You Don't Need "Buy-In" If You're Listening

Buy-In
Listening.

We can learn so much from just taking the time to listen.

In today's ed world, it's not uncommon to hear the words "buy-in" thrown around education tables or written in educational blog posts.  Every time I hear these words put together, I want to grab them out of the air and throw them away.  The truth is, if we need "buy-in" we must not be listening in the first place.

In education as in other professions most shifts in practice, changes in the way the work is done, or new initiatives, are set in motion as a result of a system challenge, a detected problem, or new information.  The best decisions that are made are made through careful listening and responding (not reacting).


We're Not in Sales
When I was in my twenties, I went to purchase a car.  As I walked around the lot, a salesman approached.  "Can I help you?" he inquired.

"Do you have any blue cars like this one?" I asked pointing at the model I hoped to purchase.

"What?!  You're going to be picky about color?" he blurted.

Well, we were done.  I was buying my first new car and if I wanted to be picky about color, I was going to be picky about color.

Fast forward, a decade or two (okay maybe three), and I stood on a different car lot (never went back to the other one ---- and I've bought a lot of cars since then) admiring a white car they had showcased.  The salesman came over to ask, "Do you like white?"  Okay, there's some great irony here, but I'm a little put off that he asked me about the color first.

"I'm just checking out this car," I answered.  I really wasn't in the market for a car, but I couldn't help being drawn in by all the bells and whistles this car had for its price.  I went back to looking at the car's interior, reading its information, and then stepped back to take a bigger look.

"I think you do like the white," his voice interrupted my thinking.

The truth is, white is my least favorite car color --- and now I have a lot more criteria when I am car shopping.

Salesmen want to sell us something; maybe they want to sell us something we don't even need.


People First
Leaders shouldn't be salesmen, but servants who serve the people they work alongside --- this never should require "buy-in."

In education, people lead from a variety of places.  The most important work is done in classrooms alongside children.  In listening to professionals closest to the daily work with learners we can discover much.  What works?  What are the challenges teachers are working through?  In my work, I have the gift of being beside teachers to listen.  I work alongside teachers in classrooms, sit beside literacy coaches as they grow conversations, attend team meetings as teachers discuss student work, join professional learning opportunities, engage in conversation, and work to really listen to my colleagues.  Educators know what is working, what is hard, what is needed. If we listen there are patterns across conversations, ways to support educators with the challenges they wrestle with in their learning communities.  This isn't easy work we do --- and it is so much better when we do it together.

Instead of "buy-in," leaders should remember to...

• Listen In:  Instead of looking for "buy in," listen in.  Pay attention to what people are saying.  What's working?  What are the challenges?  

• Share Information:  Communication is essential.  

• Be Responsive, Not Reactive:  It is easy to look for quick fixes to challenges that arise, but if we are careful to respond instead of react we can have a greater impact.

Are You All In?

As educators and leaders, we often find ourselves running from one thing to another.  For classroom teachers, there's a myriad of responsibilities.  In addition to day-to-day teaching and preparation, there are team meetings, parent emails, and collection of resources for students.  Educators working as instructional coaches, administrators, and other roles supporting classrooms, can find themselves bouncing from place to place, teacher to teacher, team to team and student to student.  It can be easy, and perhaps somewhat understandable, to find our minds on the next thing, especially in collaborative conversations.

It's not uncommon for me to sit in a meeting, team conversation, or learning opportunity to see people with their phones out, answering emails on their computers, or being distracted by thinking beyond the moment.  In today's world, people can multitask between devices in a meeting, but we all know engaged multitasking looks different than disengaged multitasking.

In my role as our district's literacy instructional leader, I am in a myriad of meetings across the day.  One of the things I work hard to do is to be all in.  Whether I am in a data team meeting with a team of teachers, professional learning community conversations with a group, a planning meeting with district leadership, or a book talk with a student book club, I am trying to train myself to be all in.  That means I am listening, making sense of their ideas, and trying to work toward new understandings beside the people I am with at the time.

Too often we become distracted by the buzzes, bleeps, and notifications of our devices.  We easily disengage from conversations to think about the next thing on our calendars.  This can leave the people we are sitting beside feeling like they are not valued.

The next time you grab your phone, open up your email, or find yourself a million miles from the conversation.  Ask yourself, "Am I all in?".


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DigiLit Sunday: Why Leaders Should Be Connected

Not too long ago we received an email from our superintendent titled:  Follow Your Passion.  Apparently he sensed the apprehension growing over upcoming mandated testing.  The email was several paragraphs in length and sent to remind us to stay focused on what we do.  Here's a piece of the letter:  

"Don't allow outside forces to compromise your classroom environment, building culture, or faith in yourself.  Good teaching trumps all... teach well and let the tests take care of themselves.  Be true to your passion and true to your students."  Dr. John Marschhausen

This was a timely email, perhaps a result of a growing anxiousness about testing that seemed to be starting to build in buildings and even in social media.  We have been fortunate in the last few years to have leaders working to stay connected using email, blogging platforms, Google, VoiceThread, and social media, among other digital tools.  As a teacher in a large district, I appreciate the time leaders take to stay connected.

It didn't seem uncommon, years ago, to sit in a meeting and hear about a new initiative that seemed to just come from nowhere.  It was hard to process it all.  All of a sudden there would be something new we were doing, and as a teacher you worked to catch up to it.  It didn't seem uncommon to talk to teachers in one building who had different information than we had in another building.  Leaders made a good effort to keep everyone informed, but information shared in meetings and through people will arrive in different ways and at different times.  It feels different now with leaders staying connected; messages are more consistent.

Not only are messages more consistent, but it is easy to see the unfolding of ideas across time.  Many of our technology, curriculum, and administrative leaders have started to share and collaborate using Twitter.  I've found following these accounts and conversations has helped me to stay informed and continued to inspire me across the school year.  As district leaders have thought about developing a growth mindset, blended learning, digital literacy, personalization, grading practice, assessment, and re-visioning school, they've shared interesting articles they've discovered, new steps being considered, and ways to grow the work we do with children.  It is easy to see the collaboration and learning happening across the district.

In addition to supporting a journey of learning, they have helped to tell the story of the work we do.  They've shared the work of committees and the conversations in community meetings.  They've shared the stories of the many things happening throughout our district.  It's much easier to see the connectedness of our learning environments.

Finally, it would be easy in any district to get caught up in our own work and lose sight of envisioning new possibilities.  Connected leaders continue to grow in their own thinking as they have conversations and follow the thinking of colleagues around the globe.  Many have grown their personal learning networks and started to participate in larger conversations that push their thinking.  There's something exciting about being in a community where learning, sharing, and risk-taking are becoming common.  Connected leaders make a difference.