Workplace Culture, At School?

Why does workplace culture play second fiddle to classroom culture?

When we welcome a new group of students to our school or at the beginning of a new school year, we’re remarkably smart and thoughtful about how we introduce them to each other and to our school’s culture.

When a classroom is somehow fractured or ill-equipped to create a learning environment where all students can thrive, we’re exquisite in how we re-think the classroom and deploy meaningful interventions.

If a student is in crisis, we’re immediate in how we act with empathy, care, and creativity to assure their well-being and health.

In other words: we’re quite remarkable in what we do everyday for every student. 

What would school look like if we applied those same approaches and care to the adults working in schools? If we as professionals were half as intentional about our workplace culture among adults as we are around classroom culture for our kids, we’d have far greater ease solving the problems that get in the way of our schools being great places to work.

There is no secret to creating “cultures of retention.” Just as with our students, there is no single program or monolithic intervention that works magic.

Instead, improving workplace environments takes the same diligence, strategy, and daily attention as that we afford our students. If there was a secret to the work, it would actually be this: Do the work.

So what does “do the work” look like? There are three things to keep in mind as we approach making schools great places to teach and lead:

One: Identify the right problems to solve.

Too often, when addressing the state of our adults, we’re left strategizing from a place of identifying the symptoms of burnout rather than treating the causes of it. Hence we can over-index actions such as mental health supports, quick hits of fun and gratitude like Taco Tuesdays, or individual interventions.

While these can provide temporary or isolated infusions of improvement, they likely will miss the systemic nature of burnout, which often are rooted in poor decision-making, misallocation of time and resources, or an underinvestment in creating reliable systems of care and attention to educators.

Two: Involve those affected by decisions in the decision-making process.

Occasionally, school leaders don’t invite educators into decision-making for the most empathetic but potentially misguided rationale that “teachers already have so much on their plates we’ll just make the decision for them.” While the impetus of this is certainly admirable, it often widens the chasm between educators and leaders.

Thoughtfully and routinely creating processes that deepen the collective efficacy of teachers and leaders together creates cultures uniquely designed to the daily experience of educators and their students.

Three: Recognize that all roads lead to and through the classroom.

Our greatest aspirations for students, whether academically or personally, all go through the capacity and brilliance of teachers and leaders. There are no shortcuts to get to students otherwise. When we embrace that reality, we can re-think how we create new solutions to old problems and create entire school systems that celebrate and honor the fact that there are no roads to student success that aren’t tied to the success of educators.

All schools face similar problems, demands, and external pressure. What isn’t consistent is in how schools manage those challenges. Schools that create and sustain cultures of retention navigate these challenges with a unique adherence to the core principles of shared and strategic attention to being great places to work.