, provided their districts with permission to question and innovate by acknowl- edging the changing landscape of education and being up-front about the messiness of the process. Leaders at the top acknowl- edged that change would be messy and encouraged others to jump in without waiting for the perfect answer. They created a culture of risk taking that gave employees permission to try new things. Organizations that allow employees to take risks push the boundaries of creativity and what is possible.

Be Explicit About What Outdated Practices Can Be Left Behind

Teachers want to follow rules because they want to do right by kids, which is why it is not uncommon to find teachers still following an edict or rule that was sent out via memo five years ago. In a school we once worked with, in the middle of a new math adoption, 2nd grade teachers expressed frustration with

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Rule Breaker • 103

the daily timed math tests they were giving students. They didn’t believe timed tests helped the students who needed extra practice. The element of time caused more frustration than nec- essary. When asked, “Why do you give these timed math facts tests?” all of the teachers referenced an e-mail from many years ago outlining this district requirement. No one at the district office recalls the memo; they would be surprised to know how adamantly teachers were following the outdated guidance they provided. Be explicit with your teachers about which rules they can stop following. In fact, let’s take it a step further and have explicit conversations around expectations. Teachers should never need permission to

• Make the best instructional decisions for students in their class

• Be learners in front of their students • Take risks that benefit students in their class • Rethink the resources and strategies they are using to

instruct students

• Ask administrators for support in providing for the needs of students

• Publish their work or their students’ work to a wider audience

This is probably only the beginning of what could be a very long list, but you get the idea. What permissions do you need to give your teachers?

Create a Personal Flotation Device

With so much change at hand, people may need to have a “personal flotation device.” This may be a personal practice that is perhaps not entirely in line with the new direction of learning, but one that is helping the teacher stay afloat for the time being. Personal flotation devices are only temporary, and they provide teachers with a way to say, “Hey, I’m working on this, but am

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not quite there yet.” During Alyssa’s first year as a principal, she allowed herself a number of personal flotation devices; one that stands out for her was the weekly school newsletter. The school secretary had been at the school for many years and had her systems of how things worked. Every Thursday, the Bobcat News went home as a hard copy in the student folders. Alyssa can still see the secretary sitting at her desk pulling out the folder of clip- art on Tuesdays, preparing the newsletter. This was definitely not how Alyssa wanted to communicate with her community, but she also knew it wasn’t the most important change for her to make in her first year as principal. So, even though she rec- ognized the practice wasn’t in line with her style or beliefs, she allowed the practice to continue for the first part of the year. What is your personal flotation device?

Provide Air Cover

The idea of providing air cover comes from the military world. It essentially means that aircraft are used to provide protection for ground forces against possible enemy attacks. We interpret this to mean that when the ground troops are engaged in a difficult operation, aircraft fly above to make sure that their troops are safe. While they may not be physically attacked, those in our schools who are making changes can sometimes feel under attack from parents, the central office, or even, sadly, their colleagues. Once, when working with Megan, a new primary grade teacher, Kami chose to provide air cover for her from her colleagues. Megan was experienced in Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop, which was a very different model than the one being used by the other three teachers at the grade level. She was often “under attack” by her colleagues because she was doing things differently. Knowing that the workshop model was in line with the future direction of the school, Kami helped provide air cover by offering additional resources when needed, allowing her to deviate from some grade-level traditions and communicating to

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the parents on Megan’s behalf in support of these changes. While only temporary, the air cover provided the teacher with a safe place to work, establish workshop routines, and feel grounded in why the workshop model was the best way to personalize reading and writing instruction for young readers. Within a few months, the teacher was ready to share with colleagues and no longer required air cover. We are not confident these changes would have taken place without Kami’s help. Where can you pro- vide air cover for those making changes at your school?

