Initiating school turnaround is complex and multivariate; once a comprehensive assessment is completed, focusing on a few key areas to quickly signal meaningful and positive change is the often the key to initiating momentum towards long term goals. These “Quick Wins” serve as leading indicators that demonstrate to staff that meaningful change is at hand and can establish the leader as a reinforcer thus increasing the likelihood that future initiatives will be embraced.

One such Quick Win strategy, as illustrated in my previous blog, was “duty” as a means of immediately shaping student behavior to start the day and school year off on the right foot.   To make Quick Wins effective, it is important that a formula includes an antecedent (before conditions) and consequences (after conditions) are applied. Here are a few strategies that will make it more likely staff will consistently attend and effectively maintain their duty post.

A Vision

While managers use accountability to change behavior, effective leaders inspire people to feel responsible for student achievement and initiatives aligned with this goal. In the behavior sciences, we call an inspirational speech an establishing operation, or creating a “want”. In the case of duty, leaders can create this value or want by illustrating through staff development and sharing of data how critical this shared responsibility is to the overall success of the school. During these occasions, it can be very helpful to note the positive impact duty will have on the school staffs’ day and year in terms of improved student behavior. Under conditions where staff has been worn down by chronic student misbehavior, this point may have a monumental effect on their willingness to participate.

A Plan

Much like roads and street signs serve to safely and efficiently guide us in the right direction during our daily travels, creating a plan ensures that all staff is on the same page as staffs’ behavioral expectations can be pinpointed (e.g. say this, do this, stand in this area).   Creating a plan provides blueprint for staff development and thus allows for repetition (practice) during training to ensure staff are proficient in following the plan. Critical elements of this plan and staff development should include:

• A map that illustrates where staff should stand
• A description of non-contingent attention as an important means of strengthening relationships with students and building school climate. Non-contingent attention are simply strategies like saying “good morning”, “how was your break”, “I like those shoes”, or “how’s your mother doing, I heard she was sick”. Can you imagine walking past a group of adults every day and nobody saying a word to you! That’s not an environment I want to work in!!
• A description of behavior-specific praise (I’ll talk more on this point in a future post))
• A plan for correcting misbehavior (I’ll talk more on this point in a future post)

Consequences

While antecedent strategies tell a behavior what to do, it is consequences (both positive and negative) that maintain behavior and create conditions where staff members are going to go above and beyond. Remember, if staff members aren’t doing something, it is either because they can’t do it or won’t do it.

My next post will cover how to get staff in touch with reinforcing consequences, the second and most important part of this formula for helping staff perform…even when leadership is not looking.

Paul has successfully supported multiple struggling schools in the turnaround process. As a certificated behavior analyst who concentrates on organizational behavior management and behavioral leadership, Paul provides administrative teams, teachers, and staff with coaching and consultation in analyzing and developing behavior and performance management systems directly aligned with student achievement.