A recurring debate among those with an eye toward school district governance is whether we can “run schools like a business.” This tends to elicit spirited debate.
Many current events surrounding school governance and policy decisions can be viewed through this lens with some interesting twists. Issues like merit pay, charter schools, school choice, employee evaluations, teacher tenure, and accountability all have some strand that lean, or really press, toward “running schools like a business.” These are interesting and heavy debates. Those of you who know me should not be surprised to hear me say that ultimately we need a blend of both. I’ll touch on many of these topics over the course of the campaign – and beyond.
But I read a great piece in the Harvard Business Review recently that piqued my interest. It addressed re-organization efforts. Re-organizations are very common in business. Swapping out leaders and organizing in a different way sends a message to employees, customers, and stockholders that things are going to change and this re-organization clearly marks that change.
But the author, Michael Mankins, submits that restructuring is often the wrong tool. He suggests the following areas require analysis and represent the most common sources for organizational dysfunction:
1. Decision ambiguity — nobody is quite sure who should play what role in major decisions. So no one makes a decision. Or else multiple people assume the role of “decider” and work at cross purposes.
2. Data dysfunction — the information needed to support major decisions isn’t available at the right time or in the right form. So people are left trying to make decisions in the dark, or else they’re swamped with more data than they can possibly decipher and use.
3. Process paralysis — no one is clear on how important decisions will be made. Too much time is devoted to unnecessary analysis or, worse yet, too little time is spent on analysis and the wrong decision is made.
4. Talent deficiency — positions with major impacts on decisions aren’t held by people with the necessary experience and competencies. Some of the right people aren’t even on the bus, and others are in the wrong seats.
As I reviewed these, I looked through the lens of the changes and tools I have brought to the district over the last five years.
I’d lump together Decision Ambiguity and Process Paralysis. This is why I created the Board Governance Model, poring over our newly adopted Policy manual to capture precisely the role of the Board versus that of the administration. Never before had that been documents in such a manner. Process Paralysis goes hand in hand with that. In my tenure as president, after having watched Board operations very keenly for two years, I identified a series of process issues that were addressed in how the Board organized itself, how we would make decisions, and the process we would follow to systematically approach some of our toughest decisions.
The budget process is a great example. Never easy in terms of final decisions, but the lack of a structured process was a massive inhibitor. I believe we have now solved those problems and need to maintain discipline in them moving forward.
Data dysfunction was a huge issue. The administration would generate report after report, often at the direction of a Board operating without a defined structure, that did not provide a holistic view of the issues. The means whereby we received this data was not remotely as dynamic as the variables that affected the data contained in the reports. A review of the Transparency entry on this web site provides a detailed lists of the organization I put in surrounding this issue and further illustrates a key point. Transparency has been a natural byproduct of the drive to create meaningful and dynamic reports that allow for better decision making. Our results clearly support that this has been a success.
Lastly, I do not think we had anything close to resembling a Talent Deficiency. We have had, and now continue to have, outstanding people doing what needs to be done to be a world class school district. But people must find a way to work together within systems using pre-defined processes to bring about the best results. I view one of my great contributions as delivering a means to allow talented and dedicated people to work together better bringing about greater results.
In this sense, we have indeed “run the district like a business.” In this case the analogy fits, mainly because the ideas are very foundational and logical. That is why they appealed to me.
Brendan