Remember the Importance of Unlearning We often approach challenges wanting to know what we need to learn, but do we ever ask what we need to unlearn? On Septem- ber 3, 1967, Swedish citizens switched from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right. This is known as H-Day in Sweden. It was a massive overhaul of their driving infrastruc- ture. Their neighboring countrymen were driving on the right, and many Swedish drivers were involved in accidents as they traveled across borders. The Swedish government put forth a proposal for switching to the public, who voted no, not wanting things to change. They were more comfortable sticking to what they were used to. The government decided to make the change anyway and moved forward with their plan. To foster a success- ful transition, the Swedish government created a department in charge of the transition that designed a marketing campaign with a special logo, gave away special prizes and products to promote the big change, and even held a songwriting contest to commemorate the event (which was won by the Telstars for their song “Stick to the Right, Svensson”). In the hours leading up to September 3, the roads were cleared so the final signs and traffic barriers could be moved. Sweden was ready for H-Day. At 5:40 a.m., it was announced on a loudspeaker: “Now is the time to change over!” What happened?

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Gridlock! It was complete chaos. While people knew what they were supposed to be doing, they had not taken the time to recognize some of the habits and rules that they would need to unlearn. For some, the change came easily; for others, their brains and bodies reverted to what was known. A short period of confusion and unlearning occurred as people worked through the transition.

Breaking long-held rules, traditions, or habits that have been in place for a significant period of time can be daunting. Working to shift mindsets, habits, and entire systems can create a moment similar to what Sweden experienced on H-Day—people feel stuck. Unlearning needs to happen before there is new learning. In educa- tion, we have our own unlearning challenges. Teachers may need to unlearn their traditional roles in schools, students may need to unlearn what learning means, and leaders may need to unlearn the concept of failure. How might you approach unlearning?

Learn by Doing We all spend lots of time in meetings talking about change, but the best way to effect change is to act. We need to learn by doing and put our ideas into action. By doing this, we actually create

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knowledge in context, making it easier to shift conversations based on the knowledge that has been gained. You begin to see areas where unlearning is needed and new learning is critical. Accomplishments become measures of quality that are feedback for your process. No learning journey follows a linear path, and those moments of losing ground are actually important moments of unlearning, which you can best experience through action.

Onjaleke Brown, principal of Dallas ISD’s N.W. Harllee Early Childhood Center for pre-K and kindergarten, is challenging her staff to learn by doing and to unlearn commonly held “good practices” for students in primary grades. Brown, a self- proclaimed Rule Breaker, went so far as to dare her staff to get rid of all behavior charts. This wasn’t always her orientation toward learning; in fact, back when she was a teacher, she had rules—too many rules, she will say. Rules like “Stay seated on your carpet squares. Be silent in the hallways with pointer fin- gers over your lips.” And back then, like many teachers, she used a public behavior chart to let kids know whether they were acting “good” or “bad” each day. Brown says, “You hear ‘learn- ing’ all around us, but we don’t let them touch, we don’t let them feel, we don’t let them look. Keep your head straight. Don’t turn around (Light, 2017).” But this isn’t natural for children or adults, especially when we are learning. Teachers rose to Brown’s chal- lenge, but ditching their behavior charts was a scary move for some. Over time, teachers embraced her way of thinking. Their unlearning of past behavior allowed them the freedom to try new and different things. Although Onjaleke Brown transitioned from rule maker to Rule Breaker, she does still adhere to some rules. Her current rules look more like this: “Hallways don’t have to be quiet, and lines don’t have to be straight. Five hops on a tram- poline will help kids release bursts of energy and return to class more focused. A few deep inhales and exhales can calm down rambunctious students. Teaching preK students to understand their emotions will help them later in life. Knowing all 160 kids’

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names and at least one thing about them builds a connection so they trust her and enjoy coming to school” (Light, 2017).

