Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan

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Creating a Culture for sustaining Success

• Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan
• Executive Director
• Council of Chief State School Officers

Dr. G. Thomas Houlihan
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LESSON 1
Educators have a difficult time believing in
schools they havent seen. (Just cant grasp)

• We are different
• You dont teach our kids
• Our kids have too many problems

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LESSON 2
The Growing Consensus for Reform!

• NCLB - The tip of the iceberg
• Bill Gates - NGA Summit
• Global Issues - China, India,
• European Common Market
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills

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LESSON 3
Leadership Matters!

• As the teacher goes, so goes the classroom
• As the principal goes, so goes the school.
• As the superintendent goes, so goes the
  district.
• Single biggest obstacle in education-
  leadership ability to lead change!

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LESSON 4
Culture Wins!!

• Hard to break with the past set of practices.
• When times get tough, people naturally revert to
  old ways of doing things.
• There must be someone to lead people forward to
  change cultural issues.

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LESSON 5
The Major Cumulative Observation

• In the United States of America, there are three
  levels of conversation taking place
  simultaneously about K12 education, and rarely do
  the three conversations connect.

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LESSON 5
The Major Cumulative Observation

• Level 1- Economic imperative of K12 reform
• - High Schools obsolete- Gates
• - Shut down public schools- Toffler
• Level 2- Student competence/rdg, writing, math
• - Hold educators accountable
• Level 3- Who is Tom Friedman?
• - What is a graphic organizer?
• - Yeh, right! (they dont have a
  clue)

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21st CENTURY ISSUES

• The ability (or inability) of schools to embrace
  change

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SYSTEMS THINKING
Any system is designed to produce exactly what it
produces!
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To change performance we must change the SYSTEM,
and this requires new approaches and a new way of
THINKING and DOING
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CREATING A CULTURE TO SUSTAIN SUCCESS

• The Bell Curve article
• Good to Great in the Social Sector

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The Bell Curve(Atul Gawande, 12/6/04)

• Cystic Fibrosis
• Cincinnati Childrens Hospital- not one of the
  best, but average, and well below in some
  categories.
• -- Life expectancy lung function- bottom 25 in
  the country. And the doctors knew it!!

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The Bell Curve

• The Bell Curve is found everywhere,
• including medicine
• A handful of teams with disturbingly poor
  outcomes for their patients, a handful with
  remarkably good results, and a great
  undistinguishable middle.
• ie- hernia operations- 1-10 recurrence 1-20,
  1-500

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The Bell Curve

• It is distressing for doctors to have to
  acknowledge the bell curve.
• It also contradicts the belief nearly all of us
  have that we are doing our job as well as it can
  be done.

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The Bell Curve

• Key Issues for medicine
• Difficulty in figuring out what to measure
• Circumstance beyond our control
• Unfair and misused
• Death rates a poor metric
• How do we perform in typical circumstances?

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The Bell Curve

• Simple Fact Remains
• There is a bell curve in all human activities,
  and the differences you measure usually matter.

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The Bell Curve

• Cystic-fibrosis care A lesson in creative
  leadership
• LeRoy Matthews driving people crazy
• Dr. Berwick- Boston
• 1949 Montana forest fire- escape fire
• The Discovery about Organizations

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The Bell Curve

• The Discovery about Organizations
• In crisis, flawed organizations unravel- lose
  ability to think, act and recognize new ways
• No organization is immune from this- medicine,
  education, government, business!

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The Bell Curve

• The Discovery about Organizations
• We need to do 2 things
• Measure ourselves
• Be more open about what we are doing- no secrets
  is the new rule in my escape fire.
• Childrens Hospital- not a single family chose to
  leave the program.

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The Bell Curve

• The Discovery about Organizations
• Compare Cincinnati- Minneapolis
• Warren Warwick- you do whatever you can to keep
  your patients lungs as open as possible.
• His view- difference between 99.5 success and
  99.95- focus, aggressiveness and innovativeness.
  He thinks hard about his patients.

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The Bell Curve

• The Discovery about Organizations
• We used to think that a doctors ability
• depends mainly on science and skill. This
• alone does not prevent mediocrity.
• More nebulous factors- aggressiveness,
• consistency, ingenuity can matter
• enormously!!

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The Bell Curve

• The Discovery about Organizations
• What the best organizations may have, above all
  else, is a capacity to learn and adapt- and to do
  so faster than anyone else.

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The Bell Curve

• If the bell curve is a fact, then so is the
  reality that most doctors are going to be
  average. There is no shame, right?
• Yes there is- what troubles people isnt so much
  being average as settling for it, especially
  doctors, police, schools..

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The Bell Curve

• When the stakes are lives and their futures, we
  expect average to be resisted. If Im not the
  best already, I believe wholeheartedly that I
  will be. And you expect that of me, too.

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Good to Great Social Sectors(Jim Collins, 2005)

• Be more like business?
• A culture of discipline is not a principle of
  business it is a principle of greatness.
• We need a new language
• Distinction not between business and social
  sector, but between great and good.