Both/And Thinking Increasing student choice and voice in the classroom is becom- ing more mainstream; however, many times the choices are presented to students as an either/or, much like when we ask children, “Will you be taking a bath or a shower?” The variance between options is very narrow and, in both cases, they will be expected to use water, soap, and shampoo. So it’s not really much of a choice. The educational equivalent for students is something like “You can either use a slide show, or you can make a poster for your presentation.” There is some choice, but we are still narrowing the learning and creative options. We are reinforcing an either/or thinking process. Many innovations are a result of both/and thinking. Teachers at a middle school we once worked with were contemplating how to include computer programming into an already-full curriculum calendar. In many situations like this, either/or thinking prevails: something gets eliminated, and a new program is put in its place. The teachers decided to embrace both/and thinking. The Spanish teachers saw a way to incorpo- rate Scratch computer programming into their curriculum. They changed the language in Scratch to Spanish. As the students learned to create scenes and characters within Scratch, all the speech bubbles and voiceovers were created in Spanish, requir- ing both written and verbal practice. Both/and thinking allows new connections to be made that produce different results. The next time you feel forced to make an either/or choice, see if you can apply both/and thinking. The results may surprise you.

Make Excellent Mistakes Failures show opportunities. Unlearning is not about being right or wrong, but more about letting go of what we have already

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learned or acquired. It requires being open to new ways of think- ing and exploring what lies underneath our judgment. So, while we talk a lot about embracing failures as part of a growth mind- set, we need to identify those failures that are truly excellent mistakes. What’s the difference? We all make mistakes, but most often, we quickly apologize, pick up the pieces, and move on, trying again or trying something different. Most of our reflection around our mistakes is focused on where we dropped the ball. Excellent mistakes give you bigger insights into the mindsets and habits of those making the change. The focus is more empathy based and may shine a light on past practices that we do not want to let go of. Excellent mistakes give everyone an opportu- nity to dig into their beliefs and judgments around the changes and open a conversation. Sometimes people aren’t aware that they are holding onto something tightly until they hit a wall or gridlock, as in Sweden. That’s often when they raise their red flags and say, “Wait! This is a mistake!” This is your opportunity to frame it as an excellent mistake. Dr. Samuel West, an organi- zational psychologist, feels it is so important to learn from our mistakes that he recently opened a Museum of Failure. “The pur- pose of the museum is to show that innovation requires failure,” Dr. West said. “If we are afraid of failure, then we can’t innovate.” His hope in starting a museum focused on failures is “to encour- age organizations to be better at learning from failures—not just ignoring them and pretending they never happened” (Skav- lan, 2017).

Overall, the move to the right side of the road was the correct one for Sweden. The short time of confusion passed, accidents decreased, and people are now safer in all the neighboring coun- tries. While it would have been wonderful for Sweden to have the support of its citizens throughout the change process, Swedish leaders had a much broader view of the impact of the new traffic system. They could see that the benefits of the decision would outweigh the struggles of the change for the country.

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Albert Einstein is often noted as believing that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we cre- ated them. When we move to break big rules for transformative change, we need to be conscious of our current mental models. The changes needed are not linear, and the key to new learning might be to unlearn the old.

How Do You Know What Rules to Break? At first it might sound counterintuitive, but there are a few guide- lines that will help you break rules successfully. As you think about rules, think about your values and how these core values and beliefs align to the rules you are challenging. If a gap between the two exists, it is likely a safe area to experiment.

It is also wise to assess the risk of the rule or practice that you are questioning. What happens if the rule disappears? What is the worst-case scenario? Playing out the extremes can help mitigate the risks and prepare you for the outcome. Another way to test the water is to simply engage the students in the conversation.

Engage students in identifying the rules, routines, and prac- tices that interfere with their learning. It may sound crazy, but once students get past the silly first thoughts of adding more recess or allowing candy, they are actually pretty good judges of what interferes with learning. If they were in charge, what old rules might they get rid of? Why? Are there new rules they would create? If so, what are those rules? Challenge your student body organization to get on board questioning rules in the light of “student learning.”

In the Los Altos School District, we created Student EdCon with the goal of increasing student voice and providing students with the opportunity to redesign learning. Students spent two days focused on the challenge of redesigning an aspect of learn- ing at school using Design Thinking. Throughout these two days,

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students worked in small collaborative teams and were exposed to incredible speakers, who helped bring the Design Thinking process to life. Everyone involved with Student EdCon learned a ton. It is probably debatable who learned more, the students or our teacher facilitators. At the end of each day, we debriefed with our facilitators to share insights, learning, and thoughts on refine- ments. At the end of the first day, one of our teacher facilitators shared how amazed she was by the level of depth being contrib- uted by students. They knew what “rules” were getting in the way of their learning. The overwhelming question by all was: “Why haven’t we involved students in rethinking learning before?”

Rule-Breaking Education Organizations Educational leaders aren’t the only ones starting to break rules with intention; large organizations are also starting to embrace the notion that “educational rules” must be broken. Education Reimagined is a national group focused on creating a new par- adigm for learning, no longer relying on the outdated rules. Simply put, Education Reimagined recognizes that the current educational system was designed in a different era and struc- tured for a different society. Their vision is a call to action, not to tweak or modify the current system, but to create a drastically different paradigm of learning that will serve all children. They are connecting and supporting diverse groups of individuals that are breaking the current rules in education. Some of the rule- breaking pioneers include Big Picture Learning, Design 39 Cam- pus, High Tech High, Iowa BIG, Lindsay Unified School District, MC2, Quest to Learn, Re-School Colorado, and Roycemore School. We encourage you to spend some time researching these and other schools that are further ahead in breaking the rules. Every time we read about their inspiring work, our reactions range from “Why didn’t we think of that?” to “Ooooh, we could do that!” to “How in the world did they do that?” Fundamentally, our

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world is changing, and so should our education system. There is both comfort and power in knowing that we, as educational leaders, aren’t going at this work alone. There has been a shift that is gaining momentum; we are confident that the momentum will only continue to grow.

Rule Breaker as Leader

Following all the rules leaves a completed checklist. Following your

heart achieves a completed you.

—Ray A. Davis, author

Stepping into the role of Rule Breaker can be scary for leaders who are accustomed to playing it safe, but there are also huge rewards. With a little practice, Rule Breakers become happier taking risks and working out on the edge. They see the value of being bold, while remembering that bold scares people.

Jon Corippo, chief innovation officer of CUE, reflects back on a time early in his career when he chose the other path and how it made all the difference. In 1997, he welcomed his first class of students. He worked really hard, had a lot of fun, and had fidelity to the books that his district issued to him for his grade. His first year of teaching was also the first year of the California statewide assessment, and his scores were horrible. So horrible, in fact, he remembers them: only 24 percent of his students were proficient in reading. This was disturbing to Jon, who had taken a signifi- cant pay cut to “change the world” in public school. He felt that his plan was a failure. He started the next school year with a mix- ture of shock and deep reflection. His eureka moment was that he didn’t really know how to teach reading, and he was simply going through the textbook he was given. He focused on improv- ing his ability to teach reading independent of canned curricu- lum and began to craft lessons that met the needs of the learners

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Rule Breaker • 113

in his classroom. He still consulted the textbook, but now con- sidered it a guideline to be supplemented. When he received his scores the next year, 65 percent of the class was proficient in reading, leaps and bounds ahead of other teachers at the same grade level. He knew he was onto something. In Jon’s fourth year of teaching, he switched from 5th grade to 8th grade and never received adopted materials for his self-contained classroom. He was thrilled and terrified, totally unbound and responsible in the fullest way possible for the learning of 27 students. Luckily, Jon had an ace up his sleeve. He had been building his own lessons based on student need for three years; this was just a chance to up his game. Many teachers embrace the rule of following the prescribed curriculum and march through the entire textbook without truly understanding the needs of their learners. Jon chose to break this rule and began to realize his full potential as a teacher.

Knowing that there are big challenges ahead for all educa- tors and educational organizations, what rules are you starting to question? Let’s stop tweaking our educational system around the edges and start intentionally breaking rules that will create space to reimagine school based on the needs of our students. Intentional rule breaking can help us step into the universe of possibility.

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