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Good to Great Social Sectors(Jim Collins, 2005)

• Key Points
• Good-to-great principles do indeed apply to the
  social sectors (pg 3)
• Inputs and outputs- inherently not measurable?
  Separate inputs from outputs, and hold yourself
  accountable for progress in outputs, even if
  those outputs defy measurement.
• Assemble consistent and intelligent evidence to
  track progress!

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Good to Great Social Sectors

• Key Points (cont)
• 2 types- executive legislative ldshp skills
• Level 5 leaders differ from Level 4- ambitious,
  first and foremost for the cause, the movement,
  the mission- not themselves- and they will do
  whatever it takes to make good on that ambition.
• Level 5- right decisions happened for long-term
  greatness

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Good to Great Social Sectors

• Collins observation
• I suspect we will find more true leadership in
  the social sectors than in the business sector.
  How can I say that? the practice of leadership
  is not the same as the exercise of power. True
  leadership only exists if people follow when they
  have the freedom not to.

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CREATING A CULTURE TO SUSTAIN SUCCESS

• Vision/Mission/Core Values
• Leadership at All Levels
• Systems Thinking
• Profound Knowledge
• Data Driven Achievement

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1 Vision/Mission/Core Values

• Vision/Mission/Core Values
• You cant expect an empty organization to stand
  up straight
• Bad systems, not bad people
• Personal mission statement

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2- Alignment, alignment, alignment!!
What you are deeply passionate about
What drives your resource engine
What you can be best in the world at
Source www.jimcollins.com
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AlignmentDisconnected Improvements
Vision
Process
GOALS
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AlignmentConnected Improvements
Vision
Process
GOALS
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3 Profound Knowledge

• Only people directly affected can change their
  part of the system on a daily basis.
• Thus, how do we positively impact
  school/classroom level?

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• Profound Knowledge
• Dr. W. Edwards Deming

Systems Thinking (Independence Interdependence)
Profound Knowledge
Theory of Psychology (How People Think/Behave)
Theory of Knowledge (How People Learn)
Theory of Variation (Common Special Causes)
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PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

• Theory of Psychology
• How people think and behave
• Styles of management/leadership at all levels-
  relate back to student data

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PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

• Theory of Knowledge
• How people learn
• Focus on alignment of learning styles and
  instruction

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PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

• Theory of Variation
• All About correct use of Data!

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PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE

• THOSE WITH PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE UNDERSTAND HOW
  PEOPLE THINK, BEHAVE AND LEARN.
• THIS UNDERSTANDING IS CENTRAL TO LONG-TERM
  EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT!!

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4- DATA DRIVEN ACHIEVEMENT

• Everything done in schools must revolve around
  teaching and learning.
• Quantative Qualitative Long-term Success!

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DATA DRIVEN ACHIEVEMENT

• The key use of data- make appropriate
  instructional decisions to inform parents,
  teachers, students and others of progress being
  made.
• If data is not used wisely, the adverse effect on
  children is enormous.

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DATA DRIVEN ACHIEVEMENT

• Key Issues in the Use of Data
• 1- Data rich, analysis poor
• 2- Balancing data
• 3- The Systems factor
• 4- How we see things
• 5- Doing your best isnt good enough

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DATA DRIVEN ACHIEVEMENT

• Theory of Variation
• Statistical process control - UCL/LCL
• SPC relates to breakthrough performance and
  meeting NCLB

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Performance Over Time
UCL
LCL
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Higher performance at a later time period
NCLB IS NOT BASED ON Traditional Improvement
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A positive trend in performance from year to year
NCLB IS BASED ON Continuous Improvement
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Significant performance improvement of a
systems indicator value over time
THE KEY TO NCLB Breakthrough Improvement
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5- SUSTAINING IMPROVEMENT OVER TIME

• Sustainability is about total transformation!

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SUSTAINING IMPROVEMENT OVER TIME

• 2 Overriding Themes of Sustainability
• Theme 1- Total Focus on Instruction and Learning

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SUSTAINING IMPROVEMENT OVER TIME

• 2 Overriding Themes of Sustainability
• Theme 2 - The creation/maintenance of positive
  relationships among all.

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CONCLUSION

• The Current Status of ________________
• Its about mission/vision first!
• Its about leadership!
• Its about attitudes towards change!
• Ultimately about culture/relationships

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The Overall Theme

• To lead others in ways very different than what
  we are comfortable with, we must go deep within
  ourselves.
• Only if we accept ourselves and a set of values
  can we discover the creativity we need to provide
  new forms of leadership.

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THE FUTURE??

• My guess is that we are at the start of a global
  convergence in education. China and
  India.inspire more creativity. Americamore
  rigorous in math and science.. A great
  win-win.
• - Tom Friedman, 3/25/06
• International Herald- Tribune

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THE FUTURE??

• Its a win-win. But some will win more than
  others- and it will be those who get this balance
  right the fastest.
• - Tom Friedman, 3/25/06
• International Herald- Tribune

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WHAT WE MUST DO..

• Embrace (and lead) change. A future of slow,
  steady decline or a willingness to embrace change
  and move forward?
• That is the question.
• -Newsweek (6/12/